California Dance Arts

California DanceArts has been La Cañada Flintridge's ballet school since 1987, led by Director Aerin Holt. After decades directing a thriving, high-volume ballet academy, Aerin intentionally walked away from the "dance factory" model to build an exclusive, highly tailored, ballet-focused training program — offering deeply personalized coaching and signature small-group ensembles from a child's very first Pre-Ballet class through pre-professional training.

California DanceArts follows the ABT curriculum and is proud to be affiliated with California Contemporary Ballet, a nonprofit dance company blending classical, contemporary, and theatrical works. With very limited enrollment by design, every dancer receives an unprecedented density of master-teacher feedback in a genuine conservatory environment.

Given the real ABT curriculum affiliation, the extraordinarily deliberate boutique training model, and a real resident nonprofit company, this is a genuinely strong Top Ballet candidate — one of the more distinctive founder stories in the whole project.