Berkeley Ballet Theater

I have been going to BBT for adult classes since 2012, and I highly recommend it. I especially recommend Robert’s classes — if there was a Unilocal page for Robert Greer’s classes I would totally give them 5 stars. Robert is a very dynamic, engaged teacher who gives you a lot of feedback on your posture and dancing (I had a lot of ballet professors and they certainly don’t all do it), who is very good at helping you building muscle and making the class a real workout. He always finishes classes 10 or 15 minutes past the time because he really wants to make sure we’ve covered everything. More generally about BBT, I think that the building is pretty charming and pleasant (although they are moving to a newer and bigger location soon) and that it is very reasonably priced. I went to other professor’s classes which were certainly good too (I liked Deborah’s class), but I mostly go to Robert’s classes. Absolutely recommend BBT!

Just a short update. Now age 66 and still dancing although not currently due to a knee injury but will be back. Still loving BBT. One special thing about BBT is the annual adult performance. Coming up in a few weeks (end of May) it’s a chance for adults of all ages and skill levels to be part of a real dance performance. I’ve participated twice and it’s great fun although really scary. It’s a very professional event. So if you want to indulge your inner ballerina and see what it’s like to perform on a real stage with a real audience, this is a great chance to do that.

I’ve been coming here for a few years now, and love it. I would give it 5 stars, except they cut down on the live piano accompaniments for classes, and not all the teachers are great. You definitely need to try a few different ones to figure out what’s the best fit and what’s your style. Also, the level descriptions are not always accurate, so you really need to try a few different classes to figure out where you fit in.
My favorite classes are taught by Robert and Sudabeh. They both give you lots of corrections, which is the whole point of taking a class anyways. They’re great for all levels, and are super fun and energetic.
I’ve done ballet since I was 4, but had about a 5 year hiatus after an injury when I was in college. Any class you take, you’re bound to see some phenomenal dancers. At the intermediate levels you’ll even see some professional dancers come in, which is awesome to just watch up close, and observe how to do things correctly.

I love this place with all my heart! Robert is a wonderful teacher and I love that he doesn’t shy away from challenging you. And his energy is really great. His fundamentals class is a hard workout and I have never experienced 90 minutes go by faster than when I’m in his beginner class. My only complaint is that they only accept cash/​check payments. Oh, my only other complaint is that I wish I could go more often.
Berkeley Ballet Theater is a real gem! If you’ve ever been curious about ballet, it’s never too late to start and Ballet Fundamentals is the best way to explore.

I would recommend Robert Greer to any serious dancer, whether you are an adult or a teenager. He is the best ballet teacher I’ve had hands-​down, and I’ve had many teachers over the years. From Robert I learned to add quality and meaning to my movements, and for the first time really, I felt I was actually dancing. Now when I tell friends that I dance ballet and get the request «You should show us some moves!», I actually feel confident to do so because Robert taught me how to dance like a dancer. Thanks Robert and BBT!

Let me get to the punch line first:
If you are an adult ballet dancer and you want a serious technique class, take Robert Greer’s classes!
I have been dancing for around 4 years (adult beginner) and I had no idea how bad my technique was or how I could improve it, until I took Robert’s class. So many teachers of adult ballet classes don’t bother to correct form, and don’t bother to challenge their dancers. Robert brings out the best in his students in an encouraging and unpretentious environment. In two weeks I already saw a difference in my dancing. Before I took Robert’s class I was falling out of my pirouettes, and now I can do them consistently and with control. My lines are stronger, virtually everything about my dancing is better! It doesn’t matter which class I take, from fundamentals to beginning-​intermediate, I find each and every class challenges me and helps me to become a better dancer. Robert is definitely the best ballet instructor I’ve had, by far! Thank you Robert and BBT!

Pilates Class by Elizabeth Duvall
Is amazing! I have learned so much from this pilates class about my core and alignment. Elizabeth has so much knowledge about the body and she always has helpful suggestions. Also, it is an affordable pilates classes (an individual is $ 15 for 90 minutes or even less if you buy a series).

