Instructors
Damon Stone, Dallas
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.
Dan Newsome, Seattle
Dan 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.
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Dexter Santos, San Francisco
Dexter Santos discovered Blues dancing in 2005 and has since been inspired by the soulful and expressive quality of Blues music. Whether he is teaching, performing, or 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.
As a teacher, Dexter’s passion comes from his desire to teach Blues dancing with respect to its roots, identity, to celebrate its art form, and more importantly, to inspire dancers of all levels with the possibilities that blues dancing has to offer. Together with Michelle Richter, Dexter teaches classes locally in San Francisco and has taught at national exchanges and workshops such as bluesSHOUT (Chicago, IL), Austin Blues Party (Austin, TX), Down Home Blues Festival (San Francisco, CA), and BamBLOOZled (Washington DC).
When not teaching, Dexter further refines his skills on the dance floor as a frequent competitor. At the recent bluesSHOUT 2010 in Austin, Dexter won all four partnered competitions: Open Jack & Jill, Strictly Jook Joint, Strictly Ballroomin’ (with Michelle Richter), and Champions Division. His other accomplishments include: 1st place at the 2007 & 2008 bluesSHOUT Strictly Ballroomin’ (with Michelle Richter), 1st place at the Emerald City Blues Festival 2008 Invitational Jack & Jill, 1st place at the Enter the Blues 2008 Jack & Jill, 1st place in the Down Home bluesSHOUT 2008 Invitational Jack & Jill Champions Division (with Michelle Richter).
Dexter is honored, excited, and looking forward to teaching again this year with Michelle at Down Home Blues Festival in San Francisco.
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 and Blues classes, when not traveling on the weekend teaching Blues workshops.
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
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).
Julie Brown, Boston
Julie has been teaching, DJing, and competing in blues since 2006. With a background in performance and solo dance, she is known for her energy, musicality, and style. As a teacher, Julie emphasizes technique but always brings it back to the music. Julie teaches regularly in Boston, and has also taught nationally at Steel City Blues (2008, 2009), East Meets West (2009), and Blues Muse (2009). She has placed in many national blues competitions including 1st place BluesSHOUT 2009 Juke Joint, 1st place Mile High Blues 2010 Jack&Jill, 2nd place BluesSHOUT 2010 Ballroomin’, and 3rd place BluesSHOUT 2010 Champions Jack&Jill.
Kelly Porter, Seattle
Kelly is a decade-long student of American vernacular dance and she is passionate about bringing the rich social history of this tradition to life. As a performer, she graces stages the world over to acclaim. As a teacher and choreographer she is known as much for her sense of humor as for her ability to push the envelope and her students into more nuanced forms of dance. Her classes stress the joy of improvisation, dancing with sincerity, and the lasting humanity of a long and soulful jazz tradition. She is also an accomplished burlesque performer, and her vintage burlesque fan dances both solo and with the Barbary Coast Babies have won great professional praise for innovative choreography and bold stage presence. She is the founder of The Voices of the Jazz Era Ballroom Project: a national web-based oral history initiative meant to draw families and communities together in passing down the personal stories of dance and music during the jazz years (you can participate in this project by visiting www.jazzeravoices.org). Kelly is also an avid collector of early jazz and blues, and is generally recognized as an exceptional DJ, playing for the most demanding dance audiences throughout the world— from the House of Blues in New Orleans, to the International Lindy Hop Championships in DC, to the chilly reaches of Stockholm and the dance halls of Seattle, Kelly is always spinning the good stuff. When she’s not hard at work as a museology grad student, Kelly can often be found plunking out a ditty on her 1924 Bacon banjo, infusing spirits for custom cocktails or slowly amassing her already-egregious collection of vintage shoes.
Michelle Richter, San Francisco
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 11 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.
With her teaching partner, Dexter Santos, Michelle teaches locally in San Francisco and at various national events. Together, they have both taught at Blues Rising (San Francisco), California Invasion (Seattle), Blues Shout (Chicago), Austin Blues Party (Austin), Down Home Blues (San Francisco), and Bambloozled (Washington D.C.).
