Olya currently teaches salsa, bachata, cha cha, merengue, Zumba, dance fitness and other Latin dances.
Olya also enjoys working with couples to create and choreograph their wedding dance.

Her dance partner is Shawn Torgerson and they perform locally in San Diego at various venues and for special events.

Passion, excellence, and dedication are qualities that Selena has shown to be excelling factors in her determination and accomplishment in dance. Born in the southern United States, Selena discovered this passion for dance at an early age when she began to train in ballet and jazz. She continued to study dance throughout her adolescence leading her to Nashville, TN where she earned a degree from the Speech and Theatre Department at Middle Tennessee State University.

Upon graduation, she began teaching, performing, and competing. Selena quickly developed her talent as a professional dancer. Her specialty and passion is for American Smooth Style Ballroom. This style combines the structure of traditional ballroom with the freedom to break away from dance position and incorporate elements of Latin, Jazz, and Broadway creating a more contemporary take on ballroom. As a competitor in this style she has quickly attained many titles. Some of the most recent include Indiana Challenge Champion, Heritage Classic Rising Star Champion, People’s Choice Champion, Virginia State Rising Star Champion, Southern States Rising Star Champion, First Coast Classic Rising Star Champion.

In addition to competing, Selena has also developed a passion for teaching. She enjoys bringing dance into the lives of others so they too can experience all its joy and benefits. She is currently teaching both International and American styles of Latin and Ballroom. She teaches all levels from beginner to advanced and enjoys competing in Pro/Am divisions with her students.

Yuki is a beautiful dancer.  She was born in Tokyo Japan and started music lessons at the age 3.  Later she started dancing ballroom and moved to England to further her education in ballroom dancing.

She graduated from King’s College London while she took lessons from world-class Latin and ballroom coach.  She also studied a year in a Roehampton University in Surrey to earn a major in Dance Studies . She was sponsored by DSI ( Dance Sport International in UK) and modeled for their catalog for 3 years.

She moved to USA to dance with Marcus Johnson and teach dancing.  As partners they won the Ohio Star Ball Rising Star award in 2007, took 4th in the US Open Rising Star in 2008 and 2nd in US National Rising Star.

Overall, they nationally ranked 10th in International Latin division in 2008.  Recent shows include a performance at the MGM Grand hotel for the New Years Show.

In 2011 they started new passion “American Rhythm”. In 2011, they rank 6th at the US Nationals, 5th at the World Championships and 3rd in the American Rhythm World Show Dance Competition in Ohio.

Recent results in American rhythm include the  following;

03/05/11 Vegas Open Challenge  ..1st

04/02/11 San Fransisco Open ..1st

04/30/11 Emerald Star Ball ..4th

05/21/11  Florida Grand jewel ..2nd

05/21/11  Arizona People’s Choice ..2nd

06/25/11 Millennium DanceSport ..3rd

07/02/11 Manhattan DanceSport ..4th

07/09/11 Desert Classic -Palm Desert..2nd

08/06/11 Florida states championships…2nd

09/13/11 Embassy DanceSport ..2nd

09/09/11 USDC- US National Championships ..6th

09/17/11 Galaxy DanceSport Championships Arizona ..1st

10/08/11 Golden State Championships in California …show demonstration

11/05/11 Hollywood DanceSport Championships…1st

11/18/11 Ohio Star Ball (World Championship)..5th

Ohio Star World Show Dance …3rd

11/26/11 California Star Ball ….1st

Yuki enjoys and has a passion for teaching and instructing as well as competing professionally.  She loves to open up students’ unknown chapter through dancing and fitness..! She is also available for pro-am competition throughout US where her students can perform and show what they’ve got!!!

Currently, she works mostly with competitive students and competes pro/am with her students at various competitions throughout the year.

Check out her website at

  yukiharaguchi.com

You may also recongnize Jacob from his various appearances on TV. He has appeared on So You Think You Can Dance as a Pro Ballroom Dancer,
KTLA News/Ballroom Segment as Speaker/Dancer on the KTLA Morning Show and Dancing With The Stars as a Choreographer.

