The Place is the number one spot for contemporary dance class and shows in London…read more With no membership fees and it costing only £4 for the advanced level classes in the morning, The Place is outstanding value. All classes are taught by company members on a weekly basis. This makes Monday the best day to start so you don't get left behind in routines. Most teachers teach one routine throughout the week adding sections daily. The changing rooms and showers are very clean and tidy. The studios are large and airy with sprung floors. There really is no better place to go to learn contemporary dance anywhere in London. If you are a beginner they hold workshops and courses throughout the year. Check the website for more details.

The Place is a school for dance development that is leading the way in dance training, creation and…read moreperformance. Its one of Europe's most innovative dance spaces, where artists from all over the world come to push creative boundaries, to experiment and to perform outstanding new work for audiences who expect to be surprised, inspired and delighted. The Place also has a 280 seat theatre, an extensive range of classes, courses and participatory opportunities for adults and young people, and professional development programmes for artists. The theatre holds over 200 performances a year, including festivals and special events. I went along to The Place to see the performance done by Protein "May Contain Food". This performance runs from Thu 21 Apr to Sat 7 May but touring after this. The whole performance was very interesting all about food. First of all you enter a big room full of tables around the side all decorated differently some was done up with dried pasta laying across the table, some full of vegetables, some full of feathers laying across table etc. The table I chose was full of fast food wrappers and containers I don't like fast food but it looked more colourful and fun compared to the other tables. Also the main lead was the waitor for our table as the performance is all about waitors/waitresses, family/friends and food. They dance and sing about food teaching us about where food comes from, how we should appreciate food, how are life if revolved around food etc. Throughout we got tastings like a tomato and we had to roll it across our face, feel it, look at it, hear it etc to appreciate it. This was a fun unique way though with a very artist performance played out by the cast. I particularly liked the part when they was singing about meat they acted like animals, funny. Has to be seen to understand whole concept of performance.

Roos Academy of Performing Arts is an excellent dancing school. My daughter's progress and…read moreachievements over the last 3 years have been amazing, but more importantly, she absolutely loves her dancing lessons and the friends she has made there. I cannot praise Helen and the other teachers highly enough, they are very enthusiastic and patient with all the children, enabling them to achieve their very best, whilst having fun. There is a wide range of lessons to choose from including Ballet, Tap, Modern, Singing and Drama and lots of opportunities to perform if your child wants to, including festivals, competitions, shows and school fairs, together with a large number of children who have appeared in West End shows. If you are looking for dancing lessons for your child, I would highly recommend Roos Academy of Peforming Arts.

Roos Academy of Performing Arts is an excellent dancing school. My…read more daughter's progress and achievements over the last 3 years have been amazing, but more importantly, she absolutely loves her dancing lessons and the friends she has made there. I cannot praise Helen and the other teachers highly enough, they are very enthusiastic and patient with all the children, enabling them to achieve their very best, whilst having fun. There is a wide range of lessons to choose from including Ballet, Tap, Modern, Singing and Drama and lots of opportunities to perform if your child wants to, including festivals, competitions, shows and school fairs, together with a large number of children who have appeared in West End shows. If you are looking for dancing lessons for your child, I would highly recommend Roos Academy of Peforming Arts.

Ceroc London runs classes around the capital - I went to this one at Muswell Hill. Ceroc is a way…read moreof dancing, described as a bit like Jive and Salsa, but with a style all of its own. It's daunting at first - you're trying to memorise some quite complex dance steps, changing partners every few minutes. But it's amazing what you can achieve in an evening - with friendly and expert coaching from the tutors I put all the steps together and was dancing well enough to enjoy the freestyle at the end. The hall was full of people, from total beginners to advanced dancers, but everyone was friendly. Even though I knew a limited number of steps and wasn't much good I had plenty of partners. Great fun, good exercise and very sociable.

I have been to a few Ceroc classes (at the Putney, Wimbledon, Balham and Kensington venues) and…read morewould really recommend them to anyone! All of the instructors, helpers and other learners are all friendly and welcoming. The classes really are suitable for anyone of any ability and are a great way to spend an evening and meet new people!

