Instructors
Hawaii Line Dance Festival 2025 Instructors
No matter where she teaches, Joanne Brady is remembered for her instruction, her humor and her infectious energy! While passing her class, you’ll probably hear, “Yes, Joanne!” coming from the mouths of eager, enthusiastic students; so, it’s no wonder, Joanne has earned herself a star in the dance instructor’s hall of fame! Joanne began teaching 29 years ago, after taking private lessons. She recruited dancers for a weekly TV show “The Country Video Dance Show” in Wilmington, DE and the rest is history!
Joanne has choreographed countless dances and has traveled, extensively, throughout the world. She says her most interesting places to teach have been Singapore, Australia, England, Wales, Scotland, and at the Millennium Dome in England for 27,000 people where 7000 of them were dancers! Even with all her traveling, Joanne still has time to teach 6 dance classes and 2 Senior Exercise Classes a week at home in Delaware.
Joanne is now retired but worked for 16 years teaching moderately to severely handicapped students and worked another 18 years as an administrative secretary in school transportation. When Scooter Lee first met Joanne she told her “You possess a gift which you don’t even know you have”. Prophetic words indeed. If you have had the opportunity and good fortune to meet and learn from Joanne Brady, you know that this is true! Don’t miss taking a class from this comedic dynamo! You’ll be glad you did! You can reach Joanne at: [email protected], Joanne Cummings Brady on facebook or (302) 239-5914.
Darren Bailey is a 15 time World Line Dance Champion in categories such as, Classic, Showcase, Choreography, and Teams.
Darren partnered with Lana Williams in 2006 for the BBC1 Show, Strictly Dance Fever, where they finished as runners ups from a total of 80,000 competitors. Following this Darren, has gone on to work professionally within the entertainment industry, with many choreography and T.V credits to his name.
In 2017 Darren was inducted into the Line Dance hall of fame for his services to Line Dance Choreography and his work promoting Line Dance all over the world. In 2024 Darren was awarded UK Instructor of the Year and the UK Choreographer of the Year in the 28th annual Crystal Boot Awards.
Darren has trained several of the current and previous World Line Dance Champions and continues to train the world champions of tomorrow.
Considered the “Queen of Line Dance”, Jo Thompson Szymanski has made quite an impact on dance floors worldwide. She celebrates over 40 years of teaching line and couples dancing! The whole Thompson family started teaching country couples and line dancing in 1980. Jo’s big break to worldwide fame came in the mid 1990’s through hosting her own show Danceline on The Nashville Network. Many of you might remember Jo’s big Texas hair, tight leggings and cowboy boots! She guest hosted TNN’s Club Dance and the Wildhorse Saloon TV shows as well as dance contests all over the world for Country Music Television (CMT). Jo was Miss Texas 1987, placed top ten at Miss America and holds a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education and Dance. Jo was voted 5 time International Line Dance Instructor of the Year and was one of the first two people (with Max Perry) to be inducted into the Line Dance Hall of Fame at the 1999 UK Crystal Boot Line Dance Awards. She has won many United Country Western Dance Council (UCWDC) Star Awards, Dancer’s Choice Awards and in 2012 was inducted into the UCWDC Hall of Fame. In addition to line and couples dancing, Jo’s teaching and dancing experience includes Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Swing, Salsa, Ballroom, Square Dancing, Round Dancing, Clogging, and Latin. She has taught throughout the world and dances that she choreographed/co-choreographed such as Come Dance With Me, Midnight Waltz, Just For Grins, Dizzy, Jukebox, Splish Splash, Enchantment, Por Ti Sere, Cut-A-Rug, Rita’s Waltz, Jo n Jo Tango, Hideaway Cha, MJ Moves, TGIF, Tango Cha, Dog-gone Blues, Shoes of Another Man, Through the Fire, Showstopper, Kreedom, This Little Light, Wrong Side Slide, Wakey Wakey, Yes! and the list goes on and on and are favorites with dancers everywhere. Jo, along with singer/songwriter Scooter Lee, co-founded Dancing for the Dream Senior Line Dance Charity to help promote the many health benefits of line dancing as we age.
Jo’s life was practically picture perfect! However, in November of 2004, while pregnant, Jo was diagnosed with a very rare, life threatening bone marrow disease, Aplastic Anemia. Also affected were her joints leaving her unable to walk, much less dance! 2 total hip replacements, 5 shoulder surgeries, one knee surgery and a successful bone marrow/stem cell transplant later, Jo is back to dancing, teaching and feels great! She thanks to the dance community for the tremendous support throughout her journey. Jo along with her husband Tim and their daughter Anna live in Denver, Colorado.
Kat Painter started line dancing in 1994 and fell in love with this style of dance. She became an instructor a few years later and has been teaching country line and couples dancing for over 24 years and teaching ballroom dancing for over 18 years. She has been the head dance instructor at Stoney’s Rockin’ Rodeo in Sacramento for the last 15 years and is sought after to teach at various bars and events in California.
Ranked an Advanced competitive dancer in both the World Swing Dance Council and the Country Two-Step Tour, Kat travels regularly to compete and teach at events. She has taught at events such as Stagecoach, Vegas Dance Explosion, Hawaii Line Dance Festival, South Bay Dance Fling, North West Dance Fest, Cambria Western Days, and Fresno Dance Classic, among others. She is proud to have won the ACDA 2021 National Championship Division III title, as well as won the choreography competition at the Vegas Dance Explosion in 2015 and three 1st place awards in the Advanced Two-Step Jack and Jill and West Coast Swing Jack and Jill and Strictly social divisions at the 2018 UCWDC Worlds Championships.
In 2010, she received her B.A. in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography. She is currently the musical theater choreographer for Davis Senior High School in Davis, CA. Kat has studied many types of dance from ballroom, country, and folk to ballet, modern, and swing. She thinks that dance is the best way to keep the mind and body in great shape. Here’s to 20 more years of dancing!!!
Jeffrey started line dancing at the age of 19 back in 1995 after his mom introduced him to the Watermelon Crawl line dance. Since then line dancing has become a passion of his. In late 1996 he started teaching his own classes and traveled around the State of Hawaii making connections with other instructors.
In 2017 Jeffrey attended his first major line dance event called the Vegas Dance Explosion (VDE). In 2019 Jeffrey entered the VDE’s choreography competition (his very first time competing ever) in which he placed 1st in Division 3 which secured a teaching slot for him at the 2020 VDE. Unfortunately, the 2020 VDE was canceled due to Covid-19 but was able to teach at the 2021, 2022, 2023, & 2024 VDE where he got to share the stage with world-renowned line dance choreographers from around the world.
During the start of the Covid pandemic in March of 2020, Jeffrey took to virtual line dance lessons via YouTube Live. He connected the State of Hawaii line dancers twice a week via YouTube Live to do lessons and keep everyone dancing. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel.