Meet our Instructors:
Scroll Below for In-Depth Bios of Our Instructors
Deborah & Stephen Cullip
Lucy Yoo
Jeff Chandler
Rebecca Bertram
Stephen Ward
John Narvaez & Liz Rojas
Ryan Perez
Karin Jensen
Alise Halbert
San Manh
Lisette Perelle
Yulia Kuznetsova & Andre Tarazov
DEBORAH AND STEPHEN CULLIP
DEBORAH CULLIP
Debbie started dancing classical ballet at the age of 7 on a Ford Foundation Scholarship and the American Ballet Theater Scholarship. She is a former actress who appeared in Charlie’s Angels, the original Hawaii Five-O, Magnum P-I, and several other movies. She was also a model and owner of her own production and event planning company – DLC Talent – for 15 years in San Francisco. She choreographed and produced shows herself for much of San Francisco’s talent at events such as SF Ballet’s Gala events, Chamber of Commerce, Union Street Merchants Assn, Robin Williams, and many Silicon Valley Companies.
Debbie loves Ballroom Dancing and is wife and partner to Stephen Cullip, former two-time U.S. Professional Ballroom Champion. Stephen and Debbie have performed many shows around the Bay Area in the past several years. Together they teach the largest, most successful group classes in the Bay Area three times per week. Debbie’s dedication and patience make her a much sought-after teacher. She has students ranging from ages three to 80! Many of her students are competitors and have achieved great things in the ballroom world. She has also danced Pro/Am with students and choreographed formation routines at Stanford and Berkeley Universities.
STEPHEN CULLIP
Stephen Cullip has been Ballroom dancing for over 50 years! He has competed and won in European competitions, and competed and won practically every major Professional Competition and Championship in the U.S. Stephen was a Junior Champion, multi Amateur Standard U.S. Champion,10-Dance Champion, three-time Ohio Star Ball Professional Standard Ballroom Champion, and two-time United States Professional Standard Champion (Official Title). He is a Master Teacher, born into a lineage of great dancing (his parents were the dynamic British Champions, Jim & Olive Cullip). A resident of the East Bay, Stephen has been selected to represent the United States thirteen times in the Official World’s Championships.
Stephen formerly helped create and organized the Galaxy Dance Festival which currently runs in Arizona. He also successfully ran his own schools in Seattle, Washington, and Hollywood, California for many years. Both studios are still very successful since Stephen sold them.
Recently, he was selected as the U.S. Judge at THE Worlds Professional Ballroom Championships in Seoul, Korea, a singular honor. He is Licentiate certified (the equivalent to a Masters degree) of the U.S. Terpsichore Association – a teaching organization officially recognized by the National Dance Council of America- in all five branches: Int’l Standard & Latin, American Smooth & Rhythm, and Theater Arts
Stephen teaches and coaches at many Bay Area locations and is on staff at UC Berkeley to coach the dance team.
He is the only U.S. Professional Standard Champion (Official title) living in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is no substitute for experience.
ALISE HALBERT
Alise Halbert began her ballroom dance career at the Pick School of dancing in 1996 and has been teaching, competing, choreographing, and performing Ballroom Dance in the Bay Area ever since. Under the guidance of Rhona Pick, Alise completed her Membership degree in Standard and Associate Degree in Latin with the ISTD. She has taught throughout the Bay Area, and also in Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Japan. Her ballroom Standard coaches have included US and World Champions such as Heather Smith, Victor Veyresset, Stephen Cullip, Aira Bubelyte, Tomas Atkocevicius, and Charlotte Jorgensen. She loves performance and bringing the talent of Bay Area dancers together. Her dance productions include the Main Event, Decades of Dance, Dance Noir, and the Journey to Wonderland. She co-organizes the Ballroom Blitz and co-teaches the Midweeklies youth program with Jeff Chandler. Alise currently teaches at Just Dance in Oakland and the Pick School of dancing in San Francisco.
JEFF CHANDLER
Jeff has been a ballroom dance instructor, coach, professional competitor, and choreographer since 1979. He is best known in the ballroom dance world for his mastery of technique in his teaching and his unique choreographic style.
In 1991 Jeff opened the Metronome Ballroom in San Francisco. At the time it was the largest ballroom dance studio on the West Coast.
Jeff is also the producer and director of the Ballroom Blitz events at Lake Merritt Dance Center in Oakland, California. These are themed dance parties featuring a show with professional dancers from around the Bay Area.
