News Dance With Me studio has star power

‘Dancing With the Stars’ pro behind Phipps Plaza studio.

Dance pro Val Chmerkovs- kiy and his family recently opened their 14th Dance With Me studio, their first in Atlanta at Phipps Plaza.

A day after his “Dancing With the Stars” show at the Fabulous Fox Theatre, Chmerkovskiy hosted an opening day party at the studio, which is behind Nordstrom’s but not directly connected to the mall.

The 32-year-old Ukrani- an-American joined “Danc- ing With the Stars” as a pro in 2011 and has become one of the most popular dancers on the show.

The studio, with Justin Bourdet as the day-to-day manager and coach, teaches ballroom dance for adults. With a soft opening a few weeks back, it already has 40 to 50 regular attendees.

The signature interior look, replicated from other Dance With Me studios in locations such as Houston

and New York, is lush and upscale with multiple chandeliers hanging off the ceil- ing.

“It’s a higher-end brand that has a family business feel warmth to it,” Chmerkovskiy said.

His goal: “Take regular people, every day people, on this self-enlightenment journey through dance. There are single people, couples, male, female. We have these parties. You’ll see girls in their 20s hang- ing out with people in their 80s. It’s very inclusive. It’s like-minded people, likeminded spirits in the room.”

In a world dominated by social media and increas- ing complaints of loneliness, Dance With Me hopes to change that even just a little bit.

“This provides organic human interaction,” he said.

Chmerkovskiy’s older brother Maks and his father, Aleksandr, opened a dance studio in New Jersey in 1997 when Chmerkovskiy was 12. Maks was the head teacher and Val described himself as “the guinea pig.”

Within two or three years, he said they had “built a little competitive ballroom dance community in Bergen County” several years before “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With the Stars” existed.

Val Chmerkovskiy