Just Wanna Dance! dance class instructors include two-time Canadian Smooth champion Dale G Neale, and we all love to dance!

Dale Neale is the Dance Director and Master Instructor for VABD and JustWannaDance. Dale is a teacher, choreographer and coach and comes from an extensive competitive dance background. Dale has competed in International Latin, Standard and American Smooth and has won several titles including the U.S. Open Smooth Championship, numerous Rising Star Championships and is a two-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Championships. Dale has danced in movies, commercials and music videos; and has performed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He also spent time traveling extensively through Europe performing and teaching Salsa with American Latin All Stars. His dance philosophy involves improving the quality of your life through the joy of dance and improving yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually to be the best you can be. You are never too young or too old to start!

Performing since the age of five, Oksana Latynina‘s youth was literally consumed with dance. In an era when talent was singled out early and aggressively she was sent, at age ten, to the then-capital of her native Kazakhstan — over a thousand kilometres away from her family — to attend professional ballet school. “They trained us to be capable of anything. Ballet every day, folk dance, duets, historical dance, art history, theatre history, makeup and costumery, acting… and of course, music.” In her early twenties, she and two partners established a dance club in Kazakhstan, that still exists today, where she taught for several years before moving with her family to Vancouver. In her adopted home she began to dance almost right away, resuming her teaching and finding a partner with whom to dance competitively. Oksana has taught children, teens, adults, and seniors, from basic technique and conditioning for beginners, to International Style Latin and Jazz “for the more experienced”. For students training for competitive ballroom and performance dance, she believes that perfect technique alone doesn’t cut it. “You cannot merely condition the dancer’s body, you must teach it ‘body culture’ to evoke metaphor, to tell a story. The body has no culture on its own! It takes time and effort. First, you really have to think. Then, you really have to feel… feel so we see it. That’s the body education. That’s what I do.” It’s what she’s passionate about passing on to new talent including her son, Valeriy Chirkov, who has also been dancing since the age five, is 4th in Canada and the 2009 BC Adult Latin Champion with his partner, Maryana Dudchenko.

Paul Scott is the Program and Curriculum director of the Vancouver Academy of Ballroom Dance and the Ballroom Dance Teacher Training program and is certified with Dance Vision International. Paul started his career in ballroom dancing at Dance City Vancouver in 1977 and distinguished himself by winning 1st Place in the Amateur Disco Solo Championship! As a Transpersonal Therapist/Counsellor, Paul brings the “psychology of dance” to the floor, as he believes that how you dance is how you “dance your life!”.   Paul also believes life is for living and the best living always includes the joy of dance!

Our dancing instruction program is based on Diane Jarmolow’s Ballroom Dance Teachers College Curriculum. Diane is a member of National Dance Counsel of America (NDCA). Diane has been consecutively awarded the prestigious “Teacher of Teachers” award for top North American Ballroom Dance Teacher. Diane is currently a guest instructor and program advisor for the Vancouver Ballroom Dance Teacher Training program. For more information visit: www.TeachBallroomDancing.com and www.ProDVIDA.com.

Kathie Scott is the Director of Marketing and keeping Paul organized!   Kathie’s background is in communications and presentation and she helps Paul with the Promotions and Public Relations of the Vancouver Academy of Ballroom Dance – their vision is to bring dancing to young people!  Kathie has an extensive media background and for many years she was local radio personality ‘Samantha’ on the LG Morning Zoo.  Kathie fell in love with ballroom dancing and Paul when they met on New Year’s Eve 2006.

Bea Rhodes founded Rhodes Wellness College in 1996. Bea holds a Masters of Education (Adult Education) from the University of British Columbia and is a certified Life Skills Coach trainer and college instructor. Bea has designed and instructed many Life Skills, Wellness and Personal Development programs over the past twenty-two years. Bea is Paul’s Smooth Ballroom Dance Partner; an award-winning competitive amateur ballroom dancer with over eight years experience.  Bea loves to drop into Training classes to see what’s up and have a twirl with students and instructors alike. You can find out more about Bea by visiting her website at www.RhodesCollege.ca.