Professional Coaches
Ikaika Dowsett
Ikaika Dowsett is a top teacher and award winning international ballroom dance coach since 2002. He specializes in international ballroom competitions. He has numerous titles in standard ballroom and produced over 30 national champions in 10 years. His coaching methodology is systems based and he enjoys coaching the dancers to think about frameworks, understand body mechanics, nutrition and cross training, and how to think like an athlete.
Rhett Grant
Rhett Grant has been a coach for the Cal Ballroom team since 2018. He specializes in Latin. He has several national titles in Latin, teaches Latin technique, and offers private lessons to the team.
Student Teachers
Standard
Kat Smoot joined the team in Fall 2019 as an undergrad, and returned in 2021 as a PhD student in plant biology. A Two time USA Dance National Standard Champion, she has a background in ballet, tap, and jazz, and enjoys socially dancing bachata and Lindy Hop. Feel free to ask her any of your houseplant questions, but be warned it could easily turn into an hour long lecture.
Megan Wesche danced ballet from a young age until middle school, then picked up lyrical and contemporary in high school. Additionally, Megan was a competitive figure skater for 11 years! This is their third year on the Ballroom team and they’re excited to continue to learn and teach this style of dance!
Latin
Tiffany Lum danced competitive ballroom in high school at Suckachov Dance Academy and Allegro Ballroom. She took a break from Ballroom and then joined our team in Spring of 2023. Of all the Latin dances her favorite is hands down rumba!
Alexis/Ina Nierotka started dancing at the age of 3 after teachers at their school noticed them watching a beginner ballet class instead of playing with other kids. Once enrolled in ballet, they fell in love and never looked back. You can still find Alexis/Ina dancing ballet with Ballet Company at Berkeley, a student run ballet company on campus. They started dancing ballroom just last semester but instantly loved the style and knew they would keep dancing ballroom to keep their love of dance alive into adulthood. Their favorite ballroom dance is jive!