John Cassese – The Dance Doctor

My girlfriend and I came here for Salsa lessons and it really was fantastic. We came in with next to no knowledge on the dance and after 5 lessons we had a good grasp on the situation. Great location, nice people, free parking next door for 1.5 hours. Couldn’t ask for more!

I wasn’t so sure about taking dance lessons as this isn’t something I had ever done before. But as our wedding was fast approaching we decided it might be nice to learn a few tips before our first dance.
We ended up taking about 5 lessons in the 2 weeks leading up to our wedding and honestly had such a wonderful time. Wedding planning can be so stressful and spending time with your significant other learning something fun together is a nice reminder to stop and enjoy yourself!
We took lessons with John and thought he was great. Extremely patient, a great teacher and also a lot of fun to spend an hour with.
Highly recommended! Wish it didn’t take me so many years to try to learn how to dance :)

We took lessons for our wedding as a surprise to our guests and boy were they VERY suprised!!! They all loved it!!! Not only were the classes so much fun, but it was such a special touch to our wedding! We are not experienced dancers and have zero training in ballroom dancing so to learn our dance and pull it off was a huge accomplishment! We couldn’t have done it without Hadia, AJ, and John! We highly recommend The Dance Doctor and are so happy to have this dance as such a special memory!!!

Went there to see about the Beginners Salsa group class. The young man at the desk, Freeman, was very polite, courteous, and prompt. However, I was told I would have to take a private lesson before I would be allowed to join the beginners class to make sure it was the right class for me, and not too advanced. I was advised even though it was called a beginners class, it was really an intermediate one. Why I couldn’t join the beginners class and after that one class be told «yea or nay,» I do not know – except that forcing private lessons is a great road to profit. Beginners beware! Perhaps Dance Doctor could simply stop advertising a beginners class if they aren’t offering one. There are better ongoing beginners classes to find without the scam angle of «evaluation private lesson.» About a mile away is Cristian Oviedo for one, and I am sure there are equally others. The only reason I give one star is for the good service; the horrible business practices (a beginner can’t take a beginners class? really?) deserve zero.

Great instructors, as was the namesake John Cassese is suspect, as all the photos ringing every possible display space will remind you.

My husband and I went in to get lessons for our wedding first dance with Sarah, one of the instructors, and it was so much fun! Let me tell you, my husband really did not want to do any dance lessons… he wanted to do a traditional slow dance but I knew it would put the crowd to sleep lol. So we came in with the mission of doing a fun, entertaining first dance routine which followed our grand entrance and gave Sarah the song we wanted to dance to. She listened to it, got really excited, and told us the Foxtrot would be a great fit. She devised an amazing routine for us that was a mix of elegance and fun and taught us moves that were simple to somewhat more technical, a good mix for me and my husband. I am somewhat adept at dancing, however, my husband has two left feet, so mixing up the difficulty of the steps was important. Sarah was always extremely patient and gracious when advising us the dance moves we needed to improve upon but also extremely encouraging and motivating when we did something well and we can’t recommend her enough as a dance instructor!
As for John, the owner, he is such a nice and cool guy! You can tell he is super passionate about dancing because he evaluated our dance moves during one of our practice sessions (John encourages you to come in for practice in his studio (and it’s free!) and gave us very constructive input. He also evaluated our complete dance routine during our final lesson to let us know if there was anything else we could work on. Fortunately for us, he told us we nailed it! (That’s because we took his advice of practicing everyday up until the wedding.)
We can’t thank Sarah and John enough for an amazing job – we finally did our dance and the crowd went wild! We also loved chatting with them – they have super interesting backgrounds and were so fun to be around. We highly recommend them for dances, specifically extremely awesome/​fun/​cool/​glamourous wedding first dances!

Every time my husband and I left we were supper excited and happy with our progress.
We worked with Sarah, she is extremely patient. It wasn’t easy for us because neither my husband or I had every taken a dance class together. We were pressed for time to learn the steps for our First Dance.
We liked working with Sarah so much, that we brought classes for our parents to take.
My only recommendation is that they organize the private classes because there were a few times when another couple was trying to take a private class at the same time as us… we worked together so it wasn’t a big deal, but a little better scheduling would be great.
Our first dance went perfectly!!!

