Mission Viejo Dance & Performing Arts Center

This business has changed names! South Coast Conservatory. I wonder why!

Excellent studio! Large variety of classes, good class sizes, energetic instructors, and sufficient personal attention!

this school is more about how to get the most money out of parents’ pocket than training a good dancer. Like the other reviewer said, a well run business but not a good school. Class size is too large and not enough attention to dancers.

Spacious, functional, and clean studios; friendly staff; considerate students… I have rented space from this facility for special events and dance workshops. Always a pleasure working with the people at this facility.

My daughter just started dancing here and we highly recommend this studio! The staff that work the front desk are so welcoming and super helpful. The teachers are enthusiastic, professional and very technical which my daughter requires in dance classes. My daughter takes hip hop, ballet and jazz and loves all the classes. I am so happy to have found such a wonderful dance studio here in the OC.

I have to say my son, yes you read that right, my son has been dancing at MV Dance since 2009. He started with Hip Hop only and quickly moved on to other types of dance, Tap, Jazz, Tumbling, and Ballet. He absolutely loves to dance it has become his passion at the age of 10. This year MV Dance has expanded it’s studio space and brought in 4 new male dance teachers! My son was exstatic to have the opportunity to work with them. He now takes 8 hours a week of dance and wants to do more!
As a mom, I am very happy with the professionalism of the teachers and staff. I absolutely love how the teachers take a great interest in helping my son become the best dancer possible! I look forward to many more years of dance.

This is my first time to ever leave a business a Unilocal review, which must say something about my experience with MV Dance! Supposedly my 3 ½ year old daughter was not well behaved enough to attend MV Dance, as told to me by the instructors! On two seperate occasions, with two DIFFERENT teachers, she was denied a sticker after having a fun time dancing in her combo class (tap/​tumbling/​ballet.) The first time she was told by a teacher that she needed to behave better or she couldn’t come to class! A 3 ½ year old! Thinking it was a fluke, I tried a different teacher/​day and time, and after a couple classes, the same thing… no sticker! She went home in tears, saying «sorry mommy,» which she should have left there excited to come back again. Agonizing to see her so upset for no reason… other than her very outgoing personality, saying «hi» to everyone she meets, withdrawn, complacent children are rewarded!
MV Dance is too uptight and serious for 3 – 4 year olds, and anyone who knows anything about teaching, (I gave horse back riding lessosn to theraputic children in college and beyond,) knows that this is not the way to leave a positive lasting impression on a very young child. Too bad I am out a non-​refundable couple of lessons and a dance recital costume, (that every studio tries to rope you into!)
Amazingly, she still wants to dance, and I am looking for a studio that has the right values in place, after all, we all dont have a Tiger Woods/​Kobe Bryant up-​and-​coming, but she should still see the joy in learning to dance.
If you don’t want your young child to feel crazy pressured and come home crying, MV Dance is NOT for you.

My daughter, Giselle, is 10 years old. She has been dancing with Sara Day for the past eight years. She has performed in nine Nutcrackers and various other ballet performances. Under Sara’s guidance and support, she has learned the techniques, grace, stamina, and discipline necessary for continued advancement. This year she has graduated to pre-​pointe and she is beyond happy. Sara and her program of teachers at MVDance provide tremendous opportunities for dancers of all levels. Giselle always looks forward to going to ballet class and I am so happy that Sara Day has been there for her every step of the way…

Like all things in life there is good and bad. MVDPAC has been a wonderful experience for my family. The teachers and other dancers are very kind and warm. My daughter has been on teams here for three years. She started at a petite and has grown into Jr’s. Every year she has been embraced by the instructors. They have many events that bring all of the dancers together and form not only a team but a community. Every year they raise money for CHOC in the annual CHOC walk at Disney. They walk as a team in the annual LN parade. Is it a big studio? Yes, but ask why? Why is it that so many families have kids dance their? We have had other opportunities to go to other studios. In the end my daughter didn’t want to leave.

Interesting how two reviews could be so dis-​similar. Our girls trained at schools in half a dozen states. There is no equal in terms of professionalism, commitment variety and energy. It’s unusual to have your kids comment positively at least once a week on their experience– MVDPAC engenders that kind of energy.
Certainly it’s a larger school with many students, guess why? Because it’s excellent! However, perhaps due to it’s size, it’s focus is on an efficient, businesslike approach, everything is clearly explained, in writing, expectations are well defined and we have seen the efforts at customer satisfaction as a goal bear fruit. I can’t imagine a studio of this quality being run like a «family», chaos would reign I’m sure.
I guess if you are in need of a family a smaller boutique studio is a good choice. We prefer excellence, highly trained teachers with serious credentials and an atmosphere of learning and commitment to dance. To each his own.

My Daughter and now my Son both dance at Mission Viejo Dance and Performing Arts Center. Our experience has been as good as it gets! Over the years the teachers have been outstanding, my Daughter has grown as a dancer and performer, she would never even consider dancing anywhere else. After years of watching his Big Sister my Son has started an All Boys Hip Hop Class. He LOVES it and LOVES his teacher. In fact, we just found out that the class time conflcits with baseball and he said he would just have to be late to baseball (don’t tell the coach!). My family loves MVDPAC!

I went here for years when I was younger between the ages of 13 – 18. I liked the classes they offered when I was just starting to learn how to dance. But as I got better and older, I felt like this studio was, sorry, a joke. I went to other studios and realized that the advanced level of ballet I was doing at this studio was like the intermediate level at other places. If I could do it all over again, I wish I could have transferred to another more focused and technique disciplined studio after I got better. I really wanted to become a graceful, technical ballerina, but I think this place did not provide the sort of discipline and corrections to do so. There are so many other studios around mission viejo that just focus mainly on ballet and emphasize the specific techniques that make you a better dancer. Now that was the critique for BALLET classes only. This was my major complaint, but everything else is good and what is expected of a dance studio.
My other complaint was about recitals/​shows. There would be small shows held at the studio downstairs, and it was unprofessional trying to cram so many students and guests into one dance room. The recitals/​shows to me never felt very professional, like a Nutcracker production, but that’s ok b/​c other studios probably were like this too. I just remember having to perform in an auditorium and the routine I had to perform was (now that i look back at it) not technical and clean as I would have liked it. But, that was when Andrea taught there, so I guess now that she’s gone, I hope that another better teacher is there. I remember long hours for the day long performances.
As for jazz, contemporary, hip hop I think those classes were good and I really enjoyed them. I don’t really know how to grade these classes because I wasn’t too critical about it because I didn’t want to be a super good jazz/​contemp/​hiphop dancer. ***The hip hop class is really good if you take it with Jayda :) ***
OVERALL:
This place is really good for dance and stretch classes for children and adults. I know I might have sounded harsh at the top, but that’s just a warning for those of you who really want to get better in ballet; go elsewhere or go elsewhere once you have reached a level that you feel like this place can’t improve on. But other than that, the other classes were really great, and i gained a lot experience and knowledge about my body, strength, flexibility, and discipline.