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INSTRUCTORS
Sommer Gentry
Felipe Beltran
Jon Lee
Emily Kessler + Mackenzie Katz of Live Laugh Line Dance
Rafal Pustelny
Sugarfoot
Tenaya Kelleher of UEVR Line
Instructor Bios
Sommer Gentry
Sommer loves many kinds of partner dancing, especially to country music! She has competed in the national country dance circuit: two step, polka, waltz, cha cha, and swing. She has been a Lindy Hop pro teacher and performer and placed multiple times in the American Showcase division of the American Lindy Hop Championships. She now runs a weekly two step lesson series @2stepnyc
Felipé Beltran
Felipe is a dancer and instructor based in New York, originally from Colombia. He has been sharing his love for Latin Hustle since 2016, teaching workshops in different countries around the world like the USA, Canada, Colombia, UK, Japan and Taiwan. He has recently competed and won 1st Place in the Professional Just Hustle category at the New York Hustle Congress, Disco America, the New Jersey Hustle Congress and LA Hustle Congress.
Rafal Pustelny
Rafal Pustelny is a vibrant dancer and instructor who is passionate about traditional dances from all around the world! Rafal grew up in Poland and moved to NYC in 2010 where he studied Vernacular Jazz dance forms, Tap, Clogging, Hungarian folk dances, and Polish folk dances. He continued his Polish folk dance education as a member of Polish American Folk Dance Company where he learned and performed dances from various regions of Poland.
Rafal continues his own dance education by studying Tap, Clogging, Hungarian folk dances, and Polish folk dances. As a performer, he works with several regional groups, including “Lindy Air”, “Gatsby Entertainment,” “The Vanaver Caravan,” “Project Connect”, “Polish American Folk Dance Company” and “Harvest Moon Hoppers”, as well as community events and corporate parties. A Frankie Manning Foundation Ambassador, he teaches and performs locally with “You Should Be Dancing” studios. You can also find him at international events where he works with dance communities across the globe.
Tenaya Kelleher
Tenaya Kelleher is an NYC based choreographer, teacher, and founder of UEVR Line (est. Jan 2022). She has choreographed dances such as Escapade, Better Be Tough and Autonomy, among many others. Her class encourages dancers to push themselves to try, to trust their feet and to not be afraid to make mistakes! She focuses on bringing off-the-beaten-path dances to the room, and tapping into that particular flow state that only line can offer.
Emily Kessler
Emily Kessler (she/her) is a choreographer and dance-based artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She has been obsessed with the community and freedom that queer line dancing has given her since a friend brought her to dance behind the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant in 2023. She regularly taught line for Stud Country and now for SCUFF, and has guest taught for places such as UEVR Line, Buck Wild, 90mil, Honky Tonkin’ in Queens, Sundance Reno Round-Up, and the Emerald City Hoedown among others. She choreographs under Live Laugh Line Dance with Mackenzie Katz, and she is a founder of the NYC Round-Up along with Spencer Pond.
Jon Lee
Jon Lee is the director/choreographer for the award-winning Manhattan Prairie Dogs! If you’ve seen them, you love them, if you haven’t…well get on the stick!! When he is not flicking his heels and twirling his skirt in a Prairie Dog routine he can be found in New York City flicking his heels and twirling his skirt at the Big Apple Ranch. Jon is one of the producers of the Big Apple Ranch, along with Susanna Stein.
Mackenzie Katz
I showed up to Tenaya's class in 2023 curious about line dancing. Turns out it became my lifeline when everything else was falling apart. Now I'm completely obsessed and thankful to be able to choreograph with Emily Kessler under Live Laugh Line Dance. What drives me is helping people find that same joy I discovered when I desperately needed it. It’s a pleasure to boot scoot with y'all sexy angels.
Sugarfoot
Sugarfoot is a french-filipinx line dance instructor, choreographer, and founder of Buck Wild -- a twice-weekly queer line dance event co-run with her counterpart Spitfire in NYC. Her original choreography has gained laurels at WWLA, The Edge and Sunshine N’ Line, winning 3rd place for her dances When Did You Get Hot? and DIME, 2nd place for her dance Babygirl, and most recently, 1st place and Overall Champion at WWLA for her dance THE FOOL. After performing at Stagecoach and Austin City Limits last year, she opened for Shaboozey at Terminal 5 where Buck Wild performed and debuted original choreography Travel On. Her latest choreography includes Skin to Skin, Devil Don’t Dance, Purple Hat, Do The Rodeo, Cowboy Baby, Coming Your Way, Lunch Money and Slow Dancin’. She continues to host and teach workshops in collab with fellow queer events and choreographers, but is mostly found dancing locally, gaily enveloped by her community.
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