Michelle Badion – Dance Instructor

You are stepping into the right class, if Michelle is your teacher. She worked with me as a new dancer, from beginning Salsa and beginning Tango, all the way through learning advanced Salsa and advanced Tango.
Michelle communicates clearly, and cares about her students. As she works with students, she notices what particular suggestions her students need in order to take their skills to the next level, while in a group class or in a private lesson.
You’ll find that Michelle knows how to teach just about any style of dance that you want to learn. She is approachable for asking questions. Most importantly, she makes learning how to dance a fun experience.

I have never been a dancer, or tried partner dance or couples dance in my life. Since I was getting married and my soon to be husband and I wanted to have a special wedding dance /​first dance at our wedding, I decided to take private dance lessons with Michelle. She was a wonderful and encouraging dance teacher and made it fun and easy to learn. Her choreography even included a special «dip» at the end of the song to make the dance romantic! I highly recommend all engaged couples to check out Michelle for their wedding dance. We danced swing to Hall and Oats– «You Make My Dreams Come True» and all our guests loved it, mostly because they could see we were having a blast thanks to Michelle’s great teaching. She’s fun, and you’ll like dancing with her!

Just had a private dance lesson to get ready for our first dance at our wedding. Michelle was great. We went to her house/​studio and she just threw us in. She listened to the song and decided on a dance that would be easy and work with the song as well.
She worked with us for an hour having us do our parts separately then together. We learned the basic moves, an intro, a couple twirls/​spins and an exit dip. She was great and definitely made us fell better about our first dance. We would definitely recommend her if you fell you need dance lessons for your first dance.
We heard about Michelle through another couple that went to a private wedding lesson with her. After one lesson we felt much better and it was definitely work it!

Michelle is without a doubt the most versatile and talented partner dance instructor in the Seattle area. She teaches Argentine tango, West Coast Swing, Salsa, and several other dance forms with unrivaled clarity and joy. I have been taking private lessons and group classes with Michelle for about 18 months, and having taken both private and group lessons from other teachers, it is obvious that Michelle understands both how to teach as well as how to dance.

Had my first private lesson today for Tango. I am currently taking weekly group lessons with Koa Hons and Vivian Konstantakos at Belltown Dance Studio. But after telling my hair dresser whom is also a dancer that I’m learning Tango. She pretty much told me, «If you’re taking this seriously, you’d better take private lessons — cause Tango’s hard stuff.»
So I found Michelle on youtube performing with my teacher at folklife… very impressed. Made an appointment right away.
I think group lessons are extremely important too, to get your feet wet in the dance, and it gives you a chance to make mistakes on new material as well as know the dynamics of different partners. But private lessons irons out your kinks to perfection — and Michelle is very good at that. In the first lesson, she iron out my kinks in the basic walk, even my imperfections in the embrace. Taught me a couple new steps and transitioning. Taught me a couple combos. I ended up dancing 3 songs straight through with everything I learned up to then. When the lesson was over, it was a no-​brainer… I’m signing up as a regular student. I agree with my hair-​dresser… private lessons is essential to anyone taking this seriously.
I will continue on the group lesson to learn new moves, make the rounds with multiple partners… supplement with private lessons to work out kinks and learn how to mesh into an actual dance.

Michelle is pure magic. She is much of the reason I’ve kept up dancing for the past several years. While other instructors are, well, serious and stuffy, Michelle is super fun with lots of energy. She is highly trained, but doesn’t act like she knows more than anyone in the state (although she probably does). She makes you feel comfortable, which is so important when you are starting to learn to dance. It’s a scary thing, putting yourself out there, afraid to step on your partner, or to look like a fool. Learning to dance with Michelle completely destroys any of these negative thoughts, and quite the opposite… you feel like a prince (ss). Oh, and her laugh is infectious. I guarantee that you will look forward to class every week and want to hit the Seattle dance venues for practice.

Learning to Tango and swinging to Salsa are some of the best ways to get exercise and love doing it. Michelle helps make fumble-​footed folks into graceful dancers and does it with humor and high energy. She has classes going on in several different places and at affordable prices. If the idea ever crossed your mind to try a bit of dancing, then Michelle will make it a painless and enjoyable process. Look for her classes in DiscoverU and the UW Experimental College.