If your children spend their evenings storyboarding their next feature film or blocking out original one-act plays, you might consider nurturing their creativity with one of these classes.
Art
Katonah Art Center
(914) 232-4843
Caregivers can take classes with kids as young as two, and artists as young as six can start studying technique and form in clay, drawing, sewing, digital art, and more. Cost: $140 to $495. Individual classes cost $25 to $35.
Pelham Art Center
(914) 738-2525
In addition to painting and ceramics, the center offers classes in mask-making, applied arts, world art, and calligraphy. Cost: Five-week courses are $98 for non-members and $88 for members.
Music
Music Conservatory of Westchester
White Plains, (914) 761-390
In addition to offering private instruction, music therapy, and music courses, the Conservatory begins teaching kids as young as two how to play instruments. Older students can join classical orchestras, choruses, and jazz and rock bands. Cost: 16 private, 30-minute lessons, $900; 16 weeks of group lessons, $595.
Hoff-Barthelson Music School
Scarsdale, (914) 723-1169
Pair up for music classes with your infant, or hire a private instructor to teach your child music theory, composition, or conducting. Cost: From $775 to $1,180 for classes; $1,375 for 16 half-hour private lessons.
Music in Chappaqua
(914) 238-3123
This program has a recording studio, a 12-week musical theater program, and even a rock workshop and camp. Most private lessons are given in its studios, but in-home lessons are also offered. Cost: $68 for 30-minute lessons, $55 for hour-long workshops.
The Paul Green School of Rock
Bedford, (914) 234-0418
If your child is more interested in Hendrix than Handel, this music school offers private instruction in rock vocals or instruments, musicianship, songwriting, and the music business. Cost: $300 per month.
Dance
Logrea Dance Academy
Ossining and Briarcliff Manor (914) 941-2939
Co-founder Beth Fritz-Logrea, who joined the Metropolitan Opera’s ballet company at age 16, and her staff teach ballet, tap, jazz, modern dance, hip-hop, and more. Cost: $595 to $3,360, based on age and number of classes taken.
Dance Cavise
Mamaroneck, (914) 381-5222
Dance Cavise teaches a range of dance styles, including ballroom, and hosts a performing arts camp. Cost: One 60-minute class per week, $795; two, $1,485; three, $2,125.
Dance for Joy
Mohegan Lake, (914) 526-4486
Tippy-toe dancing, better known as ballet, is the focus here. The school also maintains a series of small youth ballet companies. Cost: From $475 and to $900.
On Your Toes
Yonkers, (914) 776-2711
Ballet classes begin at age three, and older students can take tap, jazz, hip-hop, and more in addition. Around age nine, kids can audition for the school’s Mini Company, then graduate to more skilled companies, and all classes culminate in a June recital. Cost: $650 to $1,200.
Theater
Applause Westchester
Mamaroneck, (914) 500-2599
True theater buffs looking for training can take acting, singing, audition technique, and dance. Cost: $550 to $1,100 per semester.
Broadway Training Center
Hastings-on-Hudson, (914) 478-5825
At the BTC, the most popular offering is the ensemble program, in which students spend a semester working together on a full-scale production. Cost: Classes are $600 to $900 per semester.
Random Farms Kids Theater
Elmsford, (914) 740-1010
In Random Farms’ 10-session workshops, students audition (for practice only), rehearse, and perform two full-fledged productions a year. Cost: $350 to $525.
Clocktower Players at the Irvington Town Hall Theater Foundation
(914) 400-7428
After first grade, kids can enter into a number of troupes in which they work on a show from audition to final performance at the Irvington Town Hall Theater. Cost: $325 to $800 .
Film
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Future filmmakers shoot their first features at the Media Arts Lab. |
Jacob Burns Film Center Media Arts Lab
Pleasantville, (914) 747-5555
Students in these classes make real movies on the same equipment the pros use, with courses that focus on storytelling, animation, documentary, music videos, digital filmmaking, acting, and film-appreciation. Cost: $25 to $855 .
Rye Arts Center
(914) 967-0700
Weeklong digital photography and digital filmmaking classes are offered for students with no prior experience necessary. Cost: $215 to $290 for 12 sessions.
Also Consider
Two outstanding summer programs
Stone Barns Farm Camp
Pocantico Hills (914) 366 6200
Perfect for the aspiring green guru in your family, the Farm Camp offers kids an opportunity to work in the garden, help tend animals, and prepare snacks with farm-fresh produce. Cost: $400 per week, $360 for farm members.
Muscoot Farms and Young Farmers Camps
Katonah (914) 864-7282
First- through eighth-grade students can enroll in weeklong programs and help around the farm. Each age group is limited to 12 kids, and slots fill up notoriously quickly. Cost: $275 per week.
