Let's Boogie

Where to learn ballet, bachata, and even belly dancing in Dallas-Fort Worth

No judgement, just dance.

Photo by valentinrussanov/Getty

Dance is one of those forms of exercise that doesn't feel like a chore. But you don't need to confine your best moves only to the dance floor at weddings — Dallas-Fort Worth has lots of studios offering adult classes for all levels of skill and fitness.

Whether you danced as a child or have never had a sense of rhythm, look into these no-judgement adult classes and dance like no one's watching.

Dallas

Avant Chamber Ballet
Intro to Ballet, Beginner Level 1, and Beginner Level 2 are all represented with these adult classes, which run weekly mid-March through April. The classes are taught by ACB dancer Melissa Meng, and come with this lovely disclaimer: "The program is designed to be fun and inclusive, with no pressure to achieve perfection. It is a non-judgmental environment where adults of all ages, body types, and abilities can learn and grow together. The focus is on individual progress and improvement, rather than comparison to others. The main goal of this program is to provide a welcoming and enjoyable learning experience for adults who want to explore the beautiful and graceful art form of ballet."

Contemporary Ballet Dallas
This longtime Lakewood studio has relocated to Mockingbird and 75, and that means a much larger space and more class availability. For adults of all skill and fitness levels, they offer tap, ballet, jazz, dance fitness, and even online classes, though it should be noted that ballet is required first before signing up for the other styles.

Grit Fitness
The Dallas fitness staple also offers hip hop classes, where during each 55-minute class you will learn one minute of original hip hop dance choreography. No dance experience required, and you can show up in sneakers.

JamBox Fitness
Choose from three locations (Design District, Frisco, and Galleria) and several different styles: Afro Fit, Cardio Dance, Trap Sculpt, and Get Tah' Stepping.

Kumbala Dance Studio
This Farmers Branch-based studio specializes in the Latin rhythms of salsa, bachata, merengue, cumbia, reggaeton, cha cha cha, and many others through daily group and private classes. You can either drop in or become a member, which means you can take group classes up to six days per week, plus several dance, and styling workshops during the month

Movement Loft Studios
Round out your dance classes with gentle yoga and deep stretching at this studio near Deep Ellum, which offers contemporary, jazz, hip hop, modern, and more. Each class is choreography based and changes weekly, so no two classes are ever alike.

MoveStudio
Gain a firmer foundation in the muscle awareness and mind-body connection necessary to grow as a dancer with this belly dance program. Each weekly class builds on the next, and you'll be mastering the basic steps, isolations, musical rhythms, and layering of movement.

Fort Worth

Billy Bob's Texas
If it's not already in your Texan blood, learn to line dance at the world's largest honky tonk. Sundays are for couples dance classes, Tuesdays and Wednesdays offer free line dancing classes at 7 pm, and Saturdays bring 20 percent off lunch in addition to a free dance lesson.

DivaDance
Called a "a sexy, sweaty, stress-free pop-music dance party," this franchised studio was born as an alternative to competitive dance studios targeting only those who were Broadway-bound. There are eight Dallas locations and one in Fort Worth.

Fred Astaire Dance Studios
The master of dance himself co-founded this now-franchised studio in 1947, and now it's the place to learn ballroom dancing by yourself or with a partner, for a major event or just for fun. Located on West 7th, the studio has everything from beginner to advanced classes and even social group classes.

SkyPole Fitness
You may have touched a pole once or twice at a bachelorette or birthday party, but here's your chance to really learn the moves. In addition to pole, you can also explore aerial hammocks, chair dancing, and a twerk class.

Studio of MoveMint
The highly Instagrammable studios across from Fort Worth Country Day are already a hit for younger dancers, but parents can get in on the fun too. Drop in for ballet, contemporary, cardio hip hop, and jazz classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Texas Ballet Theater
Intended to bridge the gap between fitness and fun, adult classes here focus on strength, flexibility, and rhythm. From Absolute Beginner Ballet to tap and jazz, there are in-person and virtual options at both the Fort Worth and Richardson facilities.

dance health fitness promoted

cattle concerns

Flesh-eating screwworm fly detected in Texas for first time since 1966

Photo courtesy of Texas A&M AgriLife

This little fly can do a lot of damage

The New World screwworm fly has reached south Texas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed June 3, the first time in decades that the parasite with flesh-eating larvae has threatened the nation's cattle industry and only the third time it's appeared in the U.S. in that time.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the case was in a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 50 miles from the Mexico border. Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges said he has established a 12-mile quarantine zone, prohibiting the movement of any warm-blooded animal — including pets — outside that zone without an inspection.

Rollins said there have been no other detections of the fly in the U.S., and officials were quick to say that while the fly’s larvae are a threat to livestock production, they don’t infest food. Properly treated, even the infested calf should recover, Rollins said.

Rollins, U.S. and Texas agriculture officials, and cattle industry leaders have been sounding public alarms about the fly’s movement across Mexico for more than a year, spurred on by memories of it causing tens of millions of dollars of losses — potentially billions in today’s dollars — before its eradication in the 1970s.

It is the first case confirmed in Texas since 1966, Rollins said.

The months of effort to keep the fly out of the U.S. have included dropping millions of sterile screwworm flies in the area to mate with wild females — the same method used successfully before the fly was eradicated. Rollins said the USDA is confident enough in its preparations that it believes “there is no threat of mass infestation.”

“There is no reason to believe this incursion will result in establishment of the pest in our country," Rollins said.

The announcement of the suspected case comes only a day after Rollins had an online news conference to highlight the nearness of the threat, with cases being confirmed in Mexico as close as 25 miles from the border — and to outline the USDA's efforts to combat it.

The New World Screwworm fly is a tropical species that decades ago infested cattle in warm weather across the southern United States, but it was contained in Panama until late in 2024.

The female fly lays its eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes and they hatch into larvae that eat flesh — making them unlike most fly species — and can infest livestock, wild mammals, household pets and even humans. Infestations can lead to death if left untreated.

In August 2025, federal health officials confirmed a case in a Maryland resident who had traveled to El Salvador, but the victim recovered and officials found no transmission of the parasite. Before that, the last outbreak was in the Florida Keys in September 2016, mostly among wild deer, and it was contained early the next year without spreading further.

The female flies mate once in their monthslong lives, and if they do so with a sterile fly, their eggs would not hatch — and the population would die out over time. Past eradication efforts were so successful that the U.S. shut down facilities for breeding sterile flies, leaving only one in Panama for decades.

That is changing. The USDA dedicated $21 million to convert a fruit-fly breeding facility in southern Mexico into one for breeding screwworm flies, opened a new center for dispersing sterile flies bred elsewhere in southern Texas and has started construction on a $750 million screwworm fly factory there. The breeding facility in Mexico should be operating next month, Rollins said.

Officials also deployed 8,000 fly traps along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Rollins said the USDA has tested more than 58,000 fly samples, along with 19,000 wild animals.

Rollins also closed the U.S.-Mexico border last year to livestock imports from Mexico, a decision she defended during her news conference Tuesday. The fly also can travel with people and their pets and with wild animals, officials noted, but Rollins stressed Wednesday evening that it doesn't fly great distances on its own.

Dinges said ranchers and pet owners need to understand that it's important to respect the quarantine zone.

“Please help us prevent any further movement of this pest by staying put,” he said.

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