Yes! We accept new students and class registrations up until around Late-April/Early-May of a given term. Our fees are always prorated from the date of enrollment.

We do have minimum numbers of students required for a class to run, so we recommend registering as early as possible if you're interested in a class.

We recommend that at the Grade 2 ballet level (or Grade 1 if the child will turn 8 before the end of the year) students begin taking two Ballet classes per week.

As children's bodies grow, muscles need to keep up with the growing, and so does the brain which really ‘bosses’ the muscles. Improvement and understanding comes with more class time… a second class makes a huge difference in their training.

These are wonderful extra-curricular-activities, each in their own right. However these other training methods do not help students progress in their ballet training. Contradictory information on the requirements of each activity can be very confusing and frustrating: what is the right thing to do in gymnastics can be very wrong in a ballet class.

Nutcracker is a classical ballet and each dancer needs good technical training. We have 8 weekends to create our Nutcracker. Steps and choreography is new for most of the dances. Rehearsal are exactly that: rehearsals, where choreography is being set. Not the time for teaching technique.

As a general rule: no child should be in pointe shoes before 11 years of age - when the bones of the feet (metatarsals), and digits of the toes have developed their minimum needed bone density.

The most direct answer: the more you know… the more you understand, the more you love what you are learning. This kind of quick and focused immersion gives satisfaction and opens windows on what you can achieve in dance… now.

We have a detailed uniform guide for all ages here: Class Uniforms — Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement. If you have any further questions at all please email us or call the school and we'd be happy to answer!

Ballet Classes: for long hair, in a bun with a hair net, elastic, and pins. For short hair, tidy and out of the face and eyes. No hair clips or scrunchies.

Beyond Ballet: for long hair, put up in a ponytail or braid. For short hair, tidy and out of the face and eyes.

Take pride in your dancing! Come to class prepared with the clothes and hair tools needed.

A water bottle and extra hair elastics and pins are strongly recommended. Your phone is not allowed in the classroom but can be left with your bags or at the front desk.

Take pride in your dancing! Come to class prepared with the clothes and hair tools needed.

Please email or phone the studio if you or your child will be late or absent for any reason to your classes.

We can help you find an appropriate class to make it up, and will inform your teacher.

PBS does not offer refunds for missed classes.

Exams and assessments are not mandatory to progress through the grades at PBS, but can be very rewarding (read below!). Classes for the coming year will be recommended for your dancer, and will be based on progress made over the course of the year.

Exams are a way of rounding of your effort: you set a goal, you work toward the goal, you achieve the goal. It is not the outcome that matters, but the fact that you achieved a standard that is internationally recognized (ISTD and RAD).

Your teacher(s) are the best to judge if you are ready and will advise you to ”go ahead” or maybe wait for the next opportunity. Trust their advice!

Both experiences are more than a test. The preparation for an assessment (done with the whole class) and for an exam (in a small group, and more demanding), teaches more than steps. It teaches presentation, decorum and discipline. Each are an important basic building block of knowledge of what it means to ‘perform’: performing is both a privilege and an accomplishment and both, a challenge and a reward... so needed for all of us to bring into today’s world.

No, you don't have to pay your class fee in full up front! We have the option to Pay in Full, 2 Installments or 4 Installments. More information can be found on our Registration page, or by contacting us.

The Bursary Fund established in 1987 is how Pia Bouman School for Ballet and Creative Movement can be true to its mandate:

Any child who wishes to learn dance, should be given the chance to do so. Any child who wishes to perform dance, should be given the chance to do so. Any child who wishes to create dance must be given the chance to do so…