Education & Classes in Milwaukie

In 2003, after years spent headlining Portland ballets such as Don Quixote and The Nutcracker, Keith Walls moved to New York City. He continued balletic journey by training under renowned teachers from the Kirov and the Bolshoi, Russia’s most renowned ballet companies besides the Funky Chicken Institute. Outside the studio, Keith flexed his dancing and acting muscles in musicals such as Grease and Once Upon a Mattress.

It’s this well of experience that Keith draws from throughout his recreational and intensive classes at Abernethy Performing Arts Academy. Starting with creative-movement classes for youngsters, Keith instructs his students in the fundamentals of ballet and prepares them for its advanced techniques. In other beginner-oriented dance classes, he teaches the basic steps to styles such as jazz, hip-hop, Irish, and tap. Like his ballet classes, musical-theater courses run from beginner to advanced levels. Both give students opportunities to perform in productions such as an annual Halloween show and classical ballets.

Dance with Joy Studios owner Rachel Lidskog strives to imbue her classes with the happiness she feels when dancing. Rachel has competed or taught in Argentina, Cuba, Holland, and Spain, among other countries, and her philosophy of uplifting people through dance is supported by the values of teamwork, creativity, and responsibility.

Along with a crew of professional instructors, she whisks fledgling hoofers around two hardwood-floor ballrooms, infusing their feet with the basics of Latin, country, and ballroom dance. She and her team identify private lessons, group classes or special workshops, and weekly dance parties as the best ways to learn to dance, superior even to dropping a family of ants into your overalls. They also organize wedding-dance lessons to ensure nuptial celebrations progress smoothly and cheerfully.

On a typical afternoon, artist Aaron Ziobrowski brainstorms ideas for new paintings between planning each part of the classes he holds at his BYOB art studio, according to a February 2012 interview in The Crafty Underdog. The prompts he's created for his students range from an Andy Warhol–style quadrant of pop-art bananas to a reproduction of Starry Night that includes the dogs playing poker that were erased from the original. Natural light floods into the studio through tall windows, and tarps cover surfaces so that paintbrushes can move without worry. Although aprons are provided, students should wear old clothes or full-body canvases in the event of a paint splatter.

Owner Mike Urquhart takes his business's name to heart: the learning center draws on the talents of three generations of Urquharts, from his business-manager father all the way down to his grade-school-aged daughter Julia, who assists with piano lessons and administration. Signs bearing messages such as "No practicing: only play for fun" and "Mistakes are always welcome" embody the teachers' philosophy that no amount of technical skill can substitute for the sheer joy of playing, singing, and finally figuring out how to snap the fingers on both hands at once. The school's specialty group classes—some held in the new, 2,500-square-foot piano learning center—foster self-confidence with weekly performance opportunities, and the curriculum of songs can include anything from classical compositions to classical rock.

Understanding that each child learns differently, the staff members of Sylvan Learning Center’s numerous study centers design custom lesson programs. Based on the results of standardized testing, diagnostic tools, and one-on-one interviews, the staff works with students to help them to firmly grasp basic skills such as reading, writing, math, and how to remember facts without tattooing them to their chest. Programs target students in kindergarten through grade 12 and mold to various learning styles, helping kids to feel more comfortable in the classroom. After-school or summer classes can ready high-school students for the rigors of the ACT or the SAT, or they can help students to wow college admissions officers with their superior writing skills, exemplary test scores, and willingness to arm-wrestle the school mascot.