Scott Gamble

Scott started Friday Night Waltz with co-founders Persephone and Tom Hill. Scott also produced the very popular and always sold out formal 17 times the "New Year's Eve Waltz Ball", "Waltz Workshop", "BayCeltic", "Bastille Day Waltz Ball", "Oakland Free Dance Festival", "ContraWaltz", and "Social Sampler".Scott has a very long familiarity with social dancing, starting in college with international folk dancing, leading years later to competitive ballroom dancing, and eventually starting Friday Night Waltz with Tom Hill and Persephone.

Tom Hill

Tom Hill has been dancing vintage and modern social dance for over 20 years. He has taught at the Gaskell Ball, the Dickens Fair, and has been teaching at Friday Night Waltz since its inception. A co-founder of Friday Night Waltz with Scott and Persephone. He has studied with Richard Powers, Joan Walton and with Diane Jarmolow, at the Ballroom Dance Teacher's College. He also organized the Dance Teaching Lab in Palo Alto, which gave aspiring social dance teachers a place to hone their teaching skills.

Tom is the Author of How to Teach Ballroom Dancing, a book to help you get started teaching, or refine the skills you already have. This book is based on his years of teaching at Friday Night Waltz and other dances.

Richard Powers

Richard Powers is one of the world's foremost experts in American social dance, noted for his choreographies for dozens of stage productions and films, and his workshops around the world. Richard has taught dance in Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Spoleto, Prague, Vienna, Geneva, Seville, Edinburgh, St. Petersburg, Krakow, Moscow, Kirov, Kyoto and Tokyo, including 22 workshops in Russia, 29 in France, and 28 in Japan. He has been researching and reconstructing historic social dances for almost fifty years, and is currently a full-time instructor at Stanford's Dance Division. Selected by the Centennial Issue of Stanford Magazine as one of Stanford University's most notable graduates of its first century, Richard was also awarded the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for distinctive and exceptional contributions to education at Stanford University.

Richard's books include Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living, Cross-Step Waltz: A Dancer's Guide, and The Book of Mixers: 100 Easy-Teach Dances for Getting Acquainted.

Amelia Thomas

Amelia has been dancing since 2013. Her first ballroom dance was a Peers Ball - one night, and she was hooked. Friday Night Waltz became her dance home, and attended FNW regularly, first taking classes, then assisting, and then moving to co-teaching at Friday Night Waltz and at the Gaskell Ball.

Persephone

Persephone,a co-founder of Friday Night Waltz, along with Scott Gamble and Tom Hill, has DJed many times for Friday Night Waltz. Persephone is a long time swing dance teacher and DJ.

Academy of Danse Libre

Danse Libre, our namesake dance, was created by the students of the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840's. With liberated spirits, they took the intricate steps that they had learned as children in dancing school and "exploded" them into bounds, kicks and extravagant capers. The Academy of Danse Libre is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the lively of 19th and early 20th century social dances. We aspire to create a vivid picture of the mayhem and joyful passion of the Victorian ballroom, in the spirit of our namesakes.

Agastya Kalra (Gus)

Agastya has been dancing since childhood and social dancing for 9 years, with a passion for Latin social dances. He began teaching in 2017 and joined the Friday Night Waltz community in 2019. With extensive travel for work, Agastya has attended social dance events worldwide, including in Switzerland, Uzbekistan, India, and Brazil, gaining diverse perspectives. He's excited to share his love of dance, his focus on fundamentals, and creating a humorous and welcoming environment for students of all levels.

Akash

Akash discovered ballroom dancing in the Bay Area in 2017 and has been dancing ever since. He's drawn to dances where he's drawn to the music, and loves to explore and share both.

Alannah Forster

Alannah has been a dancer since the age of four, starting in ballet and soon transitioned to theatrical dance, and eventually into social dancing! Since she was introduced to Friday Night Waltz at the age of 15 she has become an active part of the Bay Area social dance scene. At Friday Night Waltz, she has taken on roles as an assistant manager, DJ, and teacher in introductory waltz! Alannah is enthusiastic about helping newcomers to the social dance community and is happy to give "pop up" lessons, even on nights when she is not officially teaching.

