Dance With These Stars

Park Cities couple judges ballroom internationally, teaches in Dallas

I am a terrible dancer. I quit step aerobics after falling off my step, and I try to avoid any activity that requires me to move to music. 

So, I was intimidated when champion ballroom dancers Gocha Chertkoev and Shorena Gachechiladze suggested I take a lesson in their studio.

Me: “My coordination is terrible.”

Shorena: “So maybe dancing is good, right?”

Shockingly, after about 15 minutes of instruction I could do a bouncy, but passable, cha-cha, and had decided that maybe dancing wasn’t so hard.

Success in classrooms and competitions is nothing new to Shorena and Gocha, who have been bringing Dancing with the Stars sparkle to Dallas for more than 30 years.

The couple came to the area from Tbilisi, Georgia as teenagers after the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. They had competed together as ballroom dance partners since childhood. 

But as the husband and wife team began excelling in the Soviet Union’s dance world, that world crumbled around them.

The couple planned to emigrate to London until the parents of a former student contacted them: Would Gocha and Shorena like to help train teachers at a new dance studio in Preston Center?

“We had terrible information about America,” Shorena said. “It was bad propaganda.” 

Fortunately, Shorena and Gocha weren’t the type to listen to politicians.

The couple arrived in Dallas to culture shock and July heat. They initially planned to stay for three months. 

“But we loved America so much,” Shorena said, “and then we met such nice people.”

With help from passionate dancer and Park Cities resident Martha Anderson, the pair became Highland Park residents, sent their son to Bradfield Elementary, and achieved professional success representing the United States in competitions around the world.

After retiring from competition, they opened Gocha and Shorena’s GSBallroom Dance Studio almost 17 years ago in a former post office on Knight Street.

The studio’s exterior still has its post office façade, but nothing is ordinary once you step through its doors. This isn’t just a business to Gocha and Shorena; this is their home.

“Because I’m here all day long, I have a more decorated or different look than the average dance studio,” Shorena explained, showing a visitor comfortable furniture, memorabilia, and her own competitive dance costumes based on her husband’s designs.

As instructors, the couple focus on quality, not numbers. They try to create positive energy and rejuvenate their students. 

Though no longer competitors, Gocha and Shorena stay involved in the world of professional ballroom. Gocha is head judge and executive producer on Dancing with the Stars in Tbilisi, Georgia, while Shorena appears as a guest judge. The pair travel as judges representing the United States, and Gocha was instrumental in bringing the first ballroom reality show, Ballroom Bootcamp, to TLC.

Through their nonprofit, Community in Motion, they promote movement and dance to seniors and at-risk youth. It’s Shorena’s passion to spread the love of dance to everyone, especially the young.

“Honestly, nothing is better than ballroom dancing,” Gocha said. “It’s better than exercise. It’s better than jogging. It’s better than anything.”