Katie's Dance Studio
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Katie's Dance Studio
Re: Berkeley Hip Hop Class for 7 year old (Sept 2007)
I have two daughters who attend Katie's Dance studio on San Pablo in El
Cerrito. They are in tap, jazz, acrobatics and hip hop classes. They
love it! The classes are offered at various times. They are just now
beginning the new semester, so now is a good time to contact them.
(510)524-1310 www.katiesdancestudio.com
Keisha
Re: Berkeley Hip Hop Class for 7 year old (Sept 2007)
Katie's Dance Studio in El Cerrito (on San Pablo, across from the Guitar
Center) has hip hop. It's a fun, but serious studio. My daughters (5 &
7) took tap and jazz all this past year and loved it.
heidi
Re: Ballet lessons for 5-year-old (Feb. 2004)
I would like to second what Kim said in her posting about
starting young dancers with tap rather than ballet, and add that
my 3.5 year old daughter loves her tap class at Katie's Dance
Studio in El Cerrito. The little ones work on dance, tap and
tumbling skills and not on working toward performances. The
music is lively and familiar (right now they are using tracks
from the Sound of Music and the Lion King). Tap seems to have
practically no injury risk and is something good for your body
rather hard on it.
liz
June 2003
Has anybody had recent experience with Katie's Dance Studio in El
Cerrito? I checked the recommendations and the last one was in 2001. I am
looking at their tap classes for my very enthusiastic 4 year-old son. If
anyone has other recommendations for tap classes at this age I would
appreciate it as well. Thanks!
Margaret
My two daughters (6 & 8) have been dancing at Katie's since
they were 3. I think a boy would fair much better at Katie's
than the girls do. It is a very competitive environment, even
for the little ones. One teacher, Kelsey, divides kids as
young as 5 & 6 by ability, and puts the best ones in the front
of every dance. Although I can see this as a motivational
strategy with older kids, it just isn't healthy for the little
ones. As you can imagine this is very hurtful to a young ego,
and really makes no sense since no one expects a class of first
and second graders to be anything but cute entertainment
anyway. My daughter usually ended up in the front row, but the
anxiety leading up to the placement decision was certainly not
worth it for a simple dance routine. (We decided that our
younger daughter is just too fragile to handle that kind of
pressure and we avoided this teacher for her.) Katie's is
mainly a place that caters to kids who really want to
concentrate on dance as their main activity. Kids are
encouraged to take multiple classes each week (some are there 6-
7 days a week!).
I would summarize that Katie's is a terrific dance studio for
kids (and parents) who want to make it their lives, but not so
good for those occassional dancers who want to also have other
activities. Currently we are in the middle of recital time,
which means FIVE very long recitals (over two weekends), with
two 6 hour dress rehearsals leading up to them. Again, great
if you are really into dancing, but just plain excessive if you
want to have a life.
Oh, the reason I say that the boys would fair better is because
there are so few boys, that they are very valued and are always
given the best treatment to encourage them to continue at the
studio.
Carol
I have a close friend who's been going to Katie's for more than
15 years now. She loves it and has taken a variety of classes,
including jazz dance and tap. She now takes her 4-year-old son, too.
As the previous post said, Katie's studio is all about
performing. My friend buys a very expensive performance outfit
for every show (if not several outfits). This seems to be true
for every age bracket.
I went to one show and told my friend that I loved her but would
never attend another show. The adult numbers were fine but the
very young children's numbers made me nuts. There were 3-5 year
olds doing hip circles--and the audience cheered like crazy.
Yuck. It felt completely inappropriate to me.
I want my child to enjoy moving his body in comfortable, joyful,
age-appropriate ways. I'm looking into Luna Kids Dance. (any
other suggestions welcome)
Jennie
Re: Tap for 6-year-old (2001)
For ongoing tap and jazz, she has studieds since
she was 5-years-old at Katie's Dance Studio on San Pablo Avenue (across from
the Guitar Center) in El Cerrito. They have many good tap and jazz classes,
great teachers, and the kids have fun. They often do shows at school fairs and
at The Solano Stroll. My daughter does professional shows for Katie and
competes twice a year at Dance Masters(completely optional). Number for the
studio is 524-1310.
Marilou
Re: hip hop/jazz/modern dance classes for 13-year-old (2001)
Try Katie's Dance Studio on San Pablo in El Cerrito.
Holly
this page was last updated: Nov 9, 2007
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