Ms. Marian's Dance Garden

My 13 year old was the oldest at the camp, but she did have a very positive experience and enjoyed making her own creations. We thought she would learn specific techniques like hemming or sewing from a pattern and the camp wasn't quite so rigorous, but she did make several items and got to be creative, so overall it was a positive experience. The younger girls loved the fashion show portion!

We've taken every camp provided by Ms Marian's Dance Garden and we love them all! Highly recommend all of her camps. The kids learn so much and are excited to go everyday.

Best camp this summer! Ms. Marian is a kind and experienced teacher and my daughter loved every day of camp.

My 13-year old daughter loved this sewing camp! She's been to other sewing camps, but felt Ms. Marian taught her a lot! The fashion show at the end of the week was a lot of fun. The kids created a lot of items and had so much fun. We'll most likely be back next year!

I’ve never seen my daughter (10 yrs.old) have this much FUN at any Summer camp before!! It’s basically personalized and customized to who attends. The kids get to be creative, imaginative and physical. Working together they are a part of designing, cereographying, singing and fashion/make-up. Marian is wonderful!

My daughter has been dancing with Miss Marian since she was 3. Miss Marian is a wonderful teacher and takes an individual interest in each student. The students have a broad exposure to different types of cultural dances, as well as ballet technique.

Ms. Marian has taught dance to our daughter for nearly six years. What I love most about Marian is her welcoming kids of all abilities, her ability to engage even the shyest child, and her amazing energy and dedication to bringing lyrical movement to kids.

My daughter has been dancing with Ms. Marian since she was a new 3 years old. She has loved the play based movement activities, the fun props and costumes through each class session, and Ms. Marian's firm but kind guidance. My daughter is almost 5, and has loved class time over the past 2 years! We love the Dance Garden!

Ms. Marian is a professional dancer with deep roots in theater. Her depth of experience comes through in the way she teaches and nurtures her students. I have a son and daughter in the program and both have shown growth and development in both stage presence and technique. It’s not a competitive environment, which this mama appreciates.

Ms Marian and her staff are wonderful with kids and provide such a warm, safe learning environment!

A great place to not only learn how to excel at dance, but to also learn how to be a young lady.

Ms. Marian is very nice and she chooses fun dances. I love going there. My favorite part is when we practice the dances and then perform them.

Our kids absolutely love Ms. Marian and her team of fantastic teachers. They are the best!

Warm and supportive instruction and caring teachers. Kids continue to grow and develop their dance skills well beyond the primary school Years. Highly recommend it!

She is a wonderful teacher. Making each kid feel like a star.

Ms Marian’s Dance Garden is the most nurturing dance studios in the SF Bay Area. I have completely enjoyed teaching at this studio for the past five years.

A warm, fun, and joyful environment to learn dance. Ms Marian offers her dancers boundless love, energy and creativity.

Ms. Marian’s Dance Garden is an absolute gem in our neighborhood! She’s extremely enthusiastic and patient with her dancers. Our daughter thoroughly enjoys dance class at the DG.

Our 6 year old loves Ms. Marion's Dance studio. She has great fun and is learning about staging and perfomance, which is fun for me (former actor) too!

Both my daughter's love Ms. Marian's Dance Garden for classes and camps. They have learned so much including dance, sewing working as part of a team, in a safe, & happy environment.

Ms Marian is a wonderful teacher that truly cares if the dancers are having fun and learning. She has decades of experience and her studio is a special community.

Great teacher with over 25 years experience.
Ms. Marian provides helpful hints all through the dance class to get your kid interested and obedient! My son, just after 3 classes, was eager to follow Ms. Marians direction. I was amazed!

We have been coming to Dance Garden for almost 2 years and absolutely love it. We have tried, Ballet & Tap, Acrobatics, and even Hip Hop classes. My child loves them all. I have even taken some adult Tap classes here and it was super enjoyable and she even taught a similar routine to the adults as the kids were learning so that we could have a mother/daughter dance routine together! My child was never one to enjoy performing in front of an audience, not even for her own parents and always refused whenever given the opportunity in past activities such as ice skating and gymnastics. However, the first day of class with Ms. Marian changed all of that!

What I love about the Dance Garden is that they do mini-performances for the parents after many of the classes. At the last few minutes of class, each child comes out and personally escorts their parent(s) in and the parents take a seat in a chair across from their child to watch a routine that the kids have been working on, usually surrounding a recent holiday. I don't know how Ms. Marian and the other Dance Garden teachers do it, but every child that I have seen in these classes are not only willing but excited to do these performances! It also doesn't hurt that the studio has a plethora of costumes and the kids LOVE dressing up. Each performance is a different costume, different music and routine. Every May, there is also a big recital and the one we participated in last year was amazing. Being at Dance Garden has really built my daughter's confidence, helped her step out of her comfort zone and thrive, her dance skills have been improving so much, and her love for dance has been growing! The other dancers in her class, aren't just classmates, but have become her friends and have bonded! This is one of the best investments we could have made for her by sending her to Dance Garden for classes!

