About

Dave

“SalsaDave” began his dancing journey walking through the streets of Arlington on a random Monday night. While walking, he passed by a nightclub called Clarendon Grill that had fast-paced Latin music playing on the dance floor. Through the window he saw people laughing, spinning, and having a great time! Determined to learn more, he found out more about their dance lessons and attended the following week. Work was busy, and the evening 7pm classes were a great outlet to try something new! Because he had no prior dance instruction or experience, the logical counts to the salsa music (1-2-3-rest-5-6-7-rest) made it possible to gain an understanding of where he was supposed to be and how he was supposed to move while dancing to the music.

Week after week he went to the bar lessons at Clarendon Grill through Keith Givens and Latin Motion until the intermediate classes became easy and the beginning classes were cake. He met a great group of friends there, and they all progressed together through more advanced classes until even the advanced classes felt natural. At that point, the only way to continue their progression was to start performing.

In 2010, Dave joined the Latin Motion Summer Student Team with his salsa friends and ended up touring the Washington DC bar scene, performing the same routine that they all learned throughout the summer. He was hooked. After the Summer Team came to an end, Dave continued dancing and in 2012, he joined a much more advanced group called Salsa Fuego with Cecilia Villalobos. Dave did performances with his team across the United States in Salsa Congresses in Chicago, Houston, and other cities. Practice was 5 days a week, the performances were intense, and Dave was having a great time. After a few years, salsa slowed down a bit as work became more serious. In 2016, Dave joined a team of friends that he had met in the salsa dancing community throughout the years called Ritmo DMV led by Judicita Condezo. They had exciting, performance-driven trips together and made some incredible memories on and off the dance floor. The greatest of all performances occurred in 2017 when Dave danced with Ritmo DMV for the Washington Wizards halftime show in front of roughly 10,000 fans.

Since then, Dave has formed DC Salsa After Work (now, Salsa After Work) which is geared towards professionals in the Washington DC area learning a fun new skill. He’s taught classes at bars like Summers Restaurant in Arlington, VA, and has done over 25 public classes in a variety of settings including tennis courts, churches, poolside, and other unique atmospheres. He has also choreographed 3 wedding dances and has worked with 12 students, both individuals and couples, for private lessons. His passion for teaching has grown to other dances – he now teaches lessons in both salsa and bachata – and he is continuing to share his dance vibes with others.

Lily

Lily started swing dancing in 1999 at her alma mater Oberlin College’s freshman orientation swing dance, and loved swing dancing since she saw Madonna take turns dancing with 2 leads in ‘A League of their Own’. She became addicted and started Oberlin College’s Swing Society, now OSwing club. OSwing is still run by students today, hosting workshops and dances, with live music for college students and their guests. Since then Lily has mastered her favorite swing dances: Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Boogie Woogie. Lily also learned and mastered all Latin dances (except Tango) living in La Casa Hispanica heritage and language program house at Oberlin College.

An internationally-ranked professional dancer and competitor since 2003, she has won Champion and Top 5 titles at the National Jitterbug Championship (NJC), American Lindy Hop Championship (ALHC), East Canada Swing Championships (ECSC), Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown (ULHS), Virginia State Open (VSO), Balboa Rendezvous, Rhythmic Arts Festival, and Swing Fling. She has taught at prestigious workshops, including but not limited to the Paris Balboa Shag Festival, and peer-judged at the Eastern Balboa Championships (EBC), All Balboa Camp Detroit (ABCD), and ULHS, to name a few. She has choreographed weddings, appeared in numerous music videos, films and TV programs, news specials, and tributes, most notably performing for an audience of over 140,000 WWII veterans, as well as President Bush and Tom Hanks, at the 2004 WWII Memorial Dedication in Washington DC.

Lily is a regular instructor and performer with Gottaswing.com and has taught for DC’s former Jam Cellar (now New Columbia Swing). Lily was a member of the award-winning Collegiate Cats Shag dance team and a part-time model for New York Fashion Week (NYFW), DC Fashion Week (DCFW), Nova Fashion Week, the Art Deco Society of Washington DC (ADSW.org) and other contemporary fashion shows and shoots for hire. She is a full-time attorney and singer, 2011 NE DC karaoke champion and regular District Karaoke League judge. Having booked performing acts every year in college, she also enjoys booking live music for the Dandies and Quaintrelles annual DC Seersucker and DC Tweed free bike rides and for rock venues throughout the DMV.