Hoedown Staff
Schedule (as a table) | Schedule (as a list) | Dance Rooms
Social Events | Dance Teams

Rowdy DuFrene 

Rowdy has been dancing, teaching, judging, and coaching for over 30 years.  He is fluent in all dance styles but specializes in Country and Swing.  Rowdy travels all over the world teaching, coaching, and judging dance competitions.  He has won over 20 Professional Dance Championships and placed as high as 2nd at the Country Dance World Championships.  He has danced in the highest professional division of Country dancing, Masters, and is also a former America’s Classic Professional Champion.  Rowdy loves teaching new students and seeing them get excited when they realize how much they are progressing in their dancing and how fun it really is!

Rowdy will be teaching TBD.

Michelle Badion 

Michelle Badion has been teaching partner dance full time in Seattle for over 30 years.  She started in ballroom and quickly became enamored with Salsa, West Coast Swing, Country and Argentine Tango and today she still loves all partner dancing and especially loves teaching it.  Her deep understanding of style, technique, and what makes each dance unique makes her classes accessible and fun for everyone.

Michelle will be teaching TBD

Barb Buys 

Barb fell in love with dancing at the age of 9 and teaching at the age of 16.  She began teaching folk dance at a local university and hasn’t stopped since.  She has been dancing and teaching country-western since 1991 and West Coast Swing for the past 3 years.  She was a performing member with Cascade Cloggers and was a founding member of Women Who Clog Too Much, where she performed in both Washingtons for over 8 years.  She teaches skiing, tennis, mountaineering, and works as a life coach.  She is passionate about facilitating fun and success in any medium but especially on the dance floor.

Barb will be teaching TBD

Rick Dominguez

Rick has been a country-western DJ for over 20 years.  He has taught and choreographed line dances for the past 19 years in the Los Angeles area, merging pop and country styles into a unique style of dance.  Rick is also the founder and lead choreographer for the award-winning line dance troupe, The LA Wranglers, now in its twelfth year.

Rick will be teaching the line dances TBD

Jim Drew 

Jim Drew has been dancing country-western for 30 years and teaching for 25 years.  He has performed with and chroegraphed for several dance teams, including the Rain City Rhythm Riders.  He has taught regular lesson series in San Francisco and Seattle, plus workshops each year at the Emerald City Hoedown and at Sundance Stompede and the IAGLCWDC annual convention hoedown.  He competed in line dance at the World OutGames in Montreal, Copenhagen (where he won two gold medals), and Miami.

Jim will be teaching TBD

Terry Felts 

Terry Felts has been dancing for going on ten years now, having started at Timberline Spirits.  Once she started dancing, she was hooked!  Terry loves both line and couples dancing.  She has branched into teaching and DJing to share this fun and camaraderie with others.  She has also performed with the Rain City Rhythm Riders.  Mostly, she is proud to be a member and supporting cast of the Rain Country Dance Association.

Terry will be teaching TBD.

Klint Kendrick 

Klint Kendrick started country-western dancing over a decade ago when a man mistook his cowboy hat for dance ability and dragged him onto the floor for a spin.  Once Klint learned to dance, he found others also mistook the cowboy hat for competence and asked him to teach them a few moves.  The ever-present cowboy hat has lulled enough dancers into a false sense of security that Klint now gets the chance to teach others that a cowboy hat and a smile can get them mistaken for experts, too.

Klint will be teachingTBD

Hallie Kuperman 

Hallie Kuperman has been teaching social dance since 1994.  She began teaching under the company name Swing Girls, which was dedicated to teaching “lesbian, gay, bi, and non-homophobic folks”.  From there, she opened the Century Ballroom in 1997 and hasn’t stopped dancing since.  Currently she teaches Salsa, West Coast Swing, and all of the Queer classes when they are offered.

Hallie will be teaching TBD.

Ari Levitt 

Ari has been teaching and performing social dance nationally and internationally for over 25 years, including numerous workshops throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, as special guest instructor to Stanford University, as director of “Waltz Week in Vienna”, and as the innovator and director of “New Zealand Dance Adventure”.  As an instructor, he is well known for his clear, energetic, fun teaching style, for his detailed attention to connection and partnership, and for his ability to translate even the most complex dance moves into simple, understandable instructions.  In addition, he is highly regarded for his innovation and pioneering in the world of “fusion” dance — a form which borrows elements from one style and blends them fluidly into another, as well as for his work as a physician in the field of “experiential” wellness and dance therapy — using dance movement, balance, body awareness, and connection as a modality for diagnosing and treating individuals and couples.  You can learn more about Ari and see examples of night club two-step, waltz, swing, blues, fusion, and other dances on his website at www.rolluptherug.com.  Ari is very excited to be returning to Emerald City Hoedown for his third year where he looks forward to sharing his joy and love of dance with you.

Ari will be teaching TBD.

Michael Metzger 

Michael Metzger began dancing in 2005 and immediately felt like he had finally come home.  Within a couple years he began teaching, and not long after he began choreographing his own line dances.  He loves bringing the joy of line dancing to as many people as possible, and enjoys creating dances of various styles and difficulty levels.  Something for everyone.  He looks forward to seeing you in class, dancing, playing, and laughing.

Michael will be teaching the line dances TBD.