Great studio!
Xiao is the best teacher there.
I’ve been going to Xiao’s ballet class for years and it continues to remain a fresh, fun, and technically superior class. She has a great attitude, a great sense of humor, and has always been kind and helpful to me. She has trained in China since childhood and her impeccable technique is really wonderful to watch as she demonstrates movements in class.
The class is open to all, but is best for intermediate students. Check it out.

I love this place. It is a second home to me. My classmates are my friends, my teachers are the best. We are a family at BBT.
There are at least three if not four classes going on everyday for adults besides the youth program.
There are Saturday and Sunday fundamentals classes taught by the very energetic Robert Greer who loves teaching this level. These classes are for very absolute beginners. He is a great teacher to start ballet with. He is strict, and makes one work hard, but he jokes a lot and easy to relax with. Best of all, he will give individual corrections, and hold your hand as you go across the floor, going along with you, teaching you the steps. That’s hard to find anywhere else. I still take fundamentals at least one day a week from Mr. Greer, because one can’t cheat in these classes and since it is so slow, one works the placement and muscles correctly. I love this class, i love the enthusiasm he has for all his students. He really believes we can be good dancers even if we all started as adults. He is very loved by his students, he has a great following, his enthusiasm is so catchy.
BBT has also beginning level classes. This is a good class to take after you take fundamentals. I myself am an adult beginner. I started my ballet training with Miss Deborah Moss. She was my teacher for fundamentals, and I graduated to higher level. I take her beginning class which I love and deem necessary no matter how many years I will take ballet. Miss Moss has been a ballet teacher for a long time, and she really knows how to teach adults which isn’t very common. She knows we learn differently and adjusts each class to our level. BBT is a open for all, all can dance kind of place. So you will find all levels in any given class. Miss Deborah will get absolute beginners who have never even been to a ballet class for her beginning class, but she skillfully adjusts the class to everyone’s level and satisfaction. And she really knows how to adjust the exercises to hit the right muscles that need training and strengthen our weaknesses. She has very sharp eyes and nothing escapes her. But most of it, even though it is a beginning class, she will have the loveliest but simple combinations that makes even a very beginner feel like a dancer. And let’s face it, we all want to feel like a dancer even from the very beginning. I love her classes for that and I have the utmost respect for this most experienced, seasoned, lovely teacher. Miss Deborah is Miss BBT to many. She has trained so many youth program and adult students, when I think of BBT, i think of her and how lucky we are to have this wonderful teacher as adult students.
I take beginning to intermediate with Miss Xiao on Saturdays. Miss Xiao teaches intermediate level on Tue/​Thur/​Sun nights along with point class on Thursdays and Sundays after the technique class.
Well, what can we say about Miss Xaio? This Vaganova trained lovely dancer is beloved to us all. Her classes are very popular. I always have a hard time in her classes learning choreography because I love watching her demonstrate and I forget to learn the steps because i am mesmerized by the beauty of her dancing. We call her YY after Yuan Yuan Tan of SF ballet. They both had the same kind of Chinese Vaganova training. One can see it easily. Both have that kind of flowing arms, hands, perfect (impossible) turnout, impossible extensions and flexibility and understanding of music.
Miss Xiao can change combinations on the spot for barre or the center on a moments notice, realizing today we need to work on this or that. Her port de bras training is to die for. She has the proper, the beautiful Vaganova arms and hands. And every class, she works on giving us better port de bras, and many of her students get to achieve beautiful port de bras thanks to her persistence. (not me though :)
All her jokes and corrections lovingly direct us to be better dancers. She makes us relaxed with that funny face, at the same time drawing attention to what we need to work on. We love her when she supposedly gets angry at us, but she is so full of love and warmth for her students that nobody can keep a straight face, we all start laughing and she joins us. She is so enthusiastic and loves being there. We count her as a friend, and a most valuable teacher we will cherish for all our lives. It is indeed an honor to take class with her. You must experience her class on your own to see what I am talking about. You will fall in love with her and her class.
I am not at that level to take intermediate or advanced level classes which are mainly taught in the mornings or at 6:30 every night. Patricia Banchik and Ilona McHugh are also very lovely dancers and teachers. They both give great corrections and are so full of great tips which makes me regret that I can’t profit from their classes.
I love BBT. Many happy hours, hard work, best friends were created here. I hope you can try it for yourself. :)

