Casey Kasem ran the dance where Jonathan and Sylvia met, and when  Casey saw Jonathan and Sylvia dancing together he invited them to come  dance on his teen dance show Shebang!  Jonathan and Sylvia then caught  the eye of Dick Clark, who invited the pair to come dance on his show  American Bandstand.  So, very quickly, Jonathan and Sylvia got used to  dancing together in the spotlight.

When they weren't dancing on television, Jonathan and Sylvia met at  dances in Thousand Oaks.  In those days, Jonathan had to disconnect  the odometer in his family's car just to go dancing, since his family  didn't approve of him driving so far from Ventura!  They continued to  dance together through high school and the first years of college,  with Jonathan attending Ventura College and Sylvia attending UC  Santa Barbara.  During those days there were no lessons, so Jonathan  and Sylvia would stay up late to watch old movies on television in the  hopes they would learn a few things from the few minutes of dancing  they might see. In addition, during Sylvia's first year of college a  local radio station sponsored her and Jonathan's participation in the  American Bandstand National Dance contest, in which Jonathan and  Sylvia placed third. Jonathan then transferred to UC ˆ Santa Cruz  while Sylvia stayed at UCSB, and they were only able to dance together  on holidays.

While Jonathan was in Santa Cruz, Sylvia continued to partner dance  and even paid her way through school by helping to organize a  quarterly dance event at Campbell Hall at UCSB.  During that time  Jonathan and Sylvia also did a lot of freestyle dancing and each  learned to disco dance.  After graduation from college, where Jonathan  and Sylvia both earned graduate degrees, Jonathan went on to teach  kindergarten in Morgan Hill and Sylvia worked for a nonprofit in Santa Barbara.

In 1975, Jonathan started to teach a disco dance class in the evenings  and found much higher job satisfaction.  In 1978, Jonathan took a  leave of absence from teaching kindergarten and began to fly down to  Burbank to meet up with Sylvia and teach disco in Thousand Oaks and  Ventura.  Finally, in 1979, Jonathan resigned from teaching elementary  school and had to make a major career decision.  Would he become a  dance instructor or would he pursue some other career path?

After much thought, Jonathan decided to move to northern California to  work with a photographer.  According to Jonathan, when he broke the  news to Sylvia she said, "But I thought we were meant to boogie!"  Jonathan replied, "Okay, well if you quit your job we can try teaching  together."  Sylvia agreed and Jonathan moved back to Santa Barbara.  (For the record, Sylvia disputes the boogie comment, but it makes for  a better story.)

For a time Jonathan and Sylvia worked part time at Jonathan's father's  fireplace, wood stove and barbeque shop in Ventura and part time as  dance instructors, but Jonathan wanted to be a full time dance  instructor and in 1980 they decided to devote all their energy to  dancing.  That meant spreading awareness of swing dancing, so Jonathan  and Sylvia began a series of "Guerrilla Swing" missions.  These  missions consisted of going to the mall or other similar place,  setting up a portable stereo and dancing.  In addition, Jonathan  arranged for a newspaper article on swing dancing and began a series  of unusual newspaper ads meant to intrigue people into learning about  swing dancing.  Based on the success of these "Have feet will travel"  advertisements and the guerrilla swing missions, Jonathan and Sylvia  began to teach private lessons as well as regular group classes.

In 1980 Jonathan and Sylvia entered a swing contest in Redondo Beach  where they came second to a pair of highly trained dancers.  Jonathan  and Sylvia met the couple, Tom Boots and Shirley Fietsem, learned that  Dean Collins had taught the two and arranged to meet Dean Collins  themselves. Jonathan and Sylvia then took lessons from Dean twice a  week from 1981 until 1984.  Dean also got Jonathan and Sylvia in the  habit of going to Bobby McGee's in Brea and in Long Beach to dance with and watch the old time swing dancers.

Jonathan and Sylvia asked Dean about the dance Balboa that they saw  the old timers doing, and Dean told them that the best Balboa dancer  was Maxie Dorf. Maxie was very hard to get in contact with at the  time, but Jonathan and Sylvia finally caught up with Maxie and he  reluctantly agreed to teach them.  Jonathan and Sylvia were among his  first students and they took lessons from Maxie from 1984 until 1987.

During this time, Jonathan and Sylvia began to compete in the US open.  They competed for the first time in 1983, placed 3rd in 1985, 2nd in  1986, 3rd in 1988 and 1st in the team division in 1991. In 1992  Jonathan and Sylvia were both awarded the Nova Star Award from the  California Swing Dance Hall of Fame.

Over the years, Jonathan and Sylvia have taught at a variety of  venues, finally finding a permanent home at the beautiful Carrillo Ballroom in Santa Barbara in 1989. Jonathan and Sylvia have seen swing  dancing pass through several waves of popularity, including the  explosion of the late 1990's when classes were so crowded they were  forced to teach on stage instead of on the dance floor.  During that  time Jonathan jokes that a common question he would hear in the beginning class was "When do we learn aerials?"

In addition to teaching in Santa Barbara, Jonathan and Sylvia have  taught workshops throughout the country and even internationally.  In  fact, it is very unlikely that Balboa would be the popular dance it is  today without Jonathan and Sylvia spreading it worldwide.  Moreover  many famous dancers, including Rob van Haaren, Kara Britt, Randy  Maestretti and Debbie Gitt, studied extensively with Jonathan and Sylvia early in their careers.

In 2001 Jonathan stopped traveling to go back to school and now enjoys  a slower paced life teaching only in town and at his studio.  Sylvia,  on the other hand, continues to be one of the most traveled dance  instructors in the world.  On the road Sylvia teaches with Nick  Williams, David Rehm, Peter Strom, Mario Robau and many other world  class dancers, and in 2002 Sylvia was honored by her induction into the World Swing Dance Hall of Fame.

Here's what Jonathan and Sylvia have to say about each other and about  themselves:

Sylvia:  "Jonathan is very funny and excellent at focusing a room full  of people. And dancing with Jonathan was always wonderful and I loved  it.  As for myself, I truly love Balboa and Lindy and I'm happy to  honor my commitment to the old dancers to pass on my knowledge.  Most  of all I enjoy taking something that looks difficult and breaking it  down for a room full of people.  It's very important to me that I send people home happy they took my class."

Jonathan:  "Sylvia's best trait as a teacher is her extreme patience.  I tend to focus on keeping the class moving forward while Sylvia is  interested in offering as much individual instruction as possible.  I  think that's part of why we work so well together.  And as a dancer,  Sylvia is very easy to dance with and very accommodating.  There are  so many things that go into making a great dancer; focus,  adaptability, musicality, experience and malleability; and Sylvia has  all of those qualities to a very high degree.  When it comes to my teaching, I never take it for granted that people  will show up.  Even in the beginner class, which I've taught for more  years than I care to remember, it's the first time for many of my  students so I make sure to teach to the best of my abilities each and  every time."