Coconut Grove Ballet is celebrating its 20th year

Coconut Grove Ballet, the family owned mother-daughter academy, is celebrating its 20th year of sharing the passion of dance. The academy began when Doris Noriega, a Peruvian immigrant, started teaching ballet to friends and family in her own home. News quickly spread of the private lessons. Before too long, there were so many students Doris had to move the school to a new location.

The school continued to grow not only in size but in course offerings as well, adding new forms ofdance and new teachers. Meanwhile, Carla, Doris’ daughter, was also studying several forms of dance and spending her summers in New York City training in different programs, such the American Ballet Theatre Intensive.

Doris saw her daughter’s potential when she noticed Carla helping students with their technique. She asked Carla to teach one of her classes and from that point, Carla fell in love with teaching. Every year Carla became more involved with the academy.


In 2009, Carla helped facilitate Coconut Grove Ballet’s transition to a brand new location at 2829 Bird Avenue. Since the move, the academy has grown into four major divisions: preprofessional, children's, recreational, and adult. Coconut Grove Ballet is the only academy in Miami that is certified in the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum. 

As certified teachers, Doris and Carla impart breakthrough, ageappropriate, and challenging techniques to their students. All Coconut Grove Ballet preprofessional division ballet teachers have to be certified as well. The academy offers several dance forms including flamenco, jazz, tap, Hip Hop, acrobatics, lyrical, and modern. Despite this growth, Coconut Grove Ballet has not forgotten its humble begins. The academy strives to help its community and can be seen performing in various festivals, donating to school auctions and participating in American Ballet Theatre's Project Plié.

For more information on Coconut Grove Ballet and its divisions visit coconutgroveballet.com and follow @coconutgroveballet on social media.