Ballet
Three to adult
- thirteen classes a week
- 200 places a week in all
The technique everything else in this building borrows from, taught slowly and in the same order every year.
She keeps asking for ballet. Is four too young?
Woodside, Queens · since 2011
Small classes, one teacher who knows your child's name.
Woodside Academy of Dance & Music teaches ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop and contemporary dance, and piano, guitar, violin and singing, five minutes from the 61st Street station. There are forty-six weekly classes for children from three and for adults, in rooms that hold between eight and eighteen people. Every fee on this site is a per-session rate multiplied by the number of times the class actually meets — and when a class is full it says so and puts you in a queue with a number on it.
- 46
- weekly classes, Monday to Saturday
- 9
- disciplines — 5 dance, 4 music
- 592
- places in the timetable, and every one is counted
- 6
- teachers, and every one of them teaches
What we teach
Five kinds of dance and four instruments
Deliberately not a longer list. A school advertising musical theatre, acro, ballroom, drums and flute with six teachers is advertising a timetable it cannot staff, and any parent who has tried to book one of them can tell.
Jazz
Six to adult
- eight classes a week
- 118 places a week in all
Fast, rhythmic and the most immediately satisfying class in the building for a beginner.
He wants to dance but he thinks ballet is for girls.
Tap
Four to adult
- six classes a week
- 60 places a week in all
The most mathematical thing taught in this building, and the one that most reliably makes a child practise.
Does tap still get taught anywhere?
Hip hop
Six to adult
- five classes a week
- 70 places a week in all
Grounded, rhythmic and taught with its history attached rather than as a style borrowed from a video.
Is it appropriate for a seven-year-old?
Contemporary
Nine to adult
- four classes a week
- 60 places a week in all
Weight, floor and breath — the class that changes how a trained dancer moves.
She has done ballet for six years and is bored.
Piano
Six to adult
- one class a week
- 12 places a week in all
One to one, thirty to sixty minutes, and the instrument every other one is easier to learn beside.
We do not have a piano. Can she still start?
Guitar
Eight to adult
- three classes a week
- 24 places a week in all
Taught in small groups, because a beginner guitarist learns faster in a room with other beginners.
He wants to play electric. Do you make him start on classical?
Violin
Six to adult
- four classes a week
- 32 places a week in all
One to one, with an ensemble to play in from the first year — which is the part that makes people stay.
How long before it stops sounding like that?
Voice
Eleven to adult, and a teen ensemble
- two classes a week
- 16 places a week in all
One to one from about eleven, and an ensemble with no audition.
She sings all day. Should she have lessons?
By age
From three years old to whenever you like
"Ballet classes" is what a dancer searches for. "Classes for four-year-olds near me" is what a parent searches for, and the two want different pages.
Ages three to five
First Steps
Forty-five minutes, twelve children, and one thing at a time.
seven classes open to this age
Ages six to eight
Juniors
The year most students find the thing they are going to stay with.
thirteen classes open to this age
Ages nine to twelve
Intermediates
Where technique starts to compound, and where a second class starts to earn its fee.
twenty-one classes open to this age
Ages thirteen to seventeen
Teens
Serious classes for students who have chosen to be there, and no pressure to make it a career.
seventeen classes open to this age
Eighteen and over
Adults
Six open classes a week for adults, including four for people who have never danced.
six classes open to this age
Fall Term 2026
Saturday morning, which is the busiest room in the school
The whole week is on the timetable page and it filters by discipline, by age and by day. This is the Saturday of it, which is where most of the school is.
| Class | Time | Room | Teacher | Places | Fall Term 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BalletFirst Steps ages 3 to 5 | 9:00am - 9:45am | Studio A | Marisol Duarte | 12 | $234 |
| JazzFirst Steps creative dance ages 3 to 5 | 9:00am - 9:45am | Studio B | Grace Okonkwo | 12 | $234 |
| BalletBallet 1 ages 6 to 8 | 9:45am - 10:45am | Studio A | Marisol Duarte | 16 | $286 |
| Hip hopJuniors ages 6 to 8 | 10:00am - 11:00am | Studio B | Danny Ruiz | 14 | $286 |
| GuitarGroup guitar, beginners ages 8 to 12 | 10:00am - 10:45am | Music Room 1 | Jonah Feldman | 8 | $234 |
| BalletBallet 2 ages 9 to 11 | 10:45am - 12:00pm | Studio A | Marisol Duarte | 16 | $338 |
| JazzIntermediates ages 9 to 12 | 11:00am - 12:00pm | Studio B | Grace Okonkwo | 14 | $286 |
| TapJuniors ages 6 to 9 | 11:00am - 11:45am | Studio C | Danny Ruiz | 10 | $234 |
| ViolinString ensemble ages 10 to 17 | 11:00am - 12:00pm | Music Room 2 | Priya Raman | 8 | $286 |
| ContemporaryTeens ages 13 to 17 | 12:00pm - 1:15pm | Studio A | Grace Okonkwo | 16 | $338 |
| TapTeens ages 13 to 17 | 12:00pm - 1:00pm | Studio C | Danny Ruiz | 10 | $286 |
| BalletAdult open eighteen and over | 1:15pm - 2:30pm | Studio A | Marisol Duarte | 18 | $338 |
What a term costs
A rate, times the number of times the class meets
Two classes of the same length in the same term can honestly cost different amounts, because a holiday falls on a weekday and not on a term. Publishing the multiplication rather than the answer is the only version of this that is not an argument at the desk in October.
