Instructors:
Whitney Evans began her dance training in salsa in 1994. She currently teaches classes in blues and close-connection in Seattle with Ari where they both run a variety of weekly dance events. In addition, Whitney is the event co-coordinator for two of the largest dance balls in Seattle -- the "Cornucopia Harvest Ball" and the "New Years Eve Ball" -- which draw several hundred guests each year.
Ari Levitt has been teaching, choreographing and performing dance both nationally and internationally for over 25 years. An award-winning dancer, teacher, innovator, and performer, his breadth of styles include ballroom, waltz, salsa, tango, Latin, lindy hop, swing, balboa, and blues. He is well-known as one of this country's lead innovators of "fusion waltz" -- a beautiful new dance style which borrows elements from latin and swing and blends them fluidly into the elegant waltz forms that we know and love today.
Ari and Whitney have been featured instructors at such diverse events as "Waltz Week in Vienna" (Austria), "Dance Tel-Aviv" (Israel), and various workshops and camps across the US and Canada. Ari has also been a regular instructor for Richard Powers' at Stanford's celebrated "Waltz Week", introducing innovative new forms of fusion swing and waltz as well as new concepts in blues and close-connection partnering.
As instructors, Ari & Whitney are highly regarded for their fun, energetic, humorous teaching styles which can't help but inspire their students with their own joy and love of dance. Ari's clear, detailed attention to connection and partnership along with his ability to translate even the most complex dance movements into simple, understandable instructions has made him one of the most highly regarded instructors in his field.
Endorsements:
"Ari Levitt - absolutely one of the finest dance teachers and dancers I know. His teaching style is clear and thoughtful, with a generous dash of humor. He is extremely creative and he teaches dancers how to take steps and styling from one dance form to other dances in interesting and fun ways. His blues dancing is sensational."
--Kurt Reisser (Jan, 2011), Denver, CO
"I've enjoyed Ari's classes in blues, night-club two-step, partnering skills, and cross-step fusion at Stanford dance weeks for several years. He's a good-humored and intelligent teacher. I'm excited that he's coming to Colorado -- should be a great weekend."
--Carol Osborne (Jan, 2011), Denver, CO
"I have studied under Ari at a couple of different Stanford dance weeks. He is highly skilled, creative, humorous, innovative, and very accessible to his students. He delivers dynamite classes that not only encourage you to learn the material he is teaching, but also give you a most pleasurable experience while doing so. I highly recommend him, and hope the Colorado dancers will take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn from this fine teacher! (It is Richard Powers who hired Ari for the Stanford dance weeks...that ought to be another fine indicator that you don't want to miss him!)"
--Marilyn Chartrand (Jan, 2011), Denver, CO