Brooke’s teaching career started at Bard College in New York when her professors placed her in Senior- level dance classes as a Freshman. In her Sophomore year they asked her to teach the makeup ballet classes to her Freshman through Senior peers. After moving to San Francisco she began her Bay Area teaching career while performing with several different Bay Area modern and ethnic choreographers and dance companies such as Ballet Afsaneh, Tango A Media Luz/Tango and More, Lisa Tateosian, Regina Bustillos, Tottentanz Dans Group, Westwind International Folk Ensemble, Spinning Yarns Dance Collective, Erika Essner and Festival Ballet USA in England. She was a founding member of Pampa Y Estrellas, a founding member and Co-Director of Moving Basis modern dance collective, and a dancer with Khadra International Dance Theatre where she worked her way up the ranks from corps dancer to principal dancer to Artistic Director.

She has taught continuously since moving to San Francisco in 1986 and has reached over ten thousand California children and adults. She is honored to have been entrusted with the students of such notable dance and gymnastic institutions as Sonoma Ballet Conservatory, Berkeley Ballet Theatre, Conservatory of Classical Ballet, Danspace, Shan Yee Poon Ballet School, Peninsula Gymnastics, and Gymtowne Gymnastics. Brooke specializes in early preschool movement education to children as young as 14 months, bringing to her classes an obvious academic component derived from her experiences as a former Kindergarten teacher and nursery school aide at Young World Learning Center. She has enjoyed teaching at several preschools, Ganon Early Childhood Development Center, Angelina?s Schools and Gummy Bears Day Care. With Khadra, Brooke has taught arts education residencies to K-5th graders at academic schools such as Jean Parker, Notre Dame Des Victoires, Spring Valley Science Magnet, Sherman and Lakeshore Schools in San Francisco, Hoover and Joaquin Miller Schools in Oakland, Las Lomitas Summer Program in Atherton and many schools throughout California while on tour with Khadra.

Brooke started dancing at age 3 after viewing a ballet performance at age 2 and has trained extensively in several ballet and modern styles, jazz, tap, Musical Theatre, Moiseyev-styled Character Dance, dance styles from the Silk Route and Argentine Tango and Folkloric styles including the Boleadoras, of which she is one of the few North American female practitioners. After creating and implementing popular and innovative programs for Khadra and other Bay Area dance institutions, Brooke co-founded Geary Dance Center with Sonoo Petty in 2011. Brooke feels that excellent technical instruction and creative enjoyment are not mutually exclusive. Her classes combine a real understanding of childhood development, technical training, creativity, humor and patience to create an environment in which dance becomes a part of the person’s life whether as a professional performer, audience member or informed parent of a dance student.

photo credit: Marty Sohl

Sonoo Hiraoka-Petty was born in Kochi, Japan. She began her Jazz training under Ann Barrett at Dancer’s Synectics Group, San Francisco, and continued her Jazz and Tap training with Ann Barrett, Ann Marie Garvin, Lynn Brilhante, Sally Vanloon, Taisen Saito, John Kloss, and Sam Weber. She has studied Ballet with Damara Bennett, Henry Berg, Charles Torres, Andre Reyes, and Sherri LeBlanc. Sonoo began her teaching career in 1988. She has taught at Dancers Synectics Group, Setsuko Kawaguchi Ballet School in Nagoya, Japan, Mercy High School of San Francisco. She has taught at Shan-Yee Poon Ballet School for 13 years. Her guest teaching includes City Ballet School and the Ballet Studio of San Francisco.

Says Sonoo:

My name is Sonoo Petty and I have taught Jazz and Tap dance to children and teens since 1988. I believe that students can best learn to dance in a joyful and supportive environment. Whether my students are serious about becoming professional dancers or are just taking dance classes as part of their after school activities, it is my goal to introduce them to the transformative power and joy of dance.

Participation in this art form will not only increase the child?s power of concentration and ability to work cooperatively with others, it will also teach discipline and instill a self-confidence, which will positively impact every aspect of their current and future lives.

Students will be continually challenged by techniques and routines as they become more skilled and move up to more advanced levels. This growth and sense of accomplishment will not only build strength and coordination, but will also nurture a child?s appetite for life-long learning.

When I started taking dance classes with Ann Barrett in San Francisco, who is an amazing Jazz dance teacher, I fell in love with dance right away because of the way she taught. She believed in laughter. She was strict, but had a magical way of making students laugh while they learned the complicated routines and techniques of Jazz dance. She did not make us feel intimidated or scared of making mistakes. When I was in her class, I always felt as if I could die right there with no regrets, because I was so happy and filled with so much joy. I have never felt so alive. Dance has given me something that no one, regardless of power or position, can ever take away.

We as a global village have made some remarkable technological advances in recent years. Yet the seemingly magical innovations such as the internet and stem cell research have been unable to slow what many would view as an unmistakable unraveling of our social fabric. However, there remains something magical in the arts that continue to speak to us across borders, in spite of our differences.

I would like to share that same magic with all of my students. Through dance, they can become better human beings and feel the joy of life; a joy that no substance or material possession can bring. Dance is happiness. Dance is Love. Dance is Life.