Lessa Lamb, Seattle

Lessa has been studying and performing various forms of dance for most of her life. She learned lindy through a happy accident of fate, when at the '98/'99 New Years Eve dance in Tacoma, WA, she was petitioned by a then-acquaintance to become his teaching partner. Eventually she discovered Blues in a dark back-room at a Lindy exchange in Vancouver, and she's never been the same since.

The unavoidable pull of Blues' sultry rhythms has captivated her, drawing her in, willing her to discover ever more dizzying heights of elation through movement. In her continuous discovery of blues, she has found that her best, most creative, and most satisfying series of movements come when she stops thinking about what she's doing, and just allows the dance, the music, the connection, to flow through her. In this conduit-like state, she finds serenity. It is this experience of transcendent, divine dance that she strives to impart to as many people as she possibly can.

Boston Fusion 2011 - Chris and Lessa Demo

SD Fusion 2010 - Lucky Skillen and Lessa Thieme Demo

PFX 2009 - Ben Long and Lessa Thieme

Ted Maddry, San Francisco

As a teacher, Ted Maddry has helped thousands of students change their dancing and sometimes even their lives. In his classes, he will challenge you to develop dance technique, experiment & take risks in your dancing all the while maintaining a comfortable & entertaining classroom environment. You will get new perspectives, unique material, & sometimes you will even learn how the same methods you use to improve your dancing can also be used to improve your non-dance life. Book Ted for a private lesson, dance workshop or teacher training today by emailing ted@beyondblues.com.

Ted is also the Ringleader of Beyond Blues. After moving from Seattle and taking over in February 2010, Ted is working with a great team to spread his love of Blues Dance around the Bay Area. Want to join the team? We'd love that -- drop us a line to info@beyondblues.com or directly to Ted.

Video: ECBF Cabaret 2009 - The Boys
Video: Improvising with Ruth
Dance/Promotional Pictures

Andrew Smith, Palo Alto - www.andrewsmithdance.com

Andrew Smith began studying dance six years years ago and has taught for the past five years. Teaching at Blues dance venues and festivals across the country, he seeks to share his passion for dance and help others organically find their own joy in it. Andrew exudes a positive and empathic attitude that encourages students to challenge themselves and celebrate their successes. He is available for private lessons around the Bay Area.

Andrew draws on extensive dance training that has placed him in dance contests around the country, including taking 1st place in the Strictly Blues contest at Emerald City Blues Festival in 2008 and 2009 (partner: Karissa Lightsmith). View his website to learn more about Andrew's background and experience.

A Portland native, Andrew is excited to be in the Bay Area to attend graduate school at Stanford University, where he studies a Master's degree in Sustainable Design Construction.

Brenda Russell, Portland - BrendaDances.com

Brenda is fulfilling her childhood dream of becoming a professional dancer and instructor. She travels around the world teaching and training with a variety of coaches and historians. Her primary strength is breaking down dances in a way that makes them accessible to anyone, even those without a background in dance. She strives to help each of her students find the "dancer within," gaining inspiration from dancers of the past.

Brenda's primary area of study is African-American street dance from the turn of the century to the present. With such an incisive focus, she has become a major resource within the developing Blues dance community in the Bay area. Currently she is assisting with curricula and event development designed to raise the awareness in the community about blues music and dancing. Her hope is to provide structure for duplicable material, while maintaining the inherent character of the dance.

David Madison - BluesDance.com

At the Sunday Late Night of the 2001 Austin Lindy Exchange, Dave discovered Blues dancing thanks to the connivings of his friend Mel and the song Fallin', and his life took a turn. Soon after, he became instrumental in the origins of the contemporary Blues house party, which eventually led to our formal Blues Scene. He teaches Blues workshops across the world, from at home in San Francisco to Herräng as well as workshops across the United States and across Europe and even into the Middle East, where he brokered peace and Blues Dancing. His workshops are based on the foundations and joy of Blues. Otherwise he can generally be found dancing and teaching Blues and Lindy on the road and helping evolve a powerful Blues scene when he's back home in San Francisco.

Dexter Santos, San Francisco - DexterSantos.com

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, 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).

