1st Russian Ballet School
Pacific Heights Russian-method ballet school founded 2010 under Artistic Director Julia Zharova, offering classical ballet for children through pre-professional students.
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
San Francisco · California
Dance schools in San Francisco
19 verified schools across 8 suburbs, covering 45 disciplines of dance.
Walk into the Chris Hellman Center for Dance at 455 Franklin on a Saturday morning and you'll see what dance does in this city. Three-year-olds queue up for San Francisco Ballet School's Pre-Ballet division while company members rehearse upstairs. A mile south at 17th and Shotwell, ODC's three buildings on the same block run 200+ classes a week. Across the Bay Bridge at 14th and Alice in Oakland, the Malonga Casquelourd Center holds nightly West African drumming and dance in a 400-seat theatre that was originally a 1920s commercial palace. Up at Dwight Way in Berkeley, a fifty-year-old purpose-built ballet studio designed by architect Jack Johannes is still running classical training for the children of West Berkeley families. None of this reads as a single city. All of it is the same dance region.
The institutional memory
The Bay Area carries one of the deepest dance infrastructures of any region in the United States, and the institutional spine is older than people remember. San Francisco Ballet School at Civic Center has been training dancers since 1933 — one year older than the School of American Ballet, making it the oldest professional ballet school in the United States. The Academy of Ballet on Page Street has been running since 1953 and is a San Francisco Legacy Business, with alumni at New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet itself. Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley opened in 1958, founded by Frank Shawl and Victor Anderson out of the May O'Donnell modern-dance lineage, and has run continuously as a nonprofit community-focused modern dance centre for sixty-seven years.
Oakland Ballet School was founded by Ronn Guidi in 1968 alongside the Oakland Ballet Company — now in its sixtieth year. ODC began in 1971 under Brenda Way and now occupies the 33,000 sq ft Dance Commons in the Mission, housing the ODC/Dance company, the School, and 200+ weekly classes. Berkeley City Ballet marked fifty years in 2024 — founded 1974 in a purpose-built Dwight Way studio designed by architect Jack Johannes for former Pacific Ballet Academy prima ballerina Grace Doty. Destiny Arts Center in North Oakland opened in 1988, founded by Kate Hobbs, Anthony Daniels and Sarah Crowell, in a 7,800 sq ft facility combining movement, martial arts and explicit social-change pedagogy. MoBu Dance Studio in Noe Valley opened in 1995 as Takami Craddock's DancEsteem program. Steppin' Out Dance Studio in the Mission re-opened in 1995, carrying the Betty May Studio legacy that dates to the 1930s. The Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts was renamed in 2004 for the Cameroonian dance artist who shaped Oakland's African-dance scene; the building is a restored 1920s commercial palace with a 400-seat theatre. City Ballet San Francisco at Civic Center has been running since 2003 under Bolshoi Academy graduate and former Bolshoi/SFB dancer Galina Alexandrova. 1st Russian Ballet School in Pacific Heights has been running Russian-method classical since 2010. The deep memory is real and it is split across two cities.
How the city is laid out
The Civic Center Classical Ballet Triangle
Civic Center · Castro · Pacific Heights
This is the historic classical pinnacle in the United States. San Francisco Ballet School at the Chris Hellman Center for Dance, 455 Franklin Street, founded in 1933, is the oldest professional ballet school in the country — one year older than SAB — running Pre-Ballet (ages 2–7), Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced and Trainee divisions for San Francisco Ballet. City Ballet San Francisco runs Vaganova-method training in the Civic Center / Hub corridor under Galina Alexandrova, a Bolshoi Ballet Academy graduate and former Bolshoi and SFB dancer. The Academy of Ballet on Page Street has been running since 1953 — a San Francisco Legacy Business with alumni at NYCB, ABT and SFB. 1st Russian Ballet School in Pacific Heights and JCCSF Dance School on the Pacific Heights / Presidio Heights border round out the children's-ballet density west of Van Ness. If a Bay Area child is aimed at a classical ladder, the path runs through this corridor.
The Mission Contemporary District
Mission
The Mission holds the city's working-contemporary spine. ODC's three-building Dance Commons at 17th and Shotwell — 33,000 sq ft, founded 1971 by Brenda Way — houses ODC/Dance, the ODC School, and 200+ weekly classes from creative movement through pre-professional contemporary, ballet, modern and hip-hop. Dance Mission Theater on 24th Street, founded by Dance Brigade co-founder Krissy Keefer, runs the Grrrl Brigade youth program (400+ children per semester) alongside a multicultural class roster — Afro-Cuban, West African, Indian, Tongan, Aztec, Pilates, contemporary. Steppin' Out Dance Studio, reformed in 1995 by Angela Rose Dorantes, carries the Betty May Studio legacy back to the 1930s for children from age two. The Mission is structurally the contemporary-and-cultural-dance heart of San Francisco proper.