Sad to see that Jose has left. Took many hours of salsa with him. But Jackie is a great intro to salsa, and Javier is top notch. And the proximity of the studio to Wakano, Zanzibar, and Monsoon is great. Parking is of course, tough. Have tried every salsa teacher and place around, and this place was a good one to start.
They used to have a $ 75/​mo all-​you-​can-​go deal, but I think it ended.

My husband and I wholeheartedly recommend John Cassese — The Dance Doctor.
We found John one month before our wedding; we had decided to find an instructor, but I procrastinated for weeks. We felt we needed help as we had almost zero dance experience and had no experience with ballroom dancing. We picked our song, set up a few lessons and crossed our fingers.
We needn’t have worried. John is a true professional who was able to not only teach us how to move together, but also choreographed the beautiful dance we performed on our wedding night. He was flexible with his schedule, incredibly patient and 120% committed to us. He was firm yet reassuring which alleviated some anxiety — on both our parts. We found John to be extremely caring, focused and helpful. This is echoing previous reviews, but it’s what we experienced.
As we watched the DVD he sent us of our performance both before and during our wedding, we were over-​the-​moon! This was by far one of the best investments we ever made and the results were well worth it.
Five stars. hands down, he’s one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my life. You won’t regret working with him.

John is the best dance teacher ever! My husband and I took private lessons from John for our first dance at our wedding. He choreographed an incredible dance and we had sooooo much fun learning it! A guest at our wedding said of or first dance after we performed it: «BEST FIRST DANCE EVER!!!»
We couldn’t have been happier with The Dance Doctor and highly recommend him to every one. Neither of us had ever had dance lessons and by the end of our short training, we could really dance!

John is incredible. My wife and I had our first dance for our wedding choreographed and taught by him. Neither one of us had any dance experience prior. John was patient, supportive and helpful throughout the entire process. In the beginning he took the time to educate us on different styles of dance and types of songs. He asked about the size of our dance floor, the style of my wife’s wedding dress; he tailored everything to accommodate our skills, interests and specific circumstances. He even helped us pick out shoes!
it is clear that John and his team are passionate about what they do and love teaching it to others. Every lesson was a pleasure, not only in developing our own skills and working towards our special day, but spending the time learning from John was certainly part of the highlight. We recommended our friends as well, who’s dance routine for their wedding turned out amazing too.
Thank you John!

My wife and I were privileged to have John Cassese the Dance Doctor choreograph the first dance for our wedding. In addition to coming up with a swing routine that fit the song perfectly (It was Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen, because the world does not need any more Sinatra first dances), John took two people with no experience dancing swing and made it look like we knew what we were doing. John is a seasoned pro who will have you doing it the right way, and will steadily and firmly correct you until you get it. He doesn’t accept half measures! But he is also receptive to your wants and needs – for example, we tweaked a couple sequences to both really fit the lyrics of the song and to work around some of my injuries. We would definitely recommend private instruction, and from the looks of things the studio is home to several very good small group classes.
A couple of tips: if you are going to make the investment in dance lessons, you absolutely have to practice in between – even if it’s only for ½ an hour in your living room the day before. Especially if you’re doing choreography, you need the mental and physical reps. The couple of times we didn’t practice, we showed up looking like amateurs! Secondly, if you don’t have much experience dancing, be prepared – it can be quite strenuous, especially up-​tempo styles. So don’t eat a huge meal beforehand, and stay hydrated.
The Dance Doctor offers packages of weekly lessons, and if you’re doing a choreographed number, we’d recommend a package of 10, or a few more if you can swing it. But we really started to lock in at around 10. If you want to do it for your wedding, and you’re on the fence, think about all the ridiculous stuff you’re going to have that no one will notice, cut a few of those items, and make room in your budget to make that moment when everybody’s watching really memorable. The Dance Doctor will make it happen!

I’ve been going to the Dance Doctor for over half a year, studying mainly salsa, although I’ve taken a hip hop class. All of the classes are good and offer different things. Jackie’s salsa class is fun and she does the same routine each class, which really gives you a chance to «own» the moves. Javier is a great teacher as well and has a large following. He really cares and will work with you to get the moves down. Jose’s class is also great. He practices and teaches like a classically trained dancer and will help you with all of the nuanced moves. You can’t go wrong by coming to the Dance Doctor, especially if you want to get better at salsa.

