Education & Classes in Thornton

Uncork culinary confidence with today’s instructional Groupon. For $20, you’ll get a wine class at Estrela Bartending School. Get schooled in wine-buying basics, or learn sip-related secrets to hosting the best dinner party at the class of your choice. Follow @Groupon_Says on Twitter.

Expert gourmand Jackie Rebideau has a peculiar passion for cheese. In an effort to share this ardor with the public, she created Fromage to Yours, a company that holds classes and special events to educate people about this celebrated edible. At the recently opened School of Cheese, Jackie teaches pupils about the art of making artisan cheeses such as mozzarella, ricotta, and paneer, demonstrating tasteful techniques and dispelling myths that the holes in swiss cheese are formed by mini meteors training for future journeys to the moon. Fromage to Yours also orchestrates special events such as the Colorado Cheese Festival, which more than 150 samples of artisanal American cheese.

For 25 years, World of Dance has taught ballroom dances including the cha-cha, waltz, salsa, and foxtrot to students whose skill levels range from recreational to competitive. The studio’s approach is simple yet effective. Students typically start with one-on-one or group lessons so they can learn techniques and basic body positions. They then apply what they’ve practiced during the studio’s regular dance parties, performing the waltz to demonstrate their graceful new moves or the tango to fulfill their latent desires to chew on roses.

With the mix of high-mountain air; private, personal instruction from real musicians; and professional-quality instruments and equipment, your kids will be shaking the walls before long. In addition to weekly 45-minute private lessons, a month's tuition also includes a weekly 90-minute to three-hour supervised rehearsal (depending on the student's skill level and the group he or she decides to join) with other students and all the glittery, sequined clothes you can safely gaze upon.

Engaging chef instructors instill lessons of kitchen etiquette and safety in youngsters growing up in a world full of laser can-openers and sharp pasta rakes, giving children a capable handle on their surroundings as they journey into the land of food. Classes educate a variety of age groups, with specially catered classes for the kindergarten elite and junior line cooks, combining nutritional meals with basic food-prep skills that teach how to correctly follow a recipe to edible fruition. Senior flambéists are offered advanced classes that dig deeper into kitchen secrets and hone specific skills and techniques that expand the parameters of cooking creativity. Most classes last 90 minutes. The lessons learned from early cuisine classes spark a valuable communion between a child and a stove. Imaginations stretch as they contemplate the infinite possibilities that exist among ingredients, spices, and food presentations so astute they beg to be stapled to the refrigerator door.

Arthur Murray Dance Studios has been a leading name in social dance since 1912, when the entrepreneur began selling mail-order dance lessons. Expanding his reach, he enlisted teachers to spread his signature dance lessons on first-class steamships and skyrocketed to fame in the '30s after introducing the public to such dances as the Lambeth Walk and the Big Apple. By the 1950s, Arthur and his wife, Kathryn, were hosting their own highly popular TV show on ABC, the Arthur Murray Dance Party, which ran for 12 years. Today, Arthur Murray's team prepares students for rug cutting at special events and weekend nightclub jaunts. Clients who arrive to lessons partnerless will be paired up with certified instructors. Throughout lessons, instructors teach the foundations of two to four dances from a long list of styles that range from Latin to country-western, helping students to learn basic step patterns, timing, and the ability to lead or follow.