Hey everyone! I relaize this board is quite dead, but I'm really hoping someone visiting can give me some tips

I am moving to Edmonton in a few months and am looking for dance classes. I have been dancing for 16 years and would consider myself a fairly advanced dancer. I am trained in Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, and Modern.

I'm going to be 20 soon, so I would really prefer not getting into a class of high school students. As well, I'll be in university so it's not really feasible for me to be going to tonnes of competitions. At the same time, I would love to have some performing opportunities. Because of this I would prefer to have a permanent dance schedule versus just drop-ins.

Where I'm from we call classes of this type Open classes. I took two this year that were for people that are out of high school but still want to dance. We were all senior dancers. We even competed at a local competition and performed at the recital. I really enjoyed this class and would like to find something similar to this in Edmonton.

Any suggestions welcome!

Marr Mac sounds perfect for you!

I live in Edmonton and went Mar mac for 3 years during high school. In the advanced classes there were alot of university students and it is absoluely optional to compeate. It is walking distance from the University of Alberta Campus. The downside was that when I was there they didnt have a great modern porgram. The ballet, jazz and lyrical was great though. www.marrmac.com

I have acually been looking into Marr Mac That is the studio that my hometown dance teacher reccommended. The only issue I have with this studio is that it seems their classes run from September to June. I'm going to be coming home (far away from Edomonton) May thru August. I would really like to be involved in a performance of some sort, so I assume that would be out of the question if I left two months before recital lol

Is that a normal dance season down there? In my home town they usually run September to May. Maybe we are the strange ones

Yes classes do usually run sep-june with a preformance at the end of june. We did have a girl who did go home at the end of may when school ended the came back to the studio a weekend before a preformace and preformed. Most studios in edmonton do have their year end show in June.

Edmonton School of Ballet is a very large school with a great modern and ballet program and many preformace oppurtunities throughout the year but when I was there they had very few students that were out of high school. www.esbdance.com

Thats so strange that the classes are different. I am from a city about 5 hours away from Edmonton. Most of our competitions are either in Edmonton or Sherwood Park or St. Albert. I wish the classes ended sooner, it would make this a whole lot easier

I was actually looking into the Edmonton School of Ballet too lol. A teacher from another studio suggested them to me. It did seem as though they were more geared to the people still in High School, but I might shoot them off an email just in case.

Breanne, do you know anything about the Orchesis company on campus? Logistically it seems like it is the best choice, but then I noticed to be in the Advanced classes you only needed about 4 or 5 years experience. I am just wondering if it would be below my level. I would like to be challenged and improve my dancing

I dont know a whole lot about Orchesis because I dont actually dance anymore but when I was at the clubs fair last year they had a preformance tape going and it looked pretty good. I had a chance to talk to the girl running the booth and she said the students in it are a pretty tight group. I also met a girl who took a few ballet classes with them and she said she liked it. I dont think they compeate but they do have alot of preformances.

Awesome thanks for the information! I think I'll email Marr Mac and see what they say about their performances in June and such. Maybe they know another studio that has a shorter season.

I think I'll look into Orchesis once I get there. Maybe they will let me take a class without full on joining, this way I'll know without comitting so much

I'm not trying to be creepy or anything here lol but do you attend the U of A?

Yeah Im going into my second year of nursing at U of A. You coming next year?

I sure am! I will be transferring into the third year of my bachelor of science. I went to my towns college for the first two. I am very excited haha