Video: 2010 bluesSHOUT! - Champions Jack & Jill Spotlight
Video: ECBF 2008 Cabaret

Elena Potapchuk, Berkeley - DanceBombers.com

Elena has been dancing since the age of five, when she enrolled in a ballroom school in Russia. Although she spent class time hiding from the ruthless Soviet instructor, she and dance reconciled ere too long. Throughout primary school and college, Elena studied movement through hip-hop and tap dance, and achieved a black belt in Tae-Kwon-Do. In 2008, upon returning from a year of step and Sean Nós dancing in Ireland, Elena was thrown into the world of partner dance, and her life was changed forever.

Elena discovered her calling in Blues Dance, because through it she first unearthed the complex layers of movement and partner connection fueled by the soulful stratification of Blues music. Elena continues to take classes in multiple solo and partner dance styles, and draws information from yoga, martial arts, and the Franklin Method, striving to craft an ever-evolving model of graceful and natural movement through profound body awareness. She hopes to pass on the joy and freedom of one of the earliest forms of human expression.

Heidi Fite, Alameda, CA

Heidi loves to teach Blues dance as a living tradition, with a rich history and an exciting future. From private lessons and local classes to international workshops and historical research and documentation of the dance, she is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Blues dance.

Her classes are inspiring and challenging, but her focus on the underlying principles and a clear explanation of the fundamentals allows her to break down the most difficult concepts and moves so they are easy to understand and incorporate. Heidi is able to communicate and instill in her students a love of dance and a dedication to the learning process. More important, her classes will put some serious "boom boom boom" and "aw haw haw haw" in your dancing.

Joseph Liu, Berkeley - DanceBombers.com

Joseph Liu has been dancing all his life. He started dancing East Coast Swing in high school and dabbled in International Ballroom Dancing in college. His fierce passion for dancing was ignited on April 2nd, 2009. On that date he jumped into his first Camp Blues. Lacking any prior experience in Blues Dancing, he struggled with the material but discovered the expressiveness, gracefulness and musicality which is embodied in all dances.

Currently, Joseph seeks to learn everything he can on social partner dancing and develop a cohesive theory which can be applied to all partner dancing. He aims to spread the love of dance and believes that dancing is one of the universal form of human expression that everyone understands. Joseph is inspired by Etienne Cakpo, Fred Astaire, La La La Human Steps, Michael Jackson, and NappyTabs.

Mark Lescroart, San Francisco

Mark Lescroart (say it LESS qua) has been dancing since Thriller was out on vinyl, and partner dancing for 12 years. He discovered blues dancing at Down Home Blues in 2005. The music and the movement resonated somewhere deep and true, and he's been hooked ever since. Besides blues, Mark has studied Lindy hop, salsa, west coast swing, and hip hop. Mark lived and danced in LA from 2005 to 2010, where he taught as a Blues Muse and helped the blues scene grow. Marks' first dance instructor taught him that there are no wrong moves, only new steps. Mark tries to stay true to that sentiment in his teaching, emphasizing the possibilities that open up with greater attention to posture, balance, and connection. Mark's favorite aspect of blues dancing is good connection.

That, and the shimmies. Everybody loves shimmies.

Michelle Richter, San Francisco - BluesTherapist.com

Michelle Richter has been dancing for over 20 years and studying dance for about 18 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 12 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 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), Blues Rising (San Francisco, CA) BamBLOOZled (Washington, D.C.), Mile High Blues (Denver, CO), and Blues Blaze (New York, NY).

*Blues Shout Invitational Jack and Jill Division Champion 2007, 2008
*Blues Shout Strictly Ballroom Blues Division Champion 2007, 2008, 2010 partner Dexter Santos

Check out video of her dance here.

Ruth Hoffman, San Francisco - WeJustDance.com

Ruth Hoffman has been skipping and twirling through life since she began studying ballet at the age of three. In 1997 she discovered ballroom dancing. It wasn't long before she discovered Lindy Hop through a visiting teacher named Frankie. While at the University of Oregon, she continued her passion for dance studying modern, contact improv, ballroom, Argentine tango, dance history, swing, belly dance, choreography, kinesiology, jazz dance -- anything else she could get her feet on. Ruth currently runs Shades of Blues (www.sfshadesofblues.com) and teaches blues dance, Argentine Tango and dance fusion in the Bay area and beyond.