The SoMa Open-Class and Aerial Belt
SoMa
South of Market is where the professional-level open-class culture and the commercial / aerial scene concentrate. The Alonzo King LINES Dance Center on Seventh Street holds six professional studios and 80+ weekly classes spanning ballet, contemporary, modern, jazz, hip-hop, Bollywood and African Rhythms — the school is the open-public arm of Alonzo King LINES Ballet. City Dance Studios on Eighth Street, founded by Sandy Lee in 2003, runs hip-hop, K-pop, choreo, contemporary, popping, house, salsa and Argentine Tango across two locations. San Francisco Pole and Dance, the city's largest pole and aerial-arts studio under instructor Amy Bond, holds pole, silks, lyra, heels-choreography and flexibility programming. SoMa is where a working professional dancer or a determined adult beginner finds their week.
The East Bay Community-Arts Belt
Oakland · Berkeley
Across the Bay, the East Bay carries institutional weight that doesn't fit a 'San Francisco' label. Shawl-Anderson Dance Center on College Avenue in Berkeley, founded in 1958 by Frank Shawl and Victor Anderson out of the May O'Donnell modern-dance lineage, has run as a nonprofit community-arts centre for sixty-seven years. Berkeley Ballet Theater in West Berkeley, founded by NYCB alumna Sally Streets (an Isadora Duncan Lifetime Achievement Award recipient), offers pre-professional classical training plus 30+ weekly adult drop-in classes. Berkeley City Ballet, fifty years old in 2024, runs from the Dwight Way studio architect Jack Johannes purpose-built for prima ballerina Grace Doty. Oakland Ballet School on Piedmont Avenue, founded by Ronn Guidi in 1968, trains for the sixty-year Oakland Ballet Company. The Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts at 1428 Alice Street is the city of Oakland's African-diaspora performing-arts complex — a restored 1920s building with a 400-seat theatre and five studios hosting nightly West African dance, drumming, ballet and contemporary classes. Destiny Arts Center in North Oakland — opened 1988, 7,800 sq ft with three sprung-wood-oak studios — explicitly combines movement, martial arts and social-change pedagogy for youth and adults. Tutu School Montclair anchors the youngest children in the Oakland hills.
The Pacific Heights and Noe Valley Children's Belt
Pacific Heights · Noe Valley
Two of the city's residential neighbourhoods carry quiet children's-dance density. JCCSF Dance School inside the Jewish Community Center on California Street runs year-round ballet, tap, musical theatre and combo classes for children from eighteen months through sixteen. 1st Russian Ballet School in Pacific Heights, under Artistic Director Julia Zharova, runs Russian-method classical from young children through pre-professional. MoBu Dance Studio in Noe Valley, founded 1995 by Takami Craddock as the DancEsteem program, runs ballet, modern, hip-hop, Afro-Caribbean and creative movement for children from age two alongside adult Zumba and yoga.
The cultural-dance heritage
The Bay Area's cultural-dance traditions are not adjuncts to the dance scene — in several cases, they are the most structurally anchored part of it.
The African and diaspora tradition is anchored in Oakland. The Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts on Alice Street is the city of Oakland's African-dance epicentre — five studios and a 400-seat theatre running nightly West African, contemporary African and African-diaspora dance and drumming, named for the Cameroonian artist who built the scene there. Destiny Arts Center in North Oakland builds African and diaspora dance into its movement-and-social-change pedagogy. MoBu Dance Studio in Noe Valley holds Afro-Caribbean dance within its children's curriculum. Dance Mission Theater in the Mission runs Afro-Cuban and West African classes alongside its other multicultural programming.
The Russian classical tradition runs through Civic Center and Pacific Heights. City Ballet San Francisco under Galina Alexandrova (Bolshoi Ballet Academy) and 1st Russian Ballet School under Julia Zharova both teach the Vaganova method, with consistent attention to character work and Russian repertoire.
The Latin and social-dance tradition runs through SoMa and the Mission. City Dance Studios in SoMa runs salsa and Argentine Tango alongside its hip-hop and K-pop curriculum. Dance Mission Theater includes Aztec and Tongan classes alongside its Afro-Cuban offerings.
