Testimonials

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Sophia helps break down the walls of fear and intimidation that beginner dancers typically have and makes learning how to dance fun and easy. Thank you so much!!! GL

Sophia is very knowledgeable and very easy to learn from, She is a teacher and knows her stuff. I can’t wait for my next lesson :) GB

Sophia in Sapphire is a wonderful new asset to Las Vegas. As a novice, I was a little worried about taking dance lessons and I imagined the worse possible result. However, within five minutes of my first dance lesson, Sophia got my two bum left feet moving. In the first lesson alone she was able to teach me the basic steps to several ballroom dances. She is a world class dancer and instructor. Her studio in Las Vegas is very clean and the dance floor is nicely done. The studio even has a café in it for people who need a little caffeine in the afternoon. If you are planning on getting married, you should consider taking ballroom dancing with Sophia. I promise that you will not regret it. AP

If you want to learn to dance, take lessons. If you want to understand the passion & reason for dance, take lessons with Sophia. Sophia will teach you the skills needed to look great on the dance floor. Her degree of professionalism is of the highest standard. Sophia’s many years of being a dancer, musician, and artist just add to the quality of instruction you receive when being her student. I first met Sophia as a beginning dancer where she taught me basic rhythm & timing steps. Over the next several years I attended several group classes & dance outings with Sophia & her students. In every one of those classes & dance outings I saw the love Sophia’s students have for her & watched them grow as dancers. I have witnessed Sophia lead students to competitions and top student awards. Sophia teaches with a passion & enthusiasm unseen in most instructors. So…do you want to dance? If the answer is Yes…dance with Sophia. WL

Sharp,knowledgeable and fun.After a short period of time im very calm performing in front of a large audience and thats quite an accomplishment,normally im quite shy. Ive been taking dance lessons from Sophia for 17 months now and it always feels like im visiting an old friend with our mutual hobby being dance. GL

From the very first lesson, Sophia was quick to adapt her teaching to my learning style, and she exuded positive energy. Over time, I had occasion to see Sophia with other students, and how different her lessons were with each student, depending on their needs. I never bought lessons in advance, so I never felt committed to taking lessons, but I kept coming back every week for 2 years — and I am taking my first break for the moment because I’m taking a sabbatical. I consider Sophia a friend, in addition to a truly unique and wonderful dance instructor. GL

Sophia is great to work with because of her friendly and fun personality, and makes the entire learning process a very fun experience. I started to learn salsa and bachata from her and she got me a long way so that I could surprise my girlfriend. She looked out for all the important things (steps, posture, timing, etc.) to make sure I looked good on the dancefloor. She’s a great dancer and has everything it takes to be a teacher. She kept in contact with me on our appointments and also helps push me to excel more and more in my dancing skills. I look forward to each lesson I take. AS

Maestra Sophia is the most talented naturally born dancer and instructor, she was teaching tango in Golden Age Tango Academy, here amazing vocabulary and style of teaching made the dance easy to learn, we dearly miss you, wishing you good luck and happiness – Ivan Shvarts, founder of the Golden Age Tango Academy in the Bay Area.

My husband and I took dance lessons for my wedding (first dance) from Sophia at Cheryl Burke Dance. We were able to fit in 5 lessons before the big day. Sophia is a great teacher. She is very patient and makes the lesson fun. My husband and I were super busy at the time (wedding planning and finishing up a dissertation), so we probably weren’t the best students (read: should have practiced more) but we always had a great time during our lesson. We should have taken more advantage of Sophia’s offer to record us while we were practicing (we finally did it in our last lesson) but it makes a difference seeing how you look (and it’s easier to visualize why Sophia is giving you the feedback that she is). The 45-minute lessons went fast so be sure to utilize every minute if you take lessons there! Oh, and the first dance went well! Not sure if it was recorded (we’re not a very sentimental couple) but we had a great time dancing and I think we surprised some people!!!! :) In summary, I highly recommend Sophia! MK

