Around Town

‘Giving to the Community’: Fred Astaire Dance Studio Marks One Year on Main Street

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Launching their first-ever business last year, Amy Cherrez and Marko Micic envisioned creating a community of some 30 to 40 locals who enjoyed learning how to dance, both for fun and competitively. In the past 12 months of running Fred Astaire Dance Studio on Main Street—located in the second-floor space at number 111, formerly Caren Forbes—the couple has not only exceeded those goals but has also flourished in unexpected ways. Cherrez, a native of Ecuador, and Micic, who is from Serbia, have been giving lessons and developing dances for competitions and showcases with more than 60 people, about 80% of them New Canaan residents, they say. They’ve also offered free lessons to local nonprofit organizations and schools and showcased their talents at community events such as “Groove on the Green” at New Canaan Library, the Sidewalk Sale and Holiday Stroll. This month, the business marks one year—a milestone that Cherrez and Micic plan to celebrate with a party to be held at 7:45 p.m. on Friday, Oct.

Who Knew: Making Moves on Main Street

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‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market. * * *

At the storied Roseland Ballroom in New York City, a wall of plaques used to bear the names of the 700-plus married couples who first met on the institution’s dance floor. It boggles the mind that there was a time when people made each others’ acquaintance doing the rumba–it seems wildly vulnerable to commit to an entire song’s worth of eye contact with a stranger, not to mention quite sophisticated for two adult human beings to have memorized a series of complicated things to do with their feet whilst exchanging origin stories. Nowadays, if the internet is to be believed, kids just DM each other photos of their bathing suit regions and then, presumably, go to Sweetgreen. In real life, though, dance is community.

Amy Cherrez

‘We Fell in Love with Everything’: Couple Opens Fred Astaire Dance Studios Downtown

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Marko Micic and Amy Cherrez—natives of Serbia and Ecuador, respectively, and lifelong dancers who became professionals before coming to the United States—met in May 2023 while each of them worked for different studios. The two began dancing together, developed a relationship and started to talk about launching a business. “We both had an interest in owning something that was ours,” Micic said. Now they do. Two weeks ago, the New Haven couple’s vision became a reality when Cherrez and Micic opened Fred Astaire Dance Studios New Canaan at 111 Main St., a second-floor space formerly occupied by the Caren Forbes store.