Boston Ballet School,

19 Clarendon St, Boston, MA 02116, United States

"This review for sharing an unfortunate incident happened to me on Jan 28th 2024. The whole thing still feels so bizarre and unbelievable. I take an adult class in the early afternoon from 2:15pm to 3:45pm every Sunday there. I usually arrive about 1 hour before to change clothes and do my warm up. Last Sunday I arrived at the studio around 12:50pm, and there was more people around because of the audition. After I changed into the ballet attire, and got to Studio 3 (the class takes place there), it's about 1:05pm. The studio was empty. I went in, and started doing my warm up. I noticed a man was lingering near the piano. After maybe 2 or 3 minutes, I noticed my backpack near me was gone. There is a door connecting studio 3 and studio 4. Not seeing my bag anywhere in studio 3, I opened that door and find the man in studio 4. When I asked him if he has seen my bag, he says there was a girl came in studio 3 and took it, maybe she mistakenly thought it's her bag. But I didn't see or hear anyone coming near me. I then hurried downstairs to talk to the receptionist and security guard. Since there is surveillance camera near the entrance, I was hoping that they could find if my bag is taken mistakenly. The receptionist asked me to write down the items in my bag, and the security guard says that someone will check the footage from the surveillance camera and get back to me on Monday. However, it looks like they were not completely sure about the procedure for handling an incidence like this. After not hearing back on Monday (1/29), I emailed Boston ballet on Tuesday, and the response is that I need a police report, and investigator needs to request the footage. So I ended up filing a policy report on Tuesday. Here is my verdict after the incidence. I am surprised by how this accident could take place, and also the minimum help I get it from it. Usually I see all the adult students just put their belongings outside the studio to take the lesson, although there are lockers in the lock room, but most people don't use it. I think the presence of the security guard, surveillance camera, the checkin process with receptionist, give one a sense of safety. However, the safety seems to be somewhat an illusion. Luckily I took my cellphone out that day, but I can imagine how bad one feels if one loses more valuable electronics like laptops, tablets, etc. Even worse, it's puzzling to me the person lingering in Studio 3 and 4. That person didn't look like a parent (for his age, if he were a parent, the kid would be very young and the person was roaming alone in the two studios), didn't wear ballet slippers in the studios, so I don't think he's a dancer or student there. But the staff in Boston ballet seems to be not concerned by it. I love the lessons I take there and the teachers there are exceptional, my skill improved so much after the lessons there. However, this accident does add a bitter taste to my feeling about Boston ballet."

"That's the best school dance to put your kids. Go Boston ballet."

"As a child danced with the Boston Ballet and have many fond memories of the older dancers and being shown how to bring out the flowers at the end of Coppelia to present to the ballerina, and then to keep it moving to stage left exit pursued by an unbearable sense of how cool she was like a professional athlete. I believe Bruce Marks was there then and I think what he is doing with the city dance program and making sure Boston Ballet is connected to community and serving and engaging with the youth of Boston so kids see themselves represented on the stage is the right way to use an institution like Boston Ballet lest it lose its vitality as some elite and culturally irrelevant artifact. In any case it was a special place to be a little child because everyone was kind and kind of beautiful and inspirational in a way grownups dont maybe realize how much kids pay attention but I felt a sense that it was a company that was young and vibrant and respected and professional and full of potential which time has borne to prove my young observations true. Any child born in the 70s in Boston I believe inherits some of the trauma of that city and it was a gift to have dance presented in a loving way I have nothing but warm memories at 19 Clarendon St. and 270 Tremont St. I will remind you this was the 1980s which is not one of our best decades as earthlings on this planet (my first memories of tv was thinking oh my god television is boring are they just gonna show Iran Contra hearings all day everyday - must a child look at Oliver North sitting there looking like an abandoned puppy for ever on this thing?) So thank you to the adults at and around Boston Ballet at the time for being the grownups in the room and giving us somewhere to dance when not in class at Martin Luther King elementary school in Cambridge. I remember dancing in the Nutcracker performances and the world of backstage Wang theater. I don’t remember I was young but I think we got paid a dollar a performance and I made maybe $18 not adjusted for inflation. I felt a quiet sense of pride for being a professional dancer with my little check from Boston Ballet I hope they still do that with the kids. As an aside, I remember seeing the Alvin Ailey company performing on I believe Super Bowl Sunday when it was patriots Bears game and thinking my mom needed to get her values straight but time has shown she was right with her determination to culture us and wisdom is justified by all her children."

"Fantastic! Some of the best schooling one can get in the world. Lovely faculty offers wonderfully instructive lessons for people of all ages!"

"I went to the adult classes here for about 6 years off and on. I grew up doing ballet, and love the adult classes here. It's often hard to find high quality adult classes because the students have a very wide range in abilities, and the classes do a good job of designing and choreography that is both challenging but also intuitive to learn. I really enjoy class with Arthur Leeth, his choreography is great and his combinations are beautiful and challenging and really fun to do. Excellent experience."