Sophia is amazing. She is very creative in developing the choreography that fits us. All our guests love our first dance. It was my husband’s first time to learn dancing but Sophia made it very easy. We had a great time learning the dance together and will totally recommend her to any couple for your wedding dance! As we had a tight schedule, she also managed to use one lesson to teach the mother and son dance so they could dance through the whole song. Thank you Sophia. LW

Sophia is an amazing dance instructor. My husband and I wanted to surprise guests at our wedding with a fun dance to “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer. When we first approached Sophia we had no idea what we were doing. After 8 lessons we had a beat and could dance to “Hot Stuff”. Our guests went crazy when we danced at our wedding. Sophia is professional, positive, patient, and has a true gift for teaching dance. My husband and I are continuing to take dance lesson with Sophia even now that we are married. Sophia makes it so much fun. KK

Everything you will read here about Sophia is 100% true. She is such a gifted instructor: patient, kind and fun!! She did such an amazing job choreographing our first dance for our wedding. My husband who was very apprehensive and nervous in the beginning about doing a dance at all, ended up loving it. Our dance was a huge hit at our wedding!!! I highly recommend Sophia for any type of dance lessons!!! CM

Every positive review you will see about Sophia is true. Patient, flexible, kind and very talented. She went out of her way to help us master the wedding floor. We owe her big thanks and highly recommend her for any kind of dance lessons. JA

We signed up for 14 lessons with Sophia for our wedding 1st dance. Our 1st dance was definitely the highlight of the wedding and we’ve gotten tons of compliments from the guests. Sophia was amazing! She was fun and patient and the lessons were paced just right for our skill level. Also, how the routine matched the music was incredible. We felt like performers in “dancing with the stars”. Her attention to detail such as facial expression and hand postures made the dance extra special and this was noticed by many of our guests. Many raved that it was the best 1st dance they’ve ever seen. Best of all, she paced the lessons perfectly so that we had enough time to practice and perfect the moves. Even though both my now wife and I had plenty to drink, the dance went without a hitch because we felt so comfortable with it. On top of that, she built in moves into that dance that made for amazing photo ops. Our photographer was blown away. Highly, highly recommended!! MV

My wife and I wanted to do a first dance at our wedding and my wife found Sophia online. We had a total of six lessons over about two months and Sophia helped us put together a routine that was easy for us to learn, tailored to our first song and that made us look good at our wedding. She was very patient and taught us the dance moves progressively and in a way that even someone with no dance experience (like me) could still learn it and make it look good. Thanks Sophia! Her scheduling was flexible and she was able to see us both in Foster City and Mountain View. MM

Sophia is a wonderful dance instructor. We only decided in the last three weeks that we wanted a choreographed first dance at the wedding and she was able to accomodate our schedules. We ended up having 3 lessons with her (2 of them were in the same evening, again cuz of work schedules) and we still managed to get a great 2 minute dance put together for our first dance. It was fun to work with her and she was very patient with both of us (between the two of us we have 2 left feet and 2 right feet, they’re just not in the right combination!) We could never have done this without her! By the end of of our third lesson we were confident we would make it look good. Our friends said that our dancing was lovely and I can’t wait to see it on the wedding video! MT

Words cannot describe how amazing Sophia was as a dance instructor and choreographer for my first dance with my husband at our wedding. I have previous dance experience, but only in ballet, and my husband has no dance experience whatsoever, and Sophia was so good at making us both feel comfortable while challenging us just a little bit to make our dance unforgettable! We were ambitious in deciding to hire Sophia to choreograph our atypical, fun, and fast paced, first dance; and it’s the best decision we could have made! Sophia is so friendly and so patient, and we really felt so comfortable learning all the moves. Our wedding guests were awed by our first dance and we had so much fun doing it!!! Sophia was an exceptional teacher and if you don’t choose her as your choreographer, you’re crazy! We fully intend to continue with social dance because our experience with Sophia was such a great one. Many thanks, Sophia!!!! EW

Learning how to dance is particularly difficult for me. My mom said I always stood out even when I was in elementally school. Sophia is very patient, always cheerful and smiling. She helped me with learning two steps for my wedding. She not only taught me how to dance, but she also choreographed our first dance. She is very talented, and she is the best! KY

