Art of the Dance Academy

The Artistic Director, Leslie Dee, began making her dance dreams come true at age 2. Her first teacher was Miss Sanborn who taught out of her home in Glendale, California. Her first dance was "Ball in the Jack". She then took classes with Miss Mimi (mother of 50's B Movie actress Joan Taylor) on Glenoaks Blvd. in Glendale. Her first dance there was "Priscilla Takes her Parasol" At Miss Mimi's there was a picture of her daughter, Joan Taylor, on her toes in black pointe shoes. She was dressed like a Native American princess surrounded by two male dancers dressed like Indians. Leslie fell in love with this picture. One day she announced. "I want to dance like that".

Off she went to the best ballet studio in that area back in those days, La Petite Ballet. Step by step this lead to training for a career at San Francisco Ballet. Then on a whim she auditioned for a modern dance company. She then fell in love with the freedom and passion of modern dance. The fluidity, emotion and drama of modern dance suited her. So instead of dancing on stage in pointe shoes, she danced barefoot with Martha Graham Dance Company and Jose Limon.

When her professional career was over, she returned to the San Fernando Valley and began teaching until opportunity knocked. The former owner of Art of the Dance retired in 2000 and Miss Leslie took over the helm in 2001. When she began teaching, she went back to college to ensure she was learning the craft of her new profession, dance teacher. This made her a well trained professional dancer with years of teaching experience and a degree from UCLA in dance education.

All this experience and training has gone into the development of a dance program that brings a love of dance, excellent technique and amazing artistry to every student at the studio. When it comes to the students at Art of the Dance, their joy is her passion and their future her priority.