Sofia Ahmad Dance

Oakland, United States

5

Closed now

12 reviews

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 510-393-9061
Website:
www.sofiaahmad.com
Address:
Oakland, CA 94610
Lower Hills, East Oakland
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.9 miVeterans Memorial
0.9 miPark Blvd & Kingsley St
1 miPark Blvd & 38th St
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Today

Today 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (Oakland) 07:30 Thursday, 26 June 2025

Business hours

Monday 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Tuesday 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Wednesday 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Thursday 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Friday 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Sofia Ahmad Dance offers instruction and choreography in over 10 dance styles. Lessons in salsa, swing, foxtrot, waltz, tango and more.

Weddings — First Dance, Mother/​Son & Father/​Daughter, Wedding Party

Quinceaneras — Court of Honor Waltz, Father/​Daughter & Surprise Dance

Parties — Birthday, Holiday: Private or Corporate

School Performances — Cultural Days, Winter/​Spring Concerts

Couples & Groups — Wanting to Learn or Improve

Lessons are informative, geared to your learning curve and abilities/​ambitions and are sometimes a laugh riot! For your convenience, I provide lessons at your home or office. Studio rental also available.

I am based in Oakland, but travel to locations around the Bay Area, including: Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda, San Francisco, Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, San Leandro, Hayward, Castro Valley, Newark, Albany, San Pablo, Richmond, El Cerrito and more.

History

Established in 2004.

Sofia began teaching while still a member of the ballroom dance team at New York University. She taught the 10 primary competitive dances at NYU, as well as swing classes at venues around NYC and New Jersey — it was the late 90’s after all, and swing was huge.

Flash forward to several years later, back on the west coast: her former dancing partner (and NYC teacher extraordinaire) asks if she’d be willing to teach his brother and fiancée some swing moves for their upcoming wedding. Sofia says, «why certainly,» and the idea for Sofia Ahmad Dance is born…

Meet the Business Owner

Sofia A.

Business Owner

Sofia Ahmad has competed, performed and taught ballroom for the past 10 years in the Bay Area, New York, England and Italy. One of her greatest joys is watching formerly «two-​left-​feet» individuals (their words, not hers) show off their new-​found skills with confidence and smiles.

She’s also a really big fan of international travel, Masterpiece Mystery, and things monkey-​related.

Sofia Ahmad Dance also recommends

Lake Merritt Dance Center

7

reviews

Dance Clubs

,

Venues & Event Spaces

Sofia A. says,

«A fantastic venue, devoted entirely to dance. There are tons of classes offered. I occasionally rent space here, & just love it.»

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12 reviews of Sofia Ahmad Dance

