New dance studio to open in St. Charles

Jackie Grytsak has been on a dance floor much of her life, but she might be more anxious than ever to get her feet and hips moving in St. Charles.

She and her husband, Evgenii, an accomplished world-class dancer from Ukraine, are opening a Fred Astaire dance studio in the Foxboro Plaza in St. Charles, targeting March 14 as an opening date.

The studio will be in the plaza's corner location, where the Beth Fowler School of Dance once operated and, before that, the Midwest Golf shop.

"We will be teaching adults various styles of dancing primarily," said Grytsak, who goes by Jackie Josephs as her professional dancing name. "There is nothing like this in the area, so we are getting a lot of excitement about it already."

Actually, the Fred Astaire studio joins others in the area that teach ballroom, including Nelson Dance Center in St. Charles, Vargo's Dance and State Street Dance in Geneva, and Batavia Academy of Dance. But in targeting mostly adults, Fred Astaire studios have always catered to that specific audience.

"My parents were dance teachers forever, and my mother and I are now a team on running these businesses," said Grytsak, whose family operated studios in Wisconsin before bringing the Fred Astaire name to the Chicago area.

She was a part owner of a Fred Astaire studio in Buffalo Grove, where her former dance partner, Jesse DeSoto, was also part owner. DeSoto was a dancer for one season on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" and that notoriety lifted the Buffalo Grove site to one of the most popular in the country.

It was not uncommon to see teachers like fellow "Stars" alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy show up to teach on occasion.

Grytsak met her future husband at a ballroom dance competition three years ago "and the rest is history," she said.

The new St. Charles studio will have a main ballroom and a junior ballroom for instruction and special events.

"We like to have social events for the students so they don't have to wait for a wedding or go into the city to find a place to dance," Grytsak said.

That's a good meatball

Last week, I said the eggplant Parmesan or Italian beef sandwiches at the new Romano Mercato Italiano deli in St. Charles were on my food radar.

Because they were out of the popular eggplant when I stopped in late in the day last week, I went for the meatball sandwich.

The red sauce makes the grade on this really tasty sandwich. And the place was hopping, so it appears owners Tony and Isabelle Romano have hit on a winner here in the location along Cedar Street that once housed Isaaco.

Should it be Eddie?

When covering Geneva boys basketball games this year, I had the bad habit of calling Viking forward Jordan Vedder by the name of Jason Vedder. I usually catch the mistake before print, but it did slip through on one occasion.

When explaining this oddity to my wife, she said it could be worse: "You could be calling him Eddie Vedder."

Now that might actually be OK. Vedder had a few slam dunks this season, so maybe the name of the frontman for Pearl "Jam" would have been more fitting.

School uniforms pitch

What does a high school do with school uniforms when new ones replace older ones?

The Rosary High School Parents Auxiliary wants to donate used school uniforms to an international organization or school in need.

I sent along a contact name for the Bilingual Education for Central America organization that my niece volunteers for, but there may be other options out there as well.

In the past, Rosary has donated uniform sweaters to a school in Sudan and skirts and blouses to another school in Kenya. Anyone who knows of international organizations or groups in the U.S., but outside of Illinois, that might be interested, contact the school at (630) 896-0831, ext. 50, or email Ruth Wenzel of Rosary's Parents Auxiliary at mawetz6@hotmail.com.

Here's a tall one

If Geneva residents want another building under construction to point to as to why they don't want the proposed Marquette apartments to be five stories high, take a look at the shell going up in the third phase of the First Street redevelopment project in St. Charles.

That one looks to be about four stories, so just envision another floor on top of that. It's pretty easy to see why residents are cringing about the height, as well as other factors, in fighting the proposal for the Cetron property on Richards Street.

dheun@sbcglobal.net