Our Journey
Nearly 40 Years. One Deliberate Turn.
California DanceArts began in 1987, when Aerin Holt founded the school near Hollywood under the name Dance Now Academy. The studio later relocated to Glendale, and then to its current home in La Cañada Flintridge, adopting the California DanceArts name along the way.
At our height, we had a roster of over 200 students, filling three dance studios at our current location to meet the demands of a packed schedule and a growing demand for service. After rent increases in the years following COVID, Ms. Holt made a deliberate turn: rather than scale the mass-production "dance factory" model back up, she walked away from it — directing her full attention toward ballet-focused children, young adults, and career-bound students, and transitioning to a highly tailored program built around exclusive, limited-sized classes and private instruction.
That same focus is still at the center of everything we do here today. Our large La Cañada studio — with sprung floors, mirrors, high ceilings for unobstructed leaping, and a professional sound system — still transforms into a fully equipped in-house theater, complete with backdrops and stage lighting. And for private lessons, we offer something few studios can: a unique open-air studio in the Los Angeles foothills, with breathtaking mountain views.
Our results speak for themselves. CDA dancers have earned scholarships to college and university dance programs, and gone on to dance with companies including Pittsburgh Ballet, Universal Ballet, Matthew Bourne's company, Salzburg Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Ballet Vancouver. Others have gone on to work regionally with local ballet and contemporary companies, in Las Vegas revues, and with Cirque du Soleil.
We've been training dancers since 1987 — long enough to know exactly what real technical progress looks like, and how to build it.
