ODC Dance Commons — Local services in San Francisco

OMG, this is a place of joy! Seriously! The staff is kind, competent and always so helpful. There are people of all walks of life, need, and experience. There are salsa queens and kings honing their technique. There are hula students riding high on inspiration from their trip to Hawaii. OMG, the Tap teachers are wonderful! Talented, nurturing, funny pedagogy. The contemporary classes are insanely satisfying and have a diversity of style and level, so that everyone can stay in shape or increase their skill. Parkinson classes, sent from Heaven. I'm there mostly for beginner ballet. Chris Lam is one of the best teachers out there! He doesn't miss anything in class, and you walk out feeling completely endorphined out and i increase my dance vocabulary with each class. Erin is so student focused, and is strength and beauty personified. The advanced and Pro class instructors are some of the most respected in the nation. I will never be able to dance that well, but it's a thing of beauty to watch the more advanced instruction. Kids and families abound, in a very safe and secure facility. The teen program in ballet, hip-hop, contemporary is arguably the best in the country! Oh, and Rhythm &Motion class! Each class is a celebration of the soul. I think you can forget the ills of the world in a class at ODC....

This is a review of Salsa Rueda @ ODC. I rarely write negative reviews because obviously my experience is subjective but teaching is a huge responsibility. Majority of us (if not all of us) learn salsa rueda @ ODC not to become professional dancers but to have fun, to meet people, to learn new skills, and to be part of the community and because of that I give this place one star. Many of the instructors here are very good, professional, and encouraging. Unfortunately a few bad apples is enough to ruin someone's confidence. And that's what a co-organizer of this group does. I really appreciate when people care about what they do but it's really evil when caring becomes bullying. The whole point of teaching is to encourage students to do more to take risks to succeed. Unfortunately here @ ODC the approach is different they encourage you take classes you do not need just tp make more money and they discourage you from advancing and...

If you sign up for a performance workshop here, they make you pay to watch the recording of your own performance. At no point during sign up did it state that guests were not allowed to record us. Instead, on the day of the performance, we found that recording and photography is banned. This was alleviated by the fact that ODC was recording the performance, and of course assumed we would be provided a copy. Then, one month after our performance, it is announced that we would have to pay more ON TOP OF THE $325 paid to sign up to the performance workshop, just to have the pleasure of watching our own performance. Not once did we sign a model release contract. The legality of this is questionable at best and I’m considering hiring an entertainment attorney to review this practice. On the plus side, the teachers here are incredible. The...