They also offer camps during the major school holidays, breaks, and summer. We tried a summer camp here and my child loved it so much. It was full of not only dancing, but arts & crafts and much more! We took home so much homemade art pieces that she loves to still display around the house. I highly recommend checking out the Dance Garden for any classes you might be thinking of. They not only have dance classes, but toddler classes, acrobatics, sewing, etc for all ages! Their prices are great for classes and camps compared to other places around the Bay Area.

I can’t speak highly enough of Ms. Marian and her Dance Garden. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience for our entire family.

All 3 of my children have benefited from the different classes she offers; my daughters still sew and create from her fashion class, and her advanced dance classes helped prepare my son for his successful entrance to the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.

My older girl still regularly uses the sewing skills and project ideas she learned, and the fashion show was the delight of my youngest daughter’s summer. The catwalk! The posing!

With my son Ms. Marian helped create a plan of classes and instruction to best use his level of talent and skill for his high school audition piece. Her coaching and work was crucial to his acceptance into SOTA’s World Dance department. We could not have done it without her. He also spent time working as an aide in classes for younger students, a powerful experience in responsibility and empathy that we cherish. It is a wonderful thing to watch your child learning to guide and help others.

So if you’re looking for fun, skills or investing in your children’s future, I really think you’d enjoy the fun and frolic, the music and dance dance dance of Ms. Marian’s Dance Garden.

​​I ​have to credit your dance classes these past few years for giving ​Aila the confidence to try new experiences. She really knows how to embrace what comes to her and that​'​s because of you and the Dance Garden! Thank you!!​

This will be our second year at Ms Marian and my 3.5 year old is so excited to be back. Ms Marian is great with the children! She is very animated with them and makes the classes super fun for the little ones. We especially love the Tap & Ballet dance class because it offers the best of two dance worlds! Throughout the week when we don't go to class, my daughter still loves to put her ballet gear and dance around and pretend she is at the Dance Garden. We are so happy Ms Marian was recommended to us, the studio is a little gem in the Richmond.

We were looking for a ballet class, but found that most instructors were rather militant and strict. That wasnt for us. But then we were referred to Ms Marian. We really struck gold with Ms Marian as our daughter absolutely LOVES her, and honestly we as parents love her too. She is caring, professional and always finds a way to make her classes fun and engaging. Our daughter started out with Storytime Ballet over a year ago and now is enrolled in 3 classes with Ms Marian including tap and hiphop.

My granddaughter has taken a sewing class, several dance classes, and camps over the past 5 years. She especially enjoys the "Tour" where they perform for other schools. Ms. Marion gives "special" attention to each child--they all gain confidence and enjoyment in their life through her enthusiasm and caring instruction.

My daughter, a generally shy toddler, began dancing with Ms Marian when she was three. The morning before her first recital I was concerned with whether or not she would be bold enough to perform. As we were getting ready to leave, I heard my daughter say, "I love to perform on stage!" I was surprised and pleased that my daughter found a way to express herself at such a young age. She's almost nine now and continues to enjoy the creative and performance based programs at the Dance Garden.

Ms. Marian is fantastic with kids and her activities are very fresh, fun and exciting! My four year old daughter attended Ms. Marian's pre-K summer camp last year. I wish she could have done every week--she LOVED it.

My daughter had an absolutely wonderful week of sewing camp with Ms. Marian. She came in as a novice and was supported to learn new skills each day. Ms. Marian gave my daughter the confidence and knowledge to get comfortable on the sewing machine and to experiment over the course of the week with hand sewing. The week culminated with a presentation where each students proudly shared their hand and machine-made items to us. Compared to other sewing classes I've seen, Ms. Marian provides the most diversity of projects and close supervision of the students to ensure they succeed. She is incredibly patient and passionate about kids.

I have brought both my daughters to Ms. Marian's Dance Garden for the last two years--for lessons during the week and two camps in the summer. Ms. Marian is such a treasure--she truly loves these little girls and works to build their joy, confidence, and social skills through dance, creative movement, music, crafting, and performance. My girls have blossomed in her care, and they have formed such a love for performance, which has been a great blessing given how shy they were at first.
I have loved seeing them grow in confidence, and there's nothing sweeter than watching their eyes light up every time they see Ms. Marian. She has a true, rare, gift with little ones and is in this business because she really cares about these children. Just look at all the older volunteers who have studied with her for years, who are now at the Dance Garden helping her continue the tradition they experienced as kids! They're devoted graduates who have such loyalty for their teacher.
If I could only sign up for one camp for my girls in the summer, this would be it. Great (actually, amazing) value for all they do and learn in their days with her. They would go every week if they could!

What an amazing place Ms. Marian's is! So full of fun, creativity, and joy. Kids learn great dance technique and so much more. It is performance-oriented, meaning that kids are constantly learning new steps and routines. They often perform for parents at the end of class in costume, and they choreograph steps themselves and learn how to work together in an ensemble. My two kids, age 9 and 7, just love their dance classes there, as well as the summer camps and winter break camps. My daughter especially loved the Dance Production camp -- it was the highlight of her summer.