Steve is the studio’s training director. His role involves organizing and conducting daily training for our faculty so they are up-to-speed on the latest specifications for every ballroom dance element, step, and pattern in each of the styles. This ensures our faculty members are teaching correctly and in accordance with worldwide dance standards of excellence. Steve has been teaching ballroom dancing since 1979. He has been teaching at Just Dancing Studio since its beginning in 1987, and is one of the studio’s founders. Widely respected in the ballroom dance community, he has competed in Smooth, Rhythm, Latin, Ballroom and Nightclub styles of dancing, specializing in Ballroom (Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot and Quickstep). Steve enjoys teaching all levels of dancer, from people with no dance experience to experienced competitive dancers. He enjoys sharing the fun, exercise of the body and mind, and the challenge of learning something new with his students as they learn to dance.

Michael Fitzgerald

Michael has been teaching ballroom dance for 15 years. He and his students have received numerous awards at competitions across the country. Michael has extensive experience teaching all levels of dancers, from complete beginners to fellow professionals. He has also served as a guest instructor for Webster University’s Theater Department. He has coached and partnered many prominent local business leaders for Dancing With the St. Louis Stars, winning such awards as “Crowd Favorite” and “Judges’ Favorite”. Along with his wife and professional partner Lucy, he has placed as a finalist in the American Smooth style in over 100 professional competitions nationwide.

Lucy Fitzgerald

Lucy has been dancing since the age of four and teaching ballroom dance for 14 years. While her veteran competitive students consistently win top honors at national events, she is also an expert at helping complete beginners feel comfortable on the dance floor. Lucy and her husband Michael have enjoyed a successful competitive career in the American Smooth style, placing as finalists in over 100 professional competitions across the country. Lucy is also proud to be a six-time Dancing With the St. Louis Stars Champion.

Jane Humphrey

Jane has been teaching weekly Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Swing classes for many years in the St. Louis area. She also teaches wedding choreography, West Coast Swing, Lindy, Charleston, St. Louis Shag , Carolina Shag, Nightclub 2- step, Chalypso, Balboa, Onestep, and other ballroom dances. She trained with Frankie Manning, Simon Selman, Louise Thwait, and Marcus Koch to learn Lindy and studied with Joe Grippe for her certification in Original Imperial Swing Dance Instruction. While competing, she was a finalist in numerous Regional competitions including Missouri State, Illinois Traditional, Midwest Challenge, and St. Louis Swing Invitational as well as The Buddy Austin Invitational in Oklahoma and the Dallas Dance Competition in Texas. Her classes emphasize good partner skills and musical interpretation.

Sterling Lawler

Sterling began ballroom dancing in college because he thought it would be a more elegant way to fulfill his PE requirement than what he refers to as “sportsball”. It was love at first step, and he quickly became a founding member of the William Jewell Ballroom Dance team, began taking extra lessons at a local studio, and attended every dance he could find in the area. Shortly after returning to his native St Louis, Sterling started teaching professionally, specializing in American Smooth. Nearly 7 years later, he has taught hundreds of students all styles of dance, and looks forward to teaching hundreds more as he begins the next stage of his career with Just Dancing.

Senzo Makhaye

Senzo was a South Africa national rhythm champion at age 11, the year he began dancing. From an extended family of dancers in Pine Town, a suburb of Durban, he was a South Africa national international Latin finalist three times. Before coming to the U.S. in 2012, he danced competitively on “Superdance South Africa,” a competition TV series focused on Latin. Senzo, paired with Sue McCollum, won 2014’s Dancing With the St. Louis Stars. He and professional dance partner Agnieszka Strojek have competed in American rhythm since 2012. Their list of championships is growing, with first-place finishes at Florida State Dancesport, Virginia State Dancesport, Wisconsin State Dancesport, and Twin Cities Open in just the past few months. He teaches all ballroom, rhythm and swing dance styles.

Danyelle is the studio’s student and staff development director. In addition to her role as a certified dance instructor, she is responsible for the studio’s dance curriculum and tools, student and staff certification and training, and student group classes strategy and execution. She also teaches popular group classes and wedding couples. Danyelle began her dancing career at a very young age and spent 12 years dancing classical ballet with a professional company prior to switching to ballroom dancing. At Brigham Young University she toured internationally as a member of the university’s ballroom dance company, and competed individually in Ballroom, Smooth and Latin styles. She has trained with professionals from around the world including Oskar Wojciechowski and Karolina Holody, Jonathan Roberts, Valentina Kostenko, Sasha Altukhov and Andre Paramonov. She joined Just Dancing in 2020 and launched a professional American Smooth partnership with fellow studio instructor Jonathan Wolfgram in 2021.

