Reviews of American Classic Ballroom (Dance School)

Vincent Huang

it was a disaster. please do not do business with them!!

Matthew Farrell

Terrible experience. The owners are rude and pushy, and cancelled my classes four times. The studio also smells and the bathroom was filthy. Don't waste your time and money.

luisa Angela

Horrible ....

Stephanie Friant

Wonderful place! Really enjoyed our first lesson with Alex. Great date night!

Robert Troxell

Awesome place and flexible classes!

Eccomi at SF

Natalie Palmer, Walter Palmer's daughter, owns this business. She is a horrible person. Rude. Didn't learn a thing from her. She kept stepping all over my feet. What a klutz. Paul Botes is her husband and he called me on my phone and threatened my life with a bow and arrow if I wrote a review. They also keep an elephant carcass on the dance floor for ambience. They over charge too.

Shana McDonald

The dance lessons here are difficult to schedule. Unfortnately class packages expire as well. This is not the case for anything else (e.i. workout classes, other dance studios). For this reason, I'd just go to a different dance studio. That way if life gets busy, you don't just waste those classes. Response To reply: The lessons are hard to schedule. Most people do this thing called work during the day, so "prime hours" are likely all that are available. I'm not sure why you're trying to tell me that an experience I personally is a lie. That's rude and offensive. I did not even mention group classes, which from what I read of your reviews are often canceled. If it's so unheard of that people would have difficulty getting in to do a class, then why do classes expire at all? That doesn't make any sense. No other studio I've spoken with has done this. Also, this is also not the policy that I was told when signing up. Maybe you need to have a meeting at get all your employees on the same page. As for your second point, imply that even though I'm busy I should still make time for dance class is ridiculous. I'm sorry I'm a doctor that is often oncall. My patient's need to be my number 1 priority. I was just going to leave it at my inital review, but I'll be telling all my friends as well as the wedding groups I'm apart of about the horrible service. Hopefully they won't have to waste their time at this place.

carolyn brown

Please don't use this dance studio. They are not good dancers and you are paying a fortune for what you learn. There are so many better studios available.

Jizelle Ashley

Horrible business and terrible people. BEWARE!

William Nunn

I dropped by the studio for a group lesson and some practice time afterwards and had a great time. I joined a group of beginning dancers in a class on Samba, taught by Paul, and everyone enjoyed the lesson (and, refreshments and food afterwards that night). This was a fun way to round out the Thanksgiving weekend festivities!

Victoria Coppel

I was in MN visiting. I took dance lessons and the owner is a perv! When we were dancing he tried to touch my bottom. He also invited me to South Africa (his home country) and go hunting with his father in law! No thanks!

Andrea Havlat

Unethical people own this business!

James W

Don’t know about the husband, but Natalie is pretty much a terrible person just like her father Walter. FYI, husband does look old enough to be wife’s father.

Luciano Santos

Went to a private lesson with my wife (Groupon offer). Paul was very professional and courteous with scheduling and greeting us. Natalie taught us for the private lesson and she was extremely professional and personable and also very knowledgeable with various styles of dance. Overall it was an amazing experience and we will definitely be returning for more private lessons. Thanks for the great experience!!!

Kelly McGuiggan

I have loved my experiences with ACB! I've attended three group classes where the instructors were friendly, and made the class fun and engaging! They were always willing to take a moment away from the group to answer individual questions or give advice. I was also able to attend their Speakeasy party which was a blast! I really appreciate that the instructors and owners have such a clear love of dance, and that they enjoy what they do. I would recommend the experience to anyone!

Lisa Mott

The owner, Paul, comes across as a creepy perv. If you're into that, this is the place for you.

D and D Beckman

After years of "no dancing" my husband agreed to "a couple of lessons". We had so much fun that he agreed to more! We are now continuing private lessons and started the group lessons and are talking about what dance we should try next. It's a great way to meet new people and get exercise. I am looking forward to the weddings planned for next summer. I highly recommend American Classic Ballroom!!!!

Jim Barry

I signed up for 10 lessons, however I was only able to make it to three lessons due to weather and work. I still feel that I got my money's worth. The instructors were very nice and I felt that I learned a lot during the few lessons I made it to.

Kellen Abraham

The ACB is a fantastic place for those learning dances for the first time. It provides a very welcoming and fun environment yet truly professional instruction and critiques. We worked with both Natalie and Whitney in the group classes and they were fantastic!

Emily Fenske

My husband and I took two private lessons with Alex as part of Groupon I had purchased for some beginners lessons for our first dance at our wedding. They were very flexible about getting our lessons scheduled, even though there was just a couple weeks before our wedding and our instructor, Alex, was awesome! He helped us learn the beginning steps to Nightclub two-step and the Rumba. Neither myself or my husband had much experience so we were so happy that we were able to gain a little bit of experience and confidence before dancing in front of all of our guests. The classes also made for fun date nights! We will definitely be back for group lessons in the future.

