Our Instructors
Yuka Fukuda
Ms. Fukuda hails from Tokyo Japan. She has a trained at Alvin Ailey school and was then invited to join the second company: Ailey II. She then went on to join Dallas Black Dance Theater, and was cast in The King and I touring company. Ms. Fukuda has taught at Nang Young Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, The Colburn School, and The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. She is a certified Horton Instructor. Ms. Fukuda is a dynamic teacher leading her classes with passion and drive.
Robyn Gardenhire
Artistic Director & Founder
Ms. Gardenhire a native Angeleno, returned to Los Angeles after dancing with Cleveland Ballet under the direction of Dennis Nahat , American Ballet Theater, and The White Oak Project both under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Ms. Gardenhire has built a dance institution that reflects the economic and racial diversity of Los Angeles, by offering the life lessons of art and introducing a new generation to concert dance, providing classes in Ballet, Modern, Variations, Pointe, and Yoga.
Our ballet program is based in the Vaganova Method with the American influence of George Balanchine. Movement that exhibits clean and precise lines that moves from one position to the next without any robotic stiffness.
Ms. Gardenhire has been the recipient of: a Fellowship with School of American Ballet, PBS Community Campion, NAACP Award and sits on the board of the Alumni Committee at the School of American Ballet. She was also the catalyst of the American Ballet Theater’s Build-A-Ballet Program that issued out scholarships to minority dancers; one of the recipients being the first African American principal dancer Misty Copland.
Daniella Escamilla
A product of City Ballet of Los Angeles, Ms. Escamilla attended El Camino College. Escamilla has taught at City Ballet of Los Angeles for several years and continues to show great leadership, compassion and strong technique in her career as an instructor. She has been developing the young dancers program and inspiring her students.
Nola Gibson
Studied dance at CBLA, LACHSA and UC Irvin
Has been teaching in CBLA’s young dancers program.