Ain Milner 

Ain Milner never guessed that an invitation for drinks at the Cuff back in 2017 would lead her to discover her passion in life, but that's exactly what happened when she first saw the line dancers.  She was soon learning dances from the Rain Country instructors and attending local events, and then started traveling for line dance events in 2019.   When not attending events across the country, Ain regularly dances with (and occasionally teaches at) Rain Country, not to mention at bus stops, supermarket aisles (yes, at least once with Sheba), and practically anywhere music is played. She is honored to have been invited to teach for the first time at the Emerald City Hoedown.

AIn will be teaching the line dances TBD

Rob Ollander-Krane 

Rob grew up hating country music until one day, he walked into a gay bar and saw a group of men doing the two-step.  Country music and two-stepping have been his obsession ever since… and he has the cowboy drag to prove it.  Rob joins us from Palm Springs where he teaches at Trunks.  He also teaches at Sundance Saloon in San Francisco and has taught here at the Emerald City Hoedown for the last few years.

Rob will be teaching TBD.

Sheba Thone 

Sheba Thone is a 30-something line dancer who only loves the Lord, her husband, her dog Nin, and the Emerald City more than line dancing… sometimes.  Sheba started line dancing in 2011 when she was invited by a friend from church to check out a local lesson in Tucson, AZ.  She was hooked from the first 8-count and hasn’t looked back since.  She can frequently be found line dancing in stores, restaurants, and other public places whenever she “hears” a dance she knows, and sometimes her husband has to remind her she’s not at an event.  She line dances as often as she can, and when she’s not line dancing, she’s wishing was line dancing.  She is honored to be invited to teach at the Emerald City Hoedown again and hopes no one will hold all the errors she will undoubtedly make against her.

Sheba will be teaching the line dances TBD

Pete Winowitch 

Pete has been teaching for Rain Country afor about fourn years.

Pete will be teaching the line dance TBD.

Ingu Yun 

Ingu DJs and occasionally teaches at the Sundance Saloon in San Francisco, one of the largest LGBT county-western clubs in the country.  He has also been a DJ and instructor at various community events around the country and internationally, including IAGLCWDC conventions and RSVP cruises.  He is the president of the Sundance Association for Country-Western Dancing, the non-profit organization that produces Sundance Saloon and the famous Sundance Stompede.

Ingu will be teaching TBD.

Mr. Kate Bovitch 

Mr. Kate Bovitch has been two-stepping for a a couple years.  Their interest in partner dancing started with East Coast Swing in a western-themed Irish pub on the island of Okinawa when they were in high school.  They regularly DJ for Rain County.

Mr. Kate will be DJ in TBD

Richard Dominguez 

Jim DJs for Rain Country at the Cuff Complex in Seattle, and has DJ’ed country at the Seattle Eagle, Swank (Kent), and Neighbours Nightclub as well.  Outside of Seattle, Jim has DJ’ed for Club Bolo and at the 1st World OutGames in Montréal, and at hoedowns in Virginia Beach, Tampa, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

Jim will be DJ in tTBD

Jim Drew 

Jim DJs for Rain Country at the Cuff Complex in Seattle, and has DJ’ed country at the Seattle Eagle, Swank (Kent), and Neighbours Nightclub as well.  Outside of Seattle, Jim has DJ’ed for Club Bolo and at the 1st World OutGames in Montréal, and at hoedowns in Virginia Beach, Tampa, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

Jim will be DJ in TBD

Terry Felts 

Terry Felts has been dancing for going on ten years now, having started at Timberline Spirits.  Once she started dancing, she was hooked!  Terry loves both line and couples dancing.  She has branched into teaching and DJing to share this fun and camaraderie with others.  She has also performed with the Rain City Rhythm Riders.  Mostly, she is proud to be a member and supporting cast of the Rain Country Dance Association.

Terry will be DJ in TBD

Keith Gehrig 

Keith Gehrig began two-stepping and line dancing in Long Beach at Floyd’s in 1985.  He moved to the Northwest in 1987 and began dancing with DJ Jim Detwiler and teacher Maxcy Moon.  He helped open the original Timberline and started square dancing that same year.  During the ’90s, he got distracted by other things but returned when Timberline Spirits opened.  He started attending Cuff Country regularly to pick up the line dances he’d missed, he hasn’t left, and now he’s in the DJ booth, too.

Keith will be DJ in TBD

Shana Glennon 

Shana has DJ’ed for the Emerald City Hoedown for about 3 years.

Shana will be DJ in TBD

Ari Levitt 

DJ bio here.

Ari will be DJ in TBD

Ray Nutter 

Ray Nutter started country dancing in San Diego (at the straight bars), but quickly landed at the Timberline when coming up (and coming out) to Seattle in the mid-90s.  He’s also a regular at Cuff Country on Friday nights.  Ray is the newest member of our DJ team, taking to it like a cowboy to his saddle!

Ray will be DJ in TBD

Chayla 
(Hoedown Chair)

Jim Drew 
(Programming)

Pete Winowitch 
(Title)

Ray Nutter
(Hospitality)

Mr. Kate Bovitch
(Registration)  

Rema
(Volunteers)  

Zac Baker
(Communications)  

Vern Harner
(Graphic Design)