Fred Astaire Dance Studios

Very nice experience with Kelly Gilmore and his staff. This was a first for me with dancing lessons and I was pleasantly surprised. Kelly and his staff were very gracious and patient to a senior citizen like myself. I was the star at a wedding a month later after having learned several ballroom dances.

I would like to commend Kelly Gilmore, my teacher at Fred Astaire Dance Studios, for his patience and forbearance for a student like me with two left feet. Kelly has made the whole experience of learning how to dance an enjoyable and productive one. He has made me actually enjoy myself there.
Kelly explains and demonstrates each move so I don’t feel scared about going out and dancing in public.
The location is good. The prices are reasonable and Kelly really gives value for the money.

To put it bluntly, I had an awful experience. A few months before my wedding, I found a Groupon for this place and thought it would be great for my fiancé (now husband) and I to go for some dance lessons. We used a Groupon for $ 29 which was supposed to be for two 30 minute sessions. I called in advance to make an appointment.
We walked into this studio one evening last August in hopes of trying out a few dance lessons, with the possibility of purchasing more. The lesson was mediocre at best, taught by both a male instructor and later a female instructor. We waited around for about 25 minutes, even though we had an appointment. The lesson was inconsistent, having two different instructors, splitting the lesson and then cutting it about 15 minutes short.
The male instructor was very abrasive… watch out for this guy. We felt extremely uncomfortable at the end of our lesson. I politely told him several times we would think about buying more lessons after he literally cornered us. He became very angry and both his tone and facial expression drastically changed. He continued to persist, making it exceptionally difficult for us to leave after the lesson was over.
I explained once more politely by saying my fiancé and I would like to talk it over and he said in a belligerent tone, «What is there to discuss! Are you going to buy more lessons or not!?,» while waving the price list. I can honestly say I’ve never been treated so rudely or unprofessionally by any salesperson in my entire life. Scaring the customers is not a sales approach you want to take… must have been why this place was empty on a Saturday night.
Needless to say, we will not return. I wasn’t aware when I purchased the Groupon that I owed it to them to purchase several more. I truly hope in the future, other dance studios do not prove to be as disappointing as this one.

Been a student since 2009 and have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Attended classes at other studios on Staten Island and they don’t measure up to Mr. Gilmore’s expertise, professionalism and patience. His coaching has lead to my participating in 5 competitions; with GREAT results I might add. Dancing is also a fun way to exercise and reap the health rewards that come with it! Definitely Recommend!

Pretty bad experience. So we signed up for the special introductory classes of $ 82 for two classes. Now, it was my mistake not to have asked how long the classes were each — but I really gave the benefit of the doubt that they were an hour to 90 minutes… in which I sadly found out it was only 40 minutes. So we thought, ok, let’s see if the 40 minutes are worth it to enroll for more classes after our first two.
We walk into their new dance studio, relocated at 96 McClean — and lo and behold, we pay for one-​on-​one instruction in a shared classroom in which they were to blare foxtrot music for the other instructor while we are trying to learn salsa. Now how comforting is that to listen to the beats of slow foxtrot and ballroom while we are trying to learn salsa?
Our instructor tries to offer other types of dance genres as we began — rumba, samba, merengue, foxtrot; we came to learn salsa — please do not sell us otherwise.
What really irks me is that we were fine for the basic steps — but she plays music that is NOT salsa during our salsa lesson! I’ve been an avid attendee of Iguana on their salsa lessons, went to Piel Canela for a lesson with them, went to Honey in the city (we only came here to be local to our home at South Beach on SI) and I am quite familiar with what salsa sounds like… why are you playing some other music to judge that we would not know the difference because we look like we don’t speak Spanish or would know salsa from our elbow or butt?
At the end of the night — we felt that the studio did not have the decency to be honest with us with the owner/​sales representative of the studio trying to sell us on coming in vs. simply saying «our expertise is not in salsa, rather ballroom dancing.» My mistake for not doing more research and really interviewing the instructors — but sure wouldn’t go back for the reason that you pay money for a shared room with another lesson with the instructor for a very short lesson with more desire to sell you than to be honest about what you’re really looking for in a studio. Keep my $ 82 because I guess that’s the price I paid to find out if it’s worth paying more for my long-​term business.

Professional operation all the way around. Entire staff extremely knowledgable, patient, and friendly. The Friday night parties they have are a great idea. My fiancé/​wife and I went for lessons for over a year; today, years later, we are no longer embarrassed to dance at parties & weddings. Highly recommended.