My now-husband and I used Chicago Dance for choreography for our first dance at our wedding. We met…read morewith Sam for our consultation and talked her through our experience level (limited), some constraints (my husband is deaf with cochlear implants), and our expectations for what we wanted to get out of the sessions. While Sam had her work cut out for her with us, she never let her cards show and was 100% patient and kind throughout ever lesson. We ended up purchasing 8 sessions leading up to the wedding and we HIGHLY recommend Chicago Dance and Sam, specifically! The options are endless: whether you want to just learn some different dance types and be able to use those lessons to freestyle or if you want 100% choreography... Chicago Dance is the way to go. A couple highlights. 1. Sam was energetic and excited to try all kinds of new steps / tricks and she made us willing participants. She also valued our feedback and ensured that we were confident in what we were doing. She incorporated more of the steps/moves we enjoyed and flexed if we were not comfortable with anything. We laughed a lot playing around with new successful and totally unsuccessful attempts at tricks. Given our experience level, I was so impressed with her ability to articulate feedback and say the right things to make anything "complicated" seem simple and feasible! 2. We started looking forward to our dance lessons. Considering this was still in the middle of COVID, aside from dinner dates, we had not really done much in the way of date nights. We ended up loving our lessons and looking forward to these "date nights" as we were having so much fun and felt like it was driving more connection. 3. We were torn about which song to dance to. For the first two lessons, we ended up learning waltz basics and started learning choreography to one song. We were practicing at home one day and decided to try with a different song, and fell in love. Sam quickly jumped into action helping us play with the different types of dance we can incorporate into the new song. She cut the music based on my suggestions seamlessly. No joke - she provided full service.

Great instructors. Welcoming and inclusive environment. Good variety of dance types. We took…read moreclasses for our wedding first dance and it was a very good experience. The space is clean with good mirrors and floors, and separate rooms so several classes can meet at the same time. Close to the CTA brown line as well! No free parking nearby but there is metered parking and a paid parking lot nearby.

There are much better dance studios in Chicago that will actually teach you how to dance…read more I am finishing up a package deal that was ridiculously expensive. You will not learn how to dance properly and the staff are much more interested in selling to new students rather than actually teaching current students

My now-wife and I took lessons with Elivia and Jeremiah before our wedding. I had low hopes for…read moremyself, but after doing the package here, we really pleasantly surprised those who knew us!

Fantastic patient and kind teacher! Safety and cleanliness is a priority. Good warm up, excellent…read moreinstruction. Fun lesson tailored to your personal fitness and strength. Highly recommend LOAPT.

I've been going to LOAPT for several months now, starting with pole journey as a complete beginner,…read moreand am now doing her Pole Tricks classes. I love everything about the school...Sonia is a very knowledgeable and caring instructor. I felt right at home and her classes are always so much fun! I also like that it's more of an intimate setting with just a few students in each class. She makes sure to give each of us our own personal "homework" to work on so we can improve our skills for the next time. Her new studio space is gorgeous too, and there's plenty of parking around. I would highly recommend! :)

Ohhh maahhh gawddd!!! This class was so much fun and I left feeling like I had one of the best…read moreworkouts EVER! Bobby kept the class hyped the entire time. Every song and dance was so much fun and such a great way to feel sexy while getting in shape! Will definitely be making this a part of my regular workout routine!

From the owner: Empowering. Energy-inducing. Electric. MVFitness is a full-body cardio dance workout designed to…read morestrengthen your body and your mind. Remember that song you loved dancing to in high school? Yeah, we'll play that. And the one you turn up every time it comes onto your playlist? We have a routine for that, too. Easy to follow and always high-energy, MVFitness classes will have you unleashing your inner pop star as you let go of your stress and let loose on the dance floor. Less than an hour in the studio can change your entire day. So get moving. Get Stronger. And leave feelin' good as hell.

Love this place! Can you make ballroom dancing fun? That is exactly what it should be and exactly…read morewhat Ballroom Dance Chicago does. Can you ballroom dance to modern music? Also a big yes. I love how I can walk into a lesson and walk out with a new song in my head. Matthew, Lydia and Cathy are such nice and knowledgable people. I started taking lessons because I was bored and ballroom dancing has blossomed into a pastime. Not a single regret.