No registration required
Place rating: 5
Oakland, CA
Sofia is the best!!! My husband and I took four dance lessons from Sofia this past spring in preparation for our July 10th wedding and had such a fun time. Our dance rocked and many of our guests said it was the most memorable moment of our wedding. Sofia is such a wonderful and skilled teacher. She made learning easy and fun and was a true joy to work with. I highly recommend Sofia Ahmad Dance for any of your dance needs — you can’t go wrong with Sofia!
Place rating: 5
San Leandro, CA
Sofia helped choreograph our wedding back in June 2014. She created a great dance for us to learn in just 5 lessons. We had a great time learning from her. She was very energetic and creative and we couldn’t have asked for a better teacher. She was also very flexible with her times and location. Thanks Sofia!
Place rating: 5
Alameda, CA
Sofia choreographed the dance that my wife and I performed at our wedding and I recently took a group dance lesson that she taught. She’s amazing! I’m not a natural, and she was really great in both the private and group lessons making sure that I got the steps down. The wedding dance was truly memorable and our friends and family remember it many years later. Sofia is highly recommended!
Place rating: 5
Manhattan, NY
Sofia was great. We booked her two months before our wedding to help us not fall on our faces. She was easy to work with and adopted to our slow pace of learning. The dance was a hit!
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Sofia is great! She taught us a dance for our wedding. She put us both at ease, was flexible, fun, patient and helpful. We learned a lot and are very grateful to her for making our first dance go so well and also for making dancing fun for us.
Place rating: 5
Oakland, CA
My husband and I took tango lessons with Sofia before our wedding, and we can’t say enough about her patience and flexibility in teaching someone with two left feet! She choreographed a great routine for us using music of our choosing, and, to top it off, she was willing to travel to us. Thank you, Sofia!
Place rating: 5
El Cerrito, CA
We found Sofia on Unilocal and decided to hire her for our March 2013 wedding. We did 4 sessions with her, once at her place and the rest at our house. She is a true professional and was a pleasure to work with. We told her the two songs we were considering for our first dance, and she suggested some dance styles for each. Once we settled on our song, Sofia choreographed our routine and thought about everything, like where we would be before the DJ plays the song; how much time will it take to get to the dance floor; how to count the beats while we approach the dance floor; how to immediately transition into the dance without standing there (obviously) counting the beat; how to use all of the available real estate and body positioning so guests can see the bride; and the finish (and how to signal to the DJ that the dance is ending, especially helpful since most people don’t coordinate the dance with the DJ ahead of time). Sofia’s personality and style made us feel at ease from the get go. And, in just four sessions, she fully prepared us for our big night. We were probably most nervous (at least I was) about the dance, particularly the dip, but we pulled it off. And even more importantly, we did it even though our dj played a different version of the song than we practiced to. All of the preparation payed off and hats off to our instructor.
Place rating: 5
Berkeley, CA
Sofia is a miracle worker!
Background: My fiancé and I are getting married in a few weeks, and neither of us has a dancing bone in our body. I cannot express *how little* I wanted to even have a first dance at the wedding, but we got a lot of flack from family members and friends when I suggested we skip it entirely. So, rather than flailing around in front of a large crowd, we decided we should probably get some (professional) help.
We chose Sofia based on her Unilocal reviews. Before we had our first lesson, Sofia provided a list of potential songs we might use, and when we figured out a totally different one that we liked, she suggested a particular dance style that would work best. In the first lesson, we were both nervous and totally out of our element, but she was wonderful.
We had a total of 4 lessons with her — you get a discount if you buy a package, and she says that couples tend to need 3 – 4 hour-​long lessons to get their dance down. It was about right for us. We met her once at her space in Oakland, and for the other three she came to our house in Berkeley at no extra charge (which was really convenient for us!)
Over the course of the four lessons, she taught us about 7 different moves and worked with us to choreograph them into a dance that fit the song we’d selected. (I really need to emphasize here how little experience we have with dancing — if she was working with a couple where both parties didn’t have 2 left feet, she probably could have taught a lot more!)
She is very patient, energetic, kind, and a great teacher. I can’t say enough positive things about her — I still don’t think we have a lot of couples dancing in my future, but my fiancé and I are actually comfortable with doing this dance in front of a big crowd in a couple weeks, and that is really nothing short of a miracle.
Place rating: 5
Richmond, CA
My sweetie and I signed up for a series of dance lessons from Sofia a couple months before our wedding. I was quite nervous because although my partner took ballroom dance in college, I am NOT a dancer. Truthfully, I wasn’t looking forward to taking lessons.
Sofia was a dream and a wonder! She arrived (precisely on time) and her warmth, professionalism, sense of humor, and patience immediately set me at ease. In addition to being utterly delightful, she’s an amazing teacher. If I didn’t seem to get something she was explaining, she quickly found another (and sometimes yet another) way of approaching the explanation until it made sense to me and I could translate it into what my feet should be doing.
I can’t recommend her strongly enough!
Place rating: 5
Oakland, CA
I have nothing but praise for Sofia. She recently led a group lesson at my house (10 dad-​daughter couples), and was every bit as fabulous as the previous comments suggest. She was fun, patient, had an easy smile, and everyone adored her. On substance, I was stunned by what she was able to accomplish in less than two hours. What a combination! Next time I have a hankering to get my funky chicken on (or lindy hop, or swing, or salsa), she’s at the top of my list.
Place rating: 5
Alameda, CA
One thing I hear often from married women is that their first dance was rather boring and that they’d wished they’d taken ballroom dance lessons prior to their weddings. I definitely didn’t want that to be me, I wanted a first dance that no one would ever forget. That’s how I found Sofia. She had wonderful references and was even better in person than on paper. Sofia is absolutely amazing! She choreographed a beautiful rhumba routine to one of our favorite songs and in about 1 ½ months, we had our dance down flat! Our guests were absolutely floored by our incredible dance moves. Several people commented that our first dance was the best they’d ever seen, that the dance was their favorite part of the wedding, and more than a few mentioned something along the lines of «dancing with the stars». Lol. Of course, we definitely wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without Sofia. I wish I could give her more than 5 stars!
Sofia is incredibly professional, warm, personable, and, above all things, has the patience of a saint. She has a great sense of humor and brings a wonderful energy into the room. I would highly recommend her to anyone who’s looking to wow at their next big dancing event.
Place rating: 5
Alameda, CA
Sofia is FANTASTIC. My husband and I took private lessons with Sofia several weeks prior to our wedding. Not only was she flexible and patient, she was on time and very professional. It was obvious to us that she had experience teaching both talented and not so talented people and Sofia was able to meet us where our skill level was. She choreographed the best routine for us and the look on our guests faces was priceless. Sofia is your gal for your dancing needs. You will not be disappointed!