In 1999 he was approached by the Midweeklies organization to teach 6th and 7th grade kids. Having worked primarily with adults and “serious dancers” Jeff reluctantly began teaching a small group of around 60 children. He made the focus on the dancing and all of the good manners and mutual respect that come with it. Today the program spans the entire school year and is attended by nearly 700 students. He considers this program one of the great achievements of his professional dance career.
He currently teaches private lessons and group classes at Just Dance Ballroom in Oakland and at other studios around the Bay Area.
JOHN NARVAEZ & LIZ ROJAS
John Narvaez and Liz Rojas are World Champion Salsa dance artists, instructors and directors of the Salsamania Dance Company of the San Francisco Bay Area, which they founded in the year 2000. They are among the most accomplished competitive Salsa dance couples in the world and currently rank as top champions of the 2005 and 2006 World Salsa Championships.
John and Liz came to the U.S. from Colombia at the ages of 11 and 10 respectively. Drawing upon the rich heritage of rhythm from their Columbian roots — a musical universe in its own right, John and Liz bring an undeniable love and intelligence to their approach to Salsa Dance. They have evolved a deep appreciation for the beauty of Latin dance into a clear vision of sharing their passion and knowledge of Salsa throughout the world. They have performed on MTV’s Telemundo program and Alberto’s Night Club events, as well as at international invitationals throughout Asia, Europe and South America.
Their Salsamania Dance Company is the #1 Bay Area Dance Team – known for its hypnotic performances marked by high levels of grace, speed and technical difficulty. John & Liz’s Salsamania style is devoted to well honed teaching techniques that they use in a building block approach to learning, thus enabling students to learn and progress rapidly.
You can catch John & Liz for Salsa lessons on Monday nights @ 7 p.m. beginner lesson; 8 p.m. intermediate.
KARIN JENSEN
Karin Jensen trained in classical ballet at Oakland Civic Ballet, Oakland Ballet, and Alameda School of Dance. She has performed with Berkeley City Ballet, San Jose Dance Theater, Alameda Chamber Ballet, as well as Alameda Civic Ballet in both corps and soloist roles. She continues to be involved in the world of ballet as a teacher at Alameda Ballet Academy. Karin trained in historical social dancing with Richard Powers of Stanford University and various workshops in the Bay Area and Europe, and she has performed with historical dance troupes including Dance Through Time and Academy of Danse Libre. Karin has studied ballroom dancing through various private instructors and was formally trained as a ballroom dance teacher through the Ballroom Dance Teacher’s College. She loves both social dancing and performing and is the primary instructor for the Beginning Dance program at Just Dance.
LISETTE PERELLE
Dancing since the age of 5, Lisette began her training in gymnastics. From there her education continued to Hula, Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Ballroom, Argentine Tango and Theater. She was a member of the Argentine performance company called Ballet Pampa Argentina under the direction of Pampa Cortes for 2 years. She has starred in 2 tango film shorts, “Burn” and “Tango in the Park” as well as performed on television for KQED in San Francisco.
Lisette trained in Argentine tango with Julian “Miller” Ramil, Pampa and Valeria Cortes, Fabian Salas, Mariana Flores and Eduardo Cappussi, Julio Balmeceda and Corina de la Rosa, Mariano “Chicho” Framboli, Mariana Dragone, Sabastian Arce and Mariana Montes, Carlos Gavito, El Flaco Danny Garcia, Omar Vega, Daniel Juarez and Alejandra Armenti and many others. She spends extensive time in Buenos Aires each year training as well as teaching.
She has taught tango in the Bay Area including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Mendocino. She has also taught in Palm Beach, Florida and Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has not only performed in her home state of California, but also in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Presently, she is teaching locally in the Bay Area and is currently Directing and Shooting her own Documentary on tango. She is an elegant dancer and patient teacher who concentrates on the techniques necessary for smooth, powerful and beautiful dancing. She works with the whole body focusing on connection, alignment, lines and beautifying steps.
LUCY YOO
Lucy is an award-winning International Latin Dance Champion and competed professionally in American Smooth and Rhythm. She also qualified World Salsa Championships in 2008. She studied dance in college and earned a Master’s degree in Physical Education by completing a thesis on The Evolution of Ballroom Dance in the US. Lucy began dancing at an early age, and before becoming involved in the ballroom, she studied ballet, modern dance, and Korean traditional dance.
