Bios

Instructor Bios

Joshua Boroff & Devona Cartier, New York City

Joshua and Devona began dancing together in 2003. They have a unique style of dancing to blues music that incorporates vintage blues dances with their own personal style. When they dance, they want to express the rhythms, styles, feels, and tones of the music, varying their style as the music changes. They teach not because they can or because they are good dancers, but because they feel they can offer something unique; they want to share what they love about blues music and dancing. In their classes they place high importance on getting the message across clearly to the people at hand, adapting as needed. Their classes include demonstration, feedback, lots of music, and most importantly, practice (see it, do it, do it again, try this, do it, do it, do it).

Joshua grew up loving music and moving to it. He took his desire for movement and put it into fencing, which he competed in and taught for ten years. He learned Lindy hop in ‘98 at Beantown and started his infatuation for Blues dancing in early ‘03. Wanting to know more, he began following in order to learn how to blues dance. Eventually he got into micro-blues and developed a style for which he was known. Now his tastes have grown into more vintage style movements, driven by a hard backbone of Delta blues.

Devona first began swing dancing, at the age of eight, as a Carolina Shagger taught by her dad in his North Myrtle Beach kitchen. While in college, pursuing a dance degree, she took her first Lindy Hop class in 1998, and her first Blues class in 2000, both in North Carolina. She moved to NYC in 2001 and resides in Brooklyn. In her daily life she is a Body Therapist and Pilates teacher.

Heidi Fite, San Francisco

Heidi began dancing and teaching Lindy Hop and Blues with Charlie Fuller in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1999 and has been dancing, teaching, and performing ever since.

She now lives in San Francisco, California, where she teaches weekly Lindy Hop classes with Manu Smith at the 9:20 Special and travels on the weekend teaching Blues workshops with Damon Stone.

Admired for her clear explanation of fundamentals, Heidi brings to all her classes and workshops not only a focus on solid techniques, but more important, a love of dance and a dedication to the learning process.

For more information about Heidi, check her out at www.blues-dance.com

Ria Debiase

Ria has been dancing lindy hop and Blues for five years. She has also studied Historical Jazz, Ballet, Gymnastics and Hip Hop. Her dancing style is energetic and musical, and she is comfortable being playful and funky as well as “busting it old school”.

Ria’s teaching style is clear and concise and she can break down complicated moves and concepts so they are easily understandable. She specializes in teaching the basics, communication through lead/follow technique, and connection.

Ria’s mantle is full of local, regional, national and world trophies. Despite a healthy competitive attitude, Ria’s first love is social aspects of vernacular jazz and blues dances.

Damon Stone, Oakland

Damon has been dancing his entire life. Starting with vernacular jazz/blues he went on to Hip-Hop, and eventually studied over a dozen different dance styles until coming full circle focusing primarily on the history and styles of swing and blues, in 1995.

He has taught dance extensively on both coasts, and studied the development of vernacular jazz/blues dance regionally and nationally, traveling to New York, Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, St. Louis, and New Orleans. He has been interviewed as a jazz dance historian in documentary and for radio.

Damon has been a featured instructor at numerous swing camps and jazz festivals and workshops and camps across the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of the California Historical Jazz Dance Foundation, and a member of the Northern California Lindy Society.

Amanda Gruhl & Shawn Hershey, Boston

Shawn Hershey came from an extensive music background and Amanda Gruhl came from an extensive dance background, but both started lindyhopping in the late 1990s with the Lindybaby studio and got hooked!

They studied extensively at camps and workshops with nationally renowned instructors and started teaching in Boston around 2002 with various partners.  Amanda began teaching and judging blues dance at national events with Ogden Sawyer, and Shawn began teaching and performing lindy hop internationally with his sister, Betina Hershey.

Shawn and Amanda started teaching together at the It’s All Swing! studio in Boston in 2005, and have since traveled and taught together at workshops and events around North America, including
From Montreal With Love, Swing Into Spring in CT, the Blues Blast Workshop Weekend in central PA, Albany Smorgasboard, and Providence Swings.

Their style of blending lindy hop, ballroom, blues, and Argentine tango into their dancing is both beautiful and powerful, and earns them praise wherever they go, most recently at the Emerald City
Blues Festival, where they took 2nd place in the Strictly Competition.

