About Us
Our Mission:
To share the secrets of partner dancing that result in tension free, natural, movement anywhere you want to dance.
Our History
Art was first introduced to dance at the age of 4 by his Aunt Eunice Thomas and studied ballet and tap at her Battle Creek dance school for the next 2 years.
Jill's dance journey began at the age of 6, when her parents enrolled her in Ballet at the Academy of Dance and Related Arts, under the Direction of Stanley Godfrey, Coldwater Michigan.
Art's interest in ballroom began after his future wife, Jill, accepted a position at a local ballroom dance studio in Kalamazoo and he realized that he better learn to dance or he was going to spend a lot of time on the sidelines.
So Art pursued a career in dance and began teaching along with Jill at the same studio. The couple's love and dedication for dancing and sharing what they learn, continues to grow today.
After years teaching at local studios, training with numerous champions, competing in Pro/ Am competitions and choreographing show routines, in 2002 Art and Jill realized their dream and opened Kalamazoo DanceSport. They had many happy years and happy customers there but closed the studio in January of 2021 due to the Covid lockdowns.
They are very excited to start a new chapter in their career, focusing exclusively on those discerning individuals that seek out quality private ballroom dance instruction.
The Downey Difference
From the very begining Art & Jill were curious and persistent students in getting the anwer to their question:
"How does this ballroom stuff work?"
We studied the patterns, the dance rhythms, basic dance embrace, techniques like cuban motion in Salsa and rise and fall in Waltz for years but the information seemed to fall short of getting us the results we were seeking.
After years of searching we finally took advantage of the opportuntiy to study with Benoit Papineau, Canadian Champion and World Finalist.
From the very start of the very first lesson we began learning a cohesive, easy to understand system that immediately gave us the results we were seeking. It took all the tension out of our partnership and made dancing like moving like the wind, effortless but powerful.
The information we provide is a culmination of over a decade of studying Benoit's system full of VERY RARE and HARD TO FIND information. This system empowers you with an understanding of your own natural movement to achieve amazing results quickly.
Whether you are a beginner just learning some social dance skills or a seasoned competitor looking to increase your ranking,
you owe it to yourself to try us out and experience the highest quality dance instruction available in this area today!
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