Goh Ballet, a long-time institution in Vancouver, will open its first Toronto location at Bayview Village with summer workshops and full programming in fall.

The academy will offer comprehensive programs for all ages including creative dance for toddlers, adult drop-in classes, as well as a pre-professional program for young dancers who aspire towards a ballet career.

The company's director, Chan Hon Goh, had a 20-year career at the National Ballet of Canada, which is based in Toronto. She said in the press announcement today that she would remain close to operations, splitting her time between Vancouver and Toronto. 

Here in Vancouver, her parents, Choo Chiat and Lin Yee Goh, founded the Goh Ballet in 1978; before that, they had been dancers in Beijing’s National Ballet of China. The facility still operates at its landmark spot on Main Street.

The new Toronto facility's attachment to a shopping centre echoes the expansion plans the academy has had in Vancouver. Late last fall, the Goh Ballet unveiled new studios at Oakridge Centre here. It has its own parking-lot entrance there and is part of a massive Oakridge Centre redevelopment that's geared for full completion in 2025.

The Ontario centre, to be called Goh Ballet Bayview, is a two-level, 7,000-square-oot space, with a monumental granite staircase and glass railings. It features five dance studios that can transition into three larger spaces. 

Registration for Goh Ballet Bayview’s 2019 annual training programs will open Monday, April 29.