March 27, 2017

Meet Martin Barthold of Arthur Murray Dance Studio of Sherman Oaks

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Martin Barthold.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m so very proud to be associated with Arthur Murray Dance Studios. The company has been teaching the world to dance since 1912 (the year the Titanic sank!) The company has revived and revitalized dancing through the last 105 years and through all the greatest entertainment booms associated with dancing in the 20th and early 21st centuries from all the fun swinging Elvis movies to Saturday Night Fever through Dirty Dancing, Shall We Dance, Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance and now La La Land. I’m living my dream, having grown up in the streets of Haiti, now passing the love of dance to our students here in the US.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
All roads to happiness and success have setbacks along the way. Perhaps one of the biggest the studio has faced was the illness, decline and passing of our previous head manager, Mr. Mario Vitucci but the staff of the studio today keep his and our parent company’s greatest traditions alive in the superior service we provide to our students every day.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Arthur Murray Dance Studio of Sherman Oaks story. Tell us more about the business.
Wow! Great question! How long do I have? I could talk about this literally non-stop for the next week straight. Perhaps the most succinct way to describe our mission is: we have set out to change, for the better, people’s lives through dancing. We specialize in making each lesson personalized, easy, exciting, with lots of movement, giving a great feel for music, while pointing out the key progress students are making along the way. We look at our students the way Michelangelo looked at a piece of beautiful marble: we see the sculpture within and we know that all we need is time to clear away the unneeded bits to release that graceful sculpture from the stone.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m going to put it quickly and simply: the history of Haiti is not without violence. I am VERY fortunate to have survived to be here and be able to do what I do. Not as many of my fellow Haitians are as fortunate.

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