James Sterner
James grew up in a musical family. Singing, playing instruments and dancing was a part of life. At an early age, he started training in Martial arts which later became a very important asset in his dance training and teaching. James later became the head instructor for the Black Belt academy in Houston, Texas and was responsible to teach the instructors and maintain the quality of their training. Learning balance and mechanics of the body is not an intricate part of teaching people how to dance. Understanding how the body works has given him a great advantage in teaching dance. In college, he majored in music and psychology.
In 1972, James trained at Scott dance studio and became an instructor in dance. He also took personal instruction from one of the greatest instructors in the nation, Chuck Mason. In 1978 he received another teaching degree. He since taught hundreds of people how to dance in many different forms of dance. He has won many awards in dance and specialized in Latin, Swing and smooth dances. He was the instructor for Indy Dancers which became the largest dance club in the central US with over 500 members. He moved to South Carolina in 2000 and dedicated himself to learning and teaching the Shag. He since then has won different Shag contests and has taught along with his partner Donna Rosen, numerous students in the art of Shag. He is known as an extremely smooth dancer, good technician with a great lead and a pleasure to dance with.
Donna Rosen
Donna has an extensive background in dancing. She was on the dance team for Leroy Craton in NYC. She was a very strong competitor in country western dancing in the Ohio area. She for many years has been a professional model which has given her the poise and style which she maintains now in her dance.
She moved to the Carolinas in 1996 and started learning the Shag dance. She started training with Jim in 2004 and became the dancer with her natural ability that she now is. She has won numerous dance contests in the Shag and in 2007 took first place in the Smoothie's contest. She also judges Shag contest every year. She is considered one of the top female dancers in the Shag and is highly known for her style, grace, poise and articulate footwork. When she dances on the floor, people take notice and watch her to see her beauty. Her following capability is next to none. She has the ability of making any man that she dances with look good.
Comments about this couple from others is they add class to the floor. They don't dance on the floor, they glide across the floor. They have grace and beauty on the floor that has not seen before in the Shag world.