Stephen Cullip

Stephen Cullip is a Certified Ballroom Instructor & Former National Champion. His Professional Certifications include WD&DSC and NDCA Certified Championship Adjudicator and Full Member US Terpsichore Association, all branches

Stephen is a Coach and Teacher of long standing, for the
- US Champion USC Formation Dance Team
- US Champion Youth Standard and Ten Dance Couples
- US Open Amateur Ten Dance Champions
- US Novice and Pre-Championship Winners

Stephen is a champion professional competitor and won has multiple championship titles as a competitor in Professional, Amateur and Junior competitions throughout his career. (see Stephen’s Complete Bio).

Lynn Gardiner watched a dance show at school that rocked her world and started classes immediately at age 7.  At 8, she began her performing career. Lynn has studied jazz, tap, ballet, acrobatics, modern and hip hop. At 17, she discovered the joy of social dancing at salsa and swing clubs.  Lynn graduated from Cal State Hayward, trilingual, with degrees in Spanish and American Sign Language while all the while, taking part in choreography classes and performance opportunities to develop her dance growth and continue being part of the dance community throughout college. After college, Lynn’s discovery of ballroom brought her to new heights of performing, competing, traveling and coaching. Always at home on the stage, and showered with 1sts for amateur rhythm competitions, Lynn stepped up her passion for ballroom dancing by taking Diane Jarmolow’s Ballroom Teacher’s Dance College so she could articulate and share her Rhythm, Latin, Smooth and Standard training with her future students. Since age 7, she’s dreamed of this. And now at 30, educated, well-rounded, and glad to give back to the Bay Area, students can learn with Lynn! She teaches private lessons and is the primary instructor for the Wedding Dance Program at Just Dance Ballroom.

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.

Julie Lowe has danced and taught professionally for over 25 years. As a Principal Ballerina with the Oakland Ballet Company, she toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, performing
many of the company’s leading roles, and working alongside masters and luminaries of the dance world including Frederic Franklin, who coached her for her debut in the title role of Giselle.

Upon retiring from her performing career as a Ballerina, Julie discovered the enchanting world of ballroom dance. From 2001 to 2007 she served as Artistic Director for the Metronome Ballroom’s acclaimed Summer Showcase which featured accomplished ballroom students sharing the stage with world-class ballroom dance stars. Under Ms. Lowe’s direction the production moved to San Francisco’s Cowell Theater where it played to sold out audiences for seven consecutive years. Since 2001 she has taught ballroom dance at the Metronome Ballroom, Cheryl Burke Dance, Allegro Ballroom, and now happily considers Just Dance Ballroom to be her teaching home.

As Master Teacher for the Ballroom Dance Teachers College, the nation’s premier vocational training program for ballroom dance instructors, Julie nurtures dancers on their path to becoming professional instructors. She keeps her toe dipped into the world of professional ballet in her role as Ballet Mistress for the Menlowe Ballet Company. Julie enjoys teaching, coaching and choreographing for ballroom and ballet students of all levels, from beginners to professionals. Through her nurturing and supportive teaching style she provides students the opportunity to enhance their technical and artistic skills in both of these beautiful dance forms.

For years, San taught ballroom dancing in a small penthouse studio in Oakland. His dancing motto was, “there’s always an easier way.” His main objective was to promote the elegance, grace and culture of ballroom dancing, but most of all, to bring out the pleasure and joy of dancing in his students. San’s easy-going personality and patient step-by-step style of instruction encouraged all, including new students to ramp up their skills even after the first lesson!

San briefly retired his dance instructing duties to expand his business and open this brand new 10,000 sq. foot Just Dance Ballroom facility on Oakland’s Embarcadero Cove Waterfront. But now, San is back! Look for him on Thursday & Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons teaching Ballroom group lessons for beginners.

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Joanna Meinhl

Joanna Meinhl began dancing in 1990, holds a B.A. in Dance Performance & Choreography and has over 12 years of teaching experience. She incorporates both her exceptional technical training as well as her practical social dance ability into her teaching style. Joanna is known for her expressive musicality and graceful movements.

Since 2005 Joanna has performed and competed on the national West Coast Swing circuit and currently dances at the All-Star/Champion level. She has won many WSDC santioned Champion Jack & Jill and strictly swing competitions. She has even won 1st place in a Jack & Jill competition, as the Leader! In 2012 she won 1st places in Champions Strictly at Bridge Town Swing and both the Champions of Jack & Jill and Cabaret at Mountain Magic. She also just recently placed 2nd at the US Open in the Sophisticated Swing Division!!

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, and always enjoy the After Party to practice your new moves ‘til midnight.

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.

See Lisette's full biography

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, and always enjoy the After Party to practice your new moves ‘til midnight.

Growing up in Mexico City, Eduardo studied and danced for several dance companies specializing in Ballet Folklorico and Latin rhythms. After moving to the United States, he competed in track and field and performed figure skating.  Later he decided to focus on his main passion of dance, studying with renowned Samba dancers such Tedje Rose (Director of Akat Dance Troupe), Iya (former Carnaval Queen and Aguarela member), and Maisa Duke (director of Energia do Samba, former Carnaval Queen).  Eduardo has been performing Samba professionally for many years and currently dances with Akat Dance Troupe and BrasArte, as well as his own performing company, Colores de Samba.  He is also a certified personal trainer and certified Zumba instructor.  Eduardo brings his roots as an ethnic dancer and dynamic Samba energy to his ongoing private and group dance fitness classes throughout the San Francisco Bay area.