Ten styles, five age bands, one answer
Find your
class.
Answer three quick questions and we’ll do the rest. We’ll recommend the right class, tell you how long it runs, and explain exactly what to expect on day one — all before you book a thing.
Answer the three and we will name the class — the style, the band, and what the first one is actually like.
Or just read the list
Everything we run, by age.
We teach ten styles across five age bands, from three-year-olds through to adults, and the band a student sits in decides more than the style does — it sets how long the class runs, who else is in the room and what the year looks like. Here is the whole catalogue, band by band, with what changes at each one.
Ages 3–5
Two classes, and both are short on purpose. Preschool Ballet runs 30 minutes and combined Jazz/Tap runs 45, because a three-year-old's best dancing happens in the first half hour and we would rather they finish wanting more. There is no audition and nothing to buy.
Ages 6–8
Five styles open up at six, Hip Hop and Acrobatics among them. Classes run 30 to 45 minutes and sit in their own age band, so a six-year-old is never the youngest in a room built for someone else. Most students at this age take one style and add a second when they ask to.
Ages 9–12
Contemporary & Lyrical joins the list at nine, and the examination pathway opens here for students who want their dancing formally graded. This tends to be the band where a child stops being someone who does dance and picks the style that is theirs. There is a homework room on site, so a weeknight class does not cost them their homework.
Ages 13+
Six styles, 45 to 55 minute classes, graded examinations, and the troupes that compete across the Melbourne circuit. Broadway Jazz runs for students who want the stage as much as the step, and private singing happens in the studio's own music room in the same building.
Adults
One class, no upper age limit and no audition. It is built for adults coming back to it after twenty years and for adults who never took a class in their lives and always meant to. Same studios, same teachers, same standard — and nobody watches you.
Not sure which band a child sits in, or want two styles on the same night? Ring 0425 783 743 — a person answers, and they have been putting kids in the right room since 2002.
Nothing. The first class is free in every style and every age band, all year round, and there is no audition to get into it. Comfortable clothes they can move in and hair tied back is genuinely the whole kit list — the DFX Dance Shop on site can fit shoes and uniform later, once you have decided to stay.
If the room turns out to be the wrong one, we move them. That is the point of a free first class: you find out from the floor rather than from a timetable, and a wrong guess costs you an hour instead of a term.
While they are in there you are not standing in a corridor. There are four dance studios on the Western Highway at Ravenhall, a parents cafe, a waiting lounge with room for the pram and the school bag, a homework room so a weeknight class does not cost a student their homework, and a music room for private singing. Parking is on site.
After that the year has a shape: classes through Term 1, exams and the competition circuit around the middle of it, and in Term 4 a real theatre with a real audience for four shows across one week. Most students dance recreationally — one class a week and a spot in the concert — and that is a complete year here, not a lesser one.
Asked before every first class
The six we get on the phone
- What if we pick the wrong class?
- We move them. The first class is free, and if the room turns out to be wrong — too young, too advanced, or just not the style they thought it was — we put them somewhere else. Nobody is stuck with their first guess.
- How long does a class actually run?
- Thirty minutes for preschool ballet and junior classes, 45 for preschool Jazz/Tap and most 6–12 classes, and 45 to 55 minutes for 13+, adults and the senior acrobatics levels. The length is set by the age, not by the style.
- Can they do more than one style?
- Yes, and plenty do — a second style is the fastest way to more dancing, and the two usually pair well. Ring 0425 783 743 and we will tell you what we can line up on the same night so it is one drop-off rather than two.
- How many classes a week is normal?
- One. Most of our students dance recreationally — a single weekly class, a costume, and a spot in the concert in Term 4. Exams and competition teams are there for the students who want them, and they are never assumed.
- Do they need to be able to dance already?
- No. There is no audition at any age and nothing here assumes prior experience. A good share of our hip hop students had never taken a class before they walked in, and the adult classes are full of people who have not danced since school.
- When can we start?
- Whenever suits you. Term 1 is where most students begin and Open Day in January is a full day of free workshops across every style and age band, but the first class is free all year round — you do not have to wait for a term to turn over.
Anything the list does not cover, ring 0425 783 743 or read how to choose a dance school — eight questions worth asking any studio in Melbourne’s West, and our own answers to all of them.