- About The Studio
- Meet The Director
- Studio Details
- Visiting The Studio
About Lineage Performing Arts Center
After ten years of frequent touring, Lineage Dance Company, a modern dance company based in Pasadena, CA, has found a home in the new Lineage Performing Arts Center. A dance studio ensconced in a polished brick-and-glass building in the historic Old Town Pasadena district, the center offers classes and hosts dance benefit concerts, musical performances, open mic nights for teens, and more.
Lineage Dance Company was born out of a benefit performance organized by artistic director Hilary Thomas. On a dancer’s budget, she was looking for a way to support Young and Healthy, a nonprofit that helps provide medical care for uninsured Pasadena children. Since 1999, Lineage Dance Company has held dance benefit concerts for nonprofits all over the city,often staging the performances at Pasadena’s Armory Center for the Arts.
Lineage Dance Company has held dance benefit
concerts for nonprofits all over the city.
The company still enjoys partnering with the Armory. But after extensive national touring, Lineage Dance is excited to have its own performance space where the dancers will never need to roll out Marley again. The black, rubbery dance surface, designed to reduce slipperiness, has been laid down on the studio’s sprung floor to stay.
Lineage Dance Company believes in making dance accessible and wants to provide a fun place where people can come to dance just for the love of it. The weekly master class series and company classes draw many professionals and high-level dancers. Meanwhile, the eclectic mix of open-level drop-in adult classes attracts mostly beginning and casual dancers, and those returning to dance.
Supporting nonprofit organizations has always been central to Lineage Dance Company’s mission. So each month Lineage PAC displays an exhibit for a featured nonprofit in its street-facing windows. The studio also hosts a benefit concert or other event, depending on the organization’s needs. For a Pasadena learning and resource center for people with Down syndrome, Lineage PAC started a weekly dance class designed for the center’s community.
Lineage Dance also travels to many sites in Pasadena to offer workshops for the public. Now the company will hold some of these at Lineage PAC, such as a workshop that uses movement to help get mothers and their daughters who are transitioning to middle school talking and figuring out some of the challenges ahead.
Located on Fair Oaks Ave near the corner of Green St, Lineage PAC’s glass storefront is surrounded by brick columns. Inside, the high-ceilinged open-design studio has a front desk by the door and a comfortable seating area. The lobby wall is decorated with paintings of the company’s dancers, made by an artist working from rehearsal photographs. Opposite the lobby is Lineage PAC’s broad Marley dance floor.
Pasadena Dance Festival
Since 2008, Lineage Dance Company has produced the annual Pasadena Dance Festival.
This multi-day celebration of dance, hosted by the beautiful historic Pasadena Civic Center, offers classes, performances, and more.
Lineage Dance Company was inspired to create the festival by Boston’s Dance Across the City Day. For the event, three theaters, including the Schubert Theatre, held dance classes all day. Teachers and performers traveled to participate, and thousands of people attended. There were dance classes taking place on the theaters’ main stages, in the lobbies, and all over the facilities.
After performing at Dance Across the City Day for the first time, the Lineage Dance Company dancers wanted to recreate that kind of celebration in Pasadena.
Through the Pasadena Dance Festival, Lineage Dance raises funds to help bring more arts education to the schools in Pasadena.
The Dancer’s Brain
In 2010, Lineage Dance Company toured with its new repertory piece “The Brain in Motion.” The show’s concept was a natural area of interest for artistic director Hilary Thomas.
“I teach seventh-grade life science,” Hilary says, “so it’s all about the human body . . . which is very apropos of what I like to do with the other side of my brain, which is dance.”
While researching for the show, Hilary investigated the movement disorder of Parkinson’s disease. Impressed by what she learned about the Dance for PD program of the Mark Morris Dance Group in New York, she arranged to visit some of its classes. Seeing the participants benefit inspired her.
Lineage Dance Company started a Dancing with Parkinson’s class at Pasadena’s Huntington Hospital and one in the studio, even acquiring a baby grand piano for live accompaniment. And in August 2010, the company brought members of the Mark Morris Dance Group to Pasadena.
