Discover ourJazz Classes

What jazz is here

Students work on leaps, turns, and a combo they can remember. Tour jetés and pirouettes show up when the body is ready, not as a first-day trick. Stretching is part of the class, not an optional add-on. The clothes are form-fitting so the teacher can see the knee and the hip. Jazz shoes or bare feet. Hair tied back.

The schedule constraint is the one parents miss: weekday evenings only. If you can only drive on Saturday morning, jazz is the wrong style until a Saturday block exists. Ballet, tap, preschool, and lyrical are the Saturday conversation. Do not enroll in jazz and then discover the only class is Tuesday at 6.

Shayla Pinther and Delaney Anderson both teach jazz. Kima Lee’s degree is in dance from Sacramento State. Melissa Reich directs the studio. Placement is by age and by what we see, starting at age 5.

Performance, without the trophy circuit

Jazz choreography is built to be seen. It shows up in the Summer Showcase. It is still not a competition team. We do not enter weekend contests, sell a coaching package, or promise a title. If that is the goal, say so before the trial.

Billing matches the rest of the studio. Tuition is quoted by phone at 916.276.8408, then auto-billed on the 1st. Missed classes and the two-week summer and winter breaks are not pro-rated. Leaving takes 30 days of written notice. The address is Harding Plaza, Suite P, next to Sherwin Williams.

Evenings, leaps, and the clothes

Jazz starts at age 5. The class order is warm-up, stretch, then leaps, turns, and a combination they are supposed to remember. A tour jeté or a pirouette shows up when the dancer can do it, not as a trick for the first photo. Stretching is the class, not the part you skip if you arrived late. Late arrivals still stretch. They do not walk in at the combo.

Clothes are form-fitting so the knee and the hip are visible. A big T-shirt hides the thing the teacher is correcting. Jazz shoes or bare feet. Hair tied back so it is not in the face on a turn. Street sneakers are not jazz shoes. Tap shoes are not jazz shoes. If you are also in tap, you own two pairs. Each style uses its own footwear.

One important scheduling detail: jazz is weekday evenings only. There is no Saturday jazz block. If Saturday morning is the only time you can cross town, choose ballet, tap, lyrical, or preschool, and leave jazz until an evening opens in your week. Check the live schedule before enrolling.

What jazz is not

It is not a competition team. There is no entry fee circuit, no title, and no weekend hotel. The choreography is built to be performed, and the performance is the Summer Showcase, plus a community show when one is booked. Parents who want a competitive jazz program should hear that before the trial, not after the shoes are worn once.

It is also not a substitute for ballet. Jazz can start at 5 without a year of lyrical, but the turns sit on ballet technique. If the trial shows they cannot find a passé, we will say start in ballet and add jazz later. That is a placement, not a rejection.

Shayla Pinther and Delaney Anderson teach jazz. Kima Lee’s degree is a B.A. in Dance from Sacramento State. Melissa Reich directs the studio and has taught since 2005. The room is 212 Harding Blvd Suite P. The number on the door and on this site is 916.276.8408. Email is [email protected]. The Register Now button opens the Studio Director portal for this studio. The Schedule link in the header opens the live class list. Check the live schedule for current class times. Billing is the studio rule: quoted by phone, charged on the 1st, not pro-rated, 30 days written notice to leave, two-week breaks in summer and winter that are not credited.

A jazz combination is memorized. That is the skill hiding under the leap. Children who “just dance when the music is on” at home can still struggle when the sequence has an order. We repeat. We do not change the combo every week so a parent video always looks new. If your child needs the order written down, ask the teacher what they are willing to send. Do not film other children to build your own reminder. Respect the privacy of other dancers.

Turns need a spot and a standing leg. If they get dizzy and quit the turn, that is information, not a character flaw. We build the turn. We do not yell for a double. Leaps need room across the floor, which is why the class cannot be taught in a living room and called the same thing. Across-the-floor work is why you drive to the studio.

Evening traffic from Folsom, El Dorado Hills, or Lincoln is part of the jazz decision, because the class will not move to Saturday to dodge it. Leave earlier than the map’s no-traffic estimate. A dancer who walks in halfway through warm-up has missed the stretch that the leaps sit on. If weekday travel is difficult, ask about a style offered on Saturdays.

Jazz shoes should bend. A stiff shoe from a multipack costume set fights the relevé the turn needs. Bare feet are an allowed alternative in this room, and some dancers do the whole season that way. Pick one and stay with it for a month so the teacher is not correcting a different friction every week. Label the shoes. The lost-and-found at a children’s studio is mostly shoes with no name.

Repeating combinations helps dancers remember the sequence and build confidence. Ask what the current combo is if you want to clap on the right count at the showcase. Teachers balance repetition with new material as dancers progress. The Summer Showcase is the deadline that makes the repetition make sense.

If your child is coming from a competition jazz solo, tell us the skills, not the scoring. A double turn they can do in a gym with a coach spotting nearby may not be the turn they can do in a class of peers. We will use the turn they can do here. The solo costume can stay at home. This class does not continue someone else’s choreography.