Angela Amarillas

Angela, who has assisted Richard in his classes and workshops for the past ten years, was Stanford University's first Dance Minor. Angela is a graceful dancer who shares Richard's passion for historical and vernacular social dance. Richard and Angela have taught and performed in Rome, Prague, Venice, London, Paris, and St. Petersburg as well as across the U.S. Angela offers instruction for all soon-to-be-newlyweds who would like to elegantly dance around the dance floor for the first time as husband and wife. If you are interested in receiving lessons, you may e-mail her at [email protected]

Anna Botelho

Anna Botelho has previously taught classes at Friday Night Waltz. Anne started dancing at age 4, and has barely gotten off the floor since. She studied jazz throughout her childhood, as well as learning tap and musical theater dance by performing in over 30 musical theater productions. Anna double majored in English and Music at Yale University - intending to become an orchestral and choral conductor. Anne frequently teaches at schools - she has been a guest instructor at Yale University and Stanford University. Anna teaches at her home studio, Starlite Dance Club, where she has been top teacher for the last 2 years and has won top solo performance awards, and was placed with the top teacher award at the International Grand Ball in San Francisco! Anna is the choreographer for Waltz Madness.

Ari Levitt

Ari Levitt has been partnering, teaching, and performing dance in the Greater Seattle area, nationally, and internationally for over 25 years. An award-winning dancer, teacher, and performer, his breadth of styles include Salsa, Tango, Latin, Lindy Hop, Swing, Balboa, Blues, and Ballroom. He is the creator of several innovative new dance styles: "Fusion Waltz", "Fusion Swing", & "Fusion Night Club 2-Step" which he has been busy introducing in workshops throughout the country. When off the floor, Ari works as a physician and entrepreneur..Ari has performed and taught social dances since 1990, first touring with Stanford's Dunai Dance Ensemble, at which time he also helped to start Stanford's first ballroom/swing dance club, and served as lead choreographer and dance instructor for the Stanford Viennese Ball. Ari was next involved in the creation of the Lindy Hop movement in Seattle, and actively taught and performed as a member of Seattle's first Savoy Swing Performance Troupe. In 1992 he introduced the first Night Club Two-Step classes to Seattle as a guest instructor with Living Traditions. During this time he also taught workshops in swing, salsa, ballroom and Latin dance around the USA and Canada. Ari also founded the Central Pennsylvania Swing Society; founded, choreographed, directed and performed with the Jumpcats swing ensemble; was commissioned to choreograph and perform various swing and salsa numbers for the One Broadway concert series two years running; and ran a swing week each Spring at Hershey Park, while continuing to travel throughout the US and Canada teaching swing, salsa, and social dance workshops.

Audrey Proulx

Audrey Proulx, professionally known as Audriix, has been a member of the Stanford dance community since 2012, when she first attended the Stanford Viennese Ball. As a professional pop singer and dancer, Audrey has shared her talent on both national and international stages, opening for esteemed artists such as Madison Beer and Aly & AJ. Alongside her personal accomplishments, Audrey has contributed to the dance community, serving on the Stanford Viennese Ball Opening Committee and earning the title of the 45th Annual Stanford Viennese Ball Rotary Waltz Champion. Audrey's choreography has graced stages for various pop performers, for both others and herself, showcasing her dedication to the art form. Trained by Chantal Robson, who has worked with iconic artists like Britney Spears, One Direction, and NSYNC, Audrey brings a wealth of expertise in dancing, choreographing, teaching, and music to Friday Night Waltz.

Baguette Quartette

Baguette Quartette is a San Francisco Bay Area group that plays music that was heard in Paris between 1920 and 1940 on street corners, in cafes, and in popular dance halls. Led by accordionist Odile Lavault, its repertoire consists of valses musettes, tangos, pasos dobles, fox trots, marches and realistic songs. Cin considers no dance style too outre. For 20 years, she has been dancing, costuming and performing with a number of Bay Area groups, including the Butterfly Bloomers Can-can troupe at San Juan Bautista, and Dickens Faire. Cin was a founding member of Danse Libre. She both danced and held comic roles Stanford Vintage Dance Ensemble. She choreographed a 20s styled "Trial By Jury" for Stanford Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Lately, she's spending lots of time with Rennaissance dance forms and currently translating her second 15th c Burgundian dance manual.

The Brassworks Band

The Brassworks performs a wide range of musical styles: renaissance, baroque, classical & romantic, folk & fiddle tunes, marches, ragtime, Dixieland, blues, swing, rock, Motown, Latin, Broadway show tunes and concert works. The Band's specialty--to which our first album is devoted--is period ballroom music from 18th and 19th century Europe and America. Frank Beau Davis director.

Casey Glick

Casey has been dancing since he first learned East Coast Swing in junior high, and standard ballroom since high school. As an undergrad he briefly competed before returning to dancing socially, including dancing at East Bay and Friday Night Waltz since 2010.