The Indian-classical and Bollywood tradition shows up at Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, which carries Bollywood within its 80+ weekly classes alongside African Rhythms and other forms.
These traditions teach Bay Area children their grandparents' steps and they keep cultural memory alive in a region whose dance scene would be much thinner without them.
Where the community work is happening
The community work in the Bay Area's dance institutions is structural, not decorative. Destiny Arts Center was founded in 1988 on the explicit premise that movement, martial arts and social-change pedagogy belong in the same building — its youth programs and adult classes are not separate from its political work. The Malonga Casquelourd Center is owned and operated by the City of Oakland; it exists because the city decided African dance belongs in the civic infrastructure. Dance Mission Theater's Grrrl Brigade moves 400+ children through its youth program every semester under the leadership of Krissy Keefer, a founder of Dance Brigade. Shawl-Anderson has run as a Berkeley nonprofit for sixty-seven years and built its identity around accessible community dance. ODC's Healthy Dancers' Clinic and Pilot 50+ program serve dancers across their lifespan. Berkeley Ballet Theater under Sally Streets — an Isadora Duncan Lifetime Achievement Award recipient — runs 30+ weekly adult drop-in classes that explicitly serve the West Berkeley community. The Academy of Ballet is a designated San Francisco Legacy Business. The Bay Area's institutions did not have to be designed this way; they were designed this way.
What a parent should know
For a child of three or four, the question is rarely which discipline — it's which studio is close to home and has the right teacher. San Francisco Ballet School's Pre-Ballet division (ages 2–7) at Civic Center, MoBu Dance Studio's creative movement in Noe Valley, JCCSF Dance School's classes from eighteen months in Pacific Heights, Tutu School Montclair in the Oakland hills, and Steppin' Out in the Mission all run gentle pre-ballet programs at this age. Most offer a free or low-cost trial; take it. The right teacher matters more than the right institution at four years old.
For a child of seven to twelve, two paths open. If the child is aimed at classical ballet, the Civic Center triangle — San Francisco Ballet School, Academy of Ballet, City Ballet SF — and the East Bay ballet cluster — Berkeley Ballet Theater, Berkeley City Ballet, Oakland Ballet School — are both serious classical pipelines. SF Ballet School's audition-based ladder is the most formal; the others are accessible without audition for the children's divisions. If the child wants to dance for the love of it, ODC's children's contemporary, Shawl-Anderson's modern, Dance Mission's multicultural curriculum, Destiny Arts' youth programs, Malonga Casquelourd's African classes, and MoBu's neighborhood program all run rigorous training without an audition-and-cut culture. Both paths are legitimate. Watch a class before you choose.
For a teen who is starting to think about dance as a serious craft, the region is unusually well-served. San Francisco Ballet School's Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced and Trainee divisions run the formal classical pipeline. The LINES Dance Center holds the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Trainee path on the contemporary side. ODC's pre-professional contemporary training in the Mission, Berkeley Ballet Theater's pre-professional program, Oakland Ballet's classical track, and Dance Mission's Grrrl Brigade are all serious pathways without leaving the Bay Area.
For a child whose family wants to keep a cultural tradition alive, the region is rich. Malonga Casquelourd Center and Destiny Arts for the African tradition; Dance Mission for Afro-Cuban, Aztec and Tongan; MoBu for Afro-Caribbean; City Ballet SF and 1st Russian Ballet for the Russian classical lineage; City Dance Studios for Latin social forms; LINES Dance Center for Bollywood. Many of these institutions run sliding-scale or subsidised programs.
For adults — and this is a structural Bay Area strength — open-class culture is well established. LINES Dance Center at SoMa (80+ weekly classes), ODC Dance Commons (200+ weekly), Shawl-Anderson in Berkeley, Berkeley Ballet Theater's 30+ weekly adult drop-ins, Malonga Casquelourd's nightly African classes, City Dance Studios for hip-hop and Latin, and Dance Mission Theater's multicultural roster: an adult beginner can walk in cold any night of the week and find a class. The East Bay studios run programs at lower cost than the SoMa or Civic Center flagships.
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All schools in San Francisco
Academy of Ballet
Castro classical ballet school established 1953 — a San Francisco Legacy Business that has trained dancers for careers with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and others.
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
Alonzo King LINES Dance Center
SoMa dance center of Alonzo King LINES Ballet, offering 80+ weekly classes across ballet, contemporary, modern, jazz, hip hop, Bollywood, and African Rhythms in six professional studios.
