Three places in particular I'd recommend.... And there are plenty more in Louisville and the surrounding area, and we've had lessons at some, and I'm sure there are more who're plenty good, but anyway....
One place who has a nice big studio, lots of group lessons, dance parties and competitions and the like: All That Dance Studio. Viktoria and Jani are very good, and they have a good operation with plenty of opportunities to learn and to dance. The only caveat I'd add is that we had a misunderstanding about billing, and it got sort of goofy. Part of it was a simple misunderstanding, but I wasn't happy with the way the studio behaved when we tried to resolve it. So, there's that (and if you mention us in particular, there's a good chance you'll get a whole nother version of that). Anyway, here's the link to their website:
http://www.allthatdancelouisville.com/.
Frankly another reason we decided to go elsewhere is that the folks we originally wanted to study with who do a fabulous West Coast Swing took part of the operation to Lexington, and WCS isn't exactly Victoria and Jani's area of specialty.
Another, Shall We Dance Ballroom and Studio, in Louisville and in southern Indiana. Brandon Thompson and Kimberly Hassman both dance professionally, and though I've never taken lessons with them, I've seen them in classes:
http://www.shallwedanceky.com/And the last,
Dance Discoveries where we've just started taking lessons with
Cherie Lanier. She teaches at Dance Louisville as well, but we're taking lessons with her at Dance Discoveries on LaGrange Road, 502-487-0621. We were looking for another teacher, and just happened on her one night at the Felice salsa night months ago. She did a knockout cha cha demo with her partner, and so we approached her there.
One of the issues for us was that we wanted to find someone with a real emphasis on social dancing, not so much folks who really concentrate on the traditional sort of very formal approach to ballroom which usually means you're learning performance dancing rather than social dancing. The dances are the same except for stying. The ballroom tends to be pretty showy, whereas the social form is more for club dancing which is what we want. No flailing arms (the dramatic extensions and the like). More the sort of dancing you can feel comfortable doing in an actual club. Cherie is particularly good at that, and her field is the Latin dances. It's understated, at least compared to the more formal, performance ballroom dancing, but it's absolutely gorgeous and fluid. She's also a sweet heart.
Um, one to avoid, I think, anyway, is Blairs Ballroom. The folks were nice, but the quality of teaching wasn't quite up to par, it seemed to us (and to some other folks we know as well).
And here's a link to links:
http://www.louisvilleballroom.org/
