STACEY HUSTON Choreographer After graduating from UT with a Business degree, Stacey moved to the L.A. area to pursue her passion for dance and musical theater. She attended The University of California at Irvine and graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Dance, Theater and open-by-audition Choreography program. At UCI and an away-program in NYC, she studied dance, voice and acting under such renowned greats as Susan Stroman, Uta Hagen, Donald McKayle and Harry Garland to name a few. It was while she was in school that Stacey “stumbled” on to a Fred Astaire Ballroom Dance studio and joined their training program. She fell in love with the style and has been involved in partner dancing for over 30 years now. She is certified through the highest levels and competed heavily in International Latin for3 years. Her national competition rankings include many top six placements, and upon completion of her competing career in 1998, she was ranked 7th in the U.S. and 13th in the World. She has continued training in, performing, choreographing and instructing ballroom, partnering, jazz and musical theater for over 30 years. Her vast experience includes feature films, television appearances, commercials, special gala events, and stage productions. Her more recent performance work involved live productions in theaters and hotels in California, New York, Philadelphia, and finally overseas on cruise ships. She has quite literally been around the world and back many times over. Stacey calls Austin home and enjoys teaching, coaching and choreographing locally, as well as being a public school teacher and director in Drama, Dance and Theatre. She has choreographed over 25 musicals for youth in Austin. Working with high schools, colleges, community theater, studios and outreach programs remains a strong passion and inspiration in a continued wonderful and blessed career.

Erin Fonner founded the Texas Aggie Swing Cats at Texas A&M University in College Station and taught beginner and intermediate swing dance lessons for several years. As the president of the Swing Cats, she was also the judge for their dance troupe. During the auditions, she danced with a guy named John who would eventually make the team… and become her husband! Together, Erin and John founded NeoSwing, a dance troupe that was invited to perform at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and that was featured on Good Morning Texas. Erin has a deep love for swing dancing because it creates a joyful environment that brings people together and because of its deep roots in our nation’s history. She’s also a huge fan of Big Band music and the fabulous dresses and zoot suits! Erin is excited to share her love for the dance with CYT students!

With a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, John spends his workdays doing high-performance computing for science, but swing dance has been a part of his life since high school. In fact, swing dance is how he met his wife, Erin! John and Erin performed with a swing dance group at the Olympics in Sydney. They have taught swing lessons to numerous highschool and college students over the years, sharing their love for the dance.