Lorie Hurst

My husband and I take weekly dance lessons with Paul Botes. Natalie Botes has helped us out on numerous occasions as well. They are both wonderful, and have been invaluable in our dance journey. Paul knows how to explain things any number of ways to get us to understand. We are competitive dancers, and Paul takes our lessons as seriously as we do. Yet he is humorous, upbeat, and makes the learning process fun. Both Paul and Natalie are knowledgable and compassionate in their teaching. Their beautiful new studio in Victoria is amazing, with a huge dance floor, sparkly chandeliers, draped ceilings, and comfortable seating. Paul and Natalie are living their passion--they love what they do and it shows. They make sure each and every person enjoys their experience at American Classic Ballroom. We love it there!

Alisa Roe

My husband and I took 4 group lessons at American Ballroom and really had a great learning experience. I now feel so much better about dancing at weddings. I am also thinking of taking more classes.

Katie Awoyinka

My husband and I participated in a couple of dance lessons in the weeks leading up to our wedding. The first time we went my parents came with us, which was a lot of fun for the four of us. At first we were a little apprehensive about the lesson, because we saw a lot of good dancers on the floor before the class, but as soon as the class started the instructor made us feel comfortable and it was obvious there was a wide variety of dance skills among the students. My husband and I both enjoyed learning to dance together and just having fun during the classes. We took the steps we learned and used them during our fist dance on our wedding day. It was great to have an idea of what to do during our first dance and some of our guests even complemented us on how nice our dance looked! Overall, good experience at American Classic Ballroom.

Robin Grace

Creepy owners! I thought it was a father/daughter team, turns out this guy is her husband. No way would I let this pervert touch me, I couldn’t be any more creeped out!

Ci La

Too soon to tell-I have only been emailing & playing phone tag-I was looking at a deal on a totally different site & apparently by clicking (to read more information) meant I signed up for the group lessons-Which would have been great-Except my right hand/arm is in a brace (injury from fencing). So, I called & emailed the person that was calling from California about my lessons and explained that I was injured (and didn't realize that by clicking to read the information meant I was registering & only had 30 days to use)-Obviously I wouldn't have done that knowing I couldn't use my dominant hand...I never heard back from her after I let her know I was injured-But I am hoping they are reasonable and understand and that I can use the deal when I am all healed up. :) Hopefully I will be able to report back with a five star review of the dance lessons!

Stephanie Lyles

Disgusting owners.

Charlie Doering

I have been going to the American Classic Ballroom since this past December. I am a widower and I have met only warm and friendly people. Probably because I went in and participated in the activities because I seek adult social interaction, and I eat meat and have ancestors who homesteaded on a farm and raised corn, wheat, chickens, and pigs, grew potatoes and other vegetables and sold the surplus to buy other things.Before the were able to move onto the farm, they lived in New Ulm when Minnesota was still a territory, and most survived the Indian Masacre of 1865, which incidentally was started by Indian youngsters returning from an unsuccessful day-long hunting trip and came upon a white settler"s cabin and were in the act of killing his chickens, when the wife came out to protest, they killed her, when the husband came out, they killed him, when the children came out they killed them. Now when annonymous people protest children of a man who shot a lion in africa, I am truly puzzled. What business is it of yours, what happens in Africa? Actually the lions, and other wild animals are more threatened by the explosive, unchecked human population who seek to feed themselves. If you sincerely, truly want to help the wild animals in Africa, and our Anthropoid Ancestors, join "Zero Population Growth.

AB Blaisdell

Lousy instruction, way over priced for the 2-2-1 new student package. Don't waste your money.

Jeannie Hill

We enjoyed the Friday ballroom dance party at American Classic Ballroom at their new location in Victoria, MN last week. There was a nice crowd and a great demo by Paul and Natalie Botes who danced Nightclub, West Coast Swing, and ballroom Tango. Both instructors make learning ballroom and Latin dace fun, full artistry, and know the best of dance technique. The spacious studio is welcoming and eloquent, with a wall of new mirrors to learn by and enjoy the beauty of yours/their ballroom dance movements. I highly recommend this studio for private ballroom dance lessons and can see why many who have taken lessons there believe that Twin Cities ballroom enthusiasts are fortunate to have Paul and Natalie Botes based here.

Kevin Linehan

They do not make you welcome. We signed up for group lessons. Class canceled twice. Third time class wasn't canceled but no one else showed up. They offered to give us a shorter private lesson which we accepted. Three employees talked at the front desk while we waited 20 minutes for the instructor. Turned out the instructor was one of the employees talking at the front desk. Our first lesson was ok. We learned some steps and techniques to practice for the next weeks lesson. We came back for the second group lesson, again we were the only couple that showed. So again we accepted a shorter private lesson. It took 15 minutes while the instructors decided who would have the burden of teaching the lesson. It was a different instructor and they contradicted everything the first instructor had taught. The owner was our instructor for the next lesson. Again 15 minutes after the lesson was scheduled to start. He had a third way to dance Salsa. Everything was so bad that we did not go back for the last 2 lesson we had paid for. We had already wasted our money and saw no reason to waste more of our time.

Bridget Williams

The instructors at ACB are great. We took a number of group classes, and had our first wedding dance choreographed here and had a blast learning all the moves.

Michael Simons

We have been taking lessons at ACB for about 6 months now and are very pleased with the progress we are making. Our technique has improved and we have become far more confident when we go out dancing. We can recommend ACB to social and competitive dancers.