Starting in college, Casey has taught East Coast and four-count swing, Viennese waltz, and polka. During his lessons, he emphasizes the fundamentals of frame and connection, helping leads and follows work together as they move.

When he's not dancing, he likes to compose, sing classical music, and work as an engineer.

Deanna and Ken

Deanna and Ken met at the Google ballroom dance club in the fall of 2013 and have been orchestrating dance shenanigans ever since. In addition to DJing and teaching at Friday Night Waltz and East Bay Waltz, they also used to help run the Google Contra dance and now semi-regularly call at contra dances in the Bay Area. You can always count on them for playing offbeat fun music and running a ton of mixers, and starting spontaneous salsa rueda circles.

Edoardo Maragliano

Edoardo Maragliano is director for The Academy of Danse Libre, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the lively exhibition of 19th and early 20th century social dances. He has appeared with many Bay Area dance troupes, including the Stanford Vintage Dance Ensemble, Danse Libre, Radical Vintage, Stanford Viennese Ball, and Decadance. Edoardo has choreographed many dances.

James Kleinrath

Jim has been dancing for many years now. With a former partner he was the 1994 USA Dance National Champion in the Senior American Smooth division and won many top awards. He has completed an intensive course at the Ballroom Dance Teachers' College and is certified by the USISTD in Standard dancing and DVIDA in American Style dancing. Melody has been ballroom dancing for 18 years. She and Jim met at the Pavilion in Palo Alto and became life partners in 1997. They started competing in March of 1997. Together they have won many Championships and Top Solo Awards in the Smooth and Standard Divisions. They are 12 times USA Dance National Champions in the Senior Smooth Division, are 9 time finalists in the Senior Standard Division and have represented the United States in World competitions. Jim has been president of USA Dance NorCal for over 20 years. He has taught at Cheryl Burke Dance in Mountain View, Dance Vita, Peninsula Ballet and Motion Arts Center in San Mateo, the Cubberley Pavilion in Palo Alto, and Starlite in San Jose. James Kleinrath is the United States Amateur Ballroom Dance Association's National Champion (1999-2001). In March 2002 James won the Amateur American Smooth Open Championship at the San Francisco Open DanceSport championships. Currently, James is a popular social dance teacher with many students in San Franci Jim and Melody are available for group classes, shows and demonstrations. Call: 650-591-6757 or email: [email protected].

Jason Anderson

Jason is one of the most popular DJs at Friday Night Waltz. He is responsible for several of our most popular theme nights, like our Disney Night. He also is an excellent dancer, performing with The Academy of Dance Libre.

Joan Walton

Joan Walton is a Vintage Dance Teacher and Choreographer who has taught Vintage dance workshops across the United States, Russia and Europe. Her high-energy, focused teaching, and choreographic style have become well known to Vintage dancers over the past years. She has performed all over the United States, including at the Smithsonian, on the TV mini-series North and South, and with the Vintage Dance Ensemble at Stanford University. Her choreographies have been performed from coast to coast by Vintage and university dance companies. Joan is a graduate of Stanford's Dance Education Master's degree program, and is currently teaching, choreographing and residing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joan.walton.dance/ and email at [email protected]

John Bauer

John Bauer has been at Friday Night Waltz since the very beginning. When he's not dancing, John enjoys Dance Dance Revolution, working at Stanford NLP, and driving his kids to the rink.

Karen Tierney

Karen has been involved with both social dancing and it's history for many years. First with Richard Powers, as student and performer in California, Paris, Karen TierPrague, St. Petersburg and Ireland and as an assistant in the organization and running Stanford Dance Weeks. She has held a board of directors position with Stanford's "Friends of Dance" and danced with Danse Libre for 4 years. Karen has studied dance in Paris and Argentina with several masters in both Vintage dance and Argentine Tango. She has taught French Tango with a visiting teacher from France and Argentine Tango with Fabian Salas at Stanford Danc e weeks. Karen now teaches private dance lessons as well as teaching design at a local University.

Karen is an exceptionally talented seamstress, costumer, and wedding dress designer. She is a consultant to the nation's most cherished vintage clothing store, Lacis in Berkeley, on wedding dress restorations.

