As we settle into another beautiful summer here in Southern California, I am reminded of the privilege it is to live in this beautiful part of the world and enjoy having the opportunity to dance at one of the top studios in the country!  As August begins, I wanted to bring you up to speed on a few of the main activities taking place here at South Coast Dancesport: from parties to competitions to new teachers.

This Friday night is our monthly practice party.  In the spirit of summer, we are celebrating the fact that we live so close to the beach!  On Friday night (August 2nd), we encourage you to dress down for our party and celebrate the summer with us at our August “Surf & Sand” Practice Party!  Feel free to wear your board shorts, t-shirts and appropriate swimwear (such as goggles).  On top of a fun night of social dancing, our newest instructor, Beatrix Royda, will be making her South Coast debut.  Join us as Beatrix teaches a Cha Cha class at 7:00 p.m., then dances with us till 10:00.  Additionally, we’ll be celebrating staff birthdays (we’re looking at you, Philip and Sarah)!

We are absolutely thrilled to have grown our teaching ranks by 2 within the last few months!  Though he has been a familiar face on our teaching floor for the last few years, Chris Suakjian graciously agreed to join our full-time teaching staff recently and has brought his trademark energy and professionalism to our team.  A US Professional Rising Star Smooth champion and US Top Teacher at numerous pro/am competitions, Chris is an exceptional teacher, as evidenced by the quality of his dancing.

Beatrix Royda is brand new to the South Coast Dancesport family, recently moving across the country to start a new life for herself on the West Coast.  The defending six-time South African Professional Latin champion, Beatrix is a world-class professional.  Sporting a childhood education degree on top of her impressive dance credentials, Beatrix will be getting our children’s program up and running here at the studio within the next few months.  Feel free to book a complimentary lesson with either of these teachers and tell us what you think of them!

In mid-July South Coast Dancesport was awarded the Top Studio award at the Desert Classic Dancesport Championships.  With a contingent of more than 20 students and half a dozen professionals, this was a very special award for us, as it was a total team effort.  Congratulations to Slawek Sockacki for taking the 9th place Top Teacher and Philip Gott for receiving the 3rd place Top Teacher award!  What a pleasure to share a fun weekend in the sun with Qun Liu, Mikhail and Nataliya Marshukov, Sarah Spellman, Kathy Lynch, Jeff and Debbie Mulligan, Birgit Haissig, Michael and Barbara Grossman, Kyoko Tabuchi, Armi Alian, Natalie Rezai, Patricia Schneider, Trish Van Mourick, Tom Grebel, Karence Chan and Melanie Haeri.  A special congrats to Chrissie Andreini, Karen Knauth and Patricia McNamara for winning Top 20 Student awards and to Jim Bakos for winning the Top Gold Student award.

Our desire is that The Coaster will help you stay on top of all things dance related in your life. If you’d rather not receive this monthly newsletter or were mistakenly added to the list, please click the ‘unsubscribe’ link on the bottom of the page. But we hope you’ll stay subscribed and join us at any of the events listed above. See you on your next lesson! Have a great month dancing!