Dance competition shows are everywhere you look on TV these days, and now there’s a new place to practice those dance skills in South Florida.
This week, the new "Dance With Me" studio opened at the Town Center mall in Boca Raton. It’s the first of its kind in the state of Florida. The men behind it are famous faces of dance-brothers Val and Maks Chmerkovskiy and Tony Dovolani, best known for their professional roles on Dancing with the Stars.
The trio is excited for others to see the sport they’ve known and loved for so long and get involved in it.
"This is not a sport you accomplish, this is a sport you live,” said Dovolani.
“We have something that is genuine and honest and pure and inclusive,” said Val Chmerkovskiy.
They say they picked Boca Raton as their first Florida studio for a reason.
“The fact that we’re here is not by accident; we really want to please our fans as we open our locations all over the country,” said Dovolani.
He says he’s been coming down to teach in Boca for years and was always asked when they would open a studio here.
“As a studio, we want to be part of a community that's thriving and growing and also welcomes dance and fitness and things like this,” said Val Chmerkovskiy.
Bonnie Bergman has been dancing for five years and came into the studio for her first lesson there. She was excited to have a studio so close to home in Boca Raton, and with those famous faces behind it.
"I’ve socially met a lot of people through dancing, it’s great exercise, I’ve dropped about 80 pounds since I started dancing, and I just love everything about it, it’s good for your mind and spirit,” said Bergman
And with dance exploding on the airwaves, the guys say it is nice to see more people interested in their passion.
“We loved this, and we did this way before it was cool, so this is coming from a genuine place, but we are grateful that more people get to see what we fell in love with a long time ago,” said Val Chmerkovskiy.
“Sometimes the students that came in with no dance experience, being able to show them and prove to them they can actually dance, is some of the best feeling you can get,” said Dovolani.
The trio has about a dozen studios in the country.
They have a grand opening celebration at the Boca Raton location Wednesday night and are open for business. They offer group lessons, private lessons, and special events.
The guys say they will be back in South Florida when they can to teach classes at the studio.