Visiting Mark Morris Dance Group members taught company repertory master classes and also presented workshops on how to teach specialized dance classes for people who have Parkinson’s disease. Both were open to the public.
The Mark Morris Dance Group is an incredible dance company, Hilary says, that she spent a lot of time studying in college. So it was a great experience to be able to bring the company to Pasadena.
Meet Hilary Thomas
Lineage Dance Company artistic director Hilary Thomas grew up in Pasadena, studying ballet at Pasadena Dance Theatre. As a seventh-grade life science teacher, she covers both the human body and teen health issues. Hilary loves her students and feels getting out of the dance world during the day keeps her fresh.
Click thumbnail to view photo.
All the Details: Lineage Performing Arts Center
Contacting the Studio
Phone and E-Mail
Reply turnaround for an e-mail or voice message is normally within 24 hours.
Studio Hours
The studio is open during class hours (morning and evening), but there’s usually also someone there during the afternoon if you want to stop by. Phones are answered all day.
Social Media
Lineage PAC Facebook Page
Lineage PAC posts photos and occasional notices of master classes, art exhibitions, music concerts, and more on its Facebook page.
Lineage Dance Company MySpace Profile
Lineage Dance Company has videos, slideshows, and descriptions and reviews of quite a few of the company’s dance pieces.
Videos Page
Lineage Dance Company has a videos page on their web site with a number of demo reels of their performance pieces, as well as footage documenting the Pasadena Dance Festival the company puts on every year at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Studio News
Lineage Dance RSS Feed
You can subscribe to the Lineage Dance web site’s RSS feed (on either the Lineage Dance home page or the Lineage PAC page) to be notified when a new class schedule is posted.
Lineage Dance Newsletter
Lineage Dance has an e-mail newsletter.
How to Sign Up for the Newsletter
You can sign up for the newsletter on any page of the Lineage Dance web site. There’s a simple form to submit your e-mail address.
Class Information
Class Schedule
The class schedule is posted on the Lineage PAC Classes page of Lineage Dance’s site.
Class Prices
Class prices can be found on the on the Lineage PAC Classes page. You can pay for classes at the studio, or you can also buy a single class, class package, or monthly unlimited classes on Lineage Dance’s online scheduling and purchasing system.
Attendance Options
No advance sign-up is needed for LineagePAC’sregularly scheduled drop-in classes, most of which are open level.
You can purchase tickets in advance and reserve a space in a workshop or one of the studio’s frequent master classes on Lineage Dance’s online scheduling and purchasing system. The master class series is geared to intermediate/advanced/professional dancers and offers a variety of technical styles.
Advance reservations are recommended, as these classes can fill up. Give the studio a call the first time if you’re not sure how to ensure that you’ve both purchased your ticket and made your reservation.
Visiting Lineage PAC
Policies and Things to Know
Being on Time
For safety, please try to arrive within 15 minutes of the start time of your class. Permission to join class late is at the discretion of the instructor.
Age Range
The minimum age for adult classes is 12. There are no adult-only classes.
Class Payment
Lineage PAC accepts cash, check, and credit cards (VISA and MasterCard, but not American Express).
First-Time Students
Please arrive 5 minutes early for your first class to fill out the studio’s liability waiver form and get signed in.
Water and Snacks
Water
Room-temperature bottled water is available for a suggested donation of $1. There’s a small donation box next to the snacks.
Snacks
Energy bars such asPowerbars, Tiger’s Milk bars, andGenSoybars are available for a suggested donation of of $1. There’s a small donation box next to the snacks.
Restaurant Meals
Located in scenic Old Town Pasadena, Lineage PAC is within close walking distance of everything from snack shops to fine dining.
Studio Features and Amenities
Changing for Class
Lineage PAC has men’s and women’s single-occupancy restrooms at the back. Walk straight back through the seating area (alongside the dance floor) and through the open entranceway to the rear of the studio, then turn left. The restrooms are spacious and appropriate for changing for class.
Waiting Areas and Lounges
The studio has an open design. The front desk is by the door when you walk in. Opposite, next to the dance floor, is a display of flyers and brochures about Lineage Dance Company, Lineage PAC, and their programs, events, and classes.