Forty-five minutes
$18a session
First Steps classes, junior tap and every musicianship class. Long enough to warm up, work and finish; short enough for a five-year-old.
- Multiplied by the sessions that class actually meets
- ten per cent off every class after the first in a family
- Pro rata for a student joining part-way through
- $30 registration, once a year, per student
An hour
$22a session
The standard technique class from about six upward, and both ensembles. Most of the timetable is this length.
- Multiplied by the sessions that class actually meets
- ten per cent off every class after the first in a family
- Pro rata for a student joining part-way through
- $30 registration, once a year, per student
An hour and a quarter
$26a session
The upper levels, the teen classes and every adult open class. The extra fifteen minutes is centre work rather than more warm-up.
- Multiplied by the sessions that class actually meets
- ten per cent off every class after the first in a family
- Pro rata for a student joining part-way through
- $30 registration, once a year, per student
An hour and a half
$30a session
Held for rehearsal weeks in the summer term rather than for the ordinary timetable, and charged at the same per-session logic as everything else.
- Multiplied by the sessions that class actually meets
- ten per cent off every class after the first in a family
- Pro rata for a student joining part-way through
- $30 registration, once a year, per student
When a class is full
The waiting list is a queue, and you can see where you are in it
Every class here has a number of places and the number is real. When the last one goes, the class stops taking enrolments and starts a list. You are told the position you are in — a number, not a promise to be in touch.
When somebody withdraws, the place goes to whoever is at the top, and they have three days to take it. That expiry is not impatience: without it, one person who has stopped reading their e-mail keeps a class closed to everybody behind them.
A place is a real number. Every class has a number of places and the number shown is the real one. When a class is full it stops taking enrolments and starts a waiting list, in order, with your position visible to you.
An offer runs out on purpose. A place offered from the waiting list is held for three days and then passes to the next person. The expiry is not impatience: without it, one person who has stopped reading their e-mail keeps a class closed to everybody behind them.
How joining works
Six steps, and none of them is a form that says we will be in touch
-
Find a class that fits
Step one of six
Start from the timetable rather than from the discipline. The class has to happen at a time you can get to, and in a school this size there may be one option rather than four. The timetable filters by discipline, by age and by day and every filtered view has its own link, so you can send it to the other parent.
-
Book a free trial class
Step two of six
One free trial per student per discipline, in any class marked as taking them. It is a real class and the student joins in. A trial holds a place in the class for that week, which is why it is booked rather than dropped in on — a full class cannot take a trial.
-
Enrol for the term
Step three of six
Enrolment is per class, per term. You see the number of sessions, the per-session rate and the multiplication before you confirm anything. If the class is full you are offered the waiting list instead, with your position in it.
-
Pay for the term
Step four of six
The fee is the per-session rate times the sessions that class actually meets in that term. A student joining part-way through pays for the sessions still to come and not for the ones already gone. The family discount of 10 per cent comes off every class after the first.
-
Come to class
Step five of six
The register is taken every week. If a student is going to be absent, tell us — not because there is a penalty, but because a teacher who does not know whether a nine-year-old is safe spends the first ten minutes of the class finding out.
-
Decide about the next term
Step six of six
Enrolment for the following term opens about six weeks before it starts and existing students are enrolled first for a fortnight before places go to the waiting list. Nobody is rolled over automatically and nobody is charged for a term they did not ask for.
Who teaches here
six teachers, and every one of them is in a studio every week
There is no principal who only administers. A six-person school cannot afford one, and pretending otherwise is a detail parents notice.
Marisol Duarte
Founder and Principal
Ballet · here since 2011
Founded the school in 2011 and still teaches ballet six days a week.
Grace Okonkwo
Head of Dance
Jazz and Contemporary · here since 2014
Teaches jazz and contemporary, and writes the recital programme.
Danny Ruiz
Hip hop and tap
Hip hop and Tap · here since 2016
Teaches hip hop and tap, from four-year-olds to the adult class.
Elena Vasquez
Head of Music
Piano · here since 2013
Teaches piano, and runs the music side of the school.