Jacob is a World’s Men Latin Dance Champion.

To contact Jacob email him at: dancespiralturn@gmail.com

Graham also has International training and certification. He became certified with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance, and The Royal Cotillion; the Royal order of the British Empire, when he lived and worked in London in 2005.  He also lived in Paris for a year where he studied and taught dancing. While in Europe he worked on a couple of documentaries including “Dancesport”, and “Ballroom Dancer”. He is currently working on; “The Traveling Dancer’s Guide”  for Lonely Planet.

Graham is thrilled to join the Dance For 2 Team and looks forward to dancing in San Diego again!

We are thrilled to report that Jeff and Yuki competed in International Latin Full Gold and placed first in Rumba, Paso Doble and Jive and second in Cha-cha and Samba.

Dixie and Marcus competed in Full Bronze and Intermediate Bronze Latin categories and placed third or better in all their entries, taking firsts in Cha-cha and Rumba. They also placed in the finals of the bronze International Latin Scholarship.

Kira and Marcin competed in Full Bronze International Latin categories and placed fourth or better in all their entries taking firsts in Cha-cha, Rumba and Paso Doble.

Be sure to congratulate these competitors when you see them and watch for results from our next competition – The Orange County DanceSport Challenge on October 12 – 14.

Shawn competed with four of his students: Judy, Joyce, Patty and Edith.  Judy entered 14 events and took firsts in Salsa, Nightclub 2 Step and Bolero.  Overall, Judy placed third or better in 80% of her entries!  Judy is thrilled with her results but adds that she is going to work harder on her Smooth dances.

Joyce entered 22 events and took firsts in Nightclub, Cha-cha, Rumba, East Coast Swing, West Coast swing and Salsa. This was Joyce’s first event entering in Pre-silver and she placed 3rd or better in every pre-silver event!  Shawn says that Joyce will only be competing in pre-silver and silver events from now on!

Patty entered 18 events and placed 4th or better in everything, taking firsts in Viennese Waltz, Samba, Salsa, Rumba and East Coast Swing. Patty has been putting in hours of extra practice and the results prove it!

Edith entered 18 events as well and placed first in 13 of them including; Foxtrot, Cha-cha, Rumba, East Coast Swing, Bolero, West Coast Swing, and Nightclub 2 Step. Since this is her second competition where she has swept first across the board in Full Bronze, Shawn has decided that she needs more of a challenge and that for the next competition in July she will be moving to Silver!

To see images from the Competition, click here!

When we congratulated Jeff on his wins, his only comment was that he had fun!  Which, of course, we love to hear!  Jeff entered the Amateur Open International Latin Scholarship with his partner Vita and they took Second place overall!  In the pro/am events Jeff entered in 22 events with his coach Yuki and placed first in all his International Latin full Gold entries and all of his American Smooth open Silver entries!

Marcus and Dixie also did very well!  Dixie entered 46 events and placed first in Cha-cha, Samba, Rumba, East Coast Swing, Jive, Hustle, Mambo, and Bolero, just to name a few.

We are so proud of all of our competitors!  Their results are a testament to their hard work and dedication to dance and their instructors ability to inspire and teach.   We wish them luck at the next competition!

Beside my native language I can speak four foreign languages – English, Spanish, Russian and Italian.

My dancing career started when I was 6 and taking dance lessons at the Dance Sport Club Gloria in the capital of Republic of Moldova, Chisinau. In 1992 I started to take ballet lessons, with the Prima Ballerina of The Bolishoi Theatre from Moscow, Irina Avaeva. The results of the 6 years of ballet lessons and over 14 years of experience in the world of Ballroom Dance aided me in achieving the following awards in the dance sport competitions in Moldova and abroad:

1. I was a  National Champion in my native country, Republic of Moldova in 1997 (Latin, Junior 2), 1998 (Standard), 2001 (Latin, Youth), 2003 (Latin, Youth+Adult), 2004 (Standard Adult), 2005 (Latin Adult and Standard).

