Arts & Entertainment
Linda Piccoli, music coordinator and
dance instructor at the Fred
Astaire Dance Studio, leads patrons
in a group lesson.
They fell in love on the dance floor then
opened their own Fred Astaire Dance Studio.
I Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News
amed dancer Fred Astaire is
making a comeback of sorts on a
1,600-square-foot dance floor in
a small building at the corner of
Telegraph and Square Lake roads in
Bloomfield Hills.
His spirit permeates the new Fred
Astaire Dance Studio that was opened
two months ago by an entrepreneurial
couple hoping to benefit from the
.•
renewed popularity of ballroom dancing,
brought on by a flurry of movies and tele-
vision shows featuring the current dance
craze.
Adding to the glamour of the story is
the couple's own love affair that reads
somewhat like a script from one of the
old movies that featured Astaire and his
most famous dancing partner, actress
Ginger Rogers:
Jewish businessman Evan Mountain,
50, of Waterford fell in love with Lada
Reschikova, 36, his dance instructor at
another dance studio, and they became
engaged last year. With dancing as their
second love, it seemed only natural that
they also become partners in their own
danCe studio. .
"I saw this as a great investment:' said
Mountain, who runs Mountain Food
Ingredients, a food brokerage business,
during the day. "I think the timing is per-
fect because of the current ballroom
dance craze. I have the option to open five
more studios in the state. I deal with food
all day, then dance the night away here."
F
Sarah Mountain of Northville dances with her
father-in-law and Fred Astaire Dance Studio
owner Evan Mountain of Waterford during the
Bloomfield Hills studio's January grand opening.
Lada Reschikova of Waterford,
Fred Astaire Dance Studio general manager
and dance director, dances with Eli Moroko of
West Bloomfield at the studio's grand opening.
46
February 16 • 2006
P4
Photos by Brett Mountain
New Partnership -
The couple's is the only Fred Astaire
Dance Studio franchise in Michigan and
one of only 120 in the United States.
Astaire himself founded the studios
when he retired temporarily in 1947; a
petition signed by 10,000 fans con-
vinced him to return to making movies.
Now, movies like Shall We Dance and
Mad Hot Ballroom and TV shows like So
You Think You Can Dance and Dancing
.With the Stars have stirred the dancing
passions of both young and old — and
•sent them from the theaters and TV
screens to the dance studios.
"People are cautious when they first
come to us, but then they just get
addicted to dancing. It's a great experi-
ence and wonderful exercise explained
Reschikova, whose mother convinced
her to take dance lessons as a youngster
in Baku, Azerbajian, then part of the
Soviet Union, to improve her posture.
Reschikova continued dancing, win-
ning national championships and per-
forming in concerts in Azerbajian and
in Germany, where she studied chem-
istry. She came to the United States nine
years ago with her then-husband and
worked as an environmental chemist in
a Farmington Hills chemistry lab.
"But friends and co-workers urged me
to give it up and resume my career in
dancing and become a dance teacher, so
I made the change said Reschikova, who
went through a divorce along the way.
Nurturing An Interest
Mountain, a member of Temple Shir
Shalom, was born in Iowa but grew up
in Southfield. He attended Southfield
High School and Western Michigan
University, where he studied business.
He thought of going to a dance studio
as a place to socialize and recover from
his own divorce.
"I was nurturing a dormant interest
in ballroom dancing; I was sort of jeal-
ous of people who were expert dancers
at weddings and bar mitzvahs;' he said.
"I wanted to dance like them.
"But it was hard just to get myself to
come to the studio [alone] the first
time. I always fashioned myself as a
jock, not a dancer.
"Then I met Lada, and we started
dating."
Mountain, in fact, has become a stel-
lar dancer, even helping Lada, who is
the studio's general manager and dance
director, and the other five instructors
with teaching duties.
They teach waltz, foxtrot, swing,
rumba, cha-cha, hustle, tango and the
popular new' salsa to a variety of cus-
tomers, using the Fred Astaire Dance
Studio's specialized teaching method.
Fred's Method
Astaire (real name Austerlitz), whose
Catholic father was an Austrian immi-
grant (some biographies allege the fami-
ly had Jewish roots), danced in vaude-
ville with his sister Adele when they were
youngsters. But an agent gave this assess-
ment of him early in his career: "Can't
act, can't sing, balding, dances a little
Astaire obviously proved him wrong,
achieving a long career on the stage and