Adam Torres and Tiana Ramirez discuss the Fred Astaire Dance Studio.
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Show Notes:
There are many benefits to ballroom dancing at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio. In this episode, Adam Torres and Tiana Ramirez, Owner at Fred Astaire Dance Studio, explore Tiana’s journey into ballroom dancing.
About Fred Astaire Dance Studio
Cofounded by the legendary Fred Astaire, their studios set the standard of excellence in dance instruction for over 75-years. From Ballroom to Latin, Swing to Salsa, we offer all styles of dance w/over 20 types of dance to choose from, for all ages & abilities, in a fun yet professional atmosphere & over 280 conveniently located studios throughout the world! Each of our dance studios’ offer flexible dance class scheduling, day and evening classes, and best of all – you don’t need a partner to learn to dance with! That’s right, no partner, prior experience or skills are necessary when you take dance lessons at an Official Fred Astaire
They are proud of their great dance heritage which began in 1947 when the Master of Dance himself, Mr. Fred Astaire, cofounded our company.
Mr. Fred Astaire, an American icon, wanted to establish a chain of studios under his name allowing his proven techniques to be preserved & passed onto the public for generations. Mr. Astaire was instrumental in the choice of dance curriculum & instructional techniques. With the opening of the first Fred Astaire Studio on Park Avenue in New York City, Fred Astaire brought his immense talent out of the glamour of Hollywood & onto the dance floors of America & the world.
“Some people seem to think that good dancers are born,” Astaire once observed, “but all the good dancers I have known are taught or trained. To me, dancing has always been fun. I enjoy every minute of it. I am glad that I can now put my knowledge to use in bringing personal confidence and a feeling of achievement to so many people.”
Today, numerous Fred Astaire Dance Franchised Studios, located in cities throughout North America, are required to maintain the highest standards of excellence through our National Dance Board and Fred Astaire Curriculum certification. Although Mr. Astaire is no longer with us in person, their studios have produced a wealth of amateur and professional dancers who are a living embodiment of his style and grace.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today’s guest is Tiana Ramirez, and she is an owner over at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio.
Tiana, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Adam, for having me. So, hey, thank you for making some time for us. Correct me if I’m wrong, you’re in Vegas and you’re at a dance competition, yes? Yeah, we’re at the Funister World Championships. It’s held every year here in Vegas, and it is a cool 120 degrees, so Oh, that’s, that’s amazing.
Let’s just oh, and by the way, you’re going to the I know you, Juliana is the one that introduced you to mission matters and to, and we’re covering the SRQ women’s expo for her. And I believe you’re heading out to that too, right? Yeah. Headed out this weekend as one of the VIP vendors.
So super looking forward to networking with women. Of all different diversities and with different backgrounds and networking in general. So super excited about that. So you’re just not busy at all. Are you Vegas?
Sleep later Okay, I’ll take that one, thank you, I’ll take that one with me well, let’s go I do want to go, I want to get into more about what you’re doing in dance, of course, also as an entrepreneur. But before we get into all that I mean, where’d all that start for you? Like where’d your love for dance and , like , how were you brought into that culture?
So thank you for asking. Cause it’s a very interesting, I wasn’t fortunate enough like growing up to be able to dance. I just always kind of admired it from the sidelines and I took a dance partnering class in college to get my GPA up and like, I need something to pick this thing back up. And I fell in love with it.
And graduated with a degree in filmmaking actually. And then I saw an ad in the newspaper for ballroom dancers. And I said, wait, you get paid to dance? And it was Fred Astaire and they trained you. So they didn’t, you didn’t have to have, , prior dance experience. You just had to have desire and availability and, , just people skills.
So right away I went into a training class and that was 15 years ago. Haven’t turned back. Get out of here, and that was right in college. So you that’s amazing. Late bloomer. Well, I don’t know if I’m gonna say that. A late bloomer would be me, because I still haven’t started. So
, like, what attracted you to, like, I want to stay in those early days a little bit longer, because I find it pretty interesting that you started, , obviously in college, and then you found an opportunity as well. Well, and then obviously at some point, you, , it became a profession which you’re still extremely passionate about, like in the beginning, like what hooked you in, like, , how did you know that you were supposed to do this?
I think it was once I started to Speak without words and using my body and being able to realize that like physical emotional spiritual connection Which is something that Fred Astaire stands on and when I was able to like experience that that was like a drug like no Other I’m like, whoa.
I am this is all me and I didn’t I I had to know more I didn’t want to leave it I was the last person in class and so just being exposed to that and fully being Open to it and listening to people along the way really made a big difference Did your original instructors, did they know? Like, did they know at first?
They’re like, hmm, this Tiana, like, she, she, she might be a lifer. Did they know? I’m just so curious. I don’t think they knew. They just told me, look, all you need is desire. If you have desire, the sky’s the limit. And I’m like, okay, well , I definitely have the desire, and I’m willing to do what it takes.
