Mark Kihara has been teaching, performing, and promoting African-American jazz dances since the late 1990s. His primary focus is lindy hop, the original swing dance. Dance has taken him all over the world, most notably as a featured instructor at Sweden’s Herräng Dance Camp. He has won or placed at a variety of competitions including the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown and the American Lindy Hop Championships.

His instruction always shows great respect to swing dance’s originators. Inspired and tireless, Mark makes believers out of anyone who ever wondered if they could swing dance.

Katie Kihara has been dancing, teaching, competing, and performing lindy hop since 2007. As an instructor, she prides herself on partnership skills that empower both roles to dance their best. Katie is also a longtime member of Sister Kate Dance Company, Seattle’s longest running all-female chorus troupe.

When she is not dancing, you can find her working as an esthetician at Truce Spa.

Theresa Manney has been a passionate member of the jazz dance community for over 10 years. She values musicality, quality of movement and social dance etiquette. You can catch Theresa dancing and teaching lindy hop, collegiate shag, St. Louis shag, and solo jazz. When not teaching, you can catch her performing as a long time member of the Sister Kate Dance Company.

Haily started dancing Collegiate Shag in 2017 in Portland, OR, and it was love at first step. She loves both leading and following Collegiate Shag, and enjoys experiencing the different styles and ideas brought to life in the dance. Haily dances a smooth flavor of shag, and loves to teach others how to use their energy efficiently to make dancing shag sustainable and loads of fun!

Travis Whetman has been sharing his love of swing dancing in the Seattle area since the early 2000s. He is known for his ‘classic’ style of Balboa dancing which is no surprise given his love of watching and analyzing the dancing of such leads as Maxie Dorf, Hal Takier, and Willie Desatoff.

Class with Travis include a good balance of technique and fun moves. Also expect a good amount of corny jokes and laughs!

Taylor Stender has found a way to dance most of her life. Her first love was Lindy Hop, her true love is Balboa. She has been dancing since 2007, teaching since 2010 locally and regionally; feathers in her hat include placing and being a finalist in several national Balboa competitions.

Enjoying both the social connection and self expression in Swing dance, Taylor has developed her own unique voice as a follower and strives to encourage her students to do the same. She finds value in comfortable and fun movement and you can be sure to find your own flare in her classes.

Originally from Seattle, Washington Adam fell in love with Swing and Jazz music at 11 years old. Since then, Adam has been a member of the International Lindy Hop and Swing dance communities and travels the world as a teacher, performer choreographer and voice of all things swing. Known for his accomplishments in Tap, Solo-Jazz, Balboa and Lindy Hop as both a leader and follower, Adam has a unique multi-faceted skill set on the dance floor and in the classroom.

Bio Coming Soon!

Robin has over 25 years of jazz dance experience, which includes vintage jazz and swing era dances, as well as an in-depth knowledge of chorus girl choreography and styling.

She is an original founding member of the Sister Kate Dance Company, a national swing dance champion, has choreographed over 100 dance routines, and is a passionate scene leader, always working to unify artists and champion their work.

James has long been a part of the Seattle swing dance community. He’s our go-to guy for everything at Swing It Seattle, helping to keep all Swing It Seattle events running smoothly.