Michelle Richter, Emeryville

Michelle Richter has been dancing for over 20 years and seriously studying dance for about 17 years. Her background in ballet and modern dance has inspired her to focus on technique combined with creative movement in her teaching style. She has studied the movement of the human body in many forms of dance, including African-Caribbean, Jazz, Contact Improvisation, Belly Dance, Hip Hop and various Ballroom styles. Michelle also enjoys performing and creating choreography. For the last 10 years, her main focus has been Lindy-Hop and Blues dancing. Her teaching focuses on connection, attitude and self-expression, proper body mechanics, and one-on-one attention. She finds that her profession as a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist, which gives her extensive knowledge of anatomy/physiology, compliments her dance instruction in a unique way.

Michelle started out teaching Lindy-Hop in South Florida and shortly there after, began the passion for Blues dancing/instruction. She moved out to San Francisco, CA for more opportunity in the dance community and has been teaching on a local and national level. With her teaching partner, Dexter Santos, Michelle has taught classes and workshops at local blues dancing venues (Friday Night Blues, Roots, Blues Playground, and Shades of Blue) and at exchanges (Blues Rising 2007, San Francisco). They recently taught in Seattle, WA (California Invasion workshop) and are looking forward to teaching at this year’s Blues Shout in Chicago, Austin Blues Party in Texas, and of course Down Home Blues in San Francisco!

• Blues Shout Invitational Jack and Jill Division Champion 2007, 2008
• Blues Shout Strictly Ballroom Blues Division Champion 2007, 2008 partner Dexter Santos

Dexter Santos, Santa Clara

Dexter Santos discovered Blues dancing in 2005 and and has since been inspired by the soulful quality of blues music. Whether he is teaching, performing or just social dancing, Dexter is very passionate in his interpretation of the Blues. One of the things that makes his dancing stand out is his musicality and the way he translates it on the dance floor.

A frequent competitor, Dexter’s competitions accomplishments include: 1st place in the Emerald City Blues Festival 2008 Invitational Jack & Jill contest (with Amanda Gruhl), 1st place in the Down Home bluesSHOUT! 2008 Invitational Jack & Jill Champion (with Michelle Richter), 1st place in the 2007 & 2008 bluesSHOUT! Strictly Ballroom Blues contests (also with Michelle Richter), and 1st place at the Enter the Blues 2008 Jack & Jill contest.

As a teacher, Dexter’s passion comes from his desire to teach Blues dancing with respect to its roots, identity, and more importantly, to celebrate its art form. But above all, it’s about having fun. Together with Michelle, Dexter has taught classes and performed at local San Francisco blues dancing venues and at national exchanges and workshops.

Daniel Newsome

Daniel Newsome has been a professional dancer, dj and historian for the last 10 years. In addition to teaching tens of thousands of students at Denver’s Mercury Cafe Daniel has also travelled to learn, teach, compete and has won at major national competitions such as the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, Midwest Lindy Fest, Reno Dance Sensation, National Jitterbug Championships and the Rhythmic Arts Festival. He also co-founded, choreographed and coached 23 Skidoo, Denver’s nationally recognized swing team, which placed 1st at every competition they went to in 2006 and 2007. Daniel’s lifelong pursuit is touching as many lives as possible with the beauty and artisty of Lindy Hop, Shag, Balboa, Solo Jazz Dance and Tap. His goal is to bring music and dance to people in a way that inspires them and develops talent in anyone, regardless of background, age or ability.

Kelly Porter

Kelly is a decade-long student of American vernacular dance who is passionate about bringing the rich social history of these dances to her students. As a performer, she has graced stages across North America to acclaim. As a teacher she is known as much for her sense of humor as for her ability to articulate difficult concepts and nuances. Her classes stress the joy of improvisation, dancing with guts (metaphorically speaking), and the humanity of a long and soulful dance tradition. She has a special affinity for historical dance crazes and spends a lot of her spare time hoarding black and white dance clips, collecting lo-fi recordings and mastering obscure dances like the ‘snake hips’ and the burlesque fan dances of Sally Rand. Kelly is also an avid collector of early jazz and blues, and is generally recognized as one of the US’s exceptional lindy hop DJ’s, playing for the most demanding dance audiences throughout North America including those at Showdown, The Rhythmic Arts Festival and on radio. During daylight hours Kelly is a graduate student of museology and works in the anthropology division of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. She also plays a pretty killing spoons and kazoo solo.

DJ Bios

Roy Rydbeck – San Francisco

Roy has been a regular Blues and Lindy Hop DJ since 1998. He DJed in Tampa from 1999-2000, Chicago from 2000 to 2005, and San Francisco from 2005 to 2009. Roy is currently one of the regular DJs at San Francisco’s Friday Night Blues, as well as at the numerous San Francisco Blues parties.

