Our Dance Instructors

Kathy Babcock

Ted & Elva Davis

Ron & Faith Lane
 

Philip Chao

  
 

Tim Gregory

  

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              Kathy Babcock

Since early childhood, Kathy has had extensive training in ballet.  Then, as a young adult, she expanded her dance training to include ballroom, jazz, and tap.  In 1979, she passed a course in San Francisco to become a ballroom dance instructor.  Since then, she has taught a variety of dance forms (ballroom, jazz, tap, ballet, country/western, and aerobics) at various locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, on board Princess Cruises’ ships, and in Redding.

  Over the past fifteen years, Kathy has also choreographed several community ballroom dance, musical comedy, and jazz dance productions.  Some of these have been annual events (i.e., Foothill High School’s Club Cougar and Shasta College musicals) and have included all age groups from children through older adult.

  Kathy continues to expand her knowledge of dance by attending dance classes and workshops regularly and performing in dance concerts and recitals whenever possible.

For further information on classes or private lessons, please contact Kathy @ 530-244-0663.

 

TED & ELVA DAVIS

We started our dancing career as Dance Skaters, on Roller Skates that is. We started Dance Skating around 1947 and started working on the Dance Skating Medal programs. Elva holds a Bronze Medal and Ted has a Silver Medal. Ted was also a qualified Dance Skating Judge..

Ted took one of those twenty hour Arthur Murray courses in Ballroom and we began dancing while we were dating. This about fifty-two years ago! We gradually moved away from Dance Skating in favor of Ballroom. We married in September of 1953. We began doing some casual dancing, taking some class lessons from various instructors in the Bay Area. This was American Style not much International Style yet.

Eventually we started a family. Our oldest daughter took up American Style Ballroom and became a member of a well-known dance show group. She then moved into competitive dancing. She and her partner became California Champions in their division. Then lucky us, we took her back to the Nationals in Atlantic City.

Around the mid 1960’s the International Style started becoming popular. We joined the Peninsula International Dance Club, which had a dance every Sunday Night with a one-hour lesson prior to the dance.

We got soundly hooked! In addition to the class lessons at the club we started taking private lessons from some of the local instructors. We were putting lots of miles on our feet but enjoying every minute of it.

Reg Davis, one of our instructors, began really talking up the Dance Medal Tests. He was relentless. Finally after a lot of sweat and strain he declared us ready for the tests. Unknown to us at the time, Alex Moore a very famous instructor judge and author from England, was visiting the Bay Area and was available for tests. We took both our Bronze and Silver Medal tests from him. Lucky for us we didn’t really know how famous a person he was or we would have frozen up solid! Reg clued us in later.

Eventually retirement time came and we moved to Redding to be with our daughter and our granddaughters. This was about seventeen years ago. There was tons of Country Western Dancing here at the time. Some ballroom also but more oriented toward the social side. We joined several of the clubs and in fact attended the very first meeting that formed the Redding Dance Club.

We got talked into doing some teaching, I still don’t know how this happened, and we spent several years teaching dance at the Old City Hall. We moved away from that and now do occasional teaching for some of the local clubs.

We’re very appreciative of the solid dance foundation our International Instructors provided. We still think of dance direction and heel toes when dancing. Hard to break a lifetime of habit. We have access to a huge video dance tape library and we occasionally add a new amalgamation or two to our routines.

We dance at least twice a week and are enthusiastic visitors to out of town dance clubs with friends everywhere. Life is good!!

 

Ron and Faith Lane

Beginning Ballroom, Latin and Swing Dance Teachers

Faith joined the Redding Dance Club in 1995, and discovered the joy of dance, taking lessons from Ray Bottema.

In 1998, Faith became President of the Redding Dance Club and has continued in that position to the present. Since that time, the Redding Dance Club has flourished, and in January, 2000, a second monthly dance was added to the venue initially called “The First Saturday Swing”.

With the growth of membership, sound equipment was purchased to help improve the quality of music for dancing enjoyment. In 2004, Faith divided up her responsibilities by adding a Vice- President in charge of the Ballroom dance, and Vice- President in charge of the Swing Dance.

In September, 1999, while putting on a dance demonstration in the Mount Shasta Mall for “Ballroom Dance Week”, Ron and Faith re-met as friends, (having been acquainted through their respective vocations 12 years earlier). The next night they began taking dance lessons together and have continued dancing together since then.

Very shortly after beginning to learn to dance, Ron, and his friend, Roger Hofhenke, (another beginning dancer) opened the SDDS Beginning Ballroom Dance Studio in November, 1999. At that time, Ted & Elva Davis jumped in “to help us learn a few dance steps”, and continued to teach until January, 2002. Their contribution to the development and growth of dancing the Redding area will always be gratefully appreciated. In 2002, Ron and Faith became the dance instructors, and have been helping new beginners learn to dance since then while continuing their own higher level instruction.

Ron and Faith have been fortunate to receive teaching instruction as well as dance instruction from Master Dance Instructor John Lee, and his partner of many years, Janet Di Pino. John Lee is nationally recognized as one of the now six remaining Fred Astaire Dance Studio Instructors, and as a National Competition Dance Judge. John and Janet are also co-founders of The Ballroom of Sacramento.

Ron and Faith have also had instruction from top dance competitors. These include: 7 time U.S. Latin Champion Ron Montez; 3 time U.S. Smooth Champions Jim & Janelle Moranto; 10 time U. S. Latin Champions Tony Meredith & Melanie LaPatten; 5 time U.S. Open Champion West Coast Swing Champions Robert Cordoba & Debra Czeckly; as well as current ballroom competitor Hunter Johnson; also Michael Kiem & Brandy Northrup; Buddy & Lori Schwimmer; Skippy Blair (God-mother of California West Coast Swing); and our dear friends, Ted and Elva Davis.

