My daughter attends a new school with some similarities to the one you envision.
It is housed in an old mill complex rather than a warehouse. The complex also contains artist studios and even a group of craftsmen who handbuild harpsichords.
The director started the school in March of 2005 with creative movement classes. In the fall of 2006, she added five ballet levels. I guess levels 1-3 are relatively standard (I haven't actually observed any of them). Level 4 ended up being kind of a beginner's teen ballet class with about 8 students, but it met three times a week. My daughter was in level 5, and was probaby a high intermediate level class with about 5 students. (Most of the girls had defected from other area schools for one reason or the other.) So there was a big gap in terms of the training between levels 4 & 5.
Apparently the school had over a 100 students last fall, and has been so successful that the director is adding an additional studio for the coming fall (for a total of three). Obviously at this point the bulk of her students are the little ones. As one of the teachers said, "it should be a great school at all levels in about 10 years."
The ballet school also rents out space to a well respected modern teacher. She offered two classes in the space this past year, and will offer four this coming fall.
The tuition is pretty steep, but is competitive with rates in the area.
Here is the web site that shows pictures of the space, class schedules, and tuition:
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A blog by Hans in General
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Hans,
My daughter attends a new school with some similarities to the one you envision.
It is housed in an old mill complex rather than a warehouse. The complex also contains artist studios and even a group of craftsmen who handbuild harpsichords.
The director started the school in March of 2005 with creative movement classes. In the fall of 2006, she added five ballet levels. I guess levels 1-3 are relatively standard (I haven't actually observed any of them). Level 4 ended up being kind of a beginner's teen ballet class with about 8 students, but it met three times a week. My daughter was in level 5, and was probaby a high intermediate level class with about 5 students. (Most of the girls had defected from other area schools for one reason or the other.) So there was a big gap in terms of the training between levels 4 & 5.
Apparently the school had over a 100 students last fall, and has been so successful that the director is adding an additional studio for the coming fall (for a total of three). Obviously at this point the bulk of her students are the little ones. As one of the teachers said, "it should be a great school at all levels in about 10 years."
The ballet school also rents out space to a well respected modern teacher. She offered two classes in the space this past year, and will offer four this coming fall.
The tuition is pretty steep, but is competitive with rates in the area.
Here is the web site that shows pictures of the space, class schedules, and tuition:
www.theballetspace.com