Glastonbury Dance Teacher Fights to Stay in U.S.

A Glastonbury dance teacher is toeing the bureaucratic line in hopes that he will be able remain in the United States.

For the past three years Alexander Konovalov has been a professional ballroom dance instructor at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Glastonbury. Konovalov arrived in town from his native Russia with a three-year work visa.

But now he could be facing deportation because a change in U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services rules have reclassified ballroom dancing as a sport and not an art, according to a Hartford Courant report. His visa classification is an artist and two attempts to renew his visa have failed and now he and his boss, Evan Wellemeyer, have enlisted the aid of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

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Blumenthal told Courant reporter Peter Marteka that Konovalov’s, “This change has real-world implications for Alex and people like him. He’s teaching and coaching dancers who regard themselves as artists as well.”

Blumenthal praised Konovalov’s contributions to participating in dance programs for veterans.

According to his biography on the Fred Astaire Dance Studio Glastonbury website, Konovalov “was a pioneer for the first Russia-based Fred Astaire Dance Studio where he trained and managed all the new developing teachers. He has been dancing in excess of twenty years, competing throughout Europe in the Latin and Standard programs of dance. As well as being a tremendous dancer, Alex holds an engineering degree and is an avid photographer.”

Wellemeyer said he’s submitted required documentation to help keep Konovalov in Glastonbury and is frustrated by the bureaucracy of the immigration process.

For the complete Courant story can be found here.

Photo: Alexander Konovalov from the Fred Astaire Dance Studio Glastonbury website.