About SWAY

A Dance Community for Everyone

Sway Dance Chicago has been bringing learners of all levels to the dance floor since it was first established by Teresa Swanson in 2010. People of all ages, backgrounds, and dance histories have made Sway their go-to for achieving whatever their dance goals may be.
At Sway Dance, we pride ourselves in providing casual but quality instruction to keep our sessions relaxed, fun, and productive! Sway will help you bring the love of movement into your life in whatever way works best for you and your learning style. If you want to meet and dance with new people in a laid back environment, Sway offers group classes. If you want the individualized attention of one-on-one instruction, Sway offers private lessons where you can choose both your schedule and what you'd like to learn.
Every student at Sway Dance has a different goal in mind when they walk through the front door. Some are preparing for their wedding dance, some for an island vacation, some are getting ready to hit the stage, some just want to turn one of their left feet into a right foot. Whatever your goal may be, Sway instructors are ready to design a plan just for you!

Meet Our Fabulous Team

This page is in progress. Will update soon!

Sophia

Sophia is a native Chicagoan. Her love for dance started in third grade when she learned Salsa at her friend's birthday party. In high school she was a Varsity cheerleader at Gordon Tech where she helped choreograph routines. It wasn't until 2006 that she decided to try out other Latin and Ballroom dances. From that moment forward, she was hooked and performed in many show dance routines as well as assisted with choreography. Sophia has also successfully competed in formation competitions.

Sophia keeps her passion for dance alive at Sway Dance by performing and choreographing for our performance groups.

Shelby

Kat began her journey with Latin and Ballroom dancing when she was just a middle-schooler looking for a way to pass some time after school. She immediately fell in love with countless aspects of the world of dance but none more so than the beauty of nonverbal communication. Despite her participation in various performance groups and singles formations throughout the years - her favorite part of learning and teaching dance will always be simply dancing with another person.

An extrovert to the core: if not at Sway, you can find Kat behind various bars throughout the city slinging drinks and exchanging laughs and stories with all sorts of humans. Dancing is one of the skills Kat is most proud to have, but her deepest passion is undoubtedly simply working with people.

Alejandro

Alejandro grew up dancing with his family. Merengue, Salsa, Boleros, Paso doble. He has been a member of Tierra Colombiana Folkloric Dance Company for over 15 years where he dances Cumbia, Mapale, Pasillo, Puya, San Juanero, Currulao, Bambucco and more. His favorite social dance is the Bachata.

When he's not dancing you'll find him spending time with his dogs, a Chihuahua Terrier and a French Mastiff. He spends his days working as a medical assistant.

Aynsley

Aynsley is a native Chicagoan who has been a performer and dancer since she was a little girl. She began her dancing career as the captain of her competitive dance team when she was in middle school and continued her love for dance throughout high school where she was on Lane Tech’s Dance team and would leave school early to attend school-credited dance classes downtown. She was trained in ballet, jazz, and hip hop by instructors at Joffrey Ballet, Gallery 37, and After School Matters (ASM).

She has her B.S. degree in Psychology with a minor in Criminology, and will be attending a doctoral program in the Fall(2023) to obtain her degree in Occupational Therapy.

She believes that dance is not only something that is fun and a way to celebrate but can be very healing and is a beautiful form of self-expression. She also believes that anyone can dance, and once you’re a dancer you will always be a dancer.

Alex

Coming Soon

Isaac

Coming soon

Teresa

Teresa grew up dancing in central Iowa. While studying at ISU, her choreography was chosen to represent the school twice at the National College Dance Festival. She was awarded the Dance Magazine Award for Best Student Choreographer for her piece Siren, which was performed at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.

After studying Ballet, Jazz, Tap and Modern her entire life, Teresa was tricked into teaching Latin, Ballroom and Swing when she moved to Chicago and answered a job listing for a “dance teacher”. She arrived in a leotard and tights to find a beautiful ballroom instead of ballet barres and fell madly in love.

Teresa opened Sway Dance Chicago in 2010. The classes at Sway Dance run the gamut from Ballroom, Latin, and Swing partner dances at all levels to personalized choreography in any style to group performance classes with and without partners. Each class or private lesson is imbued with the same enthusiasm for movement that brought Teresa to dance in the first place. At Sway, the goal is to give students an opportunity to let go of their hectic lives for a few hours and fall in love with dancing.

Teresa’s strengths include: forgetting why she walked into a room, quoting Steve Martin movies and tripping over nothing. Teresa’s weaknesses include: taking herself seriously and writing bios.