Sole Mates: On and off the dance floor; Reporter: Eric Roby

It's the type of passion that makes a marriage strong and helped create international dance champions.

Babette and Warren Brown could live anywhere in the world; however, they choose to live in our area. Every time they get on the dance floor, you can see their passion for dancing, but most of all for each other.

Gliding across the dance floor, hitting each step with precision and purpose, Babette and Warren Brown are among the best ballroom dancers in the world. "There is something that is absolutely unique with ballroom dancing is the partnering skill. It is about a man dancing with a woman. It is the most intense kind of partnering," Babette describes.

Intense is what this couple does best. They make you feel the passion of the tango. But for this married couple of six years, it's just a normal day at the office. "I can perform if I am piping mad at you," says Barbette.

"Yeah, she often does," Warren admits. "Yeah, you wouldn't see a difference."

Warren is from Scotland and a fourth generation dancer. Babette is from Austria. Together, they are the reining Scottish Latin ballroom dancers.

After a month of dancing together, Warren knew they were in love and proposed. "We were practicing the rumba, which is the dance of love, and I was standing there waiting to dance. She couldn't look at me for three days; she couldn't dance with me."

The two soon got married traveling the world as professional dancers both competing and teaching. But they wanted to put down roots and picked Jupiter to open up a Fred Astaire Dance Studio. "Dancing on the dance floor and competing, that's one thing, but trying to teach someone to dance with no experience, now that's a real challenge."

For some, the strain of running a business together, competing together and living together would be too much. But, like on the dance floor, these two have figured out the right moves to make it work.

Babette says, "We can have a practice where we hate each other; then, we go home and everything is fine. We never take a grudge home. We really understand what is dancing and what is private life."

Warren and Babette have a relationship few will ever experience. "We listen to each others' bodies while we dance. It's knowing where our weight is, our body connection."

From world class dancers to renowned teachers to a fairy tale romance, Warren and Babette are perfect together both on and off the dance floor.

For more information, log onto the Fred Astair Jupiter Dance Studio's Web site.

Warren & Babette on Fox 29 Today, Thursday April 24th @10.00pm

They're shakin up South Florida!

World famous dance champions like you've never seen before.

Feel the passion of their real life love story in Eric Roby's special report "Sole Mates" tonight on the Fox 29 10 O'Clock News.

Maks from Dancing with the Stars is coming to Jupiter

National Dance Championships – Las Vegas

Hello everyone, I am back and I have to tell you how excited I am about what happened in Vegas. I know, I know, now you think what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – well, this story I am proud to share.

Each year we attend Fred Astaire National Championships in Las Vegas. This year it was held at the Luxor resort, directly on the famous Vegas strip. We arrived on Tuesday to spend an extra day and… well that stays in Vegas. On Wednesday the competition started and I have to say, even I was impressed. I have been to many competitions all over the world but this one was special. With 11,000 entries this was the biggest competition we’ve had so far and the atmosphere was mesmerizing. The ballroom was packed from the first day with competitors from studios all over the USA.

After the first day we already had a feeling that this would go really well for us. Vladimir was dancing with Patricia Becker and Warren was dancing with Savanna Michael, Gail Sermersheim and Sherri Michael. I am sure you think that I am biased, and I probably am, but the level of dancing that I saw from our students exceeded all my expectations. Fred Astaire Jupiter made it through all first rounds and quarter finals, and into almost every final. Many times we placed in the top 3 – it was so good to see that all our effort paid off and we are so very proud of our students, they made us look very good.

On Friday evening it was the Professionals who got to compete. Both of our top couples made the finals in Open Smooth and Open International Latin, which was a great success. The same evening we enjoyed a special show from Ricardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko, who were second at the last UK Open Championships. I was thrilled to hear the announcement that they will join the Fred Astaire family. I am sure we will welcome them soon to Jupiter for coaching’s.

On Saturday evening the event finished with a grand Gala banquet and show with, of course, an Egyptian theme. The setting and decoration were beautiful and everybody enjoyed a great dinner and dance. Then came the moment when the TOP awards were handed out. Jupiter won: TOP STUDIO RUNNER UP. Warren and Vladimir both were in the TOP TEACHER rankings. Patricia Becker won TOP FEMALE AWARD and Savanna Michael won TOP YOUTH AWARD!

What a weekend!!! I couldn’t leave all our success in Vegas; I had to tell you all. How do I feel about it – well I stepped out of character and shed a tear or two. That’s how happy I was.

I hope I see you soon at Fred Astaire Jupiter.

Happy dancing,

Babette Brown

CROSSTRAINING in Ballroom Dancing

If you are working in a ballroom dance school you meet different people from many different backgrounds. The reason people want to ballroom dance varies by individual. Everybody wants to have fun, that is for sure, but its people’s goals that are actually amazing. This brings me to a very interesting story about how Ballroom dancing helped another athlete to improve their skills. For example, one of my students, Patricia Becker, a Professional Grand Pix Dressage Riding Champion who’s working towards making the Olympic team for 2012.

Patricia came to take dance lessons while training with her horses in Wellington. At first it was no more than a hobby for Patricia, but she then realized what potential advantage the dance lessons have for her Dressage discipline. Patricia is working with one of our top instructors, Vladimir Velev. Vladimir has been dancing for 25 years and has achieved many top results, among them Austrian National Latin Champion in 2005 and Fred Astaire National Latin Champion in 2006. Together with his partner Gabriella Bodocs, who is also an instructor at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Jupiter, they dance at a world class level and are an internationally sought after couple who’s world renown for their unique style and unbelievable athleticism.

One day after a lesson, Patricia mentioned that she would be interested in taking her dancing lesson on her horse. At first we were skeptical since we are dancers, not Dressage riders. But needless to say we were willing to give it a try. I went along with Vladimir and Gabriella as I was very interested in how this would work. Patricia was planning to ride 3 horses over a period of 90 minutes and requested Vladimir work with her on her posture and appearance. I have to say, it was a great lesson to watch. Vladimir started out observing the sport and learning the objectives in Dressage riding. After Vladimir had a good understanding they began working on isolations of the upper body the same way they would work together in a dance lesson. It was proof that if you are a top level competitor in any athletic discipline, there is always a need for an understanding of human movement and coordination. This particular skill is transferrable to other disciplines and athletes can benefit greatly from the technicalities of dancing.

Patricia is now practicing her dancing on a daily basis and has entered in her first competition, The National Cross Country Dance Championships, held in Las Vegas this April. I had a wonderful day out at the horse stable. Between watching Vladimir and Gabriella working with Patricia and the horses, petting horses in the stables, and the highlight of my day, riding around on one of Patricia’s beautiful dressage horses, it was a lovely afternoon.