Who are we?
Kelsey Rote
Kelsey started dancing tap, jazz, and ballet at the age of five, later adding lyrical, modern, and many others. She first tried partner dancing in college, and focused on Argentine Tango until graduation. She loved the feeling she found in Tango of gliding and flying seamlessly with another person, and would keep trying to find that same feeling in various partner dances later on. After returning from the Peace Corps, she started taking Salsa and Bachata classes, and fell in love with Brazilian Zouk from the first moment she saw it. She started taking classes as part of the first cohort of Zouk dancers in Seattle during the scene’s founding, and has been a passionate member of the Seattle Zouk scene ever since. She currently co-runs the Advanced Zouk Team at Salsa Con Todo in Seattle and travels and teaches with Gui, hoping to imbue others with the feelings of seamlessness, circularity, relaxation, and care she fell in love with.
Gui Prada
Gui started dancing in 2004, but it was not unitl December 2006, when he joined the Jaime Aroxa Dance Studio in Rio de Janeiro that he really focused on partner dancing. For three years, his very intense training schedule included classes from 3 pm to 12 am in all Brazilian partner dance styles, plus Salsa and Tango. For three more years, Gui remained at the studio with a slightly less intense schedule, before leaving to broaden his horizons in 2012. He also fell in love with Argentine Tango in 2009, making annual trips to Buenos Aires to train. In November 2017, he started his teaching career at District Zouk in Washington DC, where he continues to teach. He also created The Universe Behind the Hug workshops and Finding Zouk, which has toured to over 12 cities in the US. His teachings on connection has expanded to Europe, where is the current lead lecturer of Module 7 of the MAC (Method Alex de Carvalho) program in Paris.
How did we come together?
Kelsey and I danced for the first time in 2018. I even have a picture of our first dance!
From the very first dance, we realized that there was something different to it. The way our bodies adjusted to each other and the way Kelsey followed my lead made us realize that we were using a different system, a particular dance technology.
We also realized that we were two people that really - REALLY - enjoy dancing in close embrace. Almost automatically we started investigating what we could do in this position and play with it while social dancing.
Well, it was not hard to get to the conclusion that a match like this doesn't happen every day. Dancing with Kelsey was not only fun, flowy, wonderful, and addictive but also an incredible learning process. We had so many unexpected discoveries that the decision to get together to create was the most natural thing to make.
Would you like to contact us?
If you have any questions about the course, please send an email to [email protected] or contact us personally via Facebook.