Update: I almost went back to this studio this afternoon for adult intermediate class, then remembered that I can’t, because it’s Thursday, and Xiao teaches on Thursdays.
I have seen her single out students and gleefully mock their cellulite, calling it «tofu,» while the rest of the class bursts into a Greek chorus of accusatory laughter. The time she targeted me was the last time I’ve ever taken her class.
I don’t even HAVE cellulite — and can only imagine how traumatizing this experience would be for a student who’s actually fat.
Been dancing as a hobby for almost 20 years and this is the ONLY teacher I’ve witnessed mocking her students’ weight in class. If you’re a size six or larger, spare yourself and don’t go on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

If your a working adult in the East Bay with a typical 9 – 5 schedule, and want to learn ballet, or want to mend your erratic, broken training from when you were much younger, this is the place. The evening classes are late enough to get to after work and there are additional weekend classes. And as you progress up in level (which if you go regularly, will happen!), there are different level classes nearly every day.
The intro and absolute beginning classes are slow, and you may not feel like you are ‘dancing’ yet, but they will give you a solid foundation to build technique. The beg-​int level helps you to ‘connect’ steps and voila, dancing begins. In intermediate level, prepare to spin and fly.
In those classes, after several years of classes, there are moments when I can forget the technique and it just happens, or I micro-​focus on some small technique change that will yield big results. When the former happens, inside my soul is a scream of delight, «I accomplished something that years ago, I could only dream about.» A double-​inside pirouette, yep, that’ll give me that feeling. And during that moment, time stops. It’s just me and the music as I lose myself in the movement. Yeah, there are roughly 20 other sweaty people there, but for a moment they all disappear.
This place is where one can first-​hand experience the magic of dance. There may be moments of frustration, and there’ll definitely be hours of hard work, but once you experience one of those fleeting moments where your soul is empty, the thoughts gone from your mind and you are the dance, you’ll keep coming back. At least, I will.
Yes there are studios with bigger rooms, but there is something that I love about dancing in the Julia Morgan building. It’s rustic and old, and even in the ‘definitely-​too-​small-​for-​more-​than-​a-​beginning-​class’ room upstairs, there is a certain charm to dancing in the dappled light filtered from the old oak trees outside on a spring morning or fall evening. Hm… I might have to go get my ballet fix in tonight.

My daughter does the «we dance together» program for beginning dancers (little kids) and she just loves it.
On my first visit, seeing my daughter not following instructions, goofing off and exasperating teacher Denise was really stressful for me. I was convinced it was a waste of money, and wanted to yank her from the program and offer that long-​suffering teacher some reprieve. Yes, somewhere lurking in me is an obnoxious Tiger mother who wants nothing but success – and that is not a side of myself I want my kids to see. My husband does not share the stage mother neurosis, so he takes her, and they have a bonding experience. I think he’d secretly like to dance alongside her as the class name suggests.
After I witnessed a class and started bitching, my husband grudgingly admitted he did not see a Merce Cunningham emerging from our family, and agreed to yank her after summer classes. When the class was over, our daughter kept asking to return. Because she professed to enjoy it and wanted to be there, he enrolled her again. I said, «Okay, but you have to take her.»
I spaced my second visit to the school about a year after the first, and only went because my husband had the flu. In that time, my daughter’s ability to focus and follow instructions grew so much. She was actually dancing! Sure, she was still too chatty, and by no means the star of the class… but I was elated by the change.
I’m satisfied with the progress however slow, grateful for the patience of teacher Denise who makes it possible. …and for the side lesson this taught me as a parent about expectations.

Been dancing here for quite sometime now and well the teachers are somewhat on the strict side but they are very knowledge about about what they are doing and how they are teaching. The only down size is that the class sized can get a bit over crowded sometimes which is bad because the dance rooms aren’t that big. Also opening a couple of widows would be nice but for some reason the teachers don’t want to or don’t like to. I have learned a lot attending classes here so in retrospect I can’t complain.

Great studio and Greer is a great instructor!

