SUPERSHAG MEGA DANCE COMPLEX

Along with coordinating events at Blackpool for dancers, you have also been successful in the business world. Could you please share with your DanceScape fans what it has been like building your dance studio “SuperShag” over the past years?

Well, what happened is that I used to own a Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Boston. So, I woke up one morning when I was 28 and realized there is absolutely no future for me in competitive dancing and that was after being a huge champion at Blackpool. I was an English number 2 for three years, and a Final at Blackpool. I just, unfortunately didn’t see that there was any light at the end of the tunnel for me and the fact that you go to Blackpool every year and just try to make the 40th or even the 12th doesn’t pay the bills at the end of the year. So, I got an invitation to come to the States to work for Fred Astaire’s and was amazed at the business side of dancing. So, I bought one of their studios and grew the organization a little bit. For instance, at one point we had the World Youth Latin Champion working for us, we had the Australian Professional Ballroom Champion and a kid in the semi-final at Blackpool, so we had a lot of really good dancers under us and Fred Astaire preferred that we didn’t go out into the open circuit, so in the end, I moved on and taught by myself for a couple of years out of a studio in my home.

In 2001, I was approached by some people who were interested in getting a studio together since nothing had really been going on in Boston for the past ten years, so this is when I became a part of starting up SuperShag. For the past three and a half years, all we have done is work, work, work. It’s been about getting out there seven days a week and doing different things. We started originally focusing on ProAm, but now we are entering the collegiate world as official Ballroom and Latin coaches for Brown University and the official Latin coach for Harvard University. In addition to that, we have a production company. We organize parties for weddings, charity events, and we work with a really good live Swing band in Boston. So, at events we DJ, teach the dance, have the light music, the demonstrations. Basically, the night never ends.

Our studio has been designed to look like a night club, so every Friday night we hold a party that is very successful. As well, for the last seven years I have been running a mixed dance night in Cambridge, every Saturday evening, where you can dance, Salsa, Cha Cha, Swing, Merengue, Waltz all in the same place and it’s in a proper club with a bar, restaurant and normal people actually attend this event. A couple of years ago, we were voted best of Boston, by Boston Pub Magazine.
 
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We have been criticized about our name and have also been told it is the most unbelievable piece of marketing people have ever seen. We like to have fun, and there is a lot attached to the name.

Our staff is unbelievable and I am extremely lucky for that. The lady that runs the whole study is Rachel Whitney who dances Professional Smooth. We actually coached her from the restaurant, then she left the dance business for awhile and then entered the restaurant business and then once again came back into dancing and came to work with us. We were lucky that happened. Tibor Kerekes is the acceptable face of SuperShag, he gets all the social stuff going and basically I sit in the background doing all the fighting when something goes wrong. So, the staff are great and the professionals that teach there are a really talented bunch.

What are some things that you have learned from running a dance business?

You only make money if you actually do work. It’s as simple as that. We have made our pricing as competitive as possible. You can’t just sit around thinking a couple classes for kids will make you rich off it.

What is your vision with SuperShag in the future?

Next year we are planning to open our second studio in Sin City because we thought it would be rather interesting having a SuperShag there, as well we are trying to open a bigger studio in downtown Boston. It’s basically finding the time for getting out and doing that. There’s a lot on the future.

SuperShag has also started a new venture to video comps for the organizers and put together a DVD for the organizers, so if they want to use it for promotional purposes they can, or they can keep it as a nice souvenir of the competition. In the future, paper brochures are going to cease to exist, so everything will be done online, with CD-ROMS, etc. So, we are focusing on letting people know what is going on, through these mediums.

Have you been watching ABC’s television series “Dancing With The Stars”?

I saw three performances last night so far.

Do you have any comments to share with us about the show and how it will affect business?

It’s absolutely brilliant for dancing. It makes me laugh that all these people on the forums criticizing everybody because this is about entertainment, nothing about quality dancing. I actually danced on Come Dancing, which was the program in England that started all this. Then they started Strictly Come Dancing, which everybody loved watching in England. At the end of the day, the show’s not about dancing, it is just about entertainment. With all of the dancing in movies going on at the moment, dancing is at last prominent in the media and this can only be good for the business.