Instructors
Nataliya & Kevin Kane
|
Partners in Dance and Life
Kevin and Nataliya met long ago at a West Coast Swing convention, danced, fell in love, and never looked back. Now, they’re not just dance partners—they’re married, teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area, building a thriving WCS community, and raising two wonderful kids who, to their great confusion, refuse to dance. Kevin and Nataliya’s Showcase performances are consistently judged to be among the best in the world. Their performances blend high-level technique, musicality, a story with characters and daring tricks, making them a dynamic force in the WCS scene. Kevin is from Hawaii: • Champion division dancer with 13+ years of experience • Background in rock climbing and acro-yoga, bringing strength and control to lifts, tricks, and dips • Master of musicality and fun, ensuring partners shine on the dance floor Natalia Kane is from Ukraine: • 12+ years in WCS, plus experience in ballroom, tango, zouk, and circus arts • Passionate about tricky movements with risks, including one-legged spins and bold transitions • Focuses on technique and performance aspects of dance. Together, Kevin and Nataliya love helping their students grow, improve, and surprise themselves. They create high-energy showcases, push dancers to new heights, and prove that dance is best when fueled by passion, technique, and plenty of laughter. They run a weekly dance in Redwood city on Fridays and you can also find them teaching at WCS events across the world. |
Estelle Bonnaire
|
Estelle Bonnaire
Estelle began her dance journey at age 13 when she discovered Lindy Hop. Hooked from her first swivels, swing dancing quickly became her central passion accompanied by her second passion, travelling. At 18, she embarked across the world to learn as much about the dance as possible, eventually discovering her favorite dance, West Coast Swing. It melds all her favorite elements—smoothness, grace, and technique—with her love of swing. In 2011, she moved to Montreal for two years to train professionally as a dancer and dance teacher while developing her technique and pedagogy amongst the best of the community. All the while, she travelled to compete and became the first French All-star. In november 2018, she competed at The Open, category Classic, with Thibault Ramirez, and placed 6th, working closely in collaboration with Kyle Redd and Sarah Van Drake, and coached by Maxence Martin and Torri Zzaoui. Estelle now lives in the Bay Area in California, competing, teaching, judging, and head judging at WSDC events while she still travels to Europe. She teaches with a myriad of partners as well as collaborates with many of her peers. Moreover, she provides judges training during weekends centrally focused on helping the community grow and thrive as best she can. Her responsibilities also included 3 years of residing on the WSDC (World Swing Dance Council) board of directors in addition to acting as the WSDC European liaison. She continues to travel the world, sharing her passion with everyone she meets. Her joyful personality, easy-going and open attitude, and skillful reduction of hard ideas to easily understandable concepts make her a renowned teacher. These qualities make her workshops and classes leave her students with greater confidence and understanding than when they began. |
Austin Kois
Austin is an amazing dancer and wonderful human. He has won many things and is great at teaching, judging and performing. He is not great at submitting biography info! lol (webmistress)
@akoisdance
@akoisdance
Joanna Meinl
|
Joanna has a unique and diverse dance history, beginning her formal training in 1990 with ballet, jazz & hip-hop, and then studying modern, classical Indian and dances of the African diaspora in college. She holds a B.A. in Dance Ethnology & Performance/Choreography and has danced professionally since 1998. In 2005 after becoming a Ballroom & Latin dance instructor, Joanna discovered West Coast Swing. She soon became immersed and has been a swing addict ever since! She has won many competitions including placing top 5 in Classic, Showcase, Champions Strictly, Champions Jack & Jill, Pro-Am Routine and Cabaret and is a two time US Open Swing Dance Champion in the Sophisticated division. Joanna has 20 years of teaching experience and incorporates both her technical training as well as her practical social dance experience into her dynamic style. She calls the Bay Area, CA home, but travels extensively, teaching, performing, judging, competing and sharing her love of dance! When she's not doing West Coast Swing you can find her teaching and performing kathak, classical dance of North India, with the Leela Dance Collective.
Watch Joanna Dance! |
|
* PRIVATE LESSONS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT THE DAY WITH ALL OUR PROS!
PLEASE CONTACT THEM DIRECTLY FOR DETAILS & SCHEDULING.
PLEASE CONTACT THEM DIRECTLY FOR DETAILS & SCHEDULING.
