Dance Institute

We have recently moved over to Dance Institute from another studio in Austin. We moved primarily for more technical training, and for my daughter to gain proper training in all genres of dance to move to the next level in her dance. The children and the teachers were all so warm and welcoming, even coming from another studio. From the very first day she felt included, and part of the DI community — which is very rare in most studios. The teachers are phenomenal, and the training she has received has been amazing. The studio spaces are beautiful, and the entire studio is always very well maintained. The atmosphere is very professional, but also inclusive.
The other huge advantage for the serious dancer, is that they offer master class workshops, bringing in professional teachers from all over the world. These teachers include Francisco Gella, Christopher Huggins, Grace Buckley, and Maggie Small — to name just a few. These intensives are a huge training opportunity! DI also offers camps for the beginning dancer as well, during the summer.
The experience we have had at DI has been nothing short of fabulous! My daughter is currently taking ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, and turns & progressions — and I can say that every teacher and every class have been top notch, and have challenged her to become the best that she can be. I see her growing by leaps and bounds in this studio! I am so thrilled that we moved to this studio, and feel so fortunate to have this training in Austin, TX. Definitely come and try some classes, you will be glad you did!

My daughter has been attending Dance Institute and while she is only in a Pre Ballet class, I have real reservations on whether I would like to continue her training there. She previously attended classes for two years in another city in which Sharon Teague was the artistic director and they frequently were exposed to other greats like Lauren Anderson, etc. While I cannot give a good assessment of the instructors at Dance Institute just yet, I am afraid that I may not be able to overlook the front desk staff much longer to see the positives at DI. I respect a quality institution with discipline and structure. But, I have very little patience for a front desk receptionist to be so pretentious to it’s members. Get over yourself! It is such a turn off. The few times that I have simply had a question for the front desk, I am treated as an un welcomed stranger who has wandered into the wrong place. We never experienced this behavior at our last quality dance academy and do not wish to be treated this way here. Please make some changes.

Fabulous technique, beautiful studio, wonderful children and parents… The owner is frequently unkind, self-​absorbed, talented, petty, self-​sacrificing, extremely knowledgeable, demanding… a diva. The teachers know how to properly train a dancer. Dance at this level isn’t for sissies. If you don’t want to invest hugely with time, money, spirit and emotion… just forget it, because they won’t invest in you.

Dance Institute is an outstanding place to send your kids who are interested in dance! I moved my daughter to DI b/​c of its ballet program. Having danced for many years, I was looking for a studio who would take ballet seriously. Ballet is the foundation for all dance genres and without proper instruction, a student will not master the proper technique to perform at his/​her best. My daughter has improved tremendously under the instruction of Linda Holland. Her love for dance has exploded and now she dances with the Dance Institute Performance Academy, one of DI’s award-​winning competitive dance teams. DI also has a hip hop dance team called Street Heat. Its many talented hip hop dancers have also competed extremely well.
The facilities and resources available at DI are not found elsewhere in Austin. If you are looking for a great studio to grow your child’s passion for dance, Dance Institute is the place! Check it out!

My daughter has been taking classes at The Dance Institute for about a year now. We love it. The facilities are beautiful, clean, well maintained and the front office staff are wonderful. The building is brand new with plenty of parking, including underground parking and elevators.
It may seem as though this studio is more for adult classes with its strength being ballroom. That is not necessarily true. While they do offer many adult classes, about a year ago they started offering many kids classes including jazz, lyrical, contemporary, tap, hip hop, musical theater, stretch and flexibility, turns and progressions along with a very strong ballet program. The instructors are extremely knowledgeable and genuinely excited about teach dance.
So while it may look like it is an adult dance studio, it is not. Give it a try, either for yourself or you child… it truly is a great place.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
Really, that’s all you need to know. That and… come on guys, do you want to be Johnny’s cousin manning the record player (excuse me, Ipod) again, or would you rather be Johnny singing «She’s Like the Wind»?
Er…ok that came out totally wrong.
This is the Dance Institute, a beautiful brand new school built from the ground up specifically for the purpose of teaching you to shake your maracas or for your children’s pointe preparation for Julliard. You might not think this is too special, what with dance schools all over the place, and Austin still not widely considered a bastion of dancing, despite the fact that Ballet Austin is the 4^th largest ballet company in the U.S. But typically dance schools are constructed in preexisting spaces, and they do the best they can. This place is, well, bangin’, from the design standpoint. Some pro dance folks have shown up here from out of town already to give workshops, and say it is one of the most killer dance spaces they have ever been in. Open, airy, that sort of thing. So if you care about that, voila! A very nice space to learn in.
The Dance Institute’s logo incorporates a couple doing a hot salsa or ballroom type number, and it is the partner dances that DI is primarily designed for (at least in terms of sheer physical space and adult classes), if you ask me. Their space is huge though, so really they can teach anything they want in there. In addition to the ballroom dance classes that start you on your way to Dancing With The Stars type stuff, and social dancing classes like salsa or two step, they also teach pilates and yoga. I am not familiar with their fitness classes, so I cannot comment on them, but they do have them.
They also have regular social events (with byo beverages, last time Monichacha O and I attended) which are preceded by mini lessons in a variety of social dances that you can choose to pay for, or not, if you are already skilled in that sort of thing.
On my 5 year journey to learn how to do some ballroom dancing here in Austin, I have taken lessons from many people, and at most of the schools in town. As I have improved, this has led me to become a picky picky bastard about my teachers. DI has several of the finest in partner dancing that Austin has to offer. And imho, Austin does not offer a whole lot of fine partner-​dancing teachers (though I believe their number is slowly increasing).
Teachers I like at DI: my faves there are Sabrina, Kat, and Denis. I do tend to favor the Latin dances, though, so these are the folks I have had experience with who I like, who do latin. Sabrina, the Ballroom Director, has had years of dance training, and uses a lot of crafty plain language descriptions to help you figure out why you can’t seem to do a box step after 50 attempts Edison. Kat was a professional ballet dancer and not only teaches the ballet program for kids (I do not think there is an adult ballet program there now) but is a superb salsa dancer and instructor as well. Often she will get folks to go out to salsa dance at local clubs in town. Denis is a former U.S. 10 dance champion (this means that he and his partner competed against other people in ALL the dances they do on dancing with the stars, really really well) from Russia, yet despite being from a country that churns out seriously hardcore ballroom pros sorta like Bela Karolyi makes gymnastics champions, he is quite nice and caters to your ability without making you run through the snow like Stallone in Rocky IV.
Additionally, you can take private lessons from all their folks rather than group classes, and they do lessons for couples getting ready for dancing at their weddings.
Ok, so why not the 5 star?
1. they are located in BFE for a big chunk of Austin — you can see from google maps that Sitio Del Rio is near 2222 and 620. If you don’t live close by, you are going to be burning a lot of gas to become Johnny Castle or Baby.
2. they are probably the priciest in town, though with the current state of the economy, perhaps they’ve got some deals going.
3. The number of truly intermediate to advanced dancers that are available at this point in time, in Austin, who frequent their classes there (or anywhere in town), to do Latin Ballroom, is still pretty low. This probably doesn’t apply to most folks in the universe, but it does to me, so.
The Dance Institute is pretty sweet. If they were closer to the heart of Austin, I’d say there is no good reason you shouldn’t give it a shot to get your dirty (or Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers’ style) dancing on.