Szewai Lee has been dancing since she was four. Besides ballroom and social dance, she has received extensive training in ballet, modern, jazz, and improvisation. In addition to teaching ballroom / social dance, Szewai is an active member in the Chicago contemporary dance community. Ever since she graduated with a B.A. in dance, she has performed with a few innovative companies, such as Mordine & Co. Dance Theater, Lucky Plush Productions and Margaret Morris Dance. As a choreographer, her works have been presented at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Around the Coyote Dance Festival and Links Hall. She has received two choreographic residencies from Links Hall (LinkUp) and Chicago Cultural Center (DanceBridge) and also a grant from Chicago Artist Assistance Program (CAAP) to develop new choreography and performances. For more information about Szewai’s experience and upcoming performances, visit www.szewaidance.com.

Matthew Sove learned to dance waltz and swing from his mother when he was child. She taught him about the playfulness of partner dancing and the joy of moving in-sync with another human being. Matthew went on to study contemporary dance and contact improvisation with Sandra Mathern-Smith at Denison University, where he wrote, directed and/or starred in many dance/theater productions. Matthew continues to explore movement through contemporary forms, but focuses primarily on partnering skills - the subtle, unspoken communications between individuals during a dance - which are the foundation of social/ballroom dance. Matthew is a Master Dance Instructor. He has been teaching in the Chicago-land since 2005. Matthew is also a writer and visual artist and holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For more information about Matthew’s teaching, writing and visual art, visit www.matthewsove.com.

Kathryn Rochelle Originally from Texas and raised in Colorado Springs, Kathryn Rochelle has always loved to move. After graduating from the University of Wyoming with degrees in Dance and Anthropology, Kathryn realized a passion for teaching and sharing her love of movement with others. In addition to her teaching position at Ballroom Dance Chicago, she is a Head Instructor for the National Dance Alliance and teaches dance camps for students around the country. As a certified Zumba instructor Kathryn explores Latin music and movements in energetic fitness classes for adults and children. She also teaches after school dance programs and creative movement classes for young children in the Chicagoland area. Her teaching style is energetic and thorough, and her experiences working with people from many different backgrounds allows her to make strong connections with students. Kathryn is excited to be a team member at Ballroom Dance Chicago and looks forward to a long career in the ballroom/ social dance genre.

Audrey Watson incorporates her background in gymnastics, soccer, theatre and dance in a thorough and dynamic teaching style. Audrey honed her attention to nuance and detail at Purdue University where, in addition to studying jazz dance, her achievements in costume and makeup design resulted in a BA in Theater Design and Technology. It is this attention that Audrey now utilizes to produce confident, capable performers out of first-time dancers. Audrey is the Operations Manager at Ballroom Dance Chicago as well as the Lead Wedding Specialist. She has been a part of the BDC team since 2009.

Rachael Fromkin has been dancing since age three, exploring all possible genres from ballet to break dancing and everything in between. She has always felt a passion for expressing herself through movement, but found a higher love for partner dancing through her involvement in Chicago’s swing dance community and competitive ballroom dance. She firmly believes that having the ability to express oneself to another individual directly through movement is essential to building confidence in all aspects of life. Rachael’s experience choreographing in modern, contemporary and partner dance styles has shown her the joy that bringing this expression to others can be, sparking her desire to turn her passion into her career. In addition to her dancing with Ballroom Dance Chicago, she will be graduating from DePaul University next year with degrees in Public Relations and Spanish, broadening her ability to connect and communicate to her students.

Rachael Zuppke Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rachael began dancing at age five. She received extensive training in ballet and jazz and grew up around social Latin dancing.  She continued her dance training in Maputo, Mozambique where she studied contemporary dance under the direction of Mozambican choreographer, Luis Sala.  In addition to her dance training, Rachael completed a B.F.A. at the University of Michigan, School of Art and Design in studio art.  Besides teaching ballroom dance, Rachael works at Project Onward, a gallery and studio that supports artists with mental and developmental disabilities.

A Little More About Ballroom Dance Chicago and Its Founders

Szewai and Matthew met while teaching at a commercial dance studio. They both thoroughly enjoyed sharing their love of ballroom/latin dance with students, but soon became discouraged by the competitive dance forms taught at the school. “We were training people to look good to a crowd, which is important, but we weren’t focusing on partnering skills,” writes Matthew. Szewai and Matthew believe that the benefits of ballroom/latin dance are best experienced in a social setting, where people are more interested in their partners than if a judge gives them good marks. So Szewai and Matthew quit teaching competitive dance and have subsequently started their own teaching practice that focuses on social dance and preparing couples for their first wedding dance.

Szewai and Matthew believe that we all share similar movement histories; unless we are professional dancers, we have been asked to put our need to explore movement aside. Sometimes, after this impulse has collected a thick layer of dust, we forget that it exists (and if it’s not forgotten we appease it by a daily visit to a treadmill. Most of us see our movement only as a means to physical health). As dance teachers, Szewai and Matthew’s job is to reawaken the drive for kinesthetic exploration. They teach people, through social dance, to connect back to childhood - to again embrace the joy of movement. They teach movement for movement’s sake, not movement as a means to an end.

Unfortunately, having a good time and dancing usually mix like nuns and rock-n-roll; dance students in the U.S. come from a culture where dance is stigmatized and fears of social ridicule have been heightened by such cultural icons as Seinfeld character Elaine Benes’ unaware and utterly awkward full-body dry-heaves on the dance floor. “I don’t want that to be me,” people think, and avoid dancing altogether. A dance instructor’s job is to reaffirm their students’ natural impulses to move - to get them to a place of childlike exploration - by creating a non-judgmental environment where they can feel comfortable to move naturally, while building more body / kinesthetic awareness and partnering skills.