Karn Verma

Karn currently teaches at his studio in Palo Alto, and has previously taught at the Bechtel International Center at Stanford, Jikoji Zen Center in Los Gatos, and Friday Night Waltz & Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. He dances many contemporary and historical dances and has been teaching tango since 2017. In the same year, he traveled to Buenos Aires to study Argentine tango intensely and recently returned from Rome after training with dancer, actor, and teacher, Pablo Verón. His teaching and social dance philosophy are inspired by Stanford dance teacher and historian, Richard Powers, who was instrumental in bringing tango to the United States in the 80s and 90s through the Stanford Tango Weeks. You can read more about Karn here: www.feelingflow.org/founder

Lilli Ann Carey

Lilli Ann Carey began partner dancing as an adult when the draw of community, the music and of course the pure delight of dance made her a complete convert. She loves dancing a wide variety of partner dance styles, but focuses her teaching primarily on Waltz, Zydeco, various swing versions, Foxtrot, and One-step/Blues. Lilli Ann is based in Seattle where she teaches weekly with Living Traditions and Dance! On Bainbridge and promotes dance through classes, workshops and events through her own company Dance for Joy! She has also taught several times in the DC area, Portland, Eugene and the SF Bay area. Her sense of humor, critical analysis and right-on observations about partner dance lead to a fun and effective learning environment. Lilli Ann can be reached through her website

Lisa J

Lisa's a longtime dancer who joined the Friday Night Waltz DJ team in 2023, where her devotion to creating a great dance experience has made her a fan favorite. She combines old classics and FNW specialties with an eclectic mix of her own favorite music including heavy metal, international pop, and modern hits. Lisa's DJ sets are marked by sweeping waltzes and high-energy dance music that's guaranteed to get your feet tapping!

Lucas Garron

Lucas Garron has been a popular dj for Friday Night Waltz for many years. Lucas has a vast library of waltz and polka music. Lucas is on the Stanford Viennese Ball Welcoming Dance committee. Lucas has been a participant at over 50 WCA ( World Cube Association) competitions .He is a Product Engineer by day | Mathematician, speedcuber, and dancer by night

Peggy Pollard

Peggy is the founder of Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing, and has taught Waltz, Swing and Ballroom dancing since 2010 in Santa Cruz and in India, Uganda, China Korea and Japan.

She the first graduate of Palomar Ballroom's DVIDA Certified Teacher Training program

Peggy first learned Swing dancing at Avenues Ballroom San Francisco, while undergrad at SFSU. She works with international students at UC Santa Cruz, and Rotary Water projects in Uganda. She and husband Dr. Bob raised 4 great children in Santa Cruz. Peggy is currently an MFA graduate student at SJSU.

Robert G

Robert started social dancing in 2007, when he arrived all unsuspecting-like at a birthday party and found himself in a 4-Hand Reel. It wasn't long before he was waltzing, jigging, lindying, etceteraing, and recategorizing his music collection by dance type.

Ryan and Monica Shen Knotts

Ryan Knotts and Monica Shen Knotts’ clear instruction and attention to partnering has been featured at the Stanford University dance weeks and other workshops for the last nine years. They teach vintage and social dance with an energetic focus on a personal style. As the directors of the Knotts Dance Company (KDC), founding members of Danse Libre, and assistant directors of the Stanford Vintage Dance Ensemble, they have taught classes and performed throughout the western United States, in Paris, St. Petersburg, and Prague. Recent projects include a return engagement to teach at Stanford Waltz Week and directing the concert "Stepping Out," showcasing their choreographies for KDC, Danse Libre, and Stanford Swingtime.

Sharon and Jordan

Sharon and Jordan have been practicing and teaching social dance for the better part of a decade. They primarily focus on Waltz, Swing, Blues, and Fusion. Social dance is all about connection and enjoyment and they strive to prove true their motto that not only can anyone can dance, but we can all have a great time doing it.

Stefan Warmuth

Stefan started dancing way back in 2009 with swing dancing. Within a year he was dancing over 10 dance styles. Within two he was taking point teaching the class where he started. Since then, he has only gathered more knowledge, focusing on the connection and communication in partner dance. He teaches in the ballroom, swing and fusion worlds in and around the bay area including his own venue, East Bay Fusion. He is great at analyzing and personalizing technique so please track him down for all your questions.

Terrel Ibanez

Terrel has djed at stanford and elsewhere. He is an avid West Coast Swing dancer.He has been a researcher/engineer with experience in Human-Computer Interaction, Data Visualization, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, and Natural Language Processing/Machine Learning. I've also worked on Cloud/DevOps, Cyber Security, and Embedded Systems/Wireless RF/Networks. In addition to academia, I spent time in startups and industry research and have a knack for innovation that is grounded in practicality

Vincent Sheu

Vincent first learned to dance from Richard Powers in 2017. Since then, he has organized, performed, and DJ'ed at Stanford's Fall Ball, Viennese Ball, and Big Dance, as well as Friday Night Waltz. He enjoys discovering new music, and always welcomes song suggestions for his Friday Night Waltz set lists.