Instructors
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Natasha Zakrevskaia
Natasha Zakrevskaia was introduced to ballroom dancing at six years old. She is a professional dancer born in Russia who has honed her dance skills thru lessons with famous coaches, daily intense trainings, and by competing in international ballroom and Latin competitions. We are blessed she found her way here to our hometown of Pacific Grove.
Natasha is skilled in styling and technique and works to fine tune dancers for social and competitive events, as well as choregraphing for weddings, and parties. She knows how to make an individual shine at any dance event.
Natasha enjoys real estate remodeling projects when she isn’t dancing. She has remodeled dance studios, home spaces, and even a sailboat to make them beautiful and warm.
Natasha has a brand new fully equipped dance studio, N Space Dance Studio, at 170 Central Avenue, Pacific Grove CA. She gives private lessons and group classes to kids, adults, and even toddlers. She believes it is never too late, or too soon, to learn how to dance. Visit nspace dancestudio@instagram, or call 831-917-7787 to schedule a lesson for yourself, a loved one, or your kids.
Sergei Panchenko
Sergei Panchenko is a professional dancer and is the owner of Top Peninsula Dance at 227 Grand Ave Pacific Grove, CA. He offers a variety of private and group lessons at his studio. Sergei and his students have won numerous awards in competitive ballroom dancing. He often appears at Chautauqua Hall Dance Club to give lessons and dance with Club members at the dance parties.
Sergei can be reached at 831-869-3960, on facebook: toppeninsuladance and email: sergeidance89@gmail.com.
Sergei Panchenko
Sergei Panchenko is a professional dancer and is the owner of Top Peninsula Dance at 227 Grand Ave Pacific Grove, CA. He offers a variety of private and group lessons at his studio. Sergei and his students have won numerous awards in competitive ballroom dancing. He often appears at Chautauqua Hall Dance Club to give lessons and dance with Club members at the dance parties.
Sergei can be reached at 831-869-3960, on facebook: toppeninsuladance and email: sergeidance89@gmail.com.
Rene Arreola and Jennifer Filzen
Rene, along with his wife Jennifer Filzen, own The West Coast Swing Dance Company (WCSDanceCo.) They have been teaching West Coast Swing together for the last 10 years.
Rene and Jennifer have been dancing West Coast Swing since 2008. Rene has been competing in World Swing Dance Council (WSDC) sanctioned Jack and Jill competitions since 2009. He has earned the required competition points in both the Novice and Intermediate divisions (along with 1st Place Wins in each division) to move up to his current dance level as an Advanced Jack and Jill competitor in the West Coast Swing leader role.
Rene and Jennifer attend West Coast Swing dance conventions throughout the year where they take group workshops and compete. They both love to social dance at conventions where they can dance up until 3AM, 4AM, or even 5AM or 6AM in the morning!
Rene and Jennifer live in Monterey, CA. Aside from social dancing for fun, Rene is an illustrator and comic book artist, and Jennifer is an avid swimmer and enjoys kayaking in Monterey Bay.
You can learn more about The West Coast Swing Company at their website: https://wcsdanceco.com/
Rob And Letitia Capili
Rob and Letitia Capili bring over 20 years of dedication, passion, and expertise to the Monterey salsa scene. In Hawaii, Rob was instrumental in showcasing international salsa talent as a founder of R&R Productions and lead instructor at Roman Dance Studio. His journey led him to Monterey, where he met Letitia, his future partner on and off the dance floor.
As founding members of Monterey Salsa, they have danced and taught workshops around the world and shared the stage with salsa legends such as The Buena Vista Social Club, Celia Cruz, Oscar De Leon, Fruko y Sus Tesos, and Sonora Carruseles.
At the heart of Rob and Letitia’s teaching lies a deep-seated love for salsa, a fervent passion for its music, and an intricate understanding of its techniques — knowledge they have cultivated over the years through immersive study and practice, with the hope of nurturing and expanding the salsa community, ensuring the art form not only endures but flourishes for generations to come
Rob And Letitia Capili
Rob and Letitia Capili bring over 20 years of dedication, passion, and expertise to the Monterey salsa scene. In Hawaii, Rob was instrumental in showcasing international salsa talent as a founder of R&R Productions and lead instructor at Roman Dance Studio. His journey led him to Monterey, where he met Letitia, his future partner on and off the dance floor.
As founding members of Monterey Salsa, they have danced and taught workshops around the world and shared the stage with salsa legends such as The Buena Vista Social Club, Celia Cruz, Oscar De Leon, Fruko y Sus Tesos, and Sonora Carruseles.
At the heart of Rob and Letitia’s teaching lies a deep-seated love for salsa, a fervent passion for its music, and an intricate understanding of its techniques — knowledge they have cultivated over the years through immersive study and practice, with the hope of nurturing and expanding the salsa community, ensuring the art form not only endures but flourishes for generations to come
Ekaterina Sazonchik
My dancing career started when I was 7 years old. In ballroom studio where my Mum brought me for the first lesson there were 30 girls and only 1 boy. This deficit of boys let us to invite my neighbor to be my partner. He reminded my partner for the next 10 years. And after that we started a ballroom studio for children and adults by ourselves.