Toward the rear, a seating area is furnished with soft couches, benches, and seating cubes. You can observe class comfortably from here, as well as wait for class or hang out with your fellow dancers afterward.
Dance Floor
The studio has a sprung Marley dance floor.
Personal Training Facilities
The studio has a personal training room, just past the end of the dance floor and to the right (across from the restrooms).
Baby Grand Piano
There’s a baby grand piano in the studio for live accompaniment.
Clothing and Other Goods
Lineage PAC has a variety of items such as shirts, tank tops, calendars, and Pasadena Dance Festival tote bags available for purchase, as well as the company’s 10th anniversary commemorative book. Many of these items are also available in the Lineage Dance online store.
The dance company performs frequently! You can find out about and purchase tickets for upcoming performances and other events, such as the company’s music concert series, on the Lineage Dance Performances/Tickets page.
Navigating to the Studio
Travel Alert: One-Way Street at North End of Block
Green St, on the north side of the studio’s block, is an eastbound one-way street.
Finding the Studio
Lineage PAC is in the middle of a large glass-and-brick building that occupies the block of Fair Oaks Ave between Green St and Dayton Ave. There’s a picture of the entrance in the Studio Gallery in the sidebar.
For a good view of the whole building, go to the Studio Info box at the top of the right sidebar and click the “See more: Google Maps” link. Then click on the red location marker on the map and select “Street View” on the pop-up box.
There are several storefronts, so you may not recognize the studio as you drive by. Once you’re on foot, just peek into each window as you walk down the block. There’s not a big sign anywhere, but you’ll probably spot a Lineage Dance logo like the one in the sidebar of this profile in the front window.
Parking Structure
Old Pasadena Schoolhouse Parking Structure
The first 90 minutes of parking are free—no validation needed—at the Old Pasadena Schoolhouse. This multilevel City of Pasadena public parking structure is extremely close to Lineage PAC, catty-corner from the studio on the corner of Fair Oaks Ave and Green St.
The two entrances display big yellow “Public Parking” signs (high on the side of the building):
- Green St (a one-way eastbound street), north side, half a block east of Lineage PAC.
- Raymond Ave, a few yards north of the corner of Green St and Raymond Ave.
As of last check, after the first 90 minutes, the parking rate is $2 per hour, and the daily maximum is just $6. Between 10 pm and 5 am, a $5 flat rate is charged. Signs say the facility doesn’t accept bills larger than $20.
Street Parking
Metered street parking is available in the area of the studio. Meters in Pasadena are strictly enforced by bike patrol officers, so keep your meter fed!
Lineage PAC’s Block of Fair Oaks Ave
Parking on the studio’s block has $1.25 per hour meters and a 2-hour limit. Streets north of the studio (closer to Colorado Bl) will generally have the same or shorter limits.
Fair Oaks Ave and Other Streets South of Lineage PAC
Fair Oaks Ave a block south of the studio, as well as south cross street Dayton Ave, offer 75 cents per hour meters and 4-hour parking.
Most meters and time limits in the area apply 8 am-8 pm Sunday-Thursday and 8 am-midnight Friday-Saturday.
That said, Pasadena has a tradition of free early bird parking in the mornings. Most parking is free 8-11 am daily (parking time limits apply, but you don’t have to feed your meter).
When parking, always check street signs on the block to verify details.
Public Transportation
Lineage PAC by Subway
Lineage PAC is just 2-3 blocks from the L.A. Metro Gold Line’s Del Mar station.
Walking Directions
When you exit the station, head toward the park. The park is on the west side of Raymond Ave, across the street from the station. The street on the north side of the park, Dayton Ave, is one of the studio’s cross streets. Walk to the northwest corner of the park, where Dayton Ave and Fair Oaks Ave intersect. Lineage PAC is across the street and half a block north on Fair Oaks Ave.
It’s easier to visualize if you take a quick look at the map. The park is the green rectangle.
Lineage PAC by Bus
The L.A. Metro bus has good service to the heart of Old Town Pasadena. Many major bus lines, including express routes, stop as little as a block from Lineage PAC.
We recommend looking for buses that stop at the major intersection of Fair Oaks Ave and Colorado Bl, one block north of the studio. There are also many other nearby stops.
