![\"Behind](\"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2017\/04\/Stephen_Knight.jpg\")
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So Stephen, what got you started ballroom dancing?<\/em><\/strong> You danced with Rae Josephs during the peak of your career. Were there any other leading ladies earlier on in your career?<\/em><\/strong> Tell me more about your partnership with Rae.<\/em><\/strong> Of everything you\u2019ve done and accomplished in the dance business, what has been your favorite part of your career?<\/em><\/strong> What in your opinion sets FADS apart from other dance studios?<\/em><\/strong> So can you drop me any hints of any Top Secret changes happening in 2017? With the competitions or the curriculum or anything in the works?<\/em><\/strong> What would you say is the biggest change to the national competitions?<\/em><\/strong> So Stephen, inquiring minds want to know. What do you like to do for fun?<\/em><\/strong> What is in your Netflix que right now?<\/em><\/strong> What is your favorite dance? If you could only dance one for the rest of time.<\/em><\/strong> Stephen Knight is one of the most well known names in the ballroom dance industry. And for good reason, he\u2019s super talented and creative, his list of accomplishments never seems to end and to top it all off he\u2019s the sparkling personality of the winners circle at the nationals competitions. His many accomplishments include Regional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,28,22,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careers-in-dance","category-dance-competitions","category-dance-info-news-trends","category-fred-astaire-fads-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fredastaire.com\/brookfield-ct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI was 17, and I needed to get a job for the summer before college. When I took the job, it was a training class. I knew after about 2 weeks that I was going to be a lifer. The class was about a month, but I knew after 2 weeks. I wasn\u2019t really into sports and when I started dancing I realized this could really be my thing, I was pretty good at it in the beginning. Not that I didn\u2019t have to work really hard and work really long, but it was good for me.<\/p>\n
\nI started with a girl named Chris Marlin, I danced with her and a girl named Victoria at the beginning, you know pre champ era. Then I danced with a girl named Maryanne Brighton in Chicago. Then Diane Monroe, we danced together for a long time until I left Chicago. We did Dance Fever, we were in a big night club show for a year and a half as the specialty act. Then, I had only two partners the whole time I was in Milwaukee, a girl named Dee Dee Hile, we danced three styles. Then I danced with Rae, and Rae was \u2018til the end.<\/p>\n
\nThe thing I loved the most about working with Rae is she held me accountable, so I learned really good work ethics from her. Which I needed. I would say she definitely helped to push me in the beginning. I was always good about practicing hard, but she was good about practicing longer. My favorite memory I have while dancing with Rae was the first year we made it to the final in \u201994 or \u201995.<\/p>\n
\nOh, the teaching, definitely! After 40 years, still to this day my favorite thing is getting on the floor and coaching the students. Making sure that they walk out of the studio with an experience that will make their day so much brighter. Regardless of what they learn, when they feel better about their dancing it\u2019s going to allow them to learn better. Sometimes the students have so much information that they dance with this huge burden on their back, they\u2019re trying to accomplish so many things. If we can take one or two things and actually get them to feel it so they start to own it. When they really start owning it, it\u2019s theirs for life.<\/p>\n
\nDefinitely the trophy system, for sure. It was created by Fred Astaire himself with the original dance board members. It\u2019s something that we\u2019ve taken the grace and the style and sophistication of Fred Astaire and his many partners and incorporated it into the system we teach today. Our teaching methods are great, our teachers are great. Fred Astaire is about the product, the product is the dancing and of course the service that we give. I\u2019m out on the circuit judging, and I see how our Fred Astaire students place and they kick butt. There\u2019s a family bond and a community that\u2019s very tight. The support is huge. You don\u2019t see that with other dance studios.<\/p>\n
\nWell, CCDC will be at a new venue this year in Houston and I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve seen the pictures. But it\u2019s absolutely breath taking. So that\u2019s going to be exciting, it\u2019s always nice to go to a new venue. The new bronze curriculum should be being introduced at the FACT seminar. We\u2019ve taken both bronze\u2019s (the social and the advanced) and we merged them into one program. Everything has been gone though with a fine tooth comb to make sure that the videos and manuals are impeccably in sync. All of the material is now numbered 1-20 and based on the level of difficulty. Which is a great improvement. Lots of good stuff happening, it\u2019s going to be a very exciting year.<\/p>\n
\nGosh, just about everything. The amount of energy and passion, organization, communication. The service and the amount of money being spent to make the event great. Decorations, the menus and the food. The quality of the dancing, literally everything. It\u2019s all great. We want to keep elevating the level of service, that\u2019s how you elevate your business.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m a movie fanatic. I love movies and TV, it\u2019s my escape. I give it all on such a regular basis, so to sit and relax into make believe land is so much fun for me. I love to go to spas and pamper myself, and shopping. I love to go away for a few days for a mini vacation. We have many of the coaches come stay with us, we entertain extensively. We are very busy with our families a lot, we\u2019re getting to that age where we want to have as much family as we can.<\/p>\n
\nWell I just got done watching Medici. I\u2019m watching The Crown right now. There\u2019s another one that someone turned me onto and now I\u2019m addicted called Schitt\u2019s Creek. It\u2019s a stupid comedy but it\u2019s pretty funny.<\/p>\n
\nIf I had to pick, it would probably be Waltz. I like where the American style has gone. It\u2019s very liquid, it\u2019s got a lot of heart and soul a lot of passion. You\u2019re not restricted to one dance position, you\u2019re able to express with your entire body. It\u2019s got elegance and sophistication but freedom and passion at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"