TEACHERS

Meet the owners Ilana Rubin and Tony Fan. Seattle's longest-running Saturday night Tango social dance with awesome music, elegant decoration, tasty desserts, and a friendly atmosphere! Argentine tango has been an integral part of the Dance Underground dance program since the beginning. Here is a line-up of our program:

Three weekly tango classes by Tony and Ilana, the founder and owner of Dance Underground.

Thursday night tango practice.

Seattle's longest-running Saturday night Tango social dance with awesome music, elegant decoration, tasty desserts, and a friendly atmosphere!

www.seattletango.com

Email: seattletango@hotmail.com

BCD Rhythms is an hour-long fitness class combining dance, kickboxing, and light strength training.  This class is a “Super Positive Power Hour” that is choreographed and structured yet provides plenty of room to jump, wiggle, kick, punch, yell, laugh, and love every minute of your workout.  Barbara Duff is the owner and lead dance guide of BCD Rhythms.  She is a NASM certified personal trainer and has been teaching group fitness classes at DU since 2004.  Registration is required for classes. No drop-ins are allowed at this time. For class times, registration, and general information, please visit www.bcdrhythms.com or email dance@bcdrhythms.com.

 www.bcdrhythms.com

Email: dance@bcdrhythms.com

Drop Zone, founded by Lex Ramirez, is a dance community that hosts classes, events, and groups centering artists from historically marginalized communities. We currently offer Hip Hop, Choreography, Vogue, Reggaeton, Contemporary as well as rotating dance styles throughout the year.

We also have two adult dance training groups: DROP SQUAD (Beginners, no auditions) and DRIP (Intermediate, video audition). Next sessions are Jan 21-Mar 26, 2024. For more info visit www.dropzonedance.com/training

We offer different price options so that no one is turned away from the dance experience they desire!

To register for classes visit:

www.dropzonedance.com

or find us on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook @dropzonedance

For any other questions or inquiries about private lessons, email dropzonedance@gmail.com

SALSAMANIA SUNDAYS, organized by Jose De La Torre, Bradley Ruoff, and Penelope Ruoff is a SALSA | BACHATA SOCIAL happening once a month on Sunday from 7 pm-11 pm! As a tribute to our team and dance company, we have decided to name it Salsamania Sundays. Performances are welcome, please contact Penelope Ruoff to coordinate music and timing. DJ Centeno/ Jose is our resident DJ.

Once a month social on a SUNDAY of every month: 7-8 PM Drop-in Salsa Class taught by Zachary Knox and Sarah Echo

Social dancing from 8pm-11 pm

Email: Penelope Ruoff at penny.pie.pham@gmail.com

What is Body Balancing Fitness? An exercise class with a difference.We all know that a strong core is important, but what is the actual job of a strong core?We all know that good posture is important, but what is the value of good skeletal alignment?Body balancing uniquely works your entire core to teach it how to stabilize your body.  We focus on correct form and alignment to allow your skeleton to support you in gravity. By placing your body on unstable surfaces and using light resistance (surgical tubing, various sizes of balls, therabands® etc.) your skeleton is gently encouraged into a more efficient alignment. When our bones support us in gravity, we have less stress on our joints and the most potential for movement.

Alannah is a lifelong dancer and fitness buff who believes in maximizing workout effectiveness through proper technique (correct form) and understanding how the human body works. She has experience in ballet, competitive ballroom dancing, body building, Argentine Tango and Zumba. Alannah doesn't just participate in fitness, she studies each discipline to the point where she knows not just how to do something correctly, but why it's correct.Alannah has been practicing Body Balancing Fitness for 23 years and started teaching in 2018.

Contact: alannahsinclaíre@hotmail.com.

Tai Chi Chuan is rooted in the Chinese nourishing-life arts and martial arts traditions and is closely associated with the I Ching or Book of Changes.