- Blues Shout Invitational Jack and Jill Division Champion 2007, 2008
- Blues Shout Strictly Ballroom Blues Division Champion 2007, 2008, 2010 partner Dexter Santos
Mike Legett, Philadelphia
Mike combines an intuitive understanding of connection with an analytical speaking style to give her students technique, but also strives to challenge and inspire her students to push themselves further into the music. She aims to help leaders create artistic compositions that are clearly led; she wants follows to have the ability to be the completely literal follow, and the inspiration and freedom to be an imaginative and dynamic contributor. In the classroom or on the social floor, she seeks a connection that involves active communication from both partners, to make a dance together. A full time dancer, some of her career highlights include teaching at Blues Muse, Emerald City Blues Festival,and Austin Blues Party, an Ann Johnson Award for Most Inspirational Follow at Southern Belle Swing Bash, and taking 1st place with Reuel Reis at the 2009 BluesShout Strictly Ballroom Competition.
Paul Mandel & Amanda Gruhl, Boston
Amanda has been dancing since age five. Experienced in dance
instruction, choreography, performance, and show production, she has
taught blues dance, lindy hop, jazz, ballet, tap, contemporary, sacred
dance, and hip hop. She has also had instruction in other dance forms
such as Argentine tango, flamenco, modern dance, popping/breaking, and
ballroom dance. Amanda has been dancing, choreographing, and
competing in blues dance since 2000, and teaching blues dance
nationally since 2003. She has taught at most national events and
workshops, including Blues Shout, Down Home Blues, Austin Blues Party,
Sweet Molasses Blues, and Emerald City Blues Festival. Her style of
modern blues combines historic blues dance with modern concepts of
strong connection, partnered improvisation, and elements from many of
the different dance styles she has studied. This has
given her a national reputation as an incredibly versatile and
inspiring blues dancer and teacher.
Paul first started swing dancing in Santa Cruz, CA in 2005. After
learning lindy hop in college from Sarah Spence Adams, he was dragged
to a blues house party in 2006 and has been hooked ever since. Paul
loves establishing a crystal clear connection with his follow and
discovering their unique blend of musicality together. Since arriving
on the national scene two years ago, Paul has placed in several
competitions, including second place in the Open Strictly at Blues
Blaze 2009, third place in the Open Jack and Jill at Sweet Molasses
Blues 2010, and second place in the Jazz Jack and Jill at Enter the
Blues 2010.
Amanda and Paul recently won first place in the Choreography
Competition at Enter The Blues 2010 with a piece that has been
described as intense, powerful, and breathtaking. They will not only
be performing it at Down Home Blues, but will be teaching sequences
from their choreography.
Currently, Amanda and Paul teach with a collective of Boston dance
instructors at New School Swing in Charlestown, MA
(www.newschoolswing.com) and Blues Union in Somerville, MA
(www.bluesunionboston.com).
Reuel Reis, Atlanta
Reuel’s unique style of dancing holds its roots in the dirty streets of the Big Easy, where he was born and raised. The immersion in his native New Orleans culture mixed with the opportunity to dance until dawn at the most wonderful venues in New Orleans such as “Donna’s”, “Blues Club”, and “DBA” merged Reuel’s life experience to the dance that he loves. He has also taught Blues Dancing from one end of the United States to another and is known for his performance, contrast, respect for others, visual aesthetics, and competitive yet playful spirit. His dancing has been showcased with victories in the “BluesSHOUT! 2009 Ballroom Blues Strictly (with Mike “the Girl” Legett)” and the “Champions’ Jack and Jill” competitions, as well as a number of other competition wins. Students have enjoyed his classes at events such as Blues Muse, Dude Muse, Camp Blues, Enter the Blues, Denver Blues Summit, just to list a few.
Ria Debiase, Sacramento
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.