Priya Raman
Violin and musicianship
Violin · here since 2018
Teaches violin, the string ensemble and musicianship.
Jonah Feldman
Voice and guitar
Voice and Guitar · here since 2019
Teaches guitar, singing and the teen vocal ensemble.
Where we stop
The six things this school does not do
Each one is a page rather than a line of small print, because every one of them is something a parent would otherwise find out in November.
We do not enter students for a named board's examinations
Graded examinations are run by real organisations, teaching them requires registration, and we do not claim it.
- Not here: There are several well-known organisations that set graded examinations in dance and in music. Teaching their syllabus and entering candidates requires a school and its teachers to be registered with that organisation, and that registration is earned and can be checked.
- What to do instead: Ask any school you are considering which board they are registered with and ask to see it. A school that is registered will be pleased to tell you. A school that answers vaguely is answering.
We do not promise where a student will end up
No school can tell you what a seven-year-old will be able to do at seventeen, and one that does is selling you something else.
- Not here: A great deal of marketing in this trade is built on outcome: the alumni who dance professionally, the students who were accepted somewhere, the percentage who passed something. Those numbers are usually true and almost always meaningless, because the students who go on to do those things were going to be remarkable in any decent school.
- What to do instead: Judge a class by watching one. A trial class costs nothing here for exactly this reason: it is the only evidence about a school that is not marketing.
There are no auditions for any class in this school
Every class here is entered by enrolling, and every ensemble is entered by turning up.
- Not here: No class in this timetable is auditioned. The level bands are about where a student will learn best, not about who is good enough, and a student who is in the wrong one is moved by a conversation rather than by a test.
- What to do instead: If you want an auditioned, selective programme — and there are good reasons to want one for a committed teenager — those exist in this city and we will name the ones we rate.
We are a school, not childcare
A class is forty-five to seventy-five minutes and an adult must be reachable for every minute of it.
- Not here: Students under twelve must be collected from the studio door by a named adult, and we will not release a child to anybody who is not on the form. For students in First Steps an adult stays in the building for the whole class.
- What to do instead: If what you need is cover for a working afternoon rather than a class, an after-school programme is the right shape and is regulated differently. We would rather point you at one than take the fee.
We are teachers, and none of us is a physician or a therapist
We can change what a class asks of a body. We cannot diagnose, treat or clear anybody to return.
- Not here: Dance puts load through growing bodies and injuries happen — mostly ankles, knees and the lower back, mostly from doing too much too soon. Our teachers know a great deal about technique that prevents them and nothing whatever about diagnosing them.
- What to do instead: Bring us the restriction rather than the diagnosis. "No jumping for six weeks" is something we can teach around; "her knee hurts" is something we should not be interpreting.
Nobody photographs or films in our building without consent on file
Every image of a student is covered by a consent that a guardian gave and can withdraw.
- Not here: Photography and filming inside the studios by parents, students or visitors is not permitted at any time, including in the corridor through the window into Studio A. This is not about our images; it is that a photograph of one child is a photograph of eleven others.
- What to do instead: If you want a photograph of your own child dancing, ask. We will arrange five minutes in an empty studio, which produces a better picture than a phone in a dark theatre ever will.
Questions parents ask
The ones asked at the desk, answered here instead
How much is a class?
A class costs a per-session rate times the number of times it meets in the term. Forty-five minutes is $18 a session, an hour is $22, an hour and a quarter is $26. In a fourteen-week term with one recess week that is thirteen sessions, so an hour-long class is $286 for the term. The term dates and fees page shows the multiplication for every class.
What if the class I want is full?
You join the waiting list and you are told your position in it. When a place comes free the person at the top is offered it and has three days to take it. There is no charge and no way to buy priority.
Is the trial class really free?
Yes — one per student per discipline. It is a real class and the student joins in. It does hold a place for that week, which is why it is booked in advance rather than dropped in on, and it is why a full class cannot take a trial.
Can we join part-way through a term?
Yes, if the class has a place. You pay for the sessions still to come rather than for the whole term. The enrolment page does that arithmetic in front of you before you confirm.
How young do you take children?
Three for First Steps ballet and creative dance, four for First Steps tap, six for most technique classes, and eight for group guitar. Singing lessons start at about eleven and there is a page explaining why.
My child is nervous. What happens in the first class?
The teacher knows they are new, the class knows they are new, and nobody is put at the front. A first class for a very young child sometimes involves standing at the side and watching, which is a normal way to spend forty-five minutes and is not a wasted fee.
Fall Term 2026 · enrolment open · one free trial per student per discipline
Book a free trial class, or enrol for the term
A trial is a real class and the student joins in. It is the only evidence about a school that is not marketing, which is why it costs nothing. If the class you want is full you will be offered the waiting list instead, with the position you would be in — a number, not a promise to be in touch.