2. I  also was a finalist in many competitions organized by Studios like “Gloria”, “Copilarie”, “Niuans”, “Ghiocel” in Moldova.

3.Together with my dance partners  Eugen Lungu, Ion Frunze, Catalin Macovei, Stanislav Celnakov, I have been competing in Open IDSF competitions abroad, as in 1999 (Romania  Latin, Standard ), Ukraine (Odessa 2002), Ukraine (Cernivtzi 2002), Ukraine( 2005 Kiev), Bulgaria (Varna, Open Latin IDSF, 2005), Bulgaria (Bourgas, IDSF Open Latin, 2006), Germany ( Open Championship,2006 Latin),  Romania (Open Latin IDSF Buchares 2008), Bulgaria (Open IDSF 2008), Ukraine (Slavutich 2008), Bielarus (Vitebsk 2008), Bielarus (Minsk 2008).

4.  I have  been coaching students for 4 over years, in the Studio of Dance Sport and Ballroom “Gloria”.  They have competed in the categories of Junior 1 and Junior 2. My students in the competitions always reached the finale and high marks from the Judges, and many  times they were awarded with top places of 2-nd and 1-st.

In October of 2009,  I moved to the USA to partner up with Philip Gott, an American champion in International Latin dances. And since then I have been teaching International Latin in the Ballroom Studio’s of San Diego,  and working with the judge, Mary Murphy from “So you think you can dance” . At the same time, my  dance partner, Philip Gott, and I are looking forward to do more shows and competitions in USA.

I am proud to be part of the Dance For 2 Family and the San Diego Dance Community and I look forward to dancing with you.

Judy Fallon reported that she was very proud of the two 1^st she took in Nightclub two-step.  Not only is this one of her favorite dances, but she was thrilled that the Judges also seemed to think it one of her best.   She has also decided that in the next competition the Judges are going to place her first in all her dances.  Congratulations Judy!

Joyce Kao feels like Smooth dances are her weakest and was super pleased that the Judges didn’t seem to think so.  She earned third or better in all of her Smooth entries.  She is now more determined than ever to work on smooth and earn first place.  She told us that her husband is just going to have to get use to parking his car outside of the garage, because she needs the practice space.   Congratulations Joyce!

Patty Griffitts competes in one of the most contested groups and was called back to the finals in all of her events. She is so proud of placing third in Bronze Foxtrot because she feels that this is her most difficult dance and she spent lots of extra time outside of her lessons practicing.  Congratulations Patty!

Edith Howe placed first or second in all of her Silver Smooth and Bronze Rhythm entries.  Her biggest fan and harshest critic, her husband Bill, said that he spent the competition cheering her on and watching her footwork.  Bill admits that Edith did very well and he  looks forward to seeing her take firsts across the board.  In order to help achieve that, Bill has promised to “practice” with her in the coming months to prep for the next competition.  Congratulations Edith!

Shawn is very pleased with well the ladies did in this competition.  And says that after they take the week off and relax, he is going to start the training for the next one.  Get ready ladies!

Click Photo to see me dance!

Jill Perez is a San Diego native who began her training at Absolutely Dancesport here in America’s Finest City. Jill is an elementary school teacher by day and ballroom instructor by night.  Her love affair for dancing started with salsa, but her passion soon evolved and now includes all ballroom and Latin dances.  Jill has been teaching dance for over 8 years and is Dance For 2’s most dedicated and long-standing employee. Her positive and uplifting energy is contagious and she has a way of making everyone at Dance for 2 feel like family!

Jill is especially great at putting beginners at ease and breaking things down in ways that make even the most novice dancers look like stars.  She also specializes in working with couples to make their wedding day or anniversary dance spectacular.  Jill enjoys teaching American Style social dances such as: Waltz, Foxtrot, Rumba, Tango, Cha-Cha, Salsa, Nightclub 2 Step, East Coast Swing and more!  If you are looking for a dance instructor that is full of energy, fun and enthusiastic about dance, then Jill is the one for you!