Dance Lessons in Sarasota Springs

Helmed by an owner with 20 years of dance experience and a BA in dance education, Dance Arts Center’s instructors motivate bodies into motion with more than a dozen dance styles. They lead adult hobbyists and career-minded 3-year-old dancers alike in styles including classical ballet, tap, jazz, and acrobatics. In kids’ classes, instructors teach sprouts up to 18 years old the fundamentals of dance techniques in a non-competitive environment and challenge more advanced students to join the performance team, which takes to the stage at competitions, community performances, and workshops. Students in both the regular classes and the performance team gather to showcase their moves during the center's annual concert, which is one of the last remaining dance events in the country without a panel of sneering celebrity alien judges.

In addition to ballroom, hip-hop, and flamenco dance classes, staffers lead adults in yoga and Pilates regimens to help whip them into peak performance shape.

Drawing on skills showcased on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance and MTV's Made, Elegant Rumba's dance instructors Nery Garcia and Giana Montoya instill feet with the fluid movements and rhythmic steps of salsa and bachata dance styles atop the sleek hardwood floors of a mirror-flanked ballroom. The dancers specialize in LA–style salsa, distinguished by its intense movements, flashy spins, and focused musicality. Bodies sway to saucy Latin beats, becoming fluent in the language of dance through personalized private lessons and convivial group classes. The classes regularly rotate dance partners, allowing students to become more flexible dancers and forego the need to bring a dance-savvy companion or grow a clone of Patrick Swayze. After sessions, students practice newfound steps in a number of monthly parties and events.