Diablo Ballet will open a dance school in Pleasant Hill

Diablo Ballet, the Walnut Creek-based company that has been a mainstay of the East Bay dance scene for a quarter of a century, has announced it’s opening its own dance school.

Beginning Aug. 26, the company will offer a range of classes aimed at everyone from toddlers donning their first tutus to young adults seeking a career in dance. All classes will include some form of performance opportunity, and students in some advanced levels, especially the Professional Trainee Program, will have a chance to perform with the professional company. Diablo Ballet says this will mark the first time in the East Bay that such a school has been started by a professional company.

The school will be run by company artistic director and co-founder Lauren Jonas and staffed by associate director Rebecca Berke and company dancers and artists. Company dancer Raymond Tilton, a former member of San Francisco Ballet, will serve as principal. Teachers will include Diablo Ballet regisseur Joanna Berman and Julia Adam, both former principal dancers with San Francisco Ballet.

The new school offers the popular dance company another toe-hold in the community. The company has long earned kudos for its P.E.E.K Outreach program, which oversees dance sessions for needy area students as well as teen girls incarcerated in the Juvenile Justice System.

To celebrate and promote the new school, Diablo Ballet is holding a family day fashion and food show at 11 a.m. Aug. 17 at Macy’s in Walnut Creek’s Broadway Plaza, and an open house at its Pleasant Hill school site at 11 a.m. Aug. 18.

More information is available by calling 925-943-1775 or visiting diabloballet.org.