Staff

As in previous years, we invited some of the best teachers in the world. Even more, they are all known for their love for the dance and all-night long dancing.

Alyssa Glanville

Alyssa Glanville has been dancing since she was 8 years old. She started in Lindyhop and Folk Dancing. While she loved dance, she spent a lot of her youth playing soccer and showing horses competitively. It wasn't until she started ballroom when she was 15 that she was first exposed to West Coast Swing. She immediately fell in love with the dance, especially the creative aspect drawn from other dances. Since then, Alyssa has trained in Hip Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Zouk, and Ballet. She uses her knowledge from those dances to enhance her WCS.

Sean McKeever

Sean McKeever has a history as a black belt in martial arts and grew up dancing through a local ballroom program called Nordquist.

With diversified training in hip hop and modern dance, their individual movement and musicality, he pushes the elements of modern swing. He's known for his love of social dancing, enthusiastic workshops and entertaining performances.

Cameo McHenry

Cameo started dancing almost immediately after birth. Daughter of Michael and Amber Cross (The 1st US Open Swing Dance Champions ever), she was exposed to WCS almost immediately. Dance has always been her life, as she changed her focus to classical ballet which took her to great heights going through the University of Arizona School of Dance on full scholarship, and then dancing with River North Dance Chicago in Chicago, IL. In Chicago, she found her way back into WCS, and this eventually led her to California, which is where she currently resides. In 2016, Cameo was inducted into the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame and in June 2018, won a local Northern California Emmy for her work in BaseBallet II: Into the Game. Cameo is the current US Open Classic Swing Champion with Ben Morris. At age 35, Cameo brings a wealth of knowledge and experience not only related to WCS, but also dancing as a whole that is extremely valuable for WCS dancers to gain an understanding of to apply to their own bodies and movement.

Ben McHenry

Ben started dancing WCS at 11 years old, and he very quickly fell in love with the dance. At 16, he had already competed and placed in the Champions division. Now age 34, he has been teaching for over 10 years. Known for his extremely outgoing personality, and his love for social dancing in WCS, he continues to bring joy into WCS dancers lives everywhere across the world. In 2017, Ben was also inducted into the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame.

Karin Kakun

Karin Kakun has been dancing all her life. She holds a university dance degree and has now taught dance for more than 14 years. She teaches WCS, Hip-Hop, stretching. She also choreograph and performs. Before starting dancing WCS, she was the Israeli salsa champion.

Karin started her WCS career in 2014 and from the first moment she fell in love. She is now competing both in All Star and Champion divisions and teaching in Israel, where she directs a West Coast Swing school. She actively travels and teaches all around Europe.

PJ Turner

PJ proudly hails from Knoxville, TN and has been dancing since the age of 10. His initial start to dancing was in clogging, but only years later he started line dancing, country dancing, and then eventually discovered West Coast Swing. He quickly realized that WCS was a perfect match for his personality. He currently competes in Classic Division, and loves dancing in Jack & Jill's and Strictlies where he has had much success.

PJ is known for his ability to interpret music in his own unique style. PJ was honored to receive the “Social Dance Award” at Boogie by the Bay 2011 and the “Bob Preiss Social Dance Award” at Swing Diego 2012. You will often hear PJ say that when he steps onto the dance floor, his goal is to make his follower smile. It is clear that he has a very high success rate at achieving this goal!!!

PJ's nickname "Paco Jose" stems from a misunderstanding of what PJ actually stands for, ever since then it has stuck.

Lauren Jones

Lauren got into West Coast Swing back in 2011 thanks to her wonderful mum but moved to Vietnam shortly after. 5 years later, she scooted over to Singapore, fell in love with WCS again as well as the community there and social danced her socks off before making her way through Europe in 2019 where she achieved All-star level in 2022. Although she has dabbled in salsa/bachata and smooth jive on a social level, it is WCS that has her hooked. She loves the balance between connecting with a partner on the floor and the freedom of self-expression, all to a wide range of music genres. The social floor is her ultimate happy place. She is over the moon to be working with the inspiring dancers of the community and her aim is to leave each person she dances with smiling, be it at her or with her!

Chuck Brown

Chuck Brown is a Champion level competitor with over 18 years of experience. He is recognized as a top international instructor, judge, DJ, event promoter and dance business consultant. Chuck has won numerous national competitions and awards, including placing at the U.S. Open Swing Dance Championships several times.

Chuck is known for his musicality, creativity, versatility, and especially, his amazing lead on the dance floor. It has been said by many of the top pros, that Chuck is one of the best social dancers in all of West Coast Swing. His dance training includes West Coast Swing, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Contemporary, Ballet, Blues, Carolina Shag, Lindy Hop, Salsa, House, Country and African.

Chuck’s teaching methods have produced some of the fastest moving and successful competitors and dancers in the Unites States as well as Internationally. He has taught all over the globe, including Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Korea, Singapore, United Kingdom, Russia, the USA and many more. He is an incredibly passionate and tough teacher who cares about his student’s dance goals as well as their friendship.

Chantelle Pianetta

Chantelle is both a Champion West Coast Swing dancer and a professional ballerina. She began her dance training in the San Francisco Bay Area at Contra Costa Ballet Centre and later at the School of American Ballet in NYC.

Chantelle discovered and quickly fell in love with swing dance through the CU Swing Club while she was a student at Columbia University. In 2010, she decided to pursue dance full-time and moved back to the Bay Area, where she has been dancing and teaching professionally ever since. Between ballet seasons, she has traveled all over the world teaching and performing WCS.

She has competed in both Showcase and Classic divisions. In 2019, she placed 5th in both the NASDE tour and Showcase Division and was a Classic Division finalist at the Open Swing Dance Championships.

Joel Torgeson

Joel grew up in rural Minnesota and found dance at the University of Minnesota Ballroom Dance Club when his friend Jack twisted his arm and convinced him to give it a shot! From that point his life has focused on dance, ultimately leading him to postpone higher education in Biological Anthropology to pursue his dance dreams in Los Angeles.

Now living in the Bay Area and competing in the Showcase and Champions divisions, he dances all over the country (and world!) for fun. He loves teaching workshops, especially concept-based ones, and has started experimenting with short collaboration videos as a way of promoting WCS to new groups of people.

Ben Morris

Both a Champion Lindy Hopper and a Champion West Coast Swing Dancer; Ben Morris began swing dancing at the age of 12 and is now a 2 time World Swing Dance Champion, 3 time U.S. Open Swing Dance Champion, Spirit of Lindy Hop award winner, a California Swing Dance Hall of Fame award winner, and a featured dancer in the movie Love N’ Dancing and the Leann Rimes Music Video “Swingin.”

A graduate of UCLA, he currently lives in Orange County, California, running his weekly dance Swingin the Blues and regularly guest teaching at several local colleges. On the weekends Ben travels all over the world to teach, compete, judge, and perform and is known for his fun dance style, infectious personality, and enjoyable workshops.

Robert Royston

Robert Royston is an 8x US Open swing champion in 5 different divisions, who holds 4 World Country Dance titles, 3 USA Grand Nationals titles, and 4 Phoenix Champion of Champion Jack & Jill trophies. The '14 and '15 National Association of Swing Dance Events (NASDE) tour Champion, and a member of 5 different dance Halls of Fame, Royston has performed, choreographed, and produced on film, tv, and stage for over thirty years.

His career-long devotion to being the best teacher he can be has led him to train in many systems of movement, and has helped earn him the reputation as one of the greatest teachers in the world of dance today. Oh... And he is the "voice" of the US Open Swing Dance Championship for over 15 events a year!

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