Our Teachers

Learn to dance from swing champions! Our all-star cast of dance instructors are competition medalists in swing dances such as Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, Balboa, Shag and Blues. They're dynamic, energetic dancers, as well as fun, professional teachers!

Byron Alley

Byron Alley

Director

Contact Byron

Founder of Swing Dynamite, Byron also co-founded the highly successful Studio 88-Swing in Montreal in 2002, as well as creating Lindy Hoppers Anonymous in Victoria in 2001. He is also a member of Canada's famous Swinging Air Force.

Byron's great passion is social dancing - the spontaneous interaction of two inspired hearts on the dance floor. He also enjoys winning things, and on the competitive side of swing he's won dozens of medals and trophies, including:

As a performer, Byron has been featured on MuchMusic, Radio Canada's Match des étoiles, TVA, Rogers, ATV and in the Movie Gleason (2003). He's choreographed and danced in shows including the National Arts Centre with the NAC Orchestra, Ottawa's Parliament Hill on Canada Day, the Fallsview Casino, the Casino du Lac Leamy, the Casino de Montreal, and the Salle Wilfred Pelletier at la Place des arts, not to mention numerous other performances in Canada and the US.

Teaching swing since 1999, Byron has given classes across Canada and in the US, including:

Known for his emphasis on partner connection and the original swing spirit, on the dance floor Byron combines vintage Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues dancing, and Balboa, creating a dance ranging from smooth and subtle to dynamic and creative. Byron is also known as one of Canada's foremost swing aerials experts.

Byron speaks English and French fluently. He's working on his Spanish and Chinese!

Natalia Rueda

Natalia Rueda

Artistic Director

Contact Natalia
"Better than Nutella!"

A full-time dance teacher, Natalia's many competition awards include winning first place at the Canadian Swing Championships two years in a row, earning six 1st places in 2010 alone and having won 1st place in almost every style of dance represented at CSC! Born in Colombia, Natalia grew up dancing Salsa and Merengue. As she puts it, "I never went to a party where people didn't know how to partner dance until I came to Canada!" Luckily, as soon as Natalia arrived in Canada, she discovered swing dancing, rising quickly to become one of Canada's top swing dancers. While her first swing love is Lindy Hop, she's developed a sweet spot for Blues, West Coast Swing, Charleston, Shag and Balboa. In short: everything swing!

Coach and choreographer for every Swing Dynamite team except for the D-Boyz, Natalia began her career as a choreographer in Colombia, where her song and dance routines won dozens of 1st place prizes. She also won 1st place in her provincial cheerleading championships, making her a natural for swing acrobatics! Not only is she a Lindy Hop champion, she's been seen performing on stage with the National Arts Centre Orchestra at the NAC, at the Fallsview Casino, the Casino du Lac Leamy, on TV with Rogers and ATV, as well as numerous other performances!

As a teacher, Natalia's known for her positive energy and her ability to inspire her students to push themselves. Students appreciate how Natalia's precise feedback helps them learn, and they rave about how her enthusiastic encouragement makes it all worthwhile. Natalia's taught a wide range of ages, including children and teens aged 7-17, in groups as large as over 200 people!

Natalia's been invited to teach at a number of major events:

Natalia speaks English and Spanish fluently, and she's working on her French!

Olivier Henchiri

Olivier Henchiri

Teacher and Coach

Contact Olivier
"The O-Train"

Coach of Swing Dynamite's Rhythm Blasters team, Olivier co-choreographed the very first routine that Swing Dynamite ever performed. "O-Train" Henchiri has been known in Ottawa for years for his innovative Charleston moves that have inspired his Rhythm Blasters choreographies as well as his social dancing. Since 2002 he's done an enormous amount of travelling to social dance at major swing events across North America, which has helped to fuel his passion for the dance and his creativity on the dance floor. His dance students love his sense of humour, his knowledge and precision when he explains technique, and the way his passion for social swing dancing makes classes fun.

