Teacher Staff

Thibault & Nicole Ramirez

Thibault and Nicole have been together since the beginning of 2019, quickly building a strong partnership and establishing a name for themselves. Becoming the World Champions of 2019 with their winning Showcase routine, they immediately began traveling all over the world teaching, performing, judging, and competing.

They are the creators of Flash Choreo, a mini choreography intensive for dancers to challenge themselves and perform a routine in a short amount of time.

They have developed great rhythm teaching classes and intensives together, offering great technique in a relaxed and fun environment.

With over 20 years of knowledge in West Coast Swing and other partner and solo dances, their teaching style is very appreciated everywhere they go and benefits dancers of all styles. Their emotive, passionate spirits shine when they are on stage and while teaching. They love to motivate their students to excel and reach their maximum potential. Their personalities are very energetic and open to connecting with people, on and off the dance floor.

Kenneth Rutland

& Bryn Anderson

KP and Bryn began partnering in Rising Star in 2017 and have since placed top 3 at the Open Swing Dance Championships and become NASDE champions. They have gained a reputation for incorporating isolations and other forms of hip hop into their West Coast Swing, and they enjoy introducing westies to these styles alongside West Coast Swing fundamentals.

Both have diverse dance backgrounds. KP grew up dancing hip hop and began partner dancing in 2011. After sampling many different styles, such as DFW Swingout, Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba, and Zydeco, he finally fell in love with West Coast Swing in 2015. Bryn began West Coast Swing at age 5 and competed throughout her teens. She has supplemented her West Coast Swing with Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, and International Latin.

Sean McKeever

& Alyssa Glanville

In 2006 Sean discovered West Coast Swing.

The following year Sean joined the Schwimmer family’s renowned youth dance team, “Jumpstart”.

By the middle of 2010 Sean committed to dancing full time. In the years following, Sean has won numerous international Classic Routine divisions, Jack and Jill, and Strictly Swing titles, Including titles at prestigious events such as SwingDiego, Phoenix 4th of July, Swingtime in the Rockies, Desert City Swing, Swingtacular, Boogie By the Bay, and Capital Swing.

Sean has consistently been one of the top 5 leaders in the WCS community throughout his career, was inducted into the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame in 2018.

At age fifteen, Alyssa became a Jr. Dance Instructor at Nordquist and was then introduced to West Coast Swing–and thus fell headfirst into a new love. She started traveling for competitions and made it to the All-Stars Division in around 2 years. She sat in the Champions chairs for the first time at SwingDiego 2012, and shortly after began her career as an instructor. Since then, Alyssa has been fortunate enough to travel the world, teaching movement, sharing in the love of West Coast Swing!

Semion Ovsiannikov & Maria Elizarova

Semion has been dancing ever since he was eight. He started with ballroom dancing first, then got into social dancing, and finally into West Coast Swing. He is known for his musicality and great connection with his partners.

Maria has been dancing since 2007. In 2008, she fell in love with social partner dances. She started learning Hustle/Discofox and Salsa. She had been dancing Hustle and Discofox for 4 years, working on her solo choreography as well, when West Coast Swing came into her dancing life. After that, she couldn’t stop dancing WCS. She enjoys the versatility of the dance, bringing new emotions, options for musicality and styling to every dance.

Semion and Maria were the first Russians to ever get to US Open Classic finals in 2016, 2017, 2019. They also achieved second place at The Open Classic finals in 2018.

Their partnership emphasizes technique, musicality, and connection. They love the possibilities for communication and dialogue between partners during every dance and seek to help their students discover this incredibly fun aspect of WCS. They share a philosophy that care and attention are the best things partners can give each other during any dance.

Zac and Maddy

Both from Australia!

"Zaddy" have been a WCS dance partnership since 2015 and bring with them a wealth of knowledge from travelling internationally as WCS judges, performers, and teachers. They have experience in many other genres of dance, which attributes to their style and are Co-directors of Raw Connection West Coast Swing in Australia. Zac and Maddy have a huge passion for this dance and a love for the community, which drives them to create an inclusive, supportive, fun, and energetic atmosphere wherever they go!

Marc Heldt

In 2010, Marc discovered his passion for West Coast Swing. He developed sound knowledge by participating in national and international congresses and festivals. Many additional private lessons with renowned coaches like Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollmann and John Lindo have given him even more insight into the world of this fascinating dance.

Marc has quickly established a West Coast Swing community around his dance school in Düsseldorf. Since then, curious dancers from all over NRW regularly attend his workshops and visit his dance school's West Coast Swing Club.

Meanwhile, Marc is regularly on the road as a welcome lecturer in West Coast Swing. He supervises West Coast Swing dance tours, teaches in dance clubs and other dance schools and trains dance athletes and youth leaders in WCS on behalf of the TNW.

Mejrem Halidovic

Mejrem has been on the dance floor since she was 8 years old. At the age of 16, she decided to train as a Dance4Fans Video Clip Dancing instructor and achieved many German and European championship titles with her teams and solo dancers.

This was followed by the classic ADTV - general German dance teacher association - dance teacher training, which she completed with flying colors.

As additional training, she acquired knowledge of the dances Hip Hop, Salsa, and Zumba.

West Coast Swing sparked a new passion in her. Mejrem is fascinated by the possibilities this dance offers and combines her many years of experience with new ideas. In 2014, she completed her training as a Master WCS Instructor from Global PDIA by Michael Kiehm and the WCS Academy Düsseldorf. Mejrem teaches and impresses with her competence and her friendly, cheeky, and natural manner.