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Arthur Murray Studio Opens At Fountains Plaza

Photo from Lania Berger

Lania Berger, who opened an Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Palm Harbor, has competed in various dance competitions.

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: January 23, 2009

Updated:

PALM HARBOR - Inspiring others to love dance at her own studio is a fantasy come true for Lania Berger, a former Disney theme park princess and competitive dance champion.

Berger, who has traveled the world to master various forms of ballroom dance, recently opened an Arthur Murray Dance Studio franchise. It is in Fountain Plaza, 34930 U.S. 19, just south Alderman Road.

Berger feels fortunate to have her own Arthur Murray Studio because the 87-year-old firm has iconic standing in the dance world.

After looking for a locale from New Port Richey to Dunedin, she fell in love with Palm Harbor the minute she saw it. "After residing in Orlando for the last few years, it's nice to be so close to a beach," Berger said.

She and her husband remodeled a former tanning shop to include a wall of mirrors and 2,000-square-foot floor designed to cushion dance moves.

"Through dance you have a unique emotional attachment to another person as one leads and another follows," Berger said. "It is very intense and romantic. During the dance only the two of you exist. You look into each other's eyes and connect emotionally as you move together in perfect balance and rhythm."

Dance has always played a big part in her life. After graduating from Mesa State College, in Grand Junction, Colo., she worked at Disney World, in Orlando, portraying main characters Cinderella, Princess Jasmine and Snow White. She also became an instructor for an Arthur Murray franchise.

Recent hit television shows like "Dancing with the Stars," the 2004 movie "Shall We Dance?" and before that "Dirty Dancing" rekindled interest in ballroom dance, Berger said.

Younger people are realty getting back into dance, as great fun and aerobic exercise, she added. You don't need to come with a partner to take dance lessons, she said.

Berger, a Chicago native, and twin sister Laniel Dowers, who works for Disney as a stage manager, have danced since they were children. Their father set up a little dance studio with mirrors in their basement.

After joining Arthur Murray Berger became an expert at bringing love of the art form to those who thought they could not dance because they have mobility problems resulting from weight, age or illness. During four years of lessons one male student shed 100 of his 300 pounds, she said.

Another student, a 72-year-old man, competed with her in the Las Vegas Arthur Murray Studio World Dance-O-Rama, she said.

"You see a transformation take place for both men and women as they get involved in dance," Berger said. "They start to feel better about themselves. The women feel more glamorous and the men more macho."

Since 2005, Berger has won top honors in several dance competitions. In 2007 Arthur Murray named her its top counselor in the world.

Dancing has also rekindled relationships, she said. For some couples ballroom dance is a last ditch effort to save a marriage, she said.

Her love of dance found her studying with experts in Italy and Argentina. While in Argentina she studied the tango in the country of its birth. The Argentine form of the dance is more intensely romantic and intimate than the varieties that have sprung up elsewhere around the world, she said.

Regardless, there is a dance for every taste: waltz, rumba, mambo, meringue, salsa, fox trot and cha-cha. In addition, there are contemporary popular club dances such as bachata, a romantic variant of bolero that originated in the Dominican Republic.

Berger's studio also trains soon-to-be brides and grooms who want their first dance as husband and wife to be spectacular.

The studio is open 1 - 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday. New students receive a complimentary first lesson.

Berger's studio will participate in an Arthur Murray dance marathon 7 - 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, to raise money for Give Kids the World. Based in Kissimmee, Give Kids the World grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses.

More information about the studio is available online at www.arthurmurraypalmhabor.com or by calling 727-786-2224.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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