- Contemporary
- Ballet
- Hip Hop
Berkeley Ballet Theater
Ages 3+
West Berkeley classical ballet school founded by Sally Streets (New York City Ballet alumna, Isadora Duncan Lifetime Achievement Award) offering full pre-professional training for children, youth and adults plus 30+ weekly adult drop-in classes.
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
Berkeley City Ballet
Ages 2+
Berkeley classical ballet school founded 1974, marked 50 years in 2024. Purpose-built Dwight Way studio designed by architect Jack Johannes for former Pacific Ballet Academy prima ballerina Grace Doty. Pre-professional training from age 2.5+.
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
City Ballet San Francisco (CBSF)
San Francisco Civic Center / Hub Vaganova-method ballet school led by Bolshoi Ballet Academy graduate and former Bolshoi and San Francisco Ballet dancer Galina Alexandrova since 2003.
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
City Dance Studios
SoMa hip-hop and commercial-dance studio founded 2003 by Sandy Lee, with two locations and an in-house community for Hip Hop, K-pop, Jazz, Choreo, Contemporary, Popping, House, Salsa, and Argentine Tango.
- Hip Hop
- Latin & Ballroom
- Contemporary
Dance Mission Theater
Mission District multicultural dance center founded by Krissy Keefer (co-founder of Dance Brigade), home to Grrrl Brigade youth program and 400+ children per semester.
- Contemporary
- Latin & Ballroom
- Hip Hop
- Children's Dance
Destiny Arts Center
Ages 3+
North Oakland anchor arts nonprofit founded 1988 by Kate Hobbs, Anthony Daniels and Sarah Crowell. 7,800 sqft facility with 3 dance studios and sprung wood oak floors. Combines movement, martial arts and social-change pedagogy for youth and adults.
- Children's Dance
- Hip Hop
- Contemporary
JCCSF Dance School
Ages 1–16
Year-round children's dance school within the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on the Pacific Heights / Presidio Heights border, offering Ballet, Tap, Musical Theatre, and Combo classes for ages 18 months to 16.
- Children's Dance
- Ballet
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
City of Oakland multicultural performing-arts complex in a restored 1920s building. 400-seat theater plus 5 rehearsal/class studios hosting African dance, ballet, contemporary and drama. Renamed 2004 for Cameroonian dance artist Malonga Casquelourd.
- Cultural & Folk
- Contemporary
MoBu Dance Studio
Ages 2+
Noe Valley dance studio founded 1995 by Takami Craddock as DancEsteem program, offering ballet, modern, hip hop, Afro-Caribbean, and creative movement for ages 2 and up plus adult Zumba and yoga.
- Children's Dance
- Ballet
- Hip Hop
Oakland Ballet School
Ages 3+
Piedmont Avenue ballet school affiliated with the 60-year-old Oakland Ballet Company. Founded by Ronn Guidi in 1968 to train dancers for OBC and other US and European companies. Pre-professional ballet training in classical technique and musicality.
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
ODC School at ODC Dance Commons
Mission District contemporary dance institution founded 1971 by Brenda Way — ODC's 33,000 sq ft Dance Commons houses ODC/Dance company, ODC School, and 200+ weekly classes for all ages.
- Contemporary
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
San Francisco Ballet School
Ages 2+
Official school of San Francisco Ballet, founded 1933 — the oldest professional ballet school in the United States, training pre-professional dancers across Pre-Ballet (ages 2-7) through Trainee divisions.
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
San Francisco Pole and Dance
SoMa pole and aerial arts studio billed as San Francisco's largest, led by pole instructor Amy Bond — offering pole, aerial silks, lyra, heels choreography, and flexibility classes.
Shawl-Anderson Dance Center
Ages 3+
Berkeley institution since 1958, founded by Frank Shawl and Victor Anderson (May O'Donnell lineage) as a community-focused modern dance center. Nonprofit offering classes for all ages, rehearsal space and performance programming.
- Contemporary
- Children's Dance
Steppin' Out Dance Studio
Ages 2+
Mission District children's dance studio carrying the legacy of Betty May Studio (1930s), reformed 1995 by Angela Rose Dorantes, serving ages 2 through young adult.
- Children's Dance
- Ballet
Tutu School Montclair
Ages up to 8
Montclair Village storybook ballet studio for children 6 months to 8 years. Part of the established Tutu School franchise (Tutu School Mill Valley founded 2008 by Genevieve Custer Weeks).
- Ballet
- Children's Dance
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