First Dance
New Student Special
Private Lesson
A great way to receive one on one instruction with one of our very talented instructors. Private lessons allow you the opportunity to work on the dances of your choice, your lead and follow skills and the style of your dancing. We offer private lessons Monday though Friday by appointment only. Learn more on our DanceMakers Staff:
Julie Ebe/ Diana Silvas/ Don Silvas/ Monique Rouleau/ Ann Guthrie
Welcome new teachers Lucie O'Callaghan, David Miller and Augie Gutierrez!
Yes! DanceMakers is hiring experienced dance teachers and trainees. Now experience required to join our training program, just a strong work ethic and a desire to learn.
DanceMakers Master Coaches:
Dave Getty/ June Mavor
Julie Ebe
A native of St Louis, and a TCU graduate, Julie started dancing as a teacher trainee in 1993 for fun. Soon she was deeply immersed in the business of dance and in the Fort Worth community, taking part ownership of DanceMakers after graduating from college. She earned her Bronze certificate from NDCA, and has studied extensively with top coaches in American Smooth and Rhythm, International Standard and Latin as well as Country Western and Salsa. Today, she is not only the owner of DanceMakers, she acts as manager, staff trainer, and senior teacher as well. She is proud to have brought DanceMakers to its present level where we are truly "Fort Worth's premier school of social and competition dance." She has introduced the ISTD syllabus, attracted and nurtured the best trained staff in the metroplex, brought in top coaches to work with staff and students, and still finds time to personally oversee the progress of each and every student. Julie also competes several times a year with students in Pro-Am competitions throughout the the state, even winning 3rd place Top Teacher at the Dallas Invitational in 2005. Our trophy case is filled with first place finishes her students and staff members have won - most recently Top School at the Dallas Invitational Dance Tournament in May 2007. Specializing in International Standard and American Smooth, Julie has performed many professional exhibitions at competitions and Showcases. Julie was also privileged to train directly with Pierre Dulaine as part of Dancing Classrooms Fort Worth. In addition to teaching the Pierre Dulaine system of ballroom dancing to fifth graders here in the metroplex, Julie serves on the Dancing Classrooms North Texas steering committee and continues to teach private students here at DanceMakers.
Diana Silvas
Diana Silvas began dancing in 2000 when she was invited to train with the DanceMakers staff. The eldest of three girls, Diana is a native of Abilene, Texas. After moving to Fort Worth, she discovered a talent for dancing and teaching. Diana now forms a professional team with her husband Don Silvas, who also teaches at DanceMakers. Don and Diana have studied American Rhythm with Bob Powers and Julia Gorchakova. Diana has also competed frequently with students in Pro-Am competitions, where they always place well. In fact, Diana and one of her students won the Showcase championship at the Alamo City Classic in 2005. Diana is both a talented dancer and a highly skilled teacher, but she is most proud of being mother to her three beautiful daughters.
Don Silvas
Don Silvas has been a member of the DanceMakers staff since 1999. Don's dance career began he answered an ad for dance instructor trainees. Over the years he has studied American Rhythm and Smooth, International Latin and Standard, club Salsa, social Country and swing. Don forms a professional team with his wife Diana Silvas who also teaches at DanceMakers. They have studied American Rhythm with some of the worlds top coaches including Bob Powers. Don stands out in Pro-Am competitions where he often wins top placements for his students and top teacher awards for himself. Most recently, Don won First Place Top Teacher and the Teacher Workhorse award at the Dallas Invitational in May, 2007. DanceMakers won Top School at that competition largely due to the incredible dancing of Don and his well-trained students. He is very much in demand as one of Fort Worth's most talented male dance teachers. However, he is most proud to be a father to his three beautiful daughters.
Monique Rouleau
Monique has a BS in Industrial Technology with a concentration in Architecture. She was born in Rhode Island, and later moved to California with her husband David Getty. In 2002, they moved their family here to Fort Worth.
Monique began dancing Ballet when she was 5 years old. She trained with the Boston Ballet for 5 years, then danced another 5 years as a member of the professional company. After an injury required her give up her
Ballet career, she went into partner dancing.
Beginning in 1996 with JoJo Belmonte from Calgary Canada
Monique's study in Country & Ballroom
propelled her to a World Championship Title in Showcase Pro-Am Country in 1997. She continued her training for several years with many top instructors and went on to become a 2 time World
Champion in Pro-Am with her students.
Now, she travels around the world teaching, coaching, and choreographing for all levels and styles of Country dancing, including Line Dancing, and Couples Dancing. Monique is a UCWDC Masters Certified Judge in both Couples Dances and Line Dance. She is the manager and planner for Shadow Dancing (a Dave Getty & Monique Rouleau company), which distributes their dance instruction videos. She also coordinates the bookings for Dave Getty on a yearly basis. She is co-owner of South Bay Dance Fling -- a Country competition held in San Jose, CA. on Labor Day Weekend and co-director of the Dallas Dance Festival in November held here in Dallas.
