Meet Your Instructor

Dance Instructor- Katherine Hansen

I'm Katherine, a lover of both teaching and dance. I founded the Summerwind Dance Society because I'm following the mantra of "Do more of what you love."

I've been dancing since I was 5 years old; loving and teaching the social aspect of dance for the past 16 years. I specialize in teaching large groups and teaching teens. I am a professional educator and have all clearances required by the State of PA to work with children.

Philosophy

When I was in high school, I barely knew the box step to a waltz. School dances were a bit of a strain. I wanted to attend and for them to be special, but neither me, nor my date (turned boyfriend, turned husband) knew how to engage with the music or each other. Look at my body language in this photo from Homecoming in my senior year: not confident, tentative. By this age, I'd read enough historical fiction novels to know the origins of the high school dance, but didn't have the context to understand why they were so distant from what I expected as a suburban white girl.

So, you grown and you learn, and you make the things your younger self loves.

Once you're in college, you have access to the wider world. After college, you learn how to engage with "grown ups" as equals. Those are both very difficult things for teens to navigate even though there's a healthy urge to move into the adult world. So the dance events *I sponsor* are only for the youths. It's part of my broader mission to create a welcoming, semi-structured place for young men and women to practice treating each other as men and women. Engaging in clear, coordinated, purposeful physical activity is the magic that greases the wheels of conversation and connection. I never put an emphasis on pairing people off, but I want my events to feel like a place where romance could bloom.

I'll note, I'm available for hire and am a fantastic teacher for any age.

My Relationship with Dance

I'm 37 years old, a wife and mother to 2 children. I've been dancing in one form or another since I was 5 years old. Dancing is simple when you're a kid; there's plenty of classes to sign up for. Learning to dance socially has been wonderful for me because it gives me a great way to dance as adult. I value it's intrinsic community focus. We dance together, not in formation, but with each other. We don't perform, we dance to create a shared joy. Personally, I really enjoy adjusting my movements to match those of my partner.

For me social dancing started at the University of Delware, on the Ballroom Dance Team, where I bonded deeply with friends and gained access to a whole dancing world that's often locked behind some very expensive doors. Teaching dance became a way of practicing. Because I was doing it with friends, the hours of training flew by and my skills developed. Beyond the tight knit social cirlce of college, it's been a skill that I can put down and pick up again based on the season of my life. Because I've had such wonderful role models, such as the dancers at Take the Lead Dance Studio in Hockessin DE, I see myself dancing for years and YEARS to come.

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