As co-founder of the University of Ottawa Swing Club (SwingUO) in 2003, he was responsible for a major expansion of Ottawa's swing dancing community. Olivier is also a classically-trained cello player specializing in Baroque music, and a dedicated member of the Ottawa Baroque Consort ensemble. He also loves to play jazz, and his musical talents are obvious in his swing dancing. As he puts it modestly, "so I know where the one is," but his powerful musicality is obvious in his dancing and choreographies.

With his natural style, easy smile and music background, Olivier is a natural for performance, competition and choreography. Some of his credits include:

Before joining the Swing Dynamite teaching crew, Olivier began his teacher career at the University of Ottawa swing club. In addition to his regular classes at Swing Dynamite, Olivier's teaching credits include:

Olivier speaks French and English fluently, as well as some Spanish!

Travis Matte

Travis Matte

Teacher

Travis is one of Swing Dynamite's most senior members and one of Ottawa's most impressive dancers. He was a founding member of TNTeam and the Atomic Crew, starting with the very first Team Challenge in 2006 performing the "Shout 'n Feel It" choreography. As a university student, he discovered Youtube as a never-ending source of inspiration, and he admits to looking kind of silly copying moves in his living room. Still, with a growing collection of wins from the Canadian Swing Championships and a number of other competitions, it seems to be working! As a jazz musician and music teacher, he incorporates his love of playing jazz into his dancing to make his movements a living creation in the moment.

Travis has performed countless times on stage, in competition, and on TV, including:

In addition to swing, Travis has been teaching guitar for many years, giving him a wealth of teaching methods that have easily translated to swing instruction. He's taught at many local venues and events:

Particularly in love with Lindy Hop, Blues, Charleston and Balboa, Travis aims to make every dance a comfortable, and--most of all--fun experience.

Laura Smith

Laura Smith

Teacher

A recent import from Kingston, Laura already had quite a bit of swing teaching experience even before joining Swing Dynamite! She was Dance Instruction Co-ordinator for the Queen's Swing Club in 2007-2008, where she developed the overall teaching strategy for the club that year, including training and evaluating new teachers.

In addition to her strong teaching background, Laura's showcased her dancing ability in a number of contests:

Laura's swing teaching and leadership experience include:

Bill Ewanick

Bill Ewanick

Teacher/Assistant Coach

As one of Swing Dynamite's top dancers, Bill is a member of four Swing Dynamite teams, which he also helps to coach: the highly competitive TNTeam, the explosive Rhythm Blasters, the badass D-Boyz, and the innovative Jam Crew. In 2007 Bill took both the Hardcore and the Attitude awards at the Canadian Swing Championships, only to return in 2008 to take top three placement at both the Canadian Swing Championships and the American Lindy Hop Championships! He's performed with Swing Dynamite at many events for clients including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, the Canadian War Museum, the Bytowne Museum, and the city of Gatineau, as well as with the teams at CSC and ALHC. In addition to teaching and performing with Swing Dynamite, Bill was also the founder and President/Teacher of Carleton Swing Dance Club. Bill believes that in swing, having fun always comes first... and speed and attitude are part of what makes it fun!

A highly competitive dancer in Lindy Hop, Bill is also one of Canada's top Shag dancers. He's won some impressive awards:

Known for his humourous, boisterous teaching style, Bill's taught swing at a number of events and venues:

Bill's all about being awesome, aggressive and... alliterative.

Gabrielle Desmarais

Gabrielle Desmarais

Teacher

Although currently Swing Dynamite's youngest teacher, Gabrielle is one of our most senior dancers. She won her first major competition award with the Dynamite Girls in 2007 at the Canadian Swing Championships, and ever since then she's been one of Ottawa's local stars! Gabrielle is also one of Ottawa's top Balboa dancers, having taken first place at the Canadian Swing Championships!

Gabrielle has a lot of impressive competition awards as well as performance experience, including:

Gabrielle's known for her friendly, easy-going teaching style, which she's refined teaching at a lot of local venues and events:

Gabrielle speaks English, French and Spanish--which is her minor at the University of Ottawa.