In 2003, Ron and Faith decided to make their dance partnership permanent and married.

In their dance teaching, they both inject mild humor in order to make the dance learning experience enjoyable and fun while at the same time focusing on the fundamentals of dance technique and styling. They both believe that with a little effort, anyone can learn to dance.

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE DANCE LESSONS.

Tues. & Wed. Nights, Old City Hall, Upstairs, 1313 Market Street, Redding, Calif.

7:45 pm-9:30 pm Private lessons available

Call: 244-9442 or 241-5661

 
     
     
 

Philip Chao

  

Philip Chao came from Taiwan in the 1980’s and took his first ballroom dance class at Chico State University. He has a background in Jazz, Modern Ballet, Tap, Latin, Clogging, Hustle, Swing, Night Club, Country Western and Folk dancing.

In 1991, he earned Bronze, Silver & Gold levels of Instructor Certification in American Style Ballroom. His unique dance background and understanding of human anatomy movement and kinesiology give him an advantage in his teaching. He has been a dance instructor since 1990 and taught classes for CSU Chico, Dance America Studio, Paradise Recreation District and the Redding Dance Club.

Philip teaches private lessons and group workshops at his studio, as well as at other venues. He also teaches the bride and groom to dance for their romantic first dance. His teaching style is fun and easy to understand. Philip emphasizes proper dance technique and up-to-date dance style for both beginners and advanced dancers in a relaxed and comfortable setting.

Philip has participated in local events and performed in Waltz, West Coast Swing (WCS), Polka, Fox Trot, Samba, Tap, Jazz, Clogging and Modern Dance. He has choreographed dance routines for WCS, Tango, Waltz and Samba. He occasionally writes articles about dance techniques, concepts, and ideas to promote learning and social dancing.

Philip began competing in WCS in 2003 and is currently competing in Jack-and-Jills at the Advanced level. Philip enjoys ballroom dancing and competes in WCS to become a better social dancer.

Philip has Master Degrees in Computer Science and in Exercise Physiology. Currently he works at Chico’s Enloe Hospital Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab Center. He is an American Collage and Sports Medicine certified Exercise Specialist and Health and Fitness Instructor. He is also certified in Shiatsu and the Hendrickson Method of Orthopedic Massage and Manual Therapy.

Find Philip here:  www.philipchao.com

 

  
 

Tim Gregory

  

Tim Gregory was born and raised in Redding, CA. After he graduated high school, he joined the United States Navy and became an Intelligence Specialist. During the latter 3 years of his service, he was a student at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in San Diego. While in port he would attend at least 6-10 group classes a week as well as 1 to 2 private lessons a month. When out to sea for 6-9 months at a time he continued to better his dancing (courtesy of good note taking) through practicing patterns and working on technique as best as he could. Despite the inconsistent attendance at studio, he quickly became one of the top student dancers in the studio and when his service in the Navy was up, the staff at Arthur Murray welcomed him as an instructor with open arms. Even in his first year as an instructor, Tim won 3rd place in a pro Jack & Jill contest for Salsa & Waltz. During his time in San Diego, Tim met his wife Monique who came to the studio as a student. Within 4 months she also became an instructor, they began dating, and about 2 years later, they were married. Tim remained a teacher in San Diego till September 2007 and then was at the Lake Forest, CA location until he finally decided to come home to Redding.

Arthur Murray prides itself in the abilities of their instructors and strives to always continue their dance education. This is done through testing given by certified adjudicators through the World Professional Dance Teachers Association. They require all teachers to not only know their perspective gender, but the opposite gender as well. This enables the teacher to teach both the gentlemen and ladies patterns and techniques. During his 4 years of teaching, Tim achieved his Associate and Full Bronze certification as well as Associate Silver. He is proficient in over 15 styles of ballroom dances including, but not limited to: Swing, Cha Cha, Rumba, Waltz, Foxtrot, American Tango, Hustle, Mambo, Salsa, Viennese Waltz, Samba, Bolero, Merengue, Lindy Hop, etc. Tim also assisted in preparing the junior instructors for their own certification tests as well as provided in house coaching lessons for students and their instructors. Tim has taught over 3000 private lessons, over 700 group classes, choreographed numerous student solo/group routines, multiple wedding 1st dance routines and assisted in the production of many dance shows and themed performances, parties, graduations, & events.

In addition to the extensive training provided by Arthur Murray, Tim has also received coaching from many ballroom champions including former Latin Champion and Blackpool competitor Gabriela Young, 13 years undefeated US Rhythm Champions Bob Powers and Julia Gorchakova (who are also 3 time World Mambo Champions and they hold the record for most championships ever held by a couple) and 2005 World American Ballroom Champions, 2004/2005 United States Ballroom Champions Nick and Lena Kosovich (Nick was also on seasons 2 and 3 Dancing with the Stars) just to name a few. Even Tim himself was selected as a professional instructor for an employee of Cisco Systems, Inc. at their annual retreat weekend. Cisco held its own “Dancing with the Stars” in San Diego. Tim and his “Star” Wendy, received 2nd place.

Tim brings an always positive and enthusiastic approach to teaching. He genuinely wants you to succeed, dance to your full potential and have fun!!! Tim teaches all levels from beginners to advanced dancers and explains his concepts at their own level of understanding so it is easy to learn.

For more information on group and private lessons please call Tim @ 530-558-5716 or send an email to REDDINGBALLROOM@GMAIL.COM