Best Dance Classes in Los Angeles

Los Angeles has a dance culture that runs deeper than the entertainment industry associations might suggest. The Latin social dance scene in Koreatown and the Mid-City corridor is genuine and active -- studios there attract instructors with roots in Cuban, Colombian, and Mexican dance traditions, and the social dances that follow beginner classes give you an immediate place to practice what you have learned. The community that forms around the better salsa studios in LA is welcoming to beginners in a way that can surprise people who expect Los Angeles to be intimidating on a social level.

Hip hop and contemporary dance classes are available across a wide range of studios throughout the city, and the instruction quality reflects the entertainment industry proximity. Many of the instructors teaching group hip hop classes in Hollywood and Culver City have professional dancer backgrounds -- they have worked on tours, music videos, and productions -- and the energy they bring to beginner classes is noticeably different from what you find in markets without that talent concentration. A hip hop class in Culver City from someone with that background is genuinely useful even if you have no performance ambitions; you leave with better body awareness and rhythm than you arrived with.

Ballroom and tango have dedicated communities in Los Angeles that maintain high standards for instruction. Argentine tango specifically has a serious following in the Westside and Downtown neighborhoods, with milongas (social tango dances) running most weekends at venues that take the form seriously. If you have any interest in tango, Los Angeles is one of the better places in the US to start -- the community is large enough to find partners and events, and the instruction at the better studios is serious without being unwelcoming to beginners. Start with a beginner group class before attempting a milonga; the social context has conventions worth learning first.