Sophia is beyond a fantastic dance instructor; in fact, she is nothing short of a miracle worker with the way she turned my husband and me from stiff-legged and nervous inexperienced dancers into confident and poised wedding reception showstoppers. Sophia’s friendly nature, great sense of humor, and kind critiques quickly foster a very comfortable, positive, and close student-teacher relationship. It is also clear from the start that Sophia’s personal dance talent and expertise effectively combines with her experienced eye for understanding her students’ talents and experiences to allow her to create personalized lessons and choreography that challenge the student to strive for advancement in skill and technique while also assuring successful attainment of reasonable goals. With a keen eye for detail and creative strategies for instruction, Sophie also takes the time to point out even the smallest areas of style or technique to polish and helps you do so through simple and understandable demonstrations, analogies, explanations, and tips. LC

My husband and I had a total of 12 private lessons with Sophia during which she choreographed 2 dances to the 2 songs we were planning to dance to at our wedding. We left each lesson having learned at least a few new skills that built on previously learned skills and that were creatively integrated into our routines. Sophia set an excellent pace for our learning, kept diligent notes on our lessons to keep us moving forward, and always responded thoughtfully to our own ideas or concerns to make sure we felt happy, comfortable, and excited about our special dances. All this led to a wedding reception at which pretty much every guest expressed to us how our first dance was the best first dance they have ever seen. One of my favorite parts about looking through the pictures of our dance is not looking at us, but rather looking at the awe on the faces of the guests standing around the dance floor watching us. Even though our wedding is over, we both would love to continue taking dance lessons because of all the fun we had throughout this process and we cannot think of anyone better than Sophia to work with in our future dancing adventures. LC

Sophia was great! We took lessons from her for the first dance for our wedding. We were both complete beginners but by the end of our private lessons, we were twirling, dipping, spinning, you name it! She choreographed a sweet romantic, wonderful routine for us, that was exactly what we wanted, and it was fantastic!! We never failed to leave the lessons with big smiles on our faces, and are sad for it to be over! Sophia was very patient and helpful, and gave us plenty of tricks and tips that I still remember as I dance! Thank you! SH

Excellent…very knowledgeable. Makes dancing fun…never knew it could be so much fun. JB

Thank you Sophia for teaching us the basic moves of dancing. She’s very professional and has passion in what she does. She’s patient and very accommodating to us, too. Since we only signed up for two classes because of our time constraints, she was still able to teach us techniques and moves that could help unexperienced dancers like us conquer our fears, trust each other, feel the rhythm of the music, and actually enjoy dancing together. Once we learned how to dance the basic steps, me and my husband were able to build a choreography from it. And based on what we heard so far from our guests, our first dance was a success! I’ll definitely recommend her. EN

My first time taking Salsa lessons, and I’m glad that I did. It was full of fun, and Sophia is the best instructor that I ever had. I will take more of her classes if my time permits. She takes pride in what she does, and she is the best. In my busy workdays, dancing reduces anxiety in my stressful job. I salute Sophia, and I will see you around! Thank you so much, I really appreciated everything…Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! MD

Thank you for Sophia, I learned a lot for 6 classes even who is not experienced Salsa dancing before. It was really fun and I enjoyed very much. She is very patient and teaching step by step. I will absolutely take another class from Sophia. HS

Sophia is absolutely fabulous! With 3 weeks left until our wedding, my fiance and I realized that we needed help with our first dance. Adding to our problems was the fact that we both live far away from each other and the only time that we could do dance classes was ONE weekend where I flew up to see my fiance. I frantically called/emailed a few places around the bay area a few days before coming up, and Sophia was the only instructor who replied right away. We asked her if she could squeeze us in for three classes and she happily agreed. We then emailed her the name of our song and by the time we had our first lesson, Sophia had already thought out the choreography for our first dance.
The dance lessons themselves were fun and very helpful. Even my fiance, who hates to dance, enjoyed himself. We both felt very comfortable with Sophia. We would have loved to have taken more classes with Sophia but alas, time was not on our side. JN