Not sure how anyone learns anything here…read more I took an adult Performance Tap dance class here, with the intention of taking a few others while I am here in London on holiday. After this class experience, I have definitely changed my mind. The instructor played the music so unbelievably loud that we could barely hear him speak or dance. Also, the other dancers did not listen to each other at all. Everyone just danced to their own rhythm without any regard for what their fellow dancers were doing. They were not at all in sync; which was incredibly ironic for a Performance Tap class. Part of being a successful performer is situational awareness; being in tune and in sync with your fellow performers on stage/on the floor at all times. Moreover, I expected more discipline from adult dancers. There were entirely too many times during the class where the teacher was speaking or trying to review steps, and other dancers were off tapping and doing their own thing, making it almost impossible to hear what the teacher was trying to teach. I almost can't fault them though because the class was quite unstructured. There was no delineation between warm-up, technique review, and actual choreography. We were just doing whatever the instructor did, whenever he did it. His hand cues were only slightly less awful than his counts and his verbal cues. Only a handful of people were able to keep up with him... I'm guessing they're accustomed to the dysfunction. Suffice it to say, Derek was definitely not one of the best instructors I've had. I found him only slightly less arrogant than his bio implied. At one point during the class, a student asked him a question about the choreography because he seemed to have changed the rhythm of the choreography that we were learning part way through the class. Most of the people in the class seemed to notice it (and it was a point of frustration and spirited conversation among some students after class). The student said something to the effect of, "It looks like you've changed the rhythm a bit," at which point he scoffed at her and replied, "Oh, *I* changed it?" in this condescending "How dare you imply that I'm wrong" kind of tone. As someone who has both taken and taught countless tap classes over the course of my life, I can say from experience that teachers and choreographers forget what they've choreographed all the time...especially when you're choreographing on the spot. We're human. It happens. But apparently not to Derek. Hmm. Classes are cash only, and are payable directly to the teacher at the beginning or end of class. There is also an extra £4 fee for drop-in classes, which are to be paid at the front desk by either cash or credit card. Why they have not made it possible for students to pay for classes with card is beyond me. If you find yourself without cash, not to worry. There is an ATM down the block near the Five Guys. Exit the studio and turn left, then turn right onto the street. It's about 2 to 3 minute walk, and the cash machine will be on the left side of the street. Overall, I am not certain that this experience was worth the frustration. The website is incredibly convoluted and it makes it almost impossible to effectively filter down the classes one wants to take. The website also does not have a long-term class schedule (I think it's only posted week-to-week), so you have to check back every few days to see what's available. Ultimately, I ended up waiting until I arrived in London and called the studio directly to see if they had the style and level of instruction that I was interested in. I am only giving this place an extra star because it was a catalyst for helping me to check off one of my bucket list items; taking my lifelong love of tap dance to another country.

Pineapple Studios is one of the most notorious dance studios in London and really has that 'Fame'…read moreesque vibe to it. I went here for a Musical Theatre training week almost a year ago and the place sported a minimalistic 80's vibe back then and has hardly changed since! Fear not however as the wide range of classes vary from beginners to advanced meaning there is something for every style and ability so you will never feel self conscious. I go every Wednesday evening to Street Jazz with Nicky Bentley which is not only brilliant fun but an amazing workout. Be warned, the tutors work you hard but you feel the benefit. I'm not a member and so pay £2 for a daily membership and an additional £6 for the class. I would advise that if you go to the more popular evening classes, get there early to get a good spot in the studio. Oh and take a towel as it gets quite sweaty if you participate in the more high energy classes! These tutors are the best in the business and I love it as an alternative way to get fit.

I really wish I could say I had as good an experience as the other reviewers, but, as you've…read moreguessed from the way I began this, I didn't. I've been looking for a good dance school for a particular dance style for some time as I've found it to be one of the most difficult and intimidating dances I've ever tried... and I've tried many! To be fair to the school, it wasn't a typical class I went to. It was a training class where they were training up partners for a new dance style which they wanted to add to their syllabus/repertoire/whatever the proper word is, so the partners you got weren't quite up there yet, although some of them had clearly been trained in other dance styles. So... what didn't I like about the class? It was just too large and the teacher either couldn't or didn't pay attention to the students. There were well over 20 or even 25 couples with more than a few spares during every song. The teacher taught steps, but didn't go around the room to look at people and correct them where they were clearly going wrong unless the students themselves asked him or if the couple happened to be dancing right in front of him. As for the people in the class... well, there were a few good partners, that's for sure. Some of the others were very insistent that what they were doing was correct, and what I was doing was wrong, even though I was doing my best to follow and knew that something was off, though I wasn't sure exactly where it was going wrong. As it turned out, I actually was correct, but the professionally trained in other styles partners probably didn't think that the instincts of a beginner in that style could be trusted. Maybe that's not how they meant their comments to be taken, but that's how it came across. When I was asked whether I would be coming back, I declined. I'd much rather continue my search for a class which makes me feel comfortable and where I feel the teacher's paying attention to me and take my time in learning something as opposed to going through that sort of experience again. It's hard enough learning dance as it is! I would have liked to give this place three stars as I've heard good things about this place from another friend who learnt ballroom here, and I know the class I went to may not have been representative given that it was a training class after all. However, I realised that would have resulted in an overall rating of five stars still, which I don't feel is representative, so I'm giving this two stars because I think the average rating should be lower.

The perfect way to learn to dance, part private lesson, part group lesson. Knowledgeable…read moreinstructors and patient, helpful dance partners!

My daughter attended Hertsmere Academy of Dance for almost 5 years before we moved to another…read morecountry. She absolutely loved what this school offered and studied Ballet and Tap dancing. She was extremely successful in her examinations and loved doing the shows, they were great fun. Miss Chahna was such a supportive teacher and my daughter just adored her, she was so sad to leave. I would recommend this school to any parents who wants to be assured of getting a great standard of teaching.

5 Rhythms is a dance movement/therapy started in America by Gabriel Roth. It's not huge here but…read morethe people that go are pretty dedicated to the practise. In essence it's about expressing the body through dance in five inherent rhythms of flow, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness. In practise it's a chance to let your body go for two hours. There are teachers around London mostly working together to offer a class on a different night/day of the week. They all have a different method of teaching but the one I enjoy best is in a church on a Thursday night. The high ceilings and religious aura add to the experience. £12 a time is not that cheap if you do it on a regular basis but it is a positive and wholesome way to spend a night. Contact Christian de Sousa