chevy chase ballroom and dance sport center

Great place, great people, very good contact and problem solving. Couldn’t get into a better place!

Chevy Chase Ballroom (affectionately known as CCB) thrives on competitive and social ballroom and latin dancing. They offer private lessons and group classes. The Unilocal crowd is big on swing on Monday nights and salsa dancing on Sunday nights… but most dancers here are into ballroom and latin a la Dancing w the Stars! (but better)
CCB has a big, renovated space with wood floor and mirrors. A typical afternoon sees a mixed group: singles learning for fun, wedding dance couples, and a regular crowd of competitive couples.
The co-​owners are all pro ballroom/​latin dancers, former champions. The «College Nite» social dance on some Saturdays is the best social in the area (and everyone is welcome).
CCB’s practice/​floor fees are pretty steep, unfortunately, and the studio can get pretty crowded on some nights.

Love CCB! I have been taking lessons there for two years. The owners and staff are friendly, professional, and highly qualified. The studio has a great energy– full of people who are passionate about dance.

Short version: Fun, friendly people, welcoming and patient with amateurs. Amanda is awesome and taught us a killer wedding dance.
Longer: My fiancée and I took 3.5 hours of lessons here before our wedding, to choreograph our first dance. I was skeptical but was proven wrong. Amanda was our instructor and in four meetings over two weeks she took a couple with four left feet and made us look like pros. Several wedding guests singled out the dance as their favorite part of the entire day.
The dance really wasn’t so fancy or difficult; it just looked very well choreographed and had a series of fun moves that had people clapping and cheering.
This cost us maybe $ 300 (I forget the exact price) which seemed steep to me at first but in hindsight was worth it. The lessons themselves also turned out to be more fun than I expected, they were a visit to a different world.
The studio was very welcoming, they seemed to take a personal interest in us and our wedding. And Amanda, specifically, was just wonderful: very funny/​sassy (not to mention a great dancer!) but ultimately very patient, she never made us feel bad for our (many) mistakes — despite her good-​natured teasing! :-)

Fantastic Studio! Great kids program! Instructors are professional, knowledgeable and make it fun. We have been going here for just over a year and it has been a great experience. My kids are 10 (daughter) and 5 (son), and they absolutely love their classes and instructors. Its a positive and encouraging environment and we wouldn’t consider going anywhere else!

Chevy Chase Ballroom is one of the top 2 – 3 dance studios in the DC area. The floor is big (at least when the dividing wall is open – there’s a sliding wall that divides it into two rooms), it’s all wood, with a sprung floor (so your feet and legs don’t hurt as much after extended dancing). There are mirrors on the walls so you can see yourself dance. It’s a very pleasant environment.
The owners, Garry and Irina, are super nice and very welcoming. The instruction is top notch. They have a variety of teachers, from studio professionals, to local pros, to visiting national and world-​caliber pros, who teach a variety of styles, from ballroom to Latin, to tango to swing. They have social dances just about every week, so you can strut the stuff you’ve learned on the dance floor.
I have been coming to CCB for almost 20 years now, and feel like it’s my dancing «home».

Although I live more towards Baltimore, I heard from a couple dance friends that CCB had good dancers. I’m a relatively new ballroom dancer, but am serious about practicing and improving, so I decided to venture out. CCB was easy to find with my GPS and parking wasn’t bad on the side streets. The owner, Garry, and his partner, Irena, as well as another teacher, Denis and his wife, Amanda, were so welcoming and friendly. I’ve been back to the Friday night social dance multiple times since then. Though I’m still learning basic figures, Garry and Denis, as well as many other gentlemen who attend, are patient and yet know how to push my dancing. Since I love excitement and challenge, this provides a perfect atmosphere for me. The floor is small compared to some studios like the Promenade in Maryland, but the feel is intimate and FUN! It’s an ideal way to decompress after a crazy work week. It ends early, at ten, but two hours of dancing here is a super fun workout! It’s definitely becoming my Friday spot. Both the music and variety are great, too!

