Instructors|        Workshops

We've Texas-sized our instructor lineup this year, bringing you the best wranglers of the blues we could find. Learn more about our instructional crew here.

Joshua Boroff & Devona Cartier (New York City)Photo courtesy Ryan Swift

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).

Jerry & Kathy Warwick (Dallas, TX)

Jerry and Kathy have been laughing, dancing and teaching together for over a decade. Sometimes a bit wacky, sometimes a bit serious, always loads of fun. They will drill you with technique, blues movement and moves, make you sweat, make you think, and teach you ways to stretch yourself as a dancer. Blues Dancers all over the USA are begging for more.

Who are they? Jerry and Kathy are a big part of the Dallas Blues Swing dance scene since 2001. Hmmmm. National Blues events? Let's just toss out a few places they have taught: BluesSHOUT!, Down Home Blues, Mezzjelly Blues, Denver Blues Summit, Enter the Blues, Emerald City Blues, Dirt Cheap Blues, Austin Blues Party, Blues Boot Camp, Houston Fusion, Lone Star Championships, various regional events throughout the USA and their own Red White and Blues.

Shawn Hershey & Amanda Gruhl (Boston, MA)

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, lyrical dance, 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 started blues dancing with Ogden Sawyer in 2000, and teaching and judging blues dance nationally in 2003.

Shawn Hershey came from an extensive music background, studying classical trumpet performance at the Eastman School of Music, so when he started lindy hopping in the late 1990s with the Lindybaby studio, he quickly got hooked! He has studied extensively at camps and workshops with nationally renowned instructors and started teaching swing and lindy hop in Boston around 2002 with various partners. Shawn began teaching and performing lindy hop internationally with his sister, Betina Hershey.

Since Shawn and Amanda joined forces in 2005, they have collectively won or placed in half a dozen national blues competitions, and have taught and performed together at workshops and events around North America, including Austin Blues Party, Down Home Blues, and SDFX. 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.

Currently, Amanda and Shawn teach with a collective of Boston dance instructors at the It's All Swing! Dance Studio and Blues Union Boston, and Shawn runs two successful swing bands, The Fried Bananas and the Shawn Hershey Quartet.

Don West (Miami, FL) & Tina Davis (Dallas, TX)

Tina Davis has been dancing Swing, Lindy Hop and Blues since 1999, first in Florida and now in her current home of Dallas, Texas. Tina started teaching Blues and Lindy in 2007 and has taught at events large and small, across the nation in Dallas, Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, Wichita, Minneapolis, Boston, Virginia Beach and Canada. Tina has competed in various competitions, most notably winning the Solo Blues Competition at Enter the Blues 2009, the Jack n' Jill competition at Blues Shout in 2007 and placing as a JnJ Finalist at Emerald City Blues Festival 2009. In addition to becoming a sought after DJ, Tina has also organized several Lindy and Blues events in Florida and Texas.

Don West has been dancing since 1997 and teaching since 2000 in Dallas. He's been in a number of dance troupes including Smiley's Lindy Hoppers, Uptown Swing, founder of the Madcap Maniacs, and the creative director for the ACME Swing Company. He was also the 2000 American Lindy Hop Championships Jack and Jill Champion as well as first place winner in several competitions in Austin and Houston, and served as co-organizer for Lone Star Championships in 2008.

Since joining up in July 2007, Tina and Don have spread their love of dance throughout the U.S. (and Canada!) teaching at events like Blues Shout Chicago, Austin Blues Party, Blues Boot Camp (Dallas), Down Home Blues Shout (San Francisco), Sweet Molasses Blues (Boston), MezzJelly Blues Weekend (Waterloo, Canada) and at a week-long stint in Minneapolis in October 2008. In their classes, Tina and Don like to emphasize sound fundamentals, the basics of rhythm, partnership in social dancing and love of the music. But most of all, dancing has just got to be fun.

Joe Demers and Nelle Hatley (Denver, CO)

Joe and Nelle are known for being very versatile dancers ranging from modern Jazz to vintage Blues to performance Lindy Hop. They possess an aesthetic quality that flourishes as a dance couple. They continually train, travel and teach worldwide and pride themselves with basing their dancing on original styles while continually striving for new ideas. They believe that Blues is a very eclectic dance. Within each genre and style of music there are rhythms and moods that change the Blues aesthetic and connection. The constant change and freedom within the music really attracts them to the dance. Blues is a feeling that comes from within. It.s an expression and release of style and personality. When you dance with a partner that can match you, you'll feel like the only dancer in the room. Just you, your partner, the music and the floor.

Damon Stone (Dallas, TX) & Heidi Fite (San Francisco, CA)

Damon & Heidi share a love for Blues dance and for promoting the dance as a living tradition, with a rich history and an exciting future. Their classes are inspiring and challenging, but their focus on the underlying principles and a clear explanation of the fundamentals allows them to break down the most difficult concepts and moves so they are easy to understand and incorporate. Damon & Heidi are able to communicate and instill in their students a love of dance and a dedication to the learning process. More important, their classes will kick your butt and put some serious bad-ass in your dancing.