She is currently a lecturer at UC Berkeley in the Physical Education Department. She enjoys introducing college students to dance and loves training people for social dancing at Just Dance Studio in Oakland. She puts her heart into instructing each of her students! She specializes in teaching social dances, Salsa, and wedding dances.
Lucy’s theory on teaching partner dance is to introduce students to a set pattern of steps, so they become comfortable with dancing. As her students gain confidence through these patterns, they move on to improvise and flourish on the dance floor. She has successfully taught this way for more than 15 years. Learn more about Lucy at lucydance.com
Rebecca Bertram
more bio to come soon
RYAN PEREZ
Ryan is a ballroom dance teacher who truly loves his job. He enjoys teaching dancers from the basic beginner to the extremely advanced, couples and singles looking to add some dance to their lives, and creating first dance wedding choreography. Ryan is an accomplished Pro/Am dance teacher who has won numerous top student and top teacher awards. While Ryan has worked for other ballrooms as studio manager and staff trainer, he feels he has found a real home at Just Dance Ballroom as an independent teacher in a role where he can focus on his students.
Ryan developed a strong work ethic and keen drive for excellence early in life thanks to athletics. He grew up playing baseball and football from the age of four and moved to the Bay Area for college to pursue football. It was during his college years that he took his first job at a dance studio. From the moment he took his first steps on a dance floor, he knew that dancing was what he wanted to do and has never stopped.
His athletic background created a natural transition into dance. Ryan is still actively improving and striving to be the best. He continues to learn and evolve his own dance vocabulary by exploring other styles of dance, making his teaching style more exciting. Everything he learns he passes on to his students so that they can be the best dancers they can possibly be.
His philosophy: “If you have the desire to learn, I can make you a dancer.”
Ryan’s athleticism, work ethic, and guidance from his coaches are why he is the ever-developing and accomplished teacher he is today.
Ryan teaches all Ballroom and Latin dances. Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, Cha Cha, Rumba, Swing, Bolero, Mambo, Jive, Paso Doble, Samba, and Salsa.
SAN MANH
San has dominated the dance floor for decades! His clear teaching style attracts dancers of all levels to the dance floor. Throughout the years, many have sought to learn San’s compelling and entertaining routines. San’s patience, humor, and knowledge of the leader’s and follower's steps made him a popular instructor for beginning hopefuls and seasoned experts. Many seek his guidance on how to improve their fluidity on the social floor.
STEPHEN WARD
Stephen Ward has been dancing since the age of 13 with a diverse background in Freestyle, Country Western, West Coast Swing, Hustle, Salsa, Social Ballroom, Classical Ballet, and Theater Arts & Cabaret, as well as Martial Arts. He is a devoted Hustle dancer, which he learned from Raul “Big Daddy” Ante and Bobby Concepcion in the Bay Area, and also received training from Maria Torres, Angel Figueroa, Billy Fajardo, Arte Phillips, and many others. He has been competing and teaching Hustle since 1997 and is wholly dedicated toward the preservation, promotion, and growth of Hustle dancing in the Bay Area.
Stephen regularly competes with students at various national Hustle and Ballroom dance competitions. He has collaborated with several different dance professionals and has performed at numerous events such as the sjDANCEco Festival, Wicked Dance Showcase, and at the Stanford Women’s Basketball halftime show. He is co-founder and co-artistic director of the local performance dance group Geeks & Dolls, which has performed at events such as the sjDANCEco Festival, Wicked Dance Showcase, PhilDev Charity Fundraiser, San Francisco Open DanceSport Championships, and Pacific Grand Ball.
Stephen currently teaches private lessons and weekly group classes in San Jose at Studio M Ballroom Club and Dance Boulevard and teaches workshops and judges at numerous national and international dance events throughout the calendar year. He has taught at organizations such as Starlite Ballroom (both the original in Sunnyvale and the new in San Jose), Cheryl Burke Dance, Metronome Ballroom, Cisco Systems, Stanford University, De Anza College, and Santa Clara University.
YULIA KUZNETSOVA & ANDREY TARASOV
Yulia Kuznetsova is Andrey Tarasov’s dance partner. Yulia is no stranger to the competitive floor! She was a Russian National Youth Latin Champion, having placed 4th in the World, a Youth Latin Finalist, and won several other awards. Known for her fierce charisma, musicality, and complete confidence on the dance floor, it is no surprise that Yulia is a popular instructor that many dancers wish to learn from.
More bio to come soon