As a form of exercise, Tai Chi preserves youthfulness by developing healthful use of the body. As a martial art (while it is not a fighting system), Tai Chi develops functional skills as an aspect of physical culture.

Tai Chi is an engaging lifelong practice, but the basic form is gentle enough that you can take some benefit from it immediately, working at any level.

Craig has been practicing Tai Chi Chuan for 24 years, including the 37-posture basic form, push-hands, and sword form, and fencing. Craig learned and trained with Saul Krotki, who learned Tai Chi Chuan with Cheng Man-ching and trained with Professor Cheng’s students in New York and throughout the US West. Saul Krotki taught Tai Chi for 50 years, including 15 years at Dance Underground, before retiring to focus on his fine art practice.

Contact ccbranham@hotmail.com to register

Kiné Camara is a danceartist and educator based in Seattle, WA. She loves bringing her passion for dance to the stage, and has performed with artists including Uncle Waffles, Asake, Tiwa Savage, Adekunle Gold, Sauti Sol, Archie, and Ibrahima & Safal, however her long life passion is teaching. She also founded Afro Dance Seattle, and serves as the program director in addition to teaching Amapiano dance there and with organizations like University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts. She has also taught in other cities including Paris (FR), Vancouver (CA), Atlanta, and Los Angeles. She serves on the executive board, choreographs and dances with the performance team, Element of Passion, aka ElementOP. For more info, visit her on Instagram @kine_camara or at kinecamara.com.

Register for classes at www.afrodanceseattle.com

Brazilian Zouk is a growing social & partner dance that originated and takes inspiration mainly from Lambada and other Brazilian dances such as Forró, Bolero, & Samba de Gafieira with the music originating from the Caribbean. Nowadays, Zouk, as it's often referred to, is danced to all different styles of music including Pop music, Reggaetón, Afrobeats, Brazilian Funk & even Hip Hop music. As such, there are many different styles of Zouk and the opportunity to infuse your own dance background and dance movements to create your own style. It's really difficult to describe how the dance looks, but I've heard it best described as "what your average person thinks dancing looks like", you'll have to see it to find out!

Most importantly, Brazilian Zouk is rooted in connection which is often the first thing you see and feel when you enter a Brazilian Zouk space. So, come and join us for the fun!

Email: hashemh@umich.edu

Ecstatic Dance Seattle has been in the studio since 2001

"A place for people to authentically and safely express themselves, it’s free of judgment and instruction. It is a space to feel, move and heal so that we can manifest our true selves. No dance experience necessary".

www.ecstaticdanceseattle.com

Second Act Dance offers supportive adult-only ballet classes. Founded by Beth Humphrey and Laura Coulter, we offer technique and pointe classes. All classes are a mixture of barre and center work. No experience is required for the technique classes. Two years of continuous technique classes are required to join the pointe class. Teachers:

Renzo Acosta began his dance training in Hawaii. He received a full merit scholarship with Ballet Hawai’i and performed with local dance groups such as Tau Dance Theater, Iona Dance Company, and Onium Dance Project. He received his BA in Dance from the University of Hawai’i and has been teaching ballet since 2017.

Beth Humphrey began dancing in the 1970s with the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She continued her dance career through college and graduated with a master’s degree in Education. After taking time off for her family, she has returned to ballet and is teaching pointe at Second Act Dance

Email: lauracoulter@q.com

www.2ndactdance.com

Cisco began her journey into dance in October 2018 when she tried shuffling for the first time. Still considered an underground form of dance, learning how to shuffle was difficult at that time due to the lack of classes and tutorials that were available. She taught herself by slowing down YouTube videos and re-watching moves over and over again until they made sense. The difficulty of learning this way is what would eventually push her to begin teaching, so she could help others access shuffling more easily.

Throughout the following years, Cisco's passion for shuffling drove her to study other underground styles like DnB Step, Liquid, and house dance to add variety and flare to her dancing. The result is the hybrid shuffle style she teaches in class. She teaches the fundamentals and history of these freestyle dances while creating space for students to feel free to explore their own unique flow.

