Education & Classes in Troy

Perched atop wooden stools along the lengthy counter of Whats Cooking D’s kitchen, culinary students participate in hands-on cooking classes, supper-club evenings, and beer- and wine-brewing demonstrations. Homey wood cabinets, polished steel ovens, and checkerboard wall tiles act as the backdrop for adult classes covering topics such as kitchen fundamentals, complex recipes, and which end of the butcher knife is the handle. Kids’ classes incorporate fun activities, such as cake and cupcake decorating, and parent-child cooking classes allow kids to eat free and adults to take a break from dinnertime cleanup. The kitchen also turns into a brewery for wine- and beer-crafting classes, with an experienced brewmaster teaching libation-making techniques and that alcohol makes you feel feelings.

Robilee McIntyre's sculptures, masks, and crafts have been stylistically compared to Tim Burton and Dr. Seuss. The slanted roofs and oblong proportions of her miniature houses recall the domiciles of Whoville, while her playfully macabre faces would fit in alongside the colorful characters of Beetlejuice and Corpse Bride. Dark, yet whimsical designs such as these have garnered two studio spaces and the accolades of clients who call McIntyre "a fantastic artist and a wonderful communicator." Her miscellany of life experiences both bitter and sweet, including losing both of her parents, have shaped her artistic outlook. She named one of her studios after her father's two college nicknames and surrounds her porcelain houses with flowers in honor of her flora-adoring mother. "I seem to think in 3-D," she muses, "and these sculptures are a rewarding way for me to conquer the limitations that illustrating on a flat page holds for me." Not content to just create her own magnum opuses, Robilee educates burgeoning artists with loving instruction that invites them to answer the insistent beeper pages of their own creativity.

With decades of experience in jazz, tap, lyrical, and hip-hop dance to go with teaching certifications from Dance Masters of America, the instructors at All-Stars Dance Center help students glide and stomp through classes in a variety of styles. They work with students of all abilities, refining skills in age-appropriate subject areas such as boys’ hip-hop, tiny tots, and adult tap. Aside from the regular class schedule, special programs in competitive dance and musical-theater training afford committed dancers the opportunity to learn performance techniques such as jazz hands and the classical worm.

When they aren’t leading formal dance lessons, the studio’s instructors guide adults through Zumba and yoga workouts. All classes take place on the hardwood floors of a professional studio that features three air-conditioned dance rooms, a waiting room, and viewing windows through which tennis shoes gaze jealously at their sleeker counterparts.

Believing that learning and behavioral disorders stem from improper communication between brain hemispheres, Brain Balance Centers offers a drug-free, multi-faceted program to boost brain function. Physical and cognitive exercises combine with easy-to-follow dietary changes to address social, academic and behavioral issues associated with ADHD, Asperger's, and other social and learning disorders without the use of medication. Now more than 50 Brain Balance Centers practice this Hemispheric Integration Therapy, with professional teams tailoring programs to help kids improve focus and behavior, academic performance, communication, and social skills.