WELCOME
The Social Dance Club at the University of Houston was started over ten years ago with the goal of promoting ballroom and latin dance for UH students, alumni and affiliates. We hoped to introduce and foster the love of partnership dancing to UH affiliates and the surronding community, while encouraging friendship and camaraderie between the members of the club. We also aimed to provide UH Social Dance Club members with relevant news and information about the dance community, both locally and nationally. Standard, Latin, Smooth and Rhythm dances make up our main focus at this juncture. Our continuing goal is to provide quality instruction and dancing opportunities to our members at affordable costs. There is nothing better than looking good while dancing, regardless of what level you want your dancing to reach.
CLASSES
We hold regular class meetings during spring, summer and fall semesters every Sunday afternoon. Each meeting session includes at least two hours of formal lesson. The last hour is reserved for either a dance practice party or additional dance technique instruction. Although our emphasis constists of quality instruction, all of our classes are very informal and we encourage members to ask questions during the class. The teaching core consists of advanced dancers, highly qualified amateurs and professionals.
SOCIALS
Apart from the regular Sunday dance lessons, we have a social calendar that plans the social dancing we can host and specifies on a regular basis, the evening dances hosted by the major dance studios in Houston area. These are aimed at giving members not only a taste of the ballroom ambiance but also a certain degree of exposure to renowned ballroom dancers in Houston. Many of these events will involve some dance instruction followed by an opportunity to practice your dancing in a social setting. We also organize carpools for regular group outings to night-clubs and dances hosted by local studios. These outings will expose you to a variety of dances and dancers around Houston - you will meet and socialize with dancers from other universities, dance studios and the ballroom community at large.
INSTRUCTORS
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Jeanette Chevalier-White and Denis Kojinov
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Jeanette Chevalier-White has been involved with the UH Social Dance Club since 2001, when she started as an officer. She has been active helping the club with ballroom and latin dance formations, competition and competition teams for ballroom and latin dance teams, as well as other dance related activities. Jeanette is also active in the Houston dance community, currently holding the position of vice president for USA Dance, Houston chapter.
Denis Kojinov and Jeanette Chevalier-White compete regularly throughout the nation and have been instructors at UH Social Dance Club since the Spring of 2010. They enjoy donating their time to help tomorrow's dance future stars and look forward to helping improve the quality and quantity of ballroom and latin dancing in and around the Houston metro area. |
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Pam & Drew Shefman |
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Pam and Drew have been teaching for UH since the Fall of 2000. They have been teaching ballroom classes for university students since around 1994. They both started to learn to dance when they were undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon University (Pam started in 1991 and Drew in 1993). They had different partners early on and started dancing together around 1998. They have both danced competitively, for showcases, and socially for years. Most of all they love to teach at the university level. They enjoy the energy of the classes, the student's excitement about dancing, and mostly the fun atmosphere. For them, ballroom dancing is a lifelong hobby that you can always learn more about and can enjoy anywhere. They both have passed the International Ballroom certification exam from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance in October of 2003. |
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James Scott Wallace |
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Scott has been dancing for over 11 years. He has been affiliated with the Social Dance Club at UH for many of those years, as a member or volunteer instructor. He has extensive instruction in latin ballroom dance, with respected and champion coaches. He remembers many of the things they taught him, but when he forgets, he goes and looks it up in Walter Laird, and the right walk, chasse, posture or timing is usually there.
Scott is active as a volunteer, DJ, or organizer in many local competitons, dance shows, and programs. His daughter Emily has recently started dancing latin, training with the King family and performing with her partner on television and in shows.
Scott has been exceptionally lucky to partner some fantastic lady dancers. He's particularly thankful for his wonderful partner, now, the lovely Jenny Shen.
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