Areté Dance Center

"Last year, I started taking private lessons with Richard and a few of my couple friends. Richard was great at teaching all of us at our various levels of experience, with many being completely new to dancing. We learned a variety of dance styles from classic Latin to our favorite, Richard’s own fusion style. He kept it light and fun and was always open to whatever we wanted to learn. We are looking forward to working with Richard again when it’s time to perfect our wedding dance."

"My fiancé and I learned our first dance at Arete Dance Center. It was a wonderful experience! We had no dance experience and was in hurry to find dance classes. Our request was kindly accepted by Areté Dance Center. The teachers were very helpful and encouraging. We had a great time and memory learning the dance. With the help, we were able to learn a simple yet elegant and romantic first dance within a week, which far exceeds our expectation. Based on our experience, we highly recommends this place for dancing classes."

"Areté starts all students off in an intro class, which covers two styles per month. Each month the styles change. A student typically stays in this intro class, moving from style to style for many months, until a formal series of testing is successfully completed, at which point more advanced classes can be taken. The net of this is that students get a basic introduction to numerous dancing styles while making incremental progress. If your goal is to have a safe community and get a little exercise, while slowly progressing many dance styles, then these group lessons may be right for you. You can hang out at Areté, learn lots of different dance styles, make friends, and build community. This appears to be what most group class students are doing, as we’ve never seen any of them at our local dance haunts. The advanced students also seem to be pursuing competitive ballroom dancing. Areté’s instructors are clearly great dancers and solid communicators. The intro classes aren’t particularly expensive at $60/month per person. And the male-female ratio wasn’t too bad – our class had only three more women than men. The instructors suggest that you rotate partners (good practice IMHO) but they do not insist on it for couples. We, however, quickly realized that Areté’s group classes would not meet our needs. Our goal was to quickly learn a few new swing moves and maybe learn one or two new styles, then take what we learned back to our favorite dance dives. Perhaps private lessons could be the more focused learning experience we are looking for."

"I've been dancing at Arete for three and a half years, and I can only say amazing things about this place and the people I met there. I started going to Arete to dance Zumba, but Kris convinced me to take some Ballroom classes. And what can I say? I fell in love with it! Dancing is now a crucial part of my life, but it was only possible because I found Arete. Kris will make you feel welcome from the beginning; she is passionate about what she does and is a fantastic instructor! She will never make you uncomfortable; you will learn how to dance while having fun which is very important for me (life is already too hard, isn't it?). I've been taking private dance lessons with Richard for three years, and he has helped me trust myself more as a dancer and improve my skills; he pushes me to be better with kindness, humor, and keeping my personal goals in mind. He is a great instructor! I've made good friends in this studio, and I guarantee you won't regret giving yourself the chance to try. Oh, by the way, you don't need a partner to try; plenty of people, including myself, go without their partners."

"All the instructors I’ve worked with have technical background and skill, but also the ability to instill this in students in a way that is both digestible and fun - I think the latter is more difficult to find in a teacher, and it’s also the reason I push myself to practice/learn/grow as much as I do. Kris, who owns the studio and teaches many of the group classes, is absolutely the nicest person. She genuinely cares about/loves her students in a way that creates the studio’s whole atmosphere. ADC truly feels like a family to me, and I couldn’t imagine doing what I’m doing anywhere else."