FANTASTIC! Need I say more. Lets start by saying, Garry is just absolutely incredible. What got me hooked on this studio was how the owners are world class champions. Its not like going to a franchise Arthur Murray or Astaire studio, those are such drains on your wallet and they put you through these bullshit programs that dont really teach you anything more then how to spend money. As you can tell, I had a really bad experience with Arthur Murray. Total JOKE!
Chevy Chase is totally bomb though. Great teachers, great front door staff, huge floor, great group classes (I took two while I was in DC and always make it a point when I go home to take a class or two) and… these people just know how to teach.
I got the honor of taking a class with Garry. This guy is freaking fantastic. Dude was in Dancing with the Stars. The guy is a world champion.
Love this studio. I got more out of my two salsa lessons then I get out of a month of dance lessons in San Jose.
Love this place. Their website sucks though but they said they are working on a new site that will launch soon. Good luck with that project guys.
Keep up the great dancing and see you again when I am back in DC! I totally recommend this place and I never give 5 stars.

I have to admit, I’m biased-​I live within walking distance of CCB. That being said, the floor is great, the people welcoming, and the $ 5 price on Mondays for swing can’t be beat. The building is a little beat up, but the newest owners are apparently in the midst of renovating. I’ll bump it up to 5 stars once the dust settles. :D
All in all, a great space for swing or bal-​this is the only place around that has a bal night, as far as I know. Basically, it’s this on mondays, jam cellar on tuesday, and glen echo on saturdays for the best floors and crowds around.

I used to swing in college. And by that I mean, I learned how to twirl around and look cool when big band music was playing. But that was five years ago, and it is now 2010: THE FUTURE.
So, I was just a tad bit rusty, and I would never have gone to Chevy Chase Ballroom by myself, but my friend Sarah just happens to be in «the scene,» so she insisted I check it out. What else am I going to do on a Monday night? The place is one metro stop over from me, and admission is $ 5. So I went. (And by went I mean walked, and by walked I mean, slogged through a crap ton of mud on Wisconsin and probably ruined my best work shoes. Erp).
I get there, and the «ballroom» is just an old wooden floor with benches surrounding it; not exactly The Salsa Room, but I instantly felt at ease — everything about the evening was casual and comfortable. I waved to Sarah (who I found out through the course of the night knew EVERYONE), and immediately was claimed by someone as their dance partner.
The whole night was like that: you dance with someone, the song ends, you stand by a bench, someone else asks you onto the floor. You meet at least a dozen new people with varying degrees of dance skills, you get some fun exercise. Bottled water is $ 1 (you’ll need it), the bathroom down the hall has one stall, and there are places to sit if you get tired (you’ll need them). After an hour I wound up sweaty and smiling. Swinging is like that.

Fantastic floor. Amazing array of dancers. Excellent music for the beginner to the expert.
Monday nights at the Chevy Chase ballroom are an intimate and swing focused experience custom made for the swing dance connoisseur.
Sure, it is not as fancy as Glen Echo – but then what is? The floor moves like silk and you can dance with everyone from the first lesson awkward beginner to the show performing expert and everything in-​between. It is a very family kind of vibe you get here. As in, the core of swing dance community people who show up here are all like family.
I was away for 11 years and came back to the area recently and after a lot of double takes (I had been gone for quite some time, after all) I had folks welcoming me back with open arms and great dances!!!
I don’t mind there being no alcohol, for the focus is on the dancing that way and you don’t get the weird creeps either, AND you don’t get some guy who is so buzzed that when he leads you in a move he ends up hurting you. *Bonus*
As far as the other reviewers making comments about no food around I am not sure what they mean, Friendship Heights is liberally peppered with restaurants…

DJ’d swing dances are Monday nights, and live bands are usually Friday nights — schedules are posted on
. The folks here are welcoming and patient with beginners… it’s a good mix of levels. I try to bring my own water and food (both are allowed, just not on the dance floor), since there’s not much in the area.

For Swing dancing, its tough to top the floor of CCB (only Glen Echo can compare), but it shouldn’t be a destination beyond dancing. Unlike Clarendon Ballroom, there’s no bar associated w/​it, the ceiling is low and visually claustrophobic, and there’s no place to socialize except the hallway and it smells like a locker room. The restaurant and bar scene in the area is also relatively limited. Tuesday’s dj’d swing for $ 5 has a good crowd as does the $ 15 live band Friday scene. Because its strictly a swing scene, the dancers tend to be a little better than other venues.