I’ve been taking classes here for many years now and I’ve always enjoyed Xiao Liu-Moore’s class. Her class is one of the more popular ones and it’s evident why. Xiao is a beautiful teacher who actually teaches class and doesn’t just give class. She gives corrections and takes the time to explain the connection between what is done at barre to what is done in the center. I feel as if I learn something new every time I take her class. Als, the adult classes are very easy going with no attitude.
The studio is a little on the smaller side, but not unmanageable.

I took class from the supposedly legendary Sally Streets on a weekend, and what a disaster. Indeed, what I have heard about the arrogance of this school is true.
The atmosphere was unfriendly, and Ms. Streets treated me as if I were an errant six-​year-​old. What made this worse is that the class was substandard as combinations and corrections go, the environment stuffy, with too-​slick Marley and insufficient mirror coverage, and the 2 mediocre pre-​professional teenagers that I saw in this class of 12 (who got 95% of Ms. Streets gloating attention) were as arrogant as they were inept.
Ms. Streets herself was a dancer of marginal ability as NYCB dancers go, and her primary distinction is as the dam of Kyra Nichols. See her in class and you’ll know what I mean — negligible ports de bras and an emphasis on footwork, demonstrated with the kind of unsophisticated, leg-​focused coarseness that was unfortunately the norm in American dancers of her era.
I’ve taken class with the best of the best (David Howard, Gabriela Darvash, Maggie Black, Finish Jhung, Sofia Golofkina, Ninelka Kurgapkina and more) in New York, London and beyond, not to mention at probably every studio of any size in the Bay Area, and I must say this was the single worst experience I’ve had in a ballet studio (including the bitchy Enrico Labayan of LINES on a bad day). And I’ve been dancing for 30 years. Between Street’s rudeness and utterly substandard teaching, the shabby facilities, and the zombie-​like demeanor of the other students, I completely fail to see the attraction this place sometimes holds.
My advice: if you want an adult ballet class, hotfoot it over to the venerable and friendly Shawl-​Anderson just a few blocks away. Or take BART into the city and take class at LINES or ODC Commons.
And if you want your kids to have real pre-​professional training, send them to SFB.

You take your last pointe class at 16. Do some modern and jazz for a few years. Go to college and take a ballet class or two. Graduate, get a job, and maybe check out a studio on a weekend only to realize that you don’t look anything like yourself… at 16. Ditch ballet for the much more anonymous gym, or road bike, or running shoes.
That is me.
Then I found Berkeley Ballet Theater. It is a dream come true. I take the Intermediate class and keep up with the combinations and miraculously feel great while doing it. I don’t have any illusions about becoming a great dancer, I dance because it feeds my soul. BBT’s classes make me feel healthy and beautiful. BBT has created an environment that fosters the love of ballet without the neurosis of ballet.

I took Ms. Liu-Moore’s intermediate class and I loved it. She is herself a beautiful dancer, and demonstrated with ease, and instructed students comfortably, without making you feel like you have to do something you know you can’t (in my late 20’s, my turnout is going to stay this way… period)
I really loved her perspective on teaching, in a comfortable fun way, without any pressure. the center work was really fun too, such beautiful steps to live accompaniment, who played awesome songs like the can-​can and music from giselle. totally made me smile.

Regarding adult drop-​in classes:
Pros
–adult ballet classes in multiple levels offered everyday of the week
–experienced teachers
–a large studio downstairs
–live music
–friendly adult students
–no dress code
–multiple class card packages
Cons:
–teenage pre-​pro girls in the intermediate classes sometimes outnumber the adults
–teachers tend to cater to the pre-​pro students (direct corrections only to them)
–small upstairs studio for the beginners
–crowded on weekends
Overall, I’m happy with BBT. They offer so many classes, which means I’m able to fit them into my crazy schedule at least 2x/​wk. However, my biggest complaint is that there isn’t really an intermediate level – just adult beginners and pre-​pro teens/​adults who used to be advanced.

Where all the dreams of a little girl who envisions herself dancing with Mikhail Baryshnikov or Rudolph Nureyev may begin to become a reality…
Where all the dreams of an enchanted young adult who imagines herself dancing with Bill T. Jones or Pina Bausch can feel like a possibility…
Where a disillusioned middle-​aged adult can still enjoy a serious ballet discipline and some teacherly attention…
A place I think of, but rarely go to, as I prefer modern dance, but definitely have respect for my foundation in ballet.