But, that would be a very interesting question, Adam, to actually go back and ask my first instructor. I think you should. So now, there you go. I know, I really do think you should. Cause that’s a, well, it’s interesting. Interesting because like when you see somebody because I, , as an instructor, I’m sure they’ve seen many people that maybe had some promise or otherwise or this or that.
But, , we work with a lot of students or otherwise, like, but do they know? I’m curious. Because you said you stayed late and all these other things. Interesting. Did you, like, there must’ve been some affinity for the Fred Astaire brand, like in general, like how, how did all that take place for you to kind of get started there and then obviously grow through the ranks and then at some point , have your own studio?
Like how did that part of it work? Well, kind of super embarrassing. I didn’t know Fred Astaire before I started. I wasn’t aware. Oh, come on! I know, I know. Don’t shame me. I’m not Fred Astaire shaming you. That’s a new thing. Okay, go ahead. But afterwards, but once I was exposed to that world, I watched his movies and learned about his background and, , his dance partners, his favorite partners, his least favorite partners, , his story in general.
And really quickly, I need to share that he was on a flight actually out of, I don’t want to quote the city, but he was on one of his last flights in a wheelchair and he was going through and one of the flight attendants said, , Hey, my God, I’ve watched all your movies since I was little. And he got out of his wheelchair and he danced around the box with her.
Right there on the airplane aisle. Like, incredible. Yeah. Like, so I think that’s what, I mean, I didn’t know him personally, but the way he structured the the process that it takes to learn how to dance, I’m a product of it, and most of us are through Fred Astaire. Like, we learned the way he patented this program, and if you stick with it, it works, it makes you a better dancer, you, you grow in so many different ways, and I just believed in his story, , great dancers were are trained not born.
So I was like, hey, give me the training. I’m ready Talk to me a little bit more about that. Cause what I like about this is there’s a process, like, there’s a process, I feel like that might be a little bit of a myth, what you just kind of dispelled was saying that you have to be born a great dancer, you have to be this or that, but I feel like, like many things there’s misinformation and there’s levels, right?
Like an amount of time you want to dedicate to get to whatever particular level you choose to, right? Like talk about the process and talk about what that’s like. So I started with a training class, , and the training class was about two weeks and it was kind of taking me through basic movements in the popular social dances and different rhythms.
And I didn’t know music. I didn’t know dances. I was like, hey, I just took this class. I really want to get better at it. So I equate it to like karate. So if you’re going through karate, , there’s different belt levels. , you start out this belt and then you graduate, you go into this belt and you continue and there’s a natural progression of learning, just like in anything.
So if I’m learning a language, I’m starting off learning the words. And then I learn the phrases and I make sentences and eventually I’m speaking in a fluent conversation So that’s kind of his process is not necessarily that you get it in chunks But you’re getting it at a level that you need for that time And then there’s a progression that you go to next and there’s checks along the way, checks and balances everywhere So are we ready?
Are we ready to go to the next and as? An instructor, you have to go through every single level as you teach your students the same. So it’s the proof is right there. If you, , you work to those different levels. What do you enjoy about being an instructor? Like, what are some of the things that how many things, When you see people connect to the music that’s playing, and on a different level, when you see people actually re fall in love with themselves, or , they find love, or people who have lost their love, and they’ve, , don’t really know what to do with their lives, and they come in, and they find this sense of community, and this achievement and accomplishment, and to be able to take somebody who is an absolute non dancer, , three left feet and all, and, and turn them into dancers is, Is the most rewarding thing ever, , kind of look in the mirror.
Sometimes I’m like, whoa, this is this is work. Like, how does it work? I’m changing people’s lives. Like, this is truly, truly incredible. Wow. And to see the progress too, huh? Like to see somebody come in. I’m guessing like you see that. Same luck of that, like maybe a little bit of fear, maybe a little bit of this, maybe a little bit, maybe their partner dragged them in every single thing.
And then they, they start to loosen up a little bit or so who knows whatever their particular journey is, that must be so much fun. Yeah, it’s, it’s absolutely incredible. And I think that there’s not many things or many industries that can affect people on a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual level right now, , with, with loneliness being one of the number one epidemics in the world.
I’m able to affect that every day. , through a rumba box or a waltz or a tango, but it is deeper than that because if you dig beyond the dancing, more of that shows. So it’s pretty cool. Yeah, that, that does sound amazing. And then and so talk about the competition. So you’re at a competition right now.
Like, how does that work? What’s that all about? So with ballroom dancing You can do it socially, which is great, too. Or you can do it on a competitive side. And if you wanted to, you could compete every single weekend. That’s something that you wanted to do because wow, there’s a competition every weekend and it’s breaking.
