Fred Astaire Dance Studios — Local services in New York

We could not have asked for a better teacher than Anthony Soto. My husband and I took lessons for our first dance and our experience was so beyond our expectations. Anthony is so kind, such an excellent teacher, and guided us through the whole experience without ever making it feel overwhelming.

Anthony took time to get to know us as a couple and understand our skill level before creating the original choreography for our first dance song. He put so much thought into the choreography to reflect our personalities, and lined up certain moves with the lyrics in beautiful ways (e.g., including dips to the lyrics “may we never come down” and resting my head on my husband’s shoulder to “be a pillow for you”). We were blown away by the effort he put into it.

Marie Perez, the front desk manager, is also incredibly warm, helpful, and supportive. She’d help us during our lessons by being the female stand in to show us the choreography and she cheered us on throughout our whole journey!

You can tell Anthony and Marie love what they do. We so looked forward to each lesson and were genuinely sad when we were through with our 10-class package (we plan on bringing friends and coming back though!) It was a great motivation because we wanted to make them proud, and by the end they had us feeling comfortable and confident going into our wedding day. It was our favorite “wedding planning”...

My fiancé and I had an introduction lesson at 5 studios. This one was by far the best combination of technical ability, creativity/choreography & value. The other studios were either good technically or creatively. Not both

Jacob our instructor was on Dancing With The Stars in Georgia & coincidentally danced the same song we want for our 1st dance at our wedding: You are the Reason. He choreographed a beautiful piece that was manageable by myself, who dislike dancing, never dance & am not good at it. He also also speaks Russian which was helpful for Masha

The staff are friendly & efficient. They send automated emails to confirm each lesson. If you miss a lesson they allow you to make it up for free within the same week, which is reasonable. The space is nice & clean & not overly crowded

They have free dance parties on Fridays that you really should try. They also host events every 2 months at dance clubs & restaurants, where you hold your spot with a $40 fee, but that then becomes a credit at that place, which is very nice

Oxana and Anastasia at the front were both nice and friendly and attentive. Like every dance studio, at least half the instructors and staff are Eastern European

Overall a 5* experience, and I’m a very critical perfectionistic type...

This studio has a very welcoming environment and I have never experienced pressure to sign up for large blocks of lessons in advance. The instructors, as you would expect from Fred Astaire, are accomplished ballroom dancers, but most importantly, they have great skill and patience in the art of teaching ballroom dancing. As a relatively casual student, I've taken lessons for a number of years, and have been able to observe students who were clearly just starting out become very skilled in an amazingly short time frame......it speaks again to the instructors' abilities. Male students (such as myself) work with female teachers but there are always male teachers who happily jump in to demonstrate a tricky step when needed so that you get to see how it's performed from the lead partners perspective. And these guys are really good. So you always get the feeling that the instructors at this studio are locked in to seeing you make progress as a ballroom dancer. My schedule is very restricted but there are endless parties, group classes, showcases, competitions and other social events for students to participate in. All in all, if you want to learn ballroom dancing, this studio should certainly get...