Academy of Chinese Performing Arts

Please, please don’t go there. As a acpa student speaking from experience, I’ve had horrible experiences dancing there. The only reason I continued to dance there was the expectation of going back to my old teacher, Tao.
One of the teachers there (chun, tsun?) constantly called me out by asking the other students to see what was wrong with me. My friends wouldn’t see anything, but my teacher called me out on some miniscule thing (eg: my foot would twitch as I was kicking my legs). This is not the worst part though. The teacher insulted my body, my mother, and my whole family. She asked if my mom was pregnant when she wasn’t. I was in sixth grade (may I emphasize SIXTH GRADE) when she asked if I was overweight. I was 60 pounds and I looked normal, according to EVERYONE I KNEW. She did this for two years. The teacher singles out students who she thinks has the best body. Not only that, she is a complete hypocrite. She herself has a potbelly she tries to conceal by wearing belly eliminating pants. Talk about idiotic.
Other than that, some of the teachers are not that bad. They push you to the extent that your legs are sore for two days, but that’s not bad haha. May I warn you though, there’s no return policy. Once you sign up for a class ($ 600-​$ 900), you’re stuck there unless you want to give them the money.

I’ve attended ACPA for the past seven years and I am pretty satisfied. I have been able to maintain my flexibility due to their level of discipline, which other studios lack, and most of all, I have this studio to thank for culturally enriching my life. I learned about different ethnic groups, their dances, and most importantly the emotions and story they try to convey through dance. Some of this studio’s top dancers could very well go professional, they are such talented, precise actors. ACPA has standards, and I think that sets it apart from other studios.
As for the reviews speaking negatively of Mr. Chen, I never heard of anything of the sort about him. If anything, his only offense is talking for too long while trying to help his students improve.
The costs are pretty expensive, but their productions are quality. I would send my children here. They go by merit.

This place is hell of Chinese. Seriously. They teach traditional Chinese folk dance along with more contemporary dance forms, aka ballet.
They do a good job, and many of their dancers go on to join famous troupes. I had fun when I was dancing with ACPA :) And recitals are always fun… yay!
They have classes for the very young to adults, so it’s very versatile. It’s a great way for children to become immersed in their culture because each of the traditional dances they teach has a very long history to be learned.