About Dance Centre Kenya

Founded in January 2015, Dance Centre Kenya (DCK) has grown to become Kenya’s preeminent dance school, with over 500 students taking classes in the three DCK studios (Karen Hardy, Lavington and Rosslyn) and approximately 1,000 more taking DCK-taught classes in 15 schools throughout Nairobi.

From small beginnings, Dance Centre Kenya was established by a few families of talented dancers who wished to advance their children’s training: the Plumbe, Shaw/Dolan and Vadera families. With very different backgrounds and professions, these families shared the same vision of providing a world class level of training to children in Kenya. Professional American ballerina Cooper Rust was brought on board as Artistic Director, and Dance Centre Kenya was born.

Since then the number of students has grown and the range and styles of dance classes offered has expanded greatly. The breadth of support and involvement of artists and ballet lovers both locally and abroad has been humbling. Our first performance on a makeshift stage in the gardens of the Purdy Arms without tutus has grown over the years into full-length ballet performances on the stage of the Kenya National Theatre, including Cinderella, a Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo & Juliet. The Nutcracker at Christmas time has become an annual tradition on the Nairobi social calendar and has previously included collaborations with the Nairobi Philharmonic Orchestra and visiting international conductors and guest musicians.

Throughout the pandemic, DCK has continued to provide its students with world-class dance and gymnastics training, whether through virtual learning or live classes in our three studios across Nairobi. All of this culminated in our first ever virtual recital held in June of 2021.

From DCK’s inception there has been a commitment to teaching talented students from all walks of life, irrespective of their ability to pay for training. DCK’s sponsorship programme, in conjunction with American charity Artists for Africa, has already affected the lives of many dancers from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are honoured to have both generous local and international sponsors for these talented dancers, and for the past five years a number of our students have travelled to the U.S. to train in South Carolina, while others have been accepted in summer intensives in Europe. Some of DCK’s sponsored students are now in full-time dance training programs abroad and others are in colleges and universities using the skills gained from their dance training to pursue their own dreams. Most recently Joel Kioko, one of DCK’s first sponsorship students, was given a contract to dance with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago for their 20212022 season and is now with the Nevada Ballet Theatre. With a training programme based on the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) syllabus and annual examinations, as well as multiple performance opportunities, DCK provides aspiring dancers with so much more than just technical training.