Meet our Instructors

Tina French, is our current GPSDC president,   

Tina has been dancing and falling in love with west coast swing for 9 years. She loves being out on the dance floor and that’s where you will find her, teaching and dancing. She teaches privates and WCS in various locations. She currently is the President of the Greater Phoenix West Coast Swing Club. 

     We are so happy to welcome Caroline Monterubio Skaar to the WCS community in the Valley and to our roster of Instructors. 

     Caroline is full of bubbly energy and is known for her creative shaping and graceful movement. She is from Norway, where she went to dance school full-time (her favorite subjects where Jazz, Modern, and Hip Hop). After intensive training in solo movement, she focused on partner styles like salsa, zouk, kizomba, blues and bachata (which she won second place in the Norwegian championships).

     She loved the playful style of West Coast Swing and decided to specialize in it. Caroline travelled to WCS-events around the world non-stop for 1 year to learn from champion instructors. Caroline now competes at the All-Star level in Jack and Jills (social competitions) and in the Showcase (routine division with lifts) at the US Open and NASDE circuit. Her favorite thing to do is to teach privates and Pro-Am routines as that is were she feels she can help a dancer grow the most. Her goal is for you to leave her class with universal dance knowledge that you can use to express yourself in any type of dance.

Caroline Skarr - 316-616-2860

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Drew Mitchell, has been a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer since 2010. He has an extensive background in partner dancing in Ballroom, Latin, Country Western, and of course West  Coast Swing. In 2015 Drew decided to shift his main focus to West Coast Swing in his pursuit of becoming a champion. Drew strives to be a leader and role model in the local, and dance community as a whole.   

Tyler Osborne recently moved here from Salt Lake City. 

He definitely won over the students the first time he taught at our Friday night dance. 

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Olivia recently relocated to Phoenix from Atlanta. We were lucky enough to have her come to the club to teach for us and become our dance director soon after her arrival. Olivia and her husband, Roger White, are both professors at Arizona State University. 

Before moving here, she taught in Atlanta 2 to 3 times a week at their Swing Dancers Club and other places as well. Olivia has trained with the Swing Literacy Development Method under Myles and Tessa Monroe. Olivia is one of the organizers for the newcomer track for Atlanta Swing Classic.  

She loves leading and following, but her true passion is teaching.  She employs many of the same engineering strategies to break down difficult concepts in west coast swing as she does in teaching Biomedical Engineering at ASU (her day job). Olivia is excited to cheer you on and share her passion for teaching, dancing, and building our dance community!

Mona Brandt is a full time dance teacher in the Phoenix, Arizona area where she teaches group and private lessons, coaches competitive dancers, competes  with her students in pro-am, and travels around the world, teaching,  judging competitions and coaching.  Her company, Shall We Dance Phoenix, is dedicated to teach dance in a way that is  fun and easy  for everyone. Mona teaches West Coast Swing,  Ballroom,  Latin, Swing, Salsa, Country and Line Dance.  Mona is the director of the annual UCWDC Arizona Dance Classic, and is also a 6-Time UCWDC Country Dance World Champion.

Reach her for private lessons:  Mona@ShallWeDancePhoenix.com, or 480-491-2393

Rob began line dancing in the early '90's.  He soon decided to compete entering the UCWDC Country couples and line dancing competitions. He moved to the "Superstar" division winning a world championship in line dance choreography. One of his dances was selected for official UCWDC competition. The mid '90's found his focus shift to West Coast Swing gaining Champion status. Rob brings unusual styling to his WCS, an influence from hip hop days. Rob's mantra-It's just dancing and it should be fun!

Rob definitely makes it look fun. If you missed his 2nd place dance with Florie Adams at the Phoenix 4th of July 2018, you really missed something. 

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Jesse Dickson and Lannie Sullivan are professional swing dancers based in Tucson, Arizona. In November of 2016 they debuted their first west coast swing routine "Goodbye My Lover" at The Open, finishing in 8th place.  Since their debut they have traveled the country together, consistently placing and winning in the Classic Division as well as Jack and Jills and Strictly Swing events.  

Jesse and Lannie are proud to share their combined experiences as artists and technicians of dance with audiences and students everywhere they go. As educators they aim to always share everything they know so that this fantastic dance can keep evolving.