Ballroom Dance Chicago is a MUST for your first dance. We learned custom choreography in 7…read more45-minute lessons that made our first dance unforgettable - all of our guests were blown away! I was honestly shocked at what we accomplished in that amount of time (neither of us have major dancing experience). Our first dance was one of my favorite parts of the wedding day and the lessons made for incredibly fun date nights. Angela was our teacher and she was fantastic to work with. Their multiple locations and online scheduling are also extremely convenient. The owner, Matt, goes above and beyond as well. I cannot recommend this company enough!!

I really enjoyed the performance of Booms Day that I attended at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts…read more The performance itself was high-energy and the smaller size of the theatre meant there isn't a bad seat in the house. Seating is first-come, first-served; however, it was not difficult to nab seats that were close to the stage. I enjoyed looking at the nostalgia photos and some of the other artwork displayed around the space during the intermission as well.

I love this theater! It's small and quaint. The staff is so nice and the location is great -…read morelocated in the heart of the Gold Coast. This little neighborhood theater offers big performances. Because of the theater size, all seats are fantastic. Don't think you're just going to get little shows that no one cares about. I have seen big numbers and small. They have all been very impressive. I always look forward to an evening at The Ruth Page Center For The Arts!

Even though I knew this Nutcracker ballet version had been revised to occur in the 1930s Chicago…read moreworld fair, I was unprepared for the lack of fantasy and beauty and elegance that is central to the theme of Nutcracker. The entire set was cheap card tables and chipped furniture, a nutcracker doll that was barely visible and with little explanation as to why it changed hands among the performers- who danced in raggedy clothing, maybe one actual tutu for five minutes(?). There was very little actual ballet that I could ascertain, leaving me with impression that a lot of the performers were on holiday. It's really unfortunate that something so beautiful could be made into a somewhat depressing and largely incoherent show. So many people who come to see this I'm sure would normally be inspired to come back for a different show, but this performance so much missed the mark for what should be an upbeat holiday, I'm not inclined to take the risk

We saw Midsummer Night's Dream by the Joffrey Ballet at the Lyric Opera and, no, this is not a…read moreversion of the William Shakespeare play, but choreographed by Alexander Ekman. We also saw this when it premiered in 2018. It is a celebration of the summer solstice and Scandinavian traditions. In my opinion it is a mashup of Midsommar and Cirque du Soleil if you substitute the acrobats and contortionists with dancers and Swedish elders being pushed off a cliff with lifelike mannequins thrown from a floating table. It opens with a man in bed being woken by his alarm on Friday, June 21 and a woman greets him with hay? straw? And they join into a crazy scene of people throwing hay? straw? with the hay soaring in graceful arcs across the stage. There are frenzied dances, a large dining table that soars into the sky, and comedic bits. After intermission things get wild, with fish falling from the sky, people falling from the sky, a naked chef and more frenzied dancing, with an echo back to the hay throwing. There is a beautiful singer, Anna von Hausswolff, with a soaring, haunting voice, is she dressed like Elsa from Frozen or hair like cousin It? The singer and the wonderful music by Mikael Karlsson and the wonderful musicians make this an otherworldly fable. And the clock fast forwards to June 21 of the next year and it begins again. Is this a dream? Unfortunately this was the final performance of this run.

What a gem of a ballet school!…read more The three reasons we have loved this school for our daughter: (1) The faculty has some serious ballet expertise and passion (numerous alumni have become professional ballet dancers) but they're also incredibly good with teaching kids. Our daughter is always excited to go and see her teachers & classmates. (2) All students from 3yos in Creative Movement to the pre-professional dancers in the studio company are cast in their annual Nutcracker performances. Not only is it a cool experience for her perform on stage in real performing arts venues like the Harris Theater, but it's taught her a lot that goes beyond dance. Performing on stage in front of over a thousand people without stage fright, showing up for her classmates for multiple shows each season are good life skills. (3) While ballet isn't the most historically diverse place, Ballet Chicago's school directors make a conscious effort to be inclusive (different backgrounds, body types, etc.) You can tell they're committed to making ballet a positive experience for their dancers and it extends across the school. There's a real community feel. Oh! and I should mention that the studio and classes are also well-equipped: live piano accompaniment during classes, Marley sprung floors, nice natural light.

This is a ballet school that will prepare young dancers with technical skill and performance…read moreexperience and foster a love of dance. Both my son and daughter enjoyed performing in the annual nutcracker performance and it was great as a parent to watch the esprit de corp develop among the young dancers of all ages.