Coaches
Wendi Davies
Standard
Our Standard Coach is Wendi Davies. Wendi began dancing while at Princeton studying architecture. A competitive swimmer for many years, she was looking for a new competitive outlet. The daughter of dancing parents, she soon learned of the competitive and athletic nature of ballroom dancing. In her amateur career, she was ranked third in the United States. She turned professional in 1991 and went on to be ranked second at the United States Championships, and was the winner of “Championship Ballroom Dancing,” the popular show on PBS. She was the UK Rising Star Champion, Blackpool Rising Star Runner-up, US Representative to the World Championships and Blackpool Team Match, a finalist at the French Open and the US Open Championships, and was ranked 13th in the world.
David & Liva Wright
Standard
David and Liva Wright started dancing competitively while in college; Liva with the Yale Ballroom Dance Team, and David with the Kansai Gaidai University Ballroom Dance Team in Japan during a year abroad. They continued dancing while in medical school and graduate school, respectively. David and Liva began dancing together in 2000 and went on to win the United States National Championship, World Championship, and British Open Championship (Blackpool) in the Senior I field of international style ballroom dancing.
Vlad Astafiev
Latin
Coming soon!
Anita Šmite
Latin
Anita Šmite is our Latin coach and is originally from Latvia. As a competitor, she won many Latvian Championships and was ranked 24th at the World Championships. For the last 18 years, she has coached junior, youth, and amateur dancers who have finaled at the Blackpool Festival. Just recently, she moved to the United States to continue coaching in the northeast. Anita is also a WDSF and WDC world-class judge.