Westside School of Ballet

How Westside School of Ballet comes across

Westside School of Ballet comes across as an institution trading on lineage as much as instruction. Its own materials lead with the founders' pedigree — co-founders Yvonne Mounsey of New York City Ballet and Rosemary Valaire, a "Royal Ballet soloist" — and it positions itself as "Los Angeles' oldest and most successful public ballet school," founded 1967. The framing is unmistakably Balanchine-tradition and pre-professional: a graded Ballet I-VII ladder, a roughly 100-dancer performing company (ages 8-18), and a stated claim that students earn scholarships to major company schools "every year." The alumni roster it cites (NYCB, ABT, San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet) reads as the proof point the school wants parents to weigh. Yet the impression isn't narrowly elite — the site also foregrounds Parent & Me, adult classes, boys-only ballet, and BIPOC outreach. A parent would likely read this as a serious classical conservatory-style track that has kept an accessible, community-facing front door.

An editor's impression, drawn from the school's own website and public materials, 13 June 2026. Not a review — if it misses the mark, the school or a parent can tell us via the form below.