Scott Piffard

Scott Piffard

Teacher

Scott feels that he was somehow born in the wrong era--and that swing dancing is probably the best way he can connect with some of those good old-fashioned sensibilities. Scott's swing dancing story started and continues with his obsession with trying new things. He began dancing with the Carleton Swing Club and soon jumped into Shag dancing with Shag Explosion. After joining Swing Dynamite with the Lindy Hop team, the Rhythm Blasters, he's since trained with TNTeam, and began dabbling with West Coast Swing only to also join our Westie Bombers team! Lately he's become positively ecstatic about dancing the Hustle.

Teaching and leadership experience:

Scott's been seen dancing around town! Some of his performance and competition experiences include:

Claudia Petrilli

Claudia Petrilli

Event Director/Teacher

When Claudia moved to Ottawa and began swing dancing, she'd already been dancing Salsa for many years in Colombia. She was the very first member of SwingUO, the University of Ottawa's swing dance club, and soon she became a member of the OSDS executive, where she began teaching lessons, DJing and organizing some of the biggest events that Ottawa has seen, including C-DEX (the Canada Day Exchange) and several epic anniversary parties. Claudia was the initial brainchild behind the all-girl dance project that eventually became the Dynamite Girls, and she was with the Dynamite Girls for their very first competitive win! Claudia is now a member of both the Rhythm Blasters Lindy Hop team and the Westie Bombers West Coast Swing team. House DJ and organizer of Ottawa's Saturday Night Swing dances, Claudia has taught and DJed extensively at all of Ottawa's swing dance nights, including OSDS and the Boathouse.

Claudia's love of vintage jazz, blues and gospel music has made her a very well-respected DJ, and she receives regular invitations to spin at major events such as the Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous, the Montreal Balboa Revue, the Canadian Balboa Championships, Canadian Swing Championships, Followlowgie, From Montreal With Love Blues Exchange - Montreal, QC 2007, the Waterloo MezzJelly Blues Exchange, and other events in Toronto, Kingston and more.

Claudia is one of the most versatile dancers in Swing Dynamite, with a love of Lindy Hop, Balboa, Shag, West Coast Swing and Blues dancing.

Some of Claudia's dance credits include:


Warning: include(bios/claudia-petrilli.en.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/b/y/r/byronalley/html/teachers.en.php on line 33

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'bios/claudia-petrilli.en.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php') in /home/content/b/y/r/byronalley/html/teachers.en.php on line 33
Sari Zelenietz

Sari Zelenietz

Teacher

Power Girl

In Swing Dynamite, Sari is known for her ability to make things happen, whether it's teaching, performing, or coaching. She's a senior member of the Dynamite Girls, an assistant coach for the acrobatic Lindy Hop team TNTeam, and a founding member of the Westie Bombers, which makes her one of Ottawa's most versatile dancers. Her friendly attitude makes her fun to learn from, and her analytical eye and ability to break things down really help demystify the dance experience! Ironically, Sari didn't enjoy her first dance experiences: as a kid she hated ballet so much she'd hide when it was time for lessons (although she says she really liked the outfit!) She's since discovered a love of swing dancing, including Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, Balboa and Charleston!

Sari's competition awards show her versatility in mastering Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing and Balboa. Some of her past competition wins and major performances have included:

Sari's swing teaching and leadership experience include:

Alec Mills

Alec Mills

Teacher

In September 2002, Alec tentatively handed $10 for a membership to the Queen's Swing Club. The club rep said "It's the best $10 you'll ever spend." More than 7 years later, Alec has now logged over 2000 hours dancing, teaching and loving swing with no end in sight. Having taught and trained teachers at both McGill and Queen's Universities, he is known for inspiring dancers of all levels to feel and express music in new and exciting ways.

In the little time he spends outside of swing, he makes a living watching you with satellites.

He's danced with the following teams:

He's also won the following awards:

He's been an invited instructor at the following events:

Alec has also been asked to perform at events across Canada: