Instructors

Tori began ballroom dancing her freshman year at UT Austin. Currently, she trains and competes in American Rhythm with her partner Anthony, and teaches bronze ballroom for the Dancesport Training Center’s Youth Program. If she is not teaching or dancing Tori is probably cooking, reading, or watching anime.​

     Mike has danced ballroom since his freshman year of college at the University of Notre Dame, when a chance encounter landed him a lifelong hobby (and a go-to fun fact for literally every "tell us about yourself" ice-breaker since). ​

     Since then, he's been training and competing (and in recent years, coaching youth and collegiate ballroom dancers), and he was part of the first same-sex couple to ever compete for a national championship in the US with his partner, Luis Miranda (also an SMU coach). ​

     Outside of dance, Mike is a professional data and analytics nerd for an energy company, and fills his non-dance free time with cooking, learning new languages, and watching basically any MCU or Star Wars content available.​

     Luis started ballroom dancing socially in high school before taking it up competitively as a freshman at Harvard University. He currently trains and competes