“the best coach I have worked with for any skill I have ever tried to build in my lifetime”

Aris is probably the best coach I have worked with for any skill I have ever tried to build in my lifetime. There are many dancers out there who teach private lessons and I have taken lessons from other Champion level dancers, both on an individual and ongoing basis. Aris' instruction has been far more effective for me.

What separates Aris from other coaches I've worked with is his depth of understanding of how everything in the dance fits together and even more importantly, his ability to communicate it in bite sized chunks that don't overwhelm my attention during the dance. In addition to his ability to boil his lessons down to micro-cues, his understanding of all of the biomechanics involved allows him to see with incredible clarity how different "problems" in your dance affect each other. This gives him a unique ability to fix those problems at their root. This systematic approach to private instruction makes every lesson extremely high leverage.

Knowledge is one thing, but there's more to a coach than that and Aris delivers here as well. His feedback delivery style threads a difficult needle that simultaneously both precise and encouraging. I've never left a lesson without a clear understanding of what I need to work on, and I've never left a lesson feeling like I can't accomplish that next step.

This is just the experience of working with him directly. However, Aris' effect has broader reaching impact than just what we work on in private. Like most instructors, he has many students and dancing with his other students is always a joy. Those dances are consistently smoother and leave more room for creativity than other dancers I have the opportunity to dance with on a regular basis. The quality of his instruction is directly reflected in this way which makes progress compound. Working with Aris has given me access to his network of students both locally in Denver as well as all over the competition circuit and this group of people has also been instrumental in my development.

As a group class instructor he is leagues ahead of the other instructors I've worked with. He commands presence of the room without a hint of aggression or condescension. He provides concise, clear direction, and his lessons always have a sensible progression to them where nothing feels out of place, and no step feels too large. This makes classes enjoyable as you get the reward of seeing progress just in the hour regardless of your skill level.

Finally, even when not in session he provides advice and encouragement to those of us on the grind to become better dancers and that has been immensely helpful on the roller coaster of the competition circuit.

You will not regret working with Aris, whether it is for a group class, a single private lesson, or an ongoing relationship with him as a coach.

--Keagan M--