Sophia is simply the best. She’s great for beginners like me, very patient and supportive. Some teachers assume you’ll somehow pick up the steps as you go along, but so far Sophia’s the only instructor I’ve worked with who cheerfully and caringly works with you on the steps for as long as it takes to get the hang of it. She makes me want to run home and practice so I can make her proud in our next lesson. If marriage was in my plans she’s the first professional I’d call, because she’d help make the wedding dance truly memorable and make any couple feel ready to handle anything. What a princess! CG

The business is the people who work there. Sophia, founder of Sophia in Sapphire, has danced since she was 4! While her passion and focus is teaching dances, she is no slave driver! I remember the first time I stepped on Sophia’s foot, and she said, “It was a rock.” That was funny. She is always smiling and great company! JS

My Fiance, Ian, and I have been working with Sophia for about 5 weeks now to develop our Tango skills. We only just divulged to her, this week, that we are seeing her because we wish to do a tango as part of our fist dance. In our experience, Sophia is truly fantastic as an instrucotor. She possesses the qualities of a truly helpful dance instructor: Excellent skill and ability to teach it; attunement to what corrections and exercises are needed; fantastic skill as a dancer; and wonderful care and devotion as an instructor. She is a delight to work with and we are so pleased we were able to find her to support us in making our wedding dance vision come to life! NP

First off, my fiancé and I have two left feet. Seriously, we have fun when we dance, but we’re not winning any competitions any time soon. That being said, we wanted to learn a few moves so we wouldn’t trip over each other during our first dance at our wedding. We really didn’t know what to expect and were admittedly a bit nervous during our first session, but Sophia was terrific! She made us laugh right away which kept us calm and her upbeat nature was infectious. Since both of us have no dancing experience, she started with some basic moves all while getting to know us better during the session. At the end of the session, we gave her a few songs we were considering and asked her opinion. By the next lesson she had a recommendation and choreography to go along with it! I have to admit, she was spot on with her choice and had an amazing eye for subtle nuances that embodied both our personalities. She worked with us over the next few weeks, showing tremendous patience, while we sometimes struggled with some of the more basic steps. By the end, the routine was spectacular! We could really tell Sophia put the time and energy into making it was personal and tailored to us. I would recommend her to any couple looking to polish up on their steps or even learn some new ones. If she can make a couple of clumsy dancers like us look graceful, then she can teach anybody. Thanks Sophia! TA

Thank you so much, Sophia! My fiance, Andrew, and I have been very impressed with your lessons. Every time we come in, no matter what the stresses of the day, we come and have fun. Your calm and patient manner really helps us focus on the dance and enjoy the lesson. We love your enthusiasm and positive attitude and you always make us feel like we’re pros. We can’t wait for our next lesson! LL

My fiancée and I took private lessons from Sophia to learn how to dance for our first dance at our wedding. She has been amazing! She choreographed fun and beautiful routine to our song, and is such a good teacher that our routine was fun easy to learn. We both found ourselves looking forward to the days when we had class. I can’t believe how much progress we made (neither of us really could remember even a basic step before our first class, so we were true beginners). Thanks to Sophia, we went from hoping to survive our first dance, to now looking forward to it as one of the highlights of our wedding. I could not recommend Sophia any more highly! LB

Sophia has a very easy and relaxed way of teaching that made it a breeze for me to learn a very complex dance routine. A consummate professional, well mannered and not overbearing. She takes pride in teaching others the art of Ballroom dancing. Her students are a reflection of her ability, passion and love for Ballroom dancing. She gives each student the confidence to enjoy being on the dance floor. I always looked forward to my dance lessons with Sophia! TN

A charming, talented and professional instructor. Sophia and I prepared for this CW number and it went off flawlessly. I learned so much from her in such a short period of time and you will too. Thank you Sophia, you’re the best!!! TD

I love dancing and working with Sophia. She has helped me improve my technique and timing in several of my ballroom dances. She is highly professional and always makes her students feel comfortable and relaxed when learning how to dance. Her quality of instruction is top notch. I was always greeted with a smile and felt every minute of lesson time was put to good use. I felt when I was struggling Sophia recognized this and worked to help me overcome the road blocks. Sophia is a wonderful instructor who will make you feel relaxed, confident, and help you truly enjoy your dance experience. WL