Nina Middendorf

I was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. At age 15 I was introduced to ballroom dancing and fell in love with it. I competed in Germany for four years until I moved to St. Louis and started my career as a ballroom dance instructor at Just Dancing. I have been teaching at Just Dancing now for over 22 years and never lost my passion for the art of dance. My specialty is in making everybody feel comfortable on the dance floor from social dancing, wedding couples and large group lessons to ballroom competitions. In addition, I have been teaching ballroom dancing cotillion to 7th and 8th graders for over 10 years. I especially enjoy the progress my students make with every dance lesson and their growing confidence on the dance floor.

David Nyemchek Jr.

Born and raised in St. Louis, David began dancing as a young boy and started competing at age 16.  He and his dance partner Maysen Wilder soon began working together, achieving distinction as International Latin finalists for USA Dance, Pre Champ winners at the 2015 Ohio Star Ball, and USA Dance National Pre Champ Latin winners for 2016.  David turned pro in 2016 and teaches all styles of ballroom dancing.  In 2019 he and Maysen have earned first place in numerous competitions around the country, including the Desert Classic in Palm Springs, Volunteer State Championships in Nashville, and Heart of America Championships in Kansas City.  “I have decided to make this my career and life and want to share the joy and sense of accomplishment with everyone.”

David Nyemchek Sr.

A dancer for 35 years, well versed in teaching all styles and levels of dancer, David received his training in New York. He was trained in the Latin style by Bob Medeiros, Shirley Ballas and Vernon Brock, and in the Ballroom style by Stephen Hillier, Sonny Bennick and by Jock and Bemil McGregor. David is a National Dance Council of America (NDCA) registered judge and travels throughout the country judging NDCA competitions. He is an original founder of the Just Dancing studio.

Suzy Nyemchek

A dancer of 39 years in all styles, Suzy is an original founder of Just Dancing studio, and loves to teach great lessons incorporating fun and humor.

Diana Roberts

Diana Roberts has won more than 20 professional national dance titles. One of her most prestigious awards includes being a two-time consecutive winner of the “Sammy” award, which is given to the Top Female Pro/Am teacher in North America at the Ohio Star Ball.  Teaching for three nights a week, her classes in American and International Smooth and Latin styles cover all levels from beginning social dance to Gold and Open.  Diana also teaches at St. Louis Ballroom Dancers, Studio B Dance Center in Columbia, and Walters Dance Center in Kansas City. She teaches all levels of dance and also coaches fellow dance instructors.

Rebecca Walthall

Rebecca grew up in St. Louis and began dancing at the age of four in styles such as ballet, tap, jazz, and musical theater. At the age of 15, she was introduced to ballroom and began competing in the style American Smooth. She has gained extensive knowledge and experience in teaching and choreographing for high school and community theater programs. After high school, Rebecca earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Southeast Missouri State University. She has continued to train with elite coaches to progress towards a career as a competitor and instructor. She hopes to spread her love for dance through teaching at Just Dancing.

Maysen is the studio’s dance director. In addition to her role as a certified dance instructor, she is responsible for competition strategy and operations, organizes and executes all studio events, conducts in-house coaching and oversees choreography, and hosts elite coaching opportunities for students. She also teaches popular junior classes and holds an annual kids’ summer dance camp. Maysen has danced since she was two years old, starting in ballet, tap, and jazz. She started learning ballroom dancing in her mid-teens and soon partnered with David Nyemchek Jr., as an amateur Latin couple, earning titles as 2015 Ohio Star Ball Pre-Champ winners and 2016 USA Dance National Pre-Champ champions. Maysen started as an instructor at Just Dancing in 2016, teaching all styles of ballroom to all ages. In 2018, Maysen and David began competing as professionals in the American Rhythm style and over the course of the next few years winning several professional titles at various competitions across the U.S.

Jonathan Wolfgram

Jonathan joined Just Dancing Studio in February 2021 as a dance instructor. He began dancing on the University of Minnesota ballroom team in 2016. He quickly rose through the ranks and won several national championship events in both the collegiate and USA Dance amateur circuits, becoming the 2019 Amateur Pre-Champ Smooth National Champion. Jonathan began training with Yulia Kornilova and Mariusz Olszewski and later moved to New York City to work with professionals from around the world, including Ieva Pauksena, Marat Gimaev, Mayo Alanen, and Travis and Jaimee Tuft. Jonathan has taught competitive dancers and worked with Dancing Classrooms to teach ballroom to underprivileged children. A dance competition DJ and regular columnist for dance magazine Sheer Dance, he moved to St. Louis to begin a new dance partnership and is very excited to be spreading his love for ballroom at Just Dancing.