Silke's private students have often commented that her nurturing way of teaching allows them to reach levels of dancing proficiency they never would have imagined possible.

Silke is a renowned International Style Latin dancer, and has trained in the European tradition in both Germany and England. Her accomplishments include the 1998 Southwest Regional, San Francisco Open and California Professional International Latin Rising Star Championship and the 1998 International Grand Ball Professional Open International Latin Championship.

Michael Arntz combines his years of experience as a musician with his training as a ballroom dance teacher to help beginning students learn how to dance to the music with skill and ease. His patience and expertise help students feel comfortable about learning to dance for the first time. He is accomplished in many styles of dancing, including Argentine Tango, Ballroom and Salsa. He received his teacher training through private lessons and Diane Jarmolow's Ballroom Teachers College. He is certified with high honors as a professional dance instructor through ProDVIDA in Bronze American Smooth and Rhythm dances. He teaches private lessons and is the primary instructor for the Wedding Dance Program at Just Dance Ballroom in Oakland. Karen Lile and Michael Arntz are dance partners and co-teachers. Learn more about Michael at http://www.absolutebeginnerdance.com/aboutmichael.htm

Max has been dancing for 10 years and has trained with many of the top world coaches, including Shirley Ballas, Nadia Eftadal, Louis Van Amstel and Richard Porter. Max has won numerous competitive titles, including the Youth Latin California State Dancesport Championships as well as the International Grand Ball Youth Standard Championships.

Stephen Cullip is a Certified Ballroom Instructor & Former National Champion. His Professional Certifications include WD&DSC and NDCA Certified Championship Adjudicator and Full Member US Terpsichore Association, all branches

Stephen is a Coach and Teacher of long standing, for the
- US Champion USC Formation Dance Team
- US Champion Youth Standard and Ten Dance Couples
- US Open Amateur Ten Dance Champions
- US Novice and Pre-Championship Winners

Stephen is a champion professional competitor and won has multiple championship titles as a competitor in Professional, Amateur and Junior competitions throughout his career. (see Stephen’s Complete Bio).

Lynn Gardiner watched a dance show at school that rocked her world and started classes immediately at age 7.  At 8, she began her performing career. Lynn has studied jazz, tap, ballet, acrobatics, modern and hip hop. At 17, she discovered the joy of social dancing at salsa and swing clubs.  Lynn graduated from Cal State Hayward, trilingual, with degrees in Spanish and American Sign Language while all the while, taking part in choreography classes and performance opportunities to develop her dance growth and continue being part of the dance community throughout college. After college, Lynn’s discovery of ballroom brought her to new heights of performing, competing, traveling and coaching. Always at home on the stage, and showered with 1sts for amateur rhythm competitions, Lynn stepped up her passion for ballroom dancing by taking Diane Jarmolow’s Ballroom Teacher’s Dance College so she could articulate and share her Rhythm, Latin, Smooth and Standard training with her future students. Since age 7, she’s dreamed of this. And now at 25, educated, well-rounded, and glad to give back to the Bay Area, students can learn with Lynn!

Started to dance as kids at the age of 6 and 7 and began competing at age of 9.

Besides active dancing, Anton studied mathematics and graduated in 2000 from mechanics-mathematics faculty of Belarusian State University. Lena graduated in 2003 from Belarusian University of Culture as a dance choreographer and ballroom trainer. They have been dancing together since February 2000.

As Belarus representatives Anton & Lena were Finalists of IDSF World Cup 10 dance 2000, IDSF World Cup Latin 2002, European Cups 2000, 2002, 2004 and are 5-time national Belarus champions.

Anton & Lena represented the USA in the World Professional 10-dance Championship 2007 in Germany, where they placed 8th in the finals. They also won the Rising Stars title of the Ohio Star Ball, Heritage Classics and San Francisco Open. Anton & Lena also hold the Triple Crown, as Saint Louis Star Ball, Texas Challenge, San Diego Open Standard champions, and were finalists of all major competitions in the USA. They married in 2004.

Karen Lile has been dancing and performing since 1977. She is accomplished in many styles of dancing, including Argentine Tango, Ballroom (International & American), Salsa, Lindy and West Coast Swing. Karen Lile is a co-creator with Ted Ross of the new dance Foxtantino. She shares her joy of dancing with students and helps them look and feel great on the dance floor. In addition to teaching dance, she is gifted at helping dancers to reduce their shyness, overcome anxiety and to develop confidence in social, performance and competition situations. Her 30 years of experience in the performing arts as a Television producer (for A&E and PBS TV), Theatrical Director, Public Speaker and as a Business Entrepreneur in the Arts contributes to her ability to help dancers accomplish their leisure and career goals in a variety of areas. For more information about Karen, visit http://www.absolutebeginnerdance.com/aboutkaren.htm 

Julie Lowe has danced and taught professionally for over 20 years. As a Principal Ballerina with the Oakland Ballet Company, she toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, performing many of the company’s leading roles, and working alongside luminaries of the dance world.

As both a ballroom dance instructor, and as Director of the Ballet Program at the Metronome Dance Center in San Francisco, she has successfully bridged the worlds of ballet and ballroom, providing dancers the opportunity to enhance their technical and artistic skills in both dance forms. As Artistic Director of the Metronome’s acclaimed Summer Showcase, she was instrumental in bringing that production to the Cowell Theater stage where it has played to sold-out audiences for the past six years. Many of today’s top competitive and professional dance couples have worked with Julie, including Six-Time U.S. Finalists, David & Valentina Weise,  2005 U.S. Rising Star Latin Champions, Vaidas Skimelis & Jurga Pupelyte, and West Coast Swing National Finalists, Arjay Centeno & Melissa Rutz.

