Education & Classes in Coachella

One should live to eat, not vice-versa. Cooking with Class's team of chef instructors includes Bill Sauer of The Marble Room, Christian Graves of Jsix, JohnAlonge', Chris Idso of Pacifica Del Mar, Danny Bannister of the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay, Brian Malarkey of The Oceanaire Seafood Room, and more San Diego culinary celebrities.

Give a guy a fish, and he'll eat for a day; teach a guy to make perfect sushi rolls, and he'll be the culinary king of the cul-de-sac. Today's Groupon can save you from embarrassing Thanksgivings, disastrous dinners with in-laws, and foolhardy tamale-making face-offs. With today's deal, $12 gets you $29 worth of cooking classes of your choice from The Cooking Store (many classes are $29, but if you want to take a more expensive course, you can pay the difference). Find out why your soufflé always falls or learn the basics of braising and roasting and the dark art of broasting. Check out The Cooking Store's calendar of upcoming classes.

Since 1994, the adventurous airpeople at Barnstorming Adventures have thrilled more than 100,000 restless prisoners of gravity with their air-lifts. During the scenic biplane ride, you and your best friend or building manager will occupy the front seats of a restored 1920s open-air plane as a skilled pilot flies from the back cockpit. The flight buzzes along the Southern California coast, over scenic beaches, through the blue sky, and under dangerous rainbows. With matching headsets, you’ll be in constant communication with the pilot, who will customize your journey to go at a leisurely drift or a grueling pace that would exhaust even the strongest yolk of oxen. Each safety-minded pilot will guide you along the bell-curve of thrills from takeoff to the peak of excitement to the gentle landing. No pilot’s license or experience is required for any of the flights, and the opportunity to match one’s hunger for adventure may be attained. Different height and weight requirements apply, so call ahead to check.

Arthur Murray Dance Studio's panel of experienced instructors earned the establishment an Orange County Register People's Choice award for Best Dance School in 2009 for their prowess at schooling students in the ways of balance and coordinated rhythmic motion. Across six southern California studios, teams of highly trained teachers emphasize holistic dancing skills as opposed to specific steps, ensuring students leave lessons with a greater understanding of their chosen form. They offer more than 29 available dance styles, including the waltz, the rumba, polka, texas two-step, and the merengue. During private lessons, instructors have dancers pair off with a partner as they dole out individual tips and techniques, preparing students for the more communal group lessons. Burgeoning boogiers can also attend one of the themed practice parties to test out their growing repertoire of skills with fellow classmates. Each studio announces party themes and times on its online calendars in advance.

The sky above the Coachella Valley is often sunny and clear. The cloudless conditions make it easy to pick out a small aircraft as it materializes out of a mountain range on the horizon, then corkscrews and performs a grand loop-the-loop before heading home to the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport. The shiny blue Citabria plane is the resident aerobatic aircraft at JacksonAir Flight Training. The company's owner, Scott Mourhess, who dreamed of G-forces and airborne antics as a little boy, now oversees a fleet of no fewer than six aircraft used to train commercial and private pilots.

Scott and his fellow FAA-certified flying instructors occupy prime aviation real estate. The skies above their Thermal airport often draw pilots from other flight schools in the Palm Springs region, who flock to the area for the ideal practice conditions and absence of lines at sky tollbooths. The veteran instructors also take novice pilots on 20- to 30-minute flights that introduce them to the excitement being in a cockpit and the thrill of flying.

The instructors at Waterworks Aquatics believe anyone can learn to swim, no matter their age. This belief drives each instructor-led session, accommodating everyone from babies as young as 3 months old who are just getting acquainted with the water, to older children learning more advanced strokes and adults learning to swim for the first time. The instructors focus on teaching stroke techniques that utilize muscle memory and rhythms that are easy to grasp, while cultivating a fun, relaxed environment to help reduce students' anxiety. They lead private, semiprivate, group, and Parent and Me lessons, all of which move at the pace of the swimmers' abilities. Beyond bestowing swimmers with efficient form, the lessons also help them stay safe in the water by teaching them how to control their breathing, reduce unnecessary movement, and stay completely still in the presence of pool krakens to avoid begin seen.