Argentine tango found me by chance. Later I have convinced one of our ballroom groups to switch to tango. My tango moment happened when I went to tango festival in Mallorca (Spain). This is where I completely felt in love with tango and realized how deep and multi-dimensional was this dance. In another tango festival three years later in Turin (Italy) I met my husband. I love dancing and I have been teaching dance practically all my life.
Upon my arrival to Monterey, I was warmly welcomed by our local tango community. My husband and I became finalists and champions in the Official USA Argentine tango Championships
2018: 4th place in the Milonga category
2019: 3d place in the Milonga category
2021:1st place in the Milonga category, 2d place in the Tango-Vals category 2022: 6th place in the Tango de Pista category 2023: finalists in the Tango-Vals category.
Ekaterina Sazonchik and Isaac Kaminer
Contact me at: www.tangomontereybay.com www.facebook.com/tangomontereybay / @tangomontereybay
For private lessons my phone number +8312249995 Ekaterina
Stephen Armani Manzano
Stephen began teaching ballroom, latin, and American Rhythm dancing in Monterey in 2019. Stephen started with the Arthur Murray franchise in Monterey and achieved many goals along the way. From ‘Rookie of the year’ in 2020 to ‘Star Performer’ for our North district in 2021 and many extravagant ballroom Pro-Am competitions in his 4 years working for Arthur Murray. Stephen’s current passion is social dancing. He looks for opportunities at every event he’s invited to or to find dancing opportunities on the weekends. He enjoys the freedom of different dance environments and his partner’s love the fun personality he brings to the dance floor. You can follow Stephen on I.G. or Facebook @Stephen_Manzano.
Stephen Armani Manzano
Hi, I’m Stephen Armani Manzano.My current profession is Sales and Equipment training at MBS Business Systems in Salinas, Ca. My educational background is Cyber Security and Networking. My latest skill is Ballroom dancing Latin and American Rhythm in Monterey. I started in 2019 for the Arthur Murray Franchise and achieved many goals along the way. From ‘Rookie of the year’ in 2020 to ‘Star Performer’ for our North district in 2021 and many extravagant ballroom Pro-Am competitions in my 4 years working for A.M. My current passion is social dancing at every event I’m invited to or find on the weekends. I enjoy the freedom of different environments with the fun personality I bring to the dance floor. In the future I’d love to have my own studio but as of now my focus is building my name and reputation here in my hometown. You can follow me on I.G. or Facebook @Stephen_Manzano. I appreciate your time and Let’s Dance!
Nadia Eftedal
Nadia began ballroom dancing at the age of eight in Hollywood, California. She trained at the Sloan-Sloan School of Dance and throughout her junior, amateur and early professional years, Nadia competed in both international styles of Standard and Latin.
Nadia Eftedal is an internationally recognized world champion dancer with an exceptional portfolio of awards and titles.
• Open British Professional Latin Champions
• U.K. Professional Latin Champions
• Twice European Latin Champions
• U.S. Open Professional Latin Champions
• Winners of the Super Japan Cup
• German Open Latin Championships
• French Latin Masters
• Russian Invitational Latin Championships
• Five-time silver medalist World Professional Latin Championships
• Recipient of the John Monte Lifetime Achievement Award
As a professional competitor, she represented Norway, the country of her dance partner, Johan. In the early years of their partnership, Johan and Nadia lived in Oslo where they taught children, practiced often and participated in European competitions. Breaking through to become regular finalists of major international events, they were able to move to London, England and continue their dance education, training with the best teachers in the world. Their growing success had them traveling the extensively to lecture, demonstrate and teach throughout Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States. The Eftedal partnership proved to be very successful and has had a lasting effect in the world of Latin-American dancing.
Nadia returned to California, where she continues to lecture, adjudicate and train top competitive couples.
Pavlo Barsuk
Pavlo started dancing at the age of 10 in Ukraine. He has placed high in numerous regional and international competitions in Europe, before moving to the United States in 2005 to continue his dance career. With his former partner Anna Trebunskaya, they were
-U.S. National Open Professional Latin Bronze medalists,
-UK OPEN Professional Rising Star Latin Silver Medalists,
-Ohio Star Ball Open Professional Latin Bronze medalists,
-Blackpool Professional Rising Star Latin 4th place finalists, & winners and finalists in many other national and international competitions.
Pavlo is a USTA certified judge for Latin, Standard, Rhythm and Smooth dance styles, and was a featured performer on ABC’s Dancing with The Stars. He also studied pedagogy and choreography at Volin National University of Ukraine. As a teacher and coach, he has guided many Dancesport champions and finalists. His students have been Pro-Am World Championship finalists and US National Champions. He has also coached numerous successful Amateur Junior, Youth and Senior couples as well as Professional duos.
Pavlo has great passion for dance and works with all levels of students from Beginners to experienced Professionals.
