Elias Ladas Dance Lessons

Elias is an awesome dance teacher! He really breaks down the steps so that you learn the correct technique. He makes you work hard but at the same time he makes you laugh. Dancing is not easy but Elias makes it great fun! My dancing has improved in just a few months and he is helping me work toward a goal of competing in Latin. I highly recommend him!

I started my daughter on piano lessons when she was 4, and it was a struggle – and one day, when she was 5, she came to me, tears streaming down her beautiful face and said, «Mom, piano is not my passion! Singing and dancing are my passions!» That was the end of her piano lessons.
She started ballroom dancing in Reseda, then moved to a school in Sherman Oaks. She had 4 teachers until we met Elias, and we have now followed him to two new schools because my daughter will not dance with anyone else. She does not have a partner, so Elias will partner up with her when she competes in Pro-​Am competitions.
It is now almost 2 years since my daughter, who is almost 12, started dancing with Elias, and she has improved vastly! Her movements are sharper, cleaner and more precise. Her footwork is exceptional. Elias is very detail-​oriented, and quick to nip mistakes in the bud before they blossom into serious bad habits.
Elias is very personable, courteous, good-​natured and patient. He has flexible hours and his rates are quite affordable as far as private dance lessons go. He has a real stage presence and will make you shine, regardless of whether you are interested in competing or if you just want to learn to dance.
I wish I had the time to take lessons myself. If you do, you can’t go wrong with Elias. I would highly recommend him – whether it is for you or your child.

When people ask me what made me start dancing, I never know what to say. Really, it was nothing and it was everything. Nothing because I had no starting point, no reference… nothing to gain and nothing to lose either. But starting to dance was also everything — I had a near-​death head injury that resulted in a semi-​mangled body and brain, along with unstoppable epilepsy. But, me being me, when I had my first lesson with Elias my absolute goal, no room for negotiation, was to compete despite everything and with absolute commitment. I needed an instructor who was ready to make a huge commitment. But if there was no such person — I had serious doubts that there was — dance would be nothing.
But it turned out to be everything.
In the two years I’ve been dancing with Elias, my epilepsy went first to a few days without seizures, then a few weeks and, as it stands now, a few months. Elias was with me when, for the first time in 22 years since my injury, I stood on one foot. He heard me as my sentences moved from separate words into complete sentences and has watched me as I went from being a reclusive misfit to being someone that is, to me, a princess whose castle was built on a competitive dance floor.
He was with me for a moment that, regardless of whether my memory should ever fail me, will be with me forever. That is those first moments of being my partner on a dance floor in my first competition. The crowd cheering, the music playing and we were dancing — I was just like everyone else — and it was all because of him. I’ve been competing ever since and we have made many semi-​finals and won many finals.
Elias is a special instructor. He has never stopped analyzing my movements, figuring out the reason why this part of my body won’t move and this one will — and how to make it work given my situation. But it’s not just me. To him, every student has a different «situation» — a body with different strengths and weaknesses. But we are never just bodies or «just» anything. For him, dancing is personal and we all have a different reason for being there.
Elias is honest and fair. Dancing is for everybody, with or without injuries, competitor or not. And it can be anybody’s everything given the right instructor. You can’t do better than Elias. I will never dance with anyone else.