About Us

We - Todd & Krissy Biernacki - are committed to providing high quality dance lessons in a playful atmosphere.  We began taking dance classes in preparation for our wedding back in 1993!  Since then, dancing has taken us around the world; studying, performing, competing, and teaching (more on that below).  

We do our best to bring the authentic rhythms and styling from all of our studies to our students.  We are dynamic teachers and dancers, and we find it deeply satisfying to share our love of the dance and music through our classes.  

We have studied Swing and Salsa from the best.  The most influential Hoppers in our lives are Frankie Manning, Steven Mitchell, Ewa "W" Staremo & Lennart Westerlund (at left), David Dalmo, Sing Lim, and Andrew Vassilou.  Our Salsa influences are Cuban, our teachers being "Taty" Pestana, Lazaro "More" Vazquez, Viky Laborde, Yaneisi Caboverde and the Danza Libre dance troupe.  We also studied Vintage Dance & Social Ballroom Dance with Richard Powers & Walter & Nancyanna Dill of Living Traditions.

Our teaching career began in 1996 when we taught Swing / Lindy Hop for the Savoy Swing Club in Seattle.

From 1997 until February of 2000 we were living and working in Singapore.  While in Singapore we taught regularly (Swing, Salsa, Waltz and Slow Dance / Blues) and performed Lindy Hop extensively throughout the Republic including a show with Sing and Andrew's Jitterbugs Swingapore in the Singapore Arts Festival where we were joined by Ewa "W" Staremo and Lennart Westerlund (at right).

We are the 1997 3rd place winners and the 1998 2nd place winners in the US Open Swing Dance Championships (Lindy Hop division)...the only competitions we ever entered.

In June of 1998 & again in December of 1998 we were invited to teach Lindy Hop workshops in Japan.  The first workshop was in Tokyo, sponsored by Watari-San, the Dance Director of the wonderful film, "Shall We Dance" - the original Japanese version.

We returned to Seattle in 2000, teaching Cuban Salsa, Lindy Hop, One Step, Foxtrot, Waltz in group and private lessons to all levels of dancers.  Todd also judged regional Lindy Hop competitions.  

In 2000 we were the Choreographers and Dance Coaches on the production of the Steven King miniseries, " Rose Red", choreographing a 2 minute Swing scene, and teaching the actors to dance (at left are Melanie Lynskey & Julian Sands).

The last few years Krissy focused primarily on teaching private lessons to couples preparing for their First Dance at their weddings.  

We have recently landed here in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge with our 2 young children and are delighted to be teaching again!  We are currently offering private lessons, group lessons, and specialized workshops.  Krissy is also thrilled to be adding classes for young children.  (Krissy worked for many years with children with special needs, 6 of those years as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist.)  These dance classes will pull together her training in movement and child development, along with dance studies in African, Tap, Hip Hop, Bharatanatyam (Classical South Indian), Folk, & more.

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