We recently connected with Aleksandr & Aida Skriptsov and have shared our conversation below.

Aleksandr & Aida, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

We believe that success consists of many elements and all are important. First of all, fundamental knowledge of what you do and strong skills. Being a true professional in your field is important to provide quality service and stand out. We also think that one has to have a passion for what they are doing. Without the passion it’s almost impossible to keep the business thriving, growing, and constantly innovating. Our passion for ballroom dancing helps us go an extra mile for our students every day, no matter how tired we are. We light up when we get to the studio. And the happy faces of our students charge our passion even more. No success is possible without hard work and discipline, of course. No matter how passionate you are, there will be no progress without the effort.

Aleksandr & Aida, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are a professional ballroom dance couple with over 20 years of experience in dancing and teaching. We both started dancing at the early age – Aleksandr at 7 years old, Aida at 4 years old. Later, we both graduated from a university with a degree in Choreography and Coach of Ballroom Dancing. In 2013, we became World Champions as a part of a National Formation Team Vera. In 2015, we decided to move to the United States to continue growing as professional dancers. We worked at different ballroom dance studios, and at some point we felt that we were ready to become business owners ourselves. We started our own practice two years prior to opening the studio. We were renting dance floor in at a different dance studio. Things were going well; we had more and more new students every month. At some point, we felt that without our own space we don’t have control over some elements of the process. Therefore, in order to ensure we provide the best service and to bring our vision of a high-quality ballroom dance studio, we made a decision to find our own space.

We put a lot of thought and effort into creating our studio. Everything you see in there is our design, we had been dreaming about it for a long time, so we knew exactly what we wanted to produce. It was important for us to create a professional space where it would be safe and enjoyable for dancers to train. That’s why we installed professional high quality ballroom dance floor that doesn’t hurt dancers’ feet and joints. We put professional sound system to provide good music. Every detail is thought through and came from the bottom of our heart.

Our slogan is Quality in every step, and that’s our main unique point. The quality of our instruction is what makes us stand out. We have over 20 years of experience teaching adults and kids. We believe in professional approach to every single student, whether they came in looking for dance lessons for fun or planning to perform at dance competitions. We create a unique program for every student and every couple based on their goals, needs, and preferences.

We are proud to be serving our community and helping people not only learn how to dance, but also overcome their fears, insecurities, improve their health, socialize, and gain confidence. We believe that ballroom dancing helps changing the quality of life. We have students who were very shy and refused to dance in big groups, now they are performing at our showcases and feel much more confident. Dancing is a perfect option for physical activity because it positively affects the posture, coordination, balance, and overall body mobility. Besides, it uplifts people emotionally; all our students leave the studio a little bit happier than they were before their lesson.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The moment that truly started a new chapter for us was our relocation to the United States. We moved here to continue develop our dancing skills. This beautiful country has a lot of opportunities for professional dancers, including the greatest coaches. We were excited to take lessons with the legends, grow as dancers, and compete among other very talented professionals. After a few years working at different studios, we realized that we have our own vision of how to pass the knowledge to people. The owners of the studios were not always open to new ideas, which really motivated us to open our own practice. We learned that it’s important to keep your mind open to be able to grow.
This experience taught us to be flexible and adapt to new circumstances. Our life made a 360 turn when we moved to this country, but despite all the difficulties that we experienced, we are in a good place and all the obstacles made us stronger.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Aida and I danced in the same formation team. We were not friends at all, we barely even talked to each other back then. Later we became dancing partners and started training together. After a while, we started dating. We got married in July 2013. That was our lucky year because we also won the World Championship in September 2013. That’s how our journey together started. Since then we are true partners who support each other no matter what. We moved to the United States together in 2015.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://s-styledanceteam.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s_styledanceteam/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SStyleDanceTeam
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzzvGW4lRkwPrUKJ42pQgZA

Image Credits
Images from personal and studio archive.