Cisco found incredible joy and fulfillment in shuffle dancing, and her deepest desire is to help others access that same experience. Her classes are a judgement-free zone where everyone will accept you and hype you up, no matter the level you're at.

Contact Info: hello@shuffleandshapes.com

Melanie Skinner is a former professional ballerina with Pacific Northwest Ballet where she traveled the globe performing ballets by masterful choreographers in theaters in London, New York, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Edinburgh and Melbourne. After retiring from her career, she joined the Faculty of PNB, teaching the Company and upper ballet levels, later becoming the Founder of Powergirldance, a program designed to empowering young girls and women through body positivity and dance. She has taught many forms of dance to all levels and ages and has merged her love of cardio dance with strengthening and weight resistance in her own formulated dance exercise class, Reign Dance and Reign Dance Gold. Reign Dance is a high intensity one-hour class designed for everyone of all ages incorporating different genres of music and dance styles. Easy to follow along, this class is open to all ages and genders who want to be physically challenged. For the dynamic aging sect or for others who want something with a little less intensity and more repetition, Melanie has added Reign Dance Gold, a one- hour slower paced class designed to tone, stretch and gently ease into the cardio portion of class.

Melanie’s goal is to create an environment that is completely judgment-free, a safe space where all feel welcomed. Feel free to show up for a free class and see what Reign dance is all about.

Melanie can be contacted via email: reigndancefitness@gmail.com or via social media: Reign Dance

"Becca Jakubson (she/her) is a teacher, artist, performer, and choreographer based in Seattle, WA. She has over 15 years of experience coaching, teaching, performing, and competing in dance and figure skating. Her mission is to create a space for Latin dancers to deeply understand the roots and technique of dance to empower each dancer to intentionally make choices in their movement. Her experience includes teaching salsa, bachata, fusion, and fitness classes in Seattle for the last 3 years as a teacher at Studio Azul. She was also a member of Sabrosa Pro, a professional Latin fusion dance team that performed across the west coast. Currently, she is a founder of BGC Dance, a Latin fusion dance community, and is a co-found of B3 Dance Project, a

Email: bgcdanceseattle@gmail.com

Instagram &Facebook:https//www.Facebook@latin fusion dance troupe based in Seattle.

Brain-compatible dance education in a nurturing environment with an emphasis on conceptual learning and creative exploration. Featuring the BrainDance. Classes for ages 3-10 years.

Rangeela Dance Company (RDC) is Seattle’s premier Bollywood Fusion dance company founded in 2016 by Priyanka Jain Vora, a trained classical Indian dancer and Bollywood dance choreographer. This group of talented women share a common passion for dance fusion and spreading awareness about the vibrant South Asian culture in the community. The dancers have professional expertise in a variety of styles ranging from Bharatnatyam, Bollywood, Kuchipudi, Semi-Classical, Hip-Hop, Modern, Bhangra, Garba, and more.

RDC offers group and private dance lessons, event choreography services.

ROCKSTARS-KIDS CLASSES

Join our Rangeela Rockstars IN-STUDIO dance classes at Dance Underground! Enroll your kids, ages 9-12 yrs old, to learn Bollywood basics with our fabulous kids dance instructor, Katy. We keep the class sizes small so that your child can get personalized attention. Parents are invited to join in on the fun!

Registration Information:

www.rangeeladancecompany.com

A joy-filled workout for the body and soul.

Move, connect and awaken body, brain, and spirit. Come as you are and elevate yourself. Explore, challenge, and transform your day. Each sixty-minute class is filled with follow-along routines to music from a variety of genres. All levels welcome, modifications offered.

Sarina Behar Natkin believes dance can meet everybody where it is, providing not only fantastic exercise but also a path to present moment awareness. By stepping out of the thinking brain and into the body, we open ourselves to joy. In her spare time, Sarina is a licensed clinical social worker, parent coach, and speaker. She is a Seattle native and resides with her husband, two amazing teen daughters, and dog Molly.

