Pacific Ballet Academy

This, IMHO is the best ballet school in the area. The owners are a wonderful couple who really take things seriously and at the same time are able to create classes for the little 4 year olds that are perfect.

The most important thing about this school is that the owners instill a mentoring system for the kids. The older ballerinas help teacher the classes (the professional instructors are so wonderful) and they also mentor the kids through performances. My daughter still knows the girls that were her "big angels" from 4 years ago.

I love that they insist on all the girls to wear pink tights and place leotards. It takes the guessing game out of the creepy sequined things you see at the stores. The other thing I think is great is that EVERYONE gets to participate in shows. They do an amazing Nutcracker at the Mountain View Performing Arts Center over Thanksgiving.

They are also great for girls body image. Everyone looks like themselves and look like ballerina's and get to not just participate, if they are good, they get to star.

I guess this school has been around for so long that it gets by quite well through word of mouth vs an overwhelming number of fabulous Yelp reviews. Our family has been at the school for 3 years now and many of the other families have been here much longer. We joined in pursuit of the excellent children's instructor Karen Dycaico and regular performance opportunities at the MVPA. If our children decide to continue, we will likely stay because of the strong community of seasoned parent volunteers, the sincerity of the directors, great day to day and season to season execution, the quality of dance, and the wonderful role modeling by some of the senior dancers -- well, we don't know them all!

With regards to ticket sales for the Nutcracker, I don't think recommended quotas are unique to PBA. Some parents are a bit militant about it (but they tend to be militant about many other things too), one lovely young lead dancer was disappointed that she *only* sold about 60 tickets, and we have no trouble corralling at least a half dozen people to show their support for our preschooler during the annual showcase. Yes, it amazes me too and we did not underwrite all the tickets. :P As an aside, our little one was absolutely thrilled to see her favorite babysitter in the audience. It's all part of the performance experience -- an extrinisic reward to complement all the intrinsic goodness.

PBA is not is not fancy and new (initially a shock to me too) but they are opening up a fourth studio in the same complex once the design reviews and renovations are complete. That said, I still believe in following the good teachers, and there are some very loyal to PBA.

At the end of the day, if you haven't previously heard of Pacific Ballet Academy, then I would hazard a guess that you are raising your first child (as I was), or you haven't talked to enough people (like me). I found this place through my own online research but over the years I keep seeing my child's friends from various other settings (Chinese school, Elementary school, preschool) as well the children of some celebrated local icons attend. It's not the only good school in town, but it's definitely an institution.

Karen Dycaico is a wonderful instructor and so patient with young children. She is kind and so supportive of their creativity. You can opt to not join the nutcracker performance if you don't want to commit to buying four tickets but it is worth it. There are at least 6 Clara's in their performances and I have found them to be ethnically diverse and of different body types. Also like the older girls mentoring younger ones. They also do a lovely spring showcase if you don't want to do the nutcracker. Like that this school is only ballet.