I have no rhythm and very limited coordination. I am the epitome of the awkward white boy on the dance floor. My girlfriend likes to dance though, so for her birthday I got her a gift certificate for a free lesson for a dance of her choice, just as something fun for us to do.
We had Forest (I think that was his name. .. maybe its his stage name, or maybe I just misheard the pronunciation) as our instructor. He was really nice, and did his best to make me feel less ashamed of how terrible I am at dancing. By the end, I could reasonably pull off some salsa turns and spins that didn’t look half bad.
My girlfriend absolutely loved every minute of it. We’re too busy for lessons now, but it gives us an activity we can try out at various places on the weekends in the future. If you are a guy looking for a gift for an anniversary or birthday, this will get you serious points. You cannot possibly be a worse dancer than I am, and if they can teach me in 50 minutes, they can teach anyone. Plus, there is a ton of free salsa in LA, so now you get a series of cheap dates lined up your girl is going to be ecstatic about.
Yes, they are going to try and sell you more lessons at the end – it is a business, but if you can get over that it’s totally worth it.

Took their freebie salsa class.
Pros: LOCATION, good variety of classes, they have ballet on offer which is hard to find for adults.
Cons: This is a beginners’ studio – not the place to go if you are looking to compete or perform. but if you want to just start learning a couple of moves it’s ok.

I’ve been taking ballet at The Dance Doctor for four years with Edouard Kouzmitch. It simply changed my life.
He’s a wonderful teacher with a fast eye and a deep knowledge of Russian ballet that allows him to keep up with an open level class like no one else in town.
Sarah is a great ballroom teacher for private lessons in case you are going to get marry. Classy, fun, professional, patient instructor.
The guys at the front desk are always very helpful and friendly as well.

I took the beginner’s level salsa dance class, and unfortunately, the class was tailored towards an intermediate level audience. Most of the students were of intermediate skill, but were getting ‘warmed up’ by taking the beginner’s course which precedes it. As a result, we (the true beginners) were rushed and overwhelmed by the instruction. A few, turned off by the experience, said they were going to give up salsa dancing all together. I didn’t get the vibe that the instructor truly cared about our progress. I felt that she was just checking one complex dance move after another on her checklist without ensuring the beginners had a grasp of the basics.
I decided that I am not going to give up salsa dancing, but I’m not likely to return to this venue. I’ve heard of schools in the Downtown L.A. area that do a better job at instruction and ensuring their students are of the same skill level.

This is the best dance studio EVER to learn how to dance for your wedding! I just got married on 10−10−10 and our dance was AMAZING!!! Seriously, people are still talking about our rockin’ Fox Trot!
Everytime we left the studio, we were on such a high. What a fun place! Every teacher is extremely nice, including the guys who work the front desk.
We love to dance so much that we signed up for more lessons to learn different styles. John and Sarah you are both FANTASTIC!!! We so look forward to dancing the cha cha, tango, swing, etc with them.
If you’ve been thinking about taking dance lessons I highly recommend going to the Dance Doctor. You really can come to learn anything, even if it’s not a wedding dance.

I’ve trained in all outlets of dance at an early age ranging from ballet to tap to jazz and so on. Now that I am settled in Santa Monica, I thought I would take a chance and find a studio nearby to get back into the groove and lucky me! I found The Dance Doctor!
I attended a hip hop class and I really enjoyed myself. Everyone was super friendly and I got an amazing workout. The beats were nice and it was neat that every class would focus in a different area of the genre. The class I attended was more hip hop in a music video and next week will be isolations (one of my favs!)
I would recommend this place to anyone and everyone. The prices are super reasonable and the teachers are very skilled. Its wonderful because there classes are offered in the evening so I have time to rush home from work.

I came here for one of their intermediate salsa lessons. It was sure pretty fun. The teacher made some funny comments and kept the class rotating. The cost was $ 15, and they gave me a choice if I want to get the package deal. I wasn’t interested since I just wanted to test it out. The people were very nice and all seemed to know each other, the instructor kept all of us on our toes, and we all had a great time.
You can learn a lot of cool moves at this place, but when it comes to technique, you’re better off going to a techniques workshop or a private tutor. I would definitely go back to do it again.