Email: soldancefitness.com

www.soldancefitness.com

As a long time student of Ido Portal, Samantha has been teaching the movement approach for the last 8 years.

What is the movement approach? Similar to how we study subjects in school to develop our intellect, we can study the many subjects within movement to develop ourselves. Disciplines such as yoga, martial arts, dance, gymnastics, and many more contain elements like strength, coordination, mobility etc. A movement approach studies these elements through the various disciplines.

Each class explores these topics through drills, partner work, individual projects and guided improvisational work.

If interested in learning more, feel free to email sampaksf@gmail.com or call (415) 988.0246

Catherine is a charismatic Kizomba and Urban Kiz dancer, originally from Haiti. Her journey began in May 2021. With each step, Catherine blends sensuality, connection, movement, and emotion, creating a memorable experience on the floor.

Catherine has found a home within the Seattle dance community and has since become an integral part of that community. She is dedicated to honing her craft and expanding her dance vocabulary and that has earned her the reputation of being dynamic and expressive. Dedicated to learning and also sharing, she trained under Dancekiz with Eytan and Megan in 2022, and under the guidance of Rina in 2023.

When teaching, Catherine emphasizes technique and concepts enabling the understanding and execution of various steps in the dance.

Catherine is a warm and amiable individual. So, if you find yourself on a dance floor with Catherine present, ask her to dance!

email:catherine.a.beauboeuf@gmail.com

sign up by emailing ra.kizomba@gmail.com or visit https://fb.me/e/3mNyle4SS

Savoy’s Blues Underground (501c3) has been Seattle’s mainstay social Blues dance night since 2005. As a branch of the Savoy Swing Club there have been many who have cared for Blues Underground as director, instructors, and DJs. As well, Blues Underground brings in world renowned instructors for workshops, host live music nights with local bands, and partners with local organizations supporting Seattle’s black community.

Blues idiom dances are a family of dances and movements that grew along side the different styles of Blues music within African American communities, from the mid 1800s onward. Because Blues dance and music are African American art forms, in participating in this dance Savoy’s Blues Underground honors and surrogates its culture and history.

The current instructors for Blues Underground are:

Lila Faria (she/her)

Lila Faria is a Seattle-based blues dance instructor and organizer with over eight years of experience dancing across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Her work incorporates elements from her training in Montessori, non-violent communication, CMX community building, positive discipline and more. Through her teaching, she works to provide her students with informative dance history while simultaneously empowering them to be their true, authentic selves.

Robin Chow (he/him)

Being a dancer who started later in life, and owing much to the discovery a hip hop tutorial video at the back of a You Got Served DVD, Robin truly believes that dance is inside every one of us. Whether it's a fully realized passion, or a whisper of curiosity, he feels that dance should always be available to our selves, whatever one's dance experience or familiarity. His dance repertoire is based on solo movement learned from a studio hip hop background, with the journey into social dancing starting with lindy hop and now encompassing balboa and fusion. And since his introduction to blues dancing in 2018, he has become a passionate practitioner and advocate of the form, and is dedicated to a continued journey of learning and sharing of blues dance and culture.

Amanda Wanner (she/her)

Current BUG Director.

Amanda began dancing Lindy hop and Blues dance in Chicago in 2004. Having grown up listening to Blues and seeing a wild amount of live Blues music as a child, Blues dancing fit Amanda’s soul.

After moving to the PNW in 2007 she had the opportunity to teach Blues, host for dance events, and moderate practices. Since then, Amanda’s knowledge, skill, and focus in the dance has grown and changed; as the wisdom of life will do to the stories our dance can tell.

Through her classes, Amanda focuses on teaching Blues aesthetic, culture, and play. Amanda’s biggest passion in the Blues scene is community engagement. She aims to help reshape and rebuild the Seattle Blues dance community with history, community, and culture as a priority.