Monique has joined the
DanceMakers staff to teach private lessons in all styles of partner dance. She lives in Fort Worth with her
husband Dave and two daughters.
Ann Guthrie
Ann has been dancing all her life but her career in dance didn’t start until the summer of 1989 when she answered an ad for dance instructors. She auditioned for Fred Astaire Dance World, went through their training and became an instructor, a position she held for two years. During her first stint as a dance teacher, Ann competed and performed pro-am with her students. She later had to leave Fred Astaire when she was offered an opportunity in another city. Over the years Ann has had many careers including Certified Medical Assistant, computer graphic artist, and school secretary.
Recently, the popular resurgence of Ballroom dancing led Ann to renew her qualification to teach dance because as she says, “Life is too short to not live it dancing.” After months of DanceMakers’ rigorous teacher training, Ann is proud to join our highly trained staff as a newly re-qualified instructor. She is available to teach the 9 major ballroom dances, plus 2-Step and Salsa. She plans to continue pursuing DanceMakers’ training system to complete her professional Bronze, Silver and Gold qualifications in all Ballroom, Rhythm and Country dances. She looks forward to presenting some of her new students in Showcases and Competitions soon.
Ann is married to a musician and has 4 children and 9 grandchildren.
Master Coach
Dave Getty
Dave Getty was born in Texas, raised in South Dakota, educated in California, and eventually came back home to Texas. He has been dancing for 35 years, and teaching dance for 27 years. After the release of the film Urban Cowboy in the fall of 1980, Dave began teaching the new “country” style of dancing in nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay area. Within a year, he had turned his hobby into a full time professional career.
By 1985, Dave was among a half dozen instructors who initiated what is now known as the Country Western Competitive Dance Circuit. He wrote the first set of rules for competition, as well as the sport’s first scoring system. He was one of the founding members of the United Country Western Dance Council (UCWDC), which is now the sanctioning body for the worldwide Country Dance Championships. As chair of the UCWDC Certification Committee, he initiated the writing of Country’s first dance curriculum by which judges were trained, tested and certified. He later became the Vice President of Rules, authoring the procedures and dance precepts that would form the core of the Country Dance sport. Today, he still sits on the three most important UCWDC Committees: Contest Certification, Rules, and the World Championships.
Through the early years, Dave coached and choreographed for virtually all the champion country dancers. He is a 15 time UCWDC World Championship choreographer and coach, a 5 time Dance Action “Feather Award” winner including “Best Country Dance Choreographer”, ”Best Male Instructor in Country Dance” and “Person with the Most impact in Country Dance.” Dave has also won the UCWDC Star Award for “Favorite Country Dance Instructor” and “Favorite Country Dance Choreographer”. He was the first inductee into the Country Dance Hall of Fame.
He has served as the UCWDC contest director for the Country Dance World Championships for all 15 years of its life span. He stands as a Certified Masters Judge, and is one of four UCWDC Examiners who train and test all judges for certification. He is also a continuing author of the UCWDC Rules and Contest procedures, a continuing author of the 10-point UCWDC dance curriculum, and author and trainer of teachers and students in the Country Social Dance Syllabus.
Today Dave is considered the world’s leading expert on the eight competitive Country dances: two step, waltz, nightclub, triple two, cha cha, polka, east coast swing, and west coast swing. Directly or indirectly, Dave has helped mold every major champion in Country Dance’s competition history. He continues to coach and choreograph for all levels of social and competitive Country dancers all over the world.
DanceMakers is thrilled to welcome Dave Getty as one of our Master coaches. Watch this web site for information on how you can join a Master Class workshop with Dave Getty.
Master Coach
June Mavor
Born in Australia, June Mavor first became interested in dancing as a young girl. Her parents used to take her with them to social and competition dance events where they did Old Time and New Vogue style dancing. When a school of modern Ballroom dance opened in her town, she decided to join a class for fun. It wasn't long before she was teaching in that very school. It was there that she met her husband Roy Mavor. Roy also started out as a student. They competed together, and eventually married.
June and Roy won the Australian Championship in International Style Latin together. They continued to teach, completing the highest level, the Fellowship credential, with the Australian Dance Teachers Association. They lived in England for a while where they competed aggressively and won many prestigious competitions in England and in Western Europe. Later, they moved to Canada and represented that country as finalists in the World 10-Dance Championships in Germany.
Eventually, Roy and June moved to Provo, Utah where they helped to create the Brigham Young University dance program. It was the first, and is still the most successful collegiate dance program in the United States. Within the first year, the BYU dance program grew from 8 couples to 400 students! Under Roy and June’s tutelage, BYU introduced the Bronze, Silver and Gold Medallist system and established the International Style into the curriculum. They created the world renowned Student Formation Teams, coaching them to become the first American team ever to win the British Formation Championships at Blackpool, England.
Today, Mrs. Mavor is retired from competitive dancing, but is still very active as a competition judge and dance coach. DanceMakers is proud to claim June Mavor as one of our internationally acclaimed staff coaches. She is occasionally available for DanceMakers students and their teachers. Ask about master classes.