At 6:15 on a Tuesday morning, the lights are already on at The Heights Ballet Academy. Inside Studio B, fourteen teenagers warm up at the barre, the first of six hours of training that will end only after most of their peers have finished the school day. The mirrors are scuffed at ankle height from years of pointe work. A faded poster of Swan Lake hangs near the water fountain. Nothing about the space announces itself as exceptional—until you notice where these dancers are heading.
Over the past decade, East Richmond Heights has quietly built a reputation as one of the Bay Area's most consequential ballet communities. What began with a single storefront studio in 2011 has grown into a dense network of schools, training programs, and performance opportunities that regularly send dancers to professional companies. The transformation happened without national press or celebrity backing. It happened because of geography, timing, and a handful of people who decided this unincorporated corner of Contra Costa County could support something ambitious.
Why Ballet Took Root Here
The East Bay has long lived in the shadow of San Francisco's dance institutions. For decades, promising young dancers from Richmond, El Cerrito, and surrounding communities commuted across the bridge for quality training—an expensive and exhausting ritual that filtered out many families. East Richmond Heights offered an alternative: affordable industrial and retail space close to BART and major freeways, a diverse population of families hungry for accessible arts education, and just enough distance from San Francisco to develop its own identity.
"The first five years, we were basically proving that you didn't need a San Francisco zip code to get pre-professional training," says Elena Voss, former principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, who joined The Heights Ballet Academy as artistic director in 2019. "Now we're proving you can build something distinct here—something that isn't just a satellite of the city."
Voss's arrival marked a turning point. Within two years, the academy had expanded from two studios to five and added a men's scholarship program that now accounts for nearly 30 percent of its enrollment. In 2022, the National Association of Dance named it a Regional School of Excellence, citing its graduate placement rate: seven of its alumni currently dance with professional companies, including Ballet San Jose, Sacramento Ballet, and Smuin Contemporary Ballet.
Inside the Studios
The Heights Ballet Academy and Richmond Dance Center, located less than two miles apart, dominate the local landscape but serve different populations. The Heights operates as a pre-professional conservatory, with a six-day-a-week schedule, mandatory pointe conditioning for female students, and a curriculum that pairs Vaganova technique with choreography workshops and dance history seminars. Annual tuition runs $8,400, though roughly 40 percent of students receive some form of financial aid.
Richmond Dance Center takes a broader approach. Founded in 2014 by husband-and-wife team David and Angela Okonkwo—both former dancers with Dance Theatre of Harlem—the center serves about 220 students, from three-year-olds in creative movement to adults in beginner ballet. Its pre-professional track is smaller and newer, but growing: the Okonkwos added a partnering class in 2021 and launched a student choreography showcase that has become a local draw.
"The mistake is thinking every student needs the same thing," says Angela Okonkwo, who oversees the center's youth program. "Some of our kids will dance professionally. Some will become doctors who take adult beginner class at thirty-five because they need it for their mental health. Both journeys matter. Both happen here."
The faculty between both schools includes former dancers from San Francisco Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Oakland Ballet, with combined professional company experience exceeding 80 years. Several teachers still perform occasionally, which means students regularly watch their instructors prepare for stage roles while demanding the same precision from them at the barre.
A Community That Shows Up
The ballet scene here depends on more than studio walls. Each March, the Annual East Richmond Heights Ballet Festival fills the 800-seat Community Theater for three consecutive nights. The 2023 festival drew approximately 2,400 attendees from across the Bay Area, from Vallejo to San Jose, with student tickets priced at $12 and general admission at $28. The programming mixes classical excerpts with new works by local choreographers, including pieces created specifically for the festival.
For many families, the festival has become an annual ritual. Maria Santos, whose 16-year-old daughter trains at The Heights, has attended every year since 2017. "I didn't know anything about ballet before my daughter started," Santos says. "Now I buy my tickets in October. I recognize the same ushers. I know which coffee shop stays open late on festival nights. It feels like ours."
Smaller events sustain the community between festivals. Richmond Dance Center hosts free open classes for public school students on select Saturdays. The Heights runs an injury prevention
