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Later this month, a close-knit group will bid farewell to their “home away from home.” The Cheryl Burke Dance Studio in Mountain View, one of the largest ballroom-dancing venues in the Bay Area, will shut its doors permanently at the end of September.
The closure is sparking an exodus of dancers and instructors in search of a new home.
The Cheryl Burke studio has provided a haven for dance-lovers at its somewhat hidden location, tucked in the back of an industrial lot off Shoreline Boulevard. Mountain View resident Steve Clamage said he has been coming to the studio for years. Taking a break from his two-step lesson on Friday, he gushed about what the studio has meant for him.
“It’s a wonderful social activity, and there’s no other place like this.” he said. “I sure hope something else like this opens up.”
The Mountain View dance studio is closing because its landlord, LinkedIn, has plans to redevelop the property. The professional networking company earlier this year announced plans to patch together several adjacent properties for a new 10-building campus. Other nearby tenants, including Laser Quest and Togo’s Sandwiches, will also be moving in the coming months.
Studio owner Cheryl Burke gained renown in the professional dancing circuit after twice winning “Dancing with the Stars,” the reality TV series that pairs celebrities with professional dancers. She’s become one of the show’s central professional performers and has appeared in 18 seasons of the show.
When she was still a regular on the show, Burke decided to partner with her mother, Atherton resident Sherri Burke, to create her own dance studio. It was an obvious step, her mother explained. As Cheryl’s profile continued to grow, more people were asking about getting private lessons.
“But there was no way she could do it on her own,” Sherri Burke said. “She asked me to help her open the studio and develop it into a franchise.”
Burke and her mother retained control as they experimented with different studios. A studio in San Francisco had to close down due to parking and crime problems. A smaller Orange County venue located in an upscale shopping center made a go of it for three years before closing in 2013.
The 14,000-square-foot studio in Mountain View opened in 2009 and became the flagship and most successful of Burke’s studios. The venue attracted a loyal circle of dance aficionados, both professionals and amateurs. Burke’s mother credited the tech-hub location for drawing a regular group of engineers and programmers looking for a social and physical activity.
“They take off their shoes after a long day and use this as their way to unwind as they wait for traffic to die down,” Sherri Burke said. “When they start dancing, all their shyness goes out the window.”
The studio has offered lessons in all kinds of ballroom dancing, including tango, waltz, salsa and foxtrot. Thursday through Sunday the studio holds social dance parties, which often included many regulars.
“It’s sad for a lot of people, many have been coming up to me to talk about all the fun they’ve had over the years,” Sherri Burke said. “For many people this was like their second home.”
The dance studio is holding some events to say goodbye. A farewell dance party that will include an appearance by Cheryl Burke is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 12. A final dance showcase is planned for Sept. 27. All other classes and events will continue through the end of the month.
Many of the professionals are already making contingency plans for what to do after the closure. Daniele Gozzi, a dance instructor at Cheryl Burke, said he hopes to draw many of the regulars to a new studio he is opening in San Jose. His new venue, Starlight Dance Studio, will employ many of the dance instructors from Cheryl Burke, he said.
“They’re all excited to have a new place to dance,” he said.
He said that Starlight Dance Studio will open in early October at 5178 Moorpark Ave. in San Jose.
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Among the arts and crafts for sale at the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival will be Ray and Raquel Jungwirth’s container gardens. Photo courtesy of Miramar Events. -
Among the arts and crafts for sale at the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival will be greeting cards by Janneth Mitchum. Photo courtesy of Miramar Events. -
The community stage at the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival features performances by local groups including Harmony Dance Studio. Photo courtesy of Miramar Events.
Another great gift to the community from the tech giants. Thank you, LInkedIn, for destroying a thriving venue that brought joy to thousands. I’m canceling my LinkedIn profile now.
Mountain View, the home of big companies and big developers. What a shame.
Sickened by this.
Hard as it is for the dance studio, this is also hard for the kids.
LaserQuest has been a firm favorite of the youth in the area and I am gutted that another activity for kids is going.
We lost the Palo Alto Bowl and now we are losing LaserQuest.
Teen mental health is a big problem for our high schoolers. Having a safe place to spend some down time is very necessary.
Where will the kids go to have fun? Are they going to build a similar facility in San Antonio? Are they going to put in a bowling alley in San Antonio? Will there be a dance studio in San Antonio?
Big companies are building fabulous facilities for their employees. Unfortunately there will be no fabulous facilities for those who don’t work in the Googles, LinkedIn, Apple, etc.
And then they will end up putting at risk youth on mental health watch instead of finding them somewhere to play.
Is this place losing its heart.
Maybe the article should be re-read by some people. While it clearly states that the dance studio is closing, it also states that laser quest is moving. That sounds to me that they are not closing.
I called LaserQuest. They tell me they are moving to San Jose.
I think that is losing them, unless you think San Jose is still in our neighborhood.
before you know it only google,apple, employees will live in MV. Chevys is gone too. Who can afford to sustain a business and live here.
My mom, who’s in her late 70’s, has been dancing at this studio for the past few years and has made a lot of nice friends there. She’s wondering where she’ll go now and the few options being discussed will definitely be further away from her home.
Back in April my mom’s class put on a show for family and friends that featured tangos, waltzes and other ballroom dances so it was nice to see what everyone had learned and enjoyed doing.
I think there is one more “showcase”, as they call it, coming up before the studio closes, so catch if you can.
Oh what a shame! I always wanted to take a ballroom class there, but never had the time. It was fun to have a little starlight and Hollywood glitz in our very serious and high tech industrial city.
Where is Laserquest moving to? My kids love that place. They do the BEST parties: easy for the parents, fun for the kids. Hope they aren’t moving too far out of the area.
Edit:
Sorry. I should not have just skimmed the other comments.
So Laserquest is moving far. San Jose is out of our kid party range. Another loss for the overall state of fun in MV.
Why close these businesses now and leave them empty for months or even a year? LinkedIn plans have not been approved yet and construction is not scheduled anytime soon.
Clearly the new breed of technology companies feel it is essential to keep their troops entertained with all sorts of elaborate in-house diversion (free of charge), but outside their walls, the local community is on its own.
Cubberly continues to offer dancing on weekends. http://www.cubberleyballroom.com/
Didn’t this use to be the Starlight Ballroom that was located in Sunnyvale at Fair Oaks and Tasman? A location that is now housing and retail?