Best arty classes in Melbourne this month

Always wanted to channel a prima ballerina? Now you can, with the Australian Ballet's new adult casual ballet classes, run by former and current dancers at the company and set to a live piano soundtrack.

Simply choose your poison: Beginner, intermediate or advanced? Full series ($160) or casual classes ($33)? Either way, you'll be perfecting your pirouette in no time.

Ever wanted to star in your own Bollywood film? Head to Studio J, where you can learn the basics of Bollywood dance styles like Bolly-Natyam and Bharatanatyam almost every night of the week. Choose a casual class to kick off your Bollywood dream, or sign up for a ten week course to project yourself into Shane Warne-style stardom. We can't promise anything, though.

This Brunswick artist-run studio specialises in ceramics and visual arts. At their pottery short courses, students are not only encouraged to work the wheel, they can also learn to create sculptural objects using hand-building techniques. The studio’s instructors are amazing artists whose work are often found in the city’s best craft shops, so you’ll be learning from the best.

Can’t tell one left foot from the other? Try a free salsa class and soon you’ll be twirling like a Latin American natural. At The Salsa Foundation, the beginners classes are free, until you progress to the next level of either salsa or bachata. Paid private lessons are available, too.

The world may be getting more online and digital, but old-school circus skills will never stop thrilling audiences. If you’ve ever hankered to learn how to juggle, walk the tightwire or swing from a trapeze, your chance has arrived with a session at the National Institute of Circus Arts’ Come & Try Circus Day – or just dive right into their five week Intro To Circus course.

Learning a new instrument as an adult is a hard task. For one, instruments are hella expensive, meaning you often have to shell out a small fortune for something you’re not even sure you’ll be that good at. Enter: the Music Gym.

The Music Gym is an initiative created by music teacher Catherine Prifti. Having been immersed in music for over two decades, Prifti has honed her skills as a pianist, conductor and teacher. She came up with the idea of letting adults learn new skills in a convenient location where you can squeeze in a class during your lunch break, before or after work.

Keen participants can sign up for voice, piano and guitar lessons at the Music Gym. Here you'll be able to learn basic skills (or brush up on old skills) with state-of-the-art instruments and expert teachers at your side. Classes can be purchased at a casual one-off rate, or be put into 10-pack, three-month, six-month and 12-month subscription rates.

You’ll find the Music Gym at Melbourne’s Galleria, at the intersection of Bourke, Elizabeth and Little Collins streets.

Slow Clay Center offers classes and workshops for beginners to pottery experts in a beautiful Collingwood warehouse. The studio specialises in ergonomically sound Japanese techniques, which encourages students to work efficiently and with correct posture as they learn to work with clay. The practice can be so relaxing that students at Slow Clay sometimes call it clay yoga, so how’s that for mindfulness. Classes are run in eight week terms, so you’ll need to register ahead to ensure you have a spot.

If you've always wanted to have a crack at painting, but you’ve never had the courage to sign up for a class, now is the time to take the plunge with Cork & Chroma. This Collingwood studio runs beginners’ painting sessions, fuelled by a healthy serve of wine.

The three-hour classes cater to novice painters looking to create surrealist dreamscapes or work on life-like strokes with acrylics on canvas. An in-house artist will take you through a step-by-step tutorial to help you paint a masterpiece to take home. And if you’re into grown-up grape juice, bring a bottle of your favourite vino to stoke those creative fires and help you laugh through any colourful mishaps.

The Windsor Workshop is a creative space not only offering workshops, but also functioning as a gallery to show off local artists' work. They also run workshops offsite – from ikebana to ceramics, punch needling and more. In their own words, it's "a warm and fuzzy space where people collaborate, share ideas, work hard, slack off, be productive, get crafty, share a wine or two and anything else they can think of."

Northcote Pottery Supplies is the go-to spot for pottery pros to buy materials like clay, glazes, and tools, but they also offer short courses and workshops (ranging from four to eight weeks) to bulk up your pottery skills from wheel throwing to glazing. After a few pieces for the house? Northcote Pottery Supplies’ retail space Smallpieces sells ceramics and artwork from local artists and the studio’s alumni or studio residents.

When Chester Garcia and Matt Branagan set up Sydney’s Work-Shop in June 2013, their mission was simple: to help people unleash their creativity, and to offer short creative courses that didn’t cost a week’s pay.

And that’s what happened. In collaboration with artists and experts, Work-Shop has fostered whole new clans of Sydney unicyclists, Ottoman-makers, street artists, tattoo illustrators, rappers and coffee-shop networkers.

Here in Melbourne since late 2014, Work-Shop has become a firm favourite. Do you think you’ve got what it takes to learn the harmonica, create a next-level selfie on a 3D printer, or master sleight of hand at the How to be a Houdini workshop? Of course you do – everyone does. That’s the Work-Shop philosophy.