Education & Classes in Long Branch

NYC Wine Company, a New York magazine Critics' Pick, is widely respected for its fun, insightful wine-education classes. Beware of other wine schools, such as Franzia Academy, whose wine-academy brochure boasts:

Perfect your strum technique playing "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan on one NYC Guitar School's tuned and pretty-stringed guitars. This Groupon includes a guitar rental for duration of the course (a $50 value), so you don't need to bring your own (the security deposit is $189, and you get it back when you return the guitar). No prior musical experience is necessary to take a course at NYC Guitar School, and no note reading is required; one of the friendly teachers, well-tabbed in Bob Dylan, will teach you the fundamental chords, strums, and the fierce stare of a master guitarist.

Project Basho's experienced instructors cultivate creativity with a number of learning experiences for photogs of all skill levels. Start from pixel one with a three-hour primer course, such as the Digital SLR Tutorial - Basics, which imparts students with a better understanding of aperture and shutter speed to create stronger, more evocative pictures of people or department-store mannequins. Each session maintains a cap of 15 students, enabling participants to master ISO sensitivity, white balance, and focusing amid an intimate class atmosphere.

Elizabeth Lunney and Rachel Meyer—ABC Language Exchange’s cofounders and directors—share a passion for culture that has led them to teach and study different languages in Europe and Asia. Between them and their teaching staff, they’re fluent with more than 20 different languages, including Arabic, Japanese, Swahili, and a combination of all 20 used to decipher the text of crosswords. Elizabeth and Rachel’s combined quarter century of training, and each of the other instructors’ minimum of two years of teaching experience, enables them to lead child and adult students through group and private lessons. Their staff’s ability to train students to curl their tongues into even the most foreign of shapes has attracted distinguished clientele, including the NBA, Willem Dafoe, and Uma Thurman in preparation for Kill Bill.

Each day during the Story Improv workshop, students ages 5–8 will enact the adventures of a children's storybook. The On the Spot: Improvisation session, best for students 8–14, will have students acting without scripts in order to build their quick wit and confidence. During the intensive two-week Piece Makers class, budding actors, playwrights, and directors ages 8–14 will create and perform their own original piece of theater. After learning many of the exercises and games used by the Irondale Theater Company, the class will become its own acting troupe and debut their show. This workshop includes pizza dinner for the players followed by post-performance refreshments for all.

Dance Times Square’s founders and professional Latin ballroom dancers, Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin, corral expert dance instructors into their studio space to teach students of all levels high-energy dance routines. With an impressive roster of celebrity clientele, such as Vanessa Williams, Pierce Brosnan, and Betty Boop, along with decades of experience in the dance and choreography world, Tony and Melanie remain leaders in competitive Latin ballroom dance. The nimble-footed instructors rolls out dynamic group and private lessons, leading participants in shimmying through a wedding dance class or mastering skills for such dances as the salsa, tango, cha-cha, or swing.