Degender Dance

Kate (they/them)

Kate came out as Agender during the pandemic and noticed a disconnect with their Latin dance community. Through personal work and focusing on switch dancing, Kate found solace in dance again with the help of queer community.

With a decade of teaching experience, Kate views dance as a spiritual practice of self-liberation and expression. They believe dance transcends boundaries of gender, orientation, ability, age, shape, or size, serving as a signpost for authenticity.

Partner dance, for Kate, is a universal language offering healing, growth, community, and can dismantle patriarchal norms with every step.

Lou (they/them)

Lou is a gender queer, disabled, trauma survivor and activist who uses partner dance to heal and connect. They bring their skills as a professional media specialist promoting the dance community through photography, design, and video.

Lou started their dance journey just months before the pandemic on the Salsa and Bachata social floors. They quickly fell in love with dance, but didn’t get to connect with their main passion, jazz dances and Lindy Hop, until the pandemic eased in fall of 2021, giving them a unique post pandemic view of dance. During their first Lindy Hop Camp weekend they felt gender dysphoria participating only in the role of a follower, bringing them to decide to pursue leading as their primary role. Continuing to work on their following skills they became an ambi-switch dancer, allowing them to embrace versatility in every dance form they encounter.

Lou believes dance is an incredible modality for change and works to fight systemic harm in our dance communities knowing it will also change the world.