Roy has DJed numerous events across the map, including events in:  Chicago, San Francisco, Tampa, Miami, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Cleveland, New Orleans, Dallas, St. Louis, Memphis, Indianapolois, Moscow, and St. Petersburg (Russia).

Roy’s has a preference for Chicago Harmonica Blues but his DJing is a good mix of different kinds of Blues.

Some of Roy’s favorites artists are Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, T-Bone Walker, Howling Wolf, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Guitar Shorty, Jay McShann, Billy Boy Arnold, Memphis Minnie, and Sonny Boy Williamson-2.

Steven “Dr. Feelgood” Watkins – San Francisco

Steven, originally hails from New York City, Steven now calls San Francisco/Oakland Home!

He started dancing in 1998, and he began his BLUES DJing career at his other adopted home – you guessed it – St.Louis’ Cheap Thrills 2004.

Since then Dr. Feelgood has been thrilled to be spreading his love for the BLUES, with some smooth, gritty, sultry music, coupled with a great sense of musical timing.

If Steven has his way there won’t be any dance venues…just “Joints,” and he’ll do his best to bring music that’ll make you FEEL that happen.

Heather Adams – Knoxville, TN

Heather was created as a result of $1.5MM in venture capital to a small software shop known as BasieSoft. She is a mashup of the best blues songs from various genres, with all unpleasant tones removed automatically. Heather’s blues software has industry-defining performance metrics, as she had the BluesMaster3500 module implanted in her cerebral cortex as a free add-on when receiving the HotLegsXT mod pack.

Heather has been tested for compatibility with the following non-comprehensive list of platforms:  bluesSHOUT!, Austin Blues Party, Enter the Blues, MezzJelly Blues Weekend, Blues Muse, CBUS, KLX, and ATLX. By dancing to the songs played by Heather, you give Heather irrevocable license in perpetuity to rock your socks off. All rights reserved. Satisfaction guaranteed, but not legally binding.

“I grew up listening to more of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Etta James than any other blues artists, so they’ve had a huge influence on my musical tastes.  My horizons have broadened significantly since I started exploring blues on my own outside the realm of my mother’s favorites.  While I would absolutely hate to be limited to only one variety of blues, I think country or Delta blues speaks directly to my heart.  I love it because it makes me feel like I’m on my front porch in the Southern summer, and I could switch seamlessly between sitting and chatting over sweet tea (or whiskey) and dancing when I absolutely cannot bear to remain in my seat any longer.  To me, it sounds more personal and accessible than any other style of blues music; the conversation between the instruments and/or the vocals is stripped down and it’s easier to follow what everyone is saying.”

Jonathon Pechon – Dallax, TX

With family spread all over New Orleans, Jonathan grew up exposed to the sounds of blues and jazz throughout his youth.  These sounds were so pervasive that, for a time, he thought little of them.

Later, as a DJ wanting to expand his music, Jerry Warwick gave him a CD of music by Memphis Slim, and he spent some time talking to Don West and others.  The effect it had on him was dramatic.

His love of blues had been apparent in his ideas of preferred artists like Buddy Johnson and Big Joe Turner, but now started to find a new voice.  He started to re-explore the music he already owned, starting to find new appreciation for the Sidney Bechet tracks he had in his collection and the rich sound he had somehow put aside for so long.

Since then, he has DJed at BBC2, Austin Lindy Exchange, and Sweet Molasses Blues, and still regularly DJs at swing and blues venues all over Dallas as he has for over six years, though the music has been there in one form or fashion for his whole life.

Keith “Big Papa” Shapiro – Austin, TX

Big Papa has been a staple in the Austin dance scene since he moved to town in late 2006. Before Austin, Big Papa caused big trouble in little Mousetown as he put on Orlando’s first blues events – teaching, DJing, and disrupting the status quo.  He is thrilled to get to lay his tunes down upon you for a second year at Down Home Blues.

Big Papa can be seen regularly DJing for the Austin Swing Syndicate and is a founder and house DJ for Kick Butt Blues, Austin’s weekly blues dance venue.   Additionally, Big Papa has been a repeat DJ at Mezzjelly Soul (Dallas), ALX, and Lone Star Championships, and has DJed at Emerald City Blues Festival, BluesSHOUT!, ATLX, Soul Jam! and other events that you weren’t sober enough to remember.