Magnolia Dance Academy

"I absolutely love the place. Very friendly, clean and affordable. A great experience for young children who love to dance. My kids have attended for 3 years so far and love it."

"This was my last year at the Westbury Academy of Dance, and I am so sad to be leaving! I have made such good friends in my fourteen years at this studio. I highly recommend this studio to anyone looking for a fun and enjoyable dance experience!"

"I've been there for 5 years and I loved it there so go there if you want to go to dance"

"This is my daughters first year taking dance class. She begged me to find her a studio, since all of her classmates were taking dance. I searched online and in person for several weeks, not being impressed with any of the local companies, until I decided to stop for a Ralph's ices on Carmen Avenue in East Meadow. Crossing the street, I couldn't help but notice this cute neat looking dance studio nestled in among the stores on the block. What immediately drew my attention was the pictures of all the dancers in the windows. How professional these pictures looked! Not to mention the young ladies faces all seemed so happy and proud! What sold me was the beautiful differences!! Some of the other dance studios I looked into unfortunately seemed to have only one type of look for a dancer...young, thin, caucasion, dancing from birth, etc. I knew my daughter, being of mixed descent, with no previous dancing experience, would not have felt comfortable in those dance classes, since she was so new to the dance world. So you can imagine my sheer delight when the pictures in the window of Westbury Dance Company revealed beautiful young ladies of EVERY shape, size, ethnicity, creed, religion, background, etc etc. I've never seen a dance company so diverse!!! I was instantly hooked!! The director, Ms Darla, is the most loveliest, sweetest woman ever! Her staff, which includes Ms Laurie, Mr Tom and Pinky, etc, all help to run the company efficiently and smoothly. The classes are wonderfully trained, and every single student is treated like a family member! The warmth, and comfort shown by Mrs Darla and her staff to the students is second to none! The look of pride on my daughters face every time I picked her up after class melted my heart. And whenever I got the chance to say a quick "Hello" to Ms Darla as the classes are switching, she always had something nice to say about my daughter, which boosted not only my daughters eagerness to learn and pride, but made ME feel proud as well! The girls always seemed to be armed with "Great Job" stickers, and little gifts Ms Darla would continually give them at the end of class. Little tokens which made the girls feel wonderful (and us parents too!) And speaking of hearts melting, the rehearsals and actual dance recital blew me away! All my parent friends warned me of "horrors" of the usual dance rehearsals in all of their studies, and the craziness at the time of year, so I was expecting the worse, being this was going to be my 1st dance rehearsal, but the rehearsal flooooooowwwwed so smoothly. And the recital was amazing! This years recital was dedicated to Ms Darla's grandfather (Granpa Joe), which shows again how much of a family orientated studio this is. The quality, professionalism, and talent all the young ladies showed on that stage blew my mind! EVERYONE, from the adorable little 3's to the teenagers, and everyone in between was incredible! The dances were modern, executed perfectly, and in step and in tune. Pinky's opening speech set the tone (which was hilarious!) for an evening of high quality dances! At the end, when all the dancers come on stage to take their final bows, you could tell Ms Darla was so proud of everyone, she was literally in tears! She even took the time and said 'goodbye' to some of her older students who were leaving for college. EVERYONE was acknowledged for all of their hard work and dedication throughout the year, and I knew if she could, she would have hugged every single dancer on that stage! You could easily tell that she cared deeply for all of her students (and there was well over 100 of them!) Its truly a family a Westbury Dance Academy, run by an amazing family, staff and team! My daughter could not WAIT to sign up again for another year (and many years after that) This place is a hidden "family jewel" and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who wants to be a part of a nurturing, warm, family! We absolutely LOVE Westbury Dance Academy! See you next year!"