Julie’s association with Diane Jarmolow, Founder and Director of the Ballroom Dance Teachers College, began in 2000. Since that time she has continued to be inspired and educated by Diane’s innovative and effective teaching methods.

Julie enjoys teaching students of all levels, from beginners to professionals.  Her teaching philosophy is to create a safe, fun, and nurturing environment where students can expand and achieve their dance goals.

For years, San taught ballroom dancing in a small penthouse studio in Oakland. His dancing motto was, “there’s always an easier way.” His main objective was to promote the elegance, grace and culture of ballroom dancing, but most of all, to bring out the pleasure and joy of dancing in his students. San’s easy-going personality and patient step-by-step style of instruction encouraged all, including new students to ramp up their skills even after the first lesson! San briefly retired his dance instructing duties to expand his business and open this brand new 10,000 sq. foot Just Dance Ballroom facility on Oakland’s Embarcadero Cove Waterfront. But now, San is back! Look for him on Monday nights teaching Ballroom group lessons for beginners.

John Narvaez and Liz Rojas are World Champion Salsa dance artists, instructors and directors of the Salsamania Dance Company of the San Francisco Bay Area, which they founded in the year 2000. They are among the most accomplished competitive Salsa dance couples in the world and currently rank as top champions of the 2005 and 2006 World Salsa Championships.

John and Liz came to the U.S. from Colombia at the ages of 11 and 10 respectively. Drawing upon the rich heritage of rhythm from their Columbian roots — a musical universe in its own right, John and Liz bring an undeniable love and intelligence to their approach to Salsa Dance. They have evolved a deep appreciation for the beauty of Latin dance into a clear vision of sharing their passion and knowledge of Salsa throughout the world. They have performed on MTV’s Telemundo program and Alberto’s Night Club events, as well as at international invitationals throughout Asia, Europe and South America.

Their Salsamania Dance Company is the #1 Bay Area Dance Team – known for its hypnotic performances marked by high levels of grace, speed and technical difficulty. John & Liz’s Salsamania style is devoted to well honed teaching techniques that they use in a building block approach to learning, thus enabling students to learn and progress rapidly.

You can catch John & Liz for Salsa lessons on Monday nights @ 7 p.m. beginner lesson; 8 p.m. intermediate, and always enjoy the After Party to practice your new moves ‘til midnight.

Dancing since the age of 5, Lisette began her training in gymnastics. From there her education continued to Hula, Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Ballroom, Argentine Tango and Theater. She was a member of the Argentine performance company called Ballet Pampa Argentina under the direction of Pampa Cortes for 2 years. She has starred in 2 tango film shorts, "Burn" and "Tango in the Park" as well as performed on television for KQED in San Francisco.

Lisette trained in Argentine tango with Julian "Miller" Ramil, Pampa and Valeria Cortes, Fabian Salas, Mariana Flores and Eduardo Cappussi, Julio Balmeceda and Corina de la Rosa, Mariano "Chicho" Framboli, Mariana Dragone, Sabastian Arce and Mariana Montes, Carlos Gavito, El Flaco Danny Garcia, Omar Vega, Daniel Juarez and Alejandra Armenti and many others. She spends extensive time in Buenos Aires each year training as well as teaching.

She has taught tango in the Bay Area including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Mendocino. She has also taught in Palm Beach, Florida and Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has not only performed in her home state of California, but also in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Presently, she is teaching locally in the Bay Area and is currently Directing and Shooting her own Documentary on tango. She is an elegant dancer and patient teacher who concentrates on the techniques necessary for smooth, powerful and beautiful dancing. She works with the whole body focusing on connection, alignment, lines and beautifying steps.

See Lisette's full biography

John Narvaez and Liz Rojas are World Champion Salsa dance artists, instructors and directors of the Salsamania Dance Company of the San Francisco Bay Area, which they founded in the year 2000. They are among the most accomplished competitive Salsa dance couples in the world and currently rank as top champions of the 2005 and 2006 World Salsa Championships.

John and Liz came to the U.S. from Colombia at the ages of 11 and 10 respectively. Drawing upon the rich heritage of rhythm from their Columbian roots — a musical universe in its own right, John and Liz bring an undeniable love and intelligence to their approach to Salsa Dance. They have evolved a deep appreciation for the beauty of Latin dance into a clear vision of sharing their passion and knowledge of Salsa throughout the world. They have performed on MTV’s Telemundo program and Alberto’s Night Club events, as well as at international invitationals throughout Asia, Europe and South America.

Their Salsamania Dance Company is the #1 Bay Area Dance Team – known for its hypnotic performances marked by high levels of grace, speed and technical difficulty. John & Liz’s Salsamania style is devoted to well honed teaching techniques that they use in a building block approach to learning, thus enabling students to learn and progress rapidly.

You can catch John & Liz for Salsa lessons on Monday nights @ 7 p.m. beginner lesson; 8 p.m. intermediate, and always enjoy the After Party to practice your new moves ‘til midnight.

Growing up in Mexico City, Eduardo studied and danced for several dance companies specializing in Ballet Folklorico and Latin rhythms. After moving to the United States, he competed in track and field and performed figure skating.  Later he decided to focus on his main passion of dance, studying with renowned Samba dancers such Tedje Rose (Director of Akat Dance Troupe), Iya (former Carnaval Queen and Aguarela member), and Maisa Duke (director of Energia do Samba, former Carnaval Queen).  Eduardo has been performing Samba professionally for many years and currently dances with Akat Dance Troupe and BrasArte, as well as his own performing company, Colores de Samba.  He is also a certified personal trainer and certified Zumba instructor.  Eduardo brings his roots as an ethnic dancer and dynamic Samba energy to his ongoing private and group dance fitness classes throughout the San Francisco Bay area.