It’s broken down very similar to the learning levels. So it’s. Your level, your age, , your division. So it’s not 18 competing against 25 or 65 year olds. So it’s very structured too, but just kind of gives somebody goal. It gives some dancers goals. It, it gets that athletic side of it to a little bit more of a sports feeling.
And, , just check the box of physically going to the highest level. I’ve seen it on, I’ve seen it on TV and it sounds, it seems to me like, like it can be very physically challenging and certain if, if you want it to be right. Like the health side of things. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah. I mean, it’s, it can be high impact, low impact. , it’s weight bearing exercise, so it depends on how much weight you’re bearing and like putting into your movements, not necessarily how much you play or anything, but it’s more joint and flexibility for the body. So it can be as intense or non intense as you want, but it’s pretty cool.
Hmm. That’s awesome. How do people get started? Like, how do they get started with this? Like, they’re going to listen to this show. They’re going to be like, what is this ballroom dancing? I want to, I’ve been on the, like, how do people get started in this? Well, I would say, , obviously first having the desire for an interest, right?
Like an interest in learning anything. And then most of the time, , we will have people inquire online or call up the studio and they just come in for basically an introductory offer. So just like in anything you can say consultation and you can say orientation. Where’s your studio? Where are you located?
We’re actually in Sarasota, Florida, but we have 247 studios in the United States. Hmm. That’s amazing. And fun fact, we actually grew during COVID, which like we opened more studios in 2020 than we have ever. Wow. How does that even work? I, I have no idea. Yeah, that’s, that’s amazing. I didn’t even think about that.
That’s, I guess people were looking and they were like, ah, this is good. I, I can see why actually now that I think about it that I didn’t think about at that time, but that would have been a cool thing to do for sure. And how does, how did the and, and is this like I don’t, I don’t know. So just, is this like a franchise model?
Do you buy into franchises? Are you like, like, or how does this whole model work? Like, so for, cause there’s also a big entrepreneurial segment that listened to this, this show that maybe they want to take classes. Maybe they want to look at the opportunity. I don’t know. Absolutely. So each studio is its own franchise, right?
We’re little franchisees of a franchise. So we buy in basically that way, and that gives us the Fredaster name, the Fredaster curriculum, the the marketing to it, the, the technology behind it, the seminars, , just access to everything that he kind 1947, but obviously has upgraded now. Wow, this has been around since 1947.
I knew, I know the name, I know the brand, but I didn’t, I didn’t realize that. That’s amazing. It’s great. Yeah, we were franchised before McDonald’s. What? That’s awesome. How many students? I’m trying to just, do a number, like, students? I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s in your promo or anything else like that.
I’m like, geez, there must have been a rhetorical question. That’s an unfair question. But I’m just trying to, like, geez, how many students have been through this and how many lives affected, ? It’s amazing. It’s amazing. I know it’s well, being here currently in Las Vegas and in a ballroom mixed with people of all walks of life and all abilities and all desires and dance levels, we’re all sharing the same passion of wanting to dance and get better and want to show it and express it.
So, I mean, I would say right now we have, we have 18, 000 entries, now that doesn’t necessarily mean 18, 000 participants but this is the biggest number of attendees we’ve had in many, many years, so it’s pretty huge, so being in the ballroom is kind of definitely re We inspired that side of, , wow.
The energy must be insane. Am I wrong? The energy must be insane. It’s like 6am and you’re like, what are you doing? Why are you clapping so loud? It’s still 6am, but you can’t help it. You guys can hear Santana playing and you’re like, bap, bap, bap. Oh, Tiana. Well, hey, I appreciate you taking some time out of, out of your schedule.
I know you’re at the, you’re at the Super Bowl of ballroom dancing right now. So thank you for taking some time out. If somebody wants to, to follow up and learn more or to connect with you and your team, how do they do that? How do they follow your journey? Yeah, absolutely. So Fredastare. com is our overall franchise page.
And then each person can individually drop where they’re located. So if you’re located in Sarasota, Florida, absolutely, we’re the number one studio for you. But we have studios all over, so you start by going to the main page of Fredastare. com, and then we can break it down, and then each studio will let what’s best and how to get started.
Wonderful. And for everybody listening, just so , we’ll put the links , in the show notes. So you can just click on the link and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, make sure you hit that subscribe or that follow button, because , this is a daily show each and every day, we’re bringing you information.
New entrepreneurs are bringing you new stories and hopefully new inspiration to help you along in your journey as well. So again, if that sounds interesting, hit that subscribe or follow because guess what’s going to come tomorrow, that notification, because we got another episode for you. And Tiana, I’m wishing you the best of luck and have, have so much fun in Vegas at the Fred Astaire competition.
Then I’m a little jealous. I’m going to see you. I’m not getting that. I got to talk to you today. That’s amazing. So have a great rest of your, have a great rest of your trip and also the SRQ women’s conference. Have a great trip there. So thank you. Looking forward to that. It’s been wonderful. Thank you so much, Adam.
