Dance Lessons in Richfield

More than 25 years ago, husband-and-wife duo Shinya and Marcy McHenry founded the Dancers Studio to put their 30 years of dance experience to good use. The couple clearly didn’t scrimp on space, as the studio’s three ballrooms spread out over 6,500 square feet of arm-flinging, leg-kicking room. Upon the shiny, lacquered hardwood, a staff of more than 10 dance instructors guides students of all skill levels through ballroom, Latin, social, and special-event dance routines. During group lessons, the instructors cultivate a noncompetitive atmosphere where their pupils can thrive in styles such as the tango and west coast swing. In private lessons students can fine-tune techniques, learn extra-challenging new steps, or find out what Fred Astaire’s favorite ice-cream flavor was during their one-on-one time with an instructor. Those looking to show off their new moves can get down on Thursday evenings when owner Shinya spins a variety of tunes for pupils to kick their heels up to for an hour.

The studio also encourages dancers to maintain healthy physiques in Pilates, Zumba, and yoga classes. Clients can sculpt long, lean muscles and strong cores in a Pilates session, or get heart rates thumping in Zumba classes that play energetic Latin tunes.

Mambo101 Dance Studio—founded by Omar Martinez—comprises two separate dance spaces that constantly pulse with the rhythms of salsa, mambo, and other Latin-style dances. Despite ample square footage, instructors only ever host one class at a time in each studio, ensuring that students can focus on the music as they learn the steps. They teach men’s and women’s steps with equal grace, partnering with students of either gender to show them the appropriate moves. Students need not come equipped with a partner either, as they’ll rehearse with the same group of individuals week after week, learning to dance with all their fellow students. Since shimmying, twirling, and sashaying can be sweaty work, the studio has showers where students can pretend it’s raining inside.

Out in a Limb Dance Company & School's professional instructors introduce kids and adults to styles as various as classical ballet, modern dance, acrobatics, and hip-hop. School performances let students show off what they've learned to family, friends, and Barbies whose legs refuse to plié, while summer intensives let young bundles of energy immerse themselves in the choreography of a full-scale musical production. Ballroom classes help casual students get comfortable for wedding-mandated whirls about the dance floor and nights out at salsa clubs. Teachers come from backgrounds including the sets of musical theater productions, the Moscow Ballet, and training with Paula Abdul, and all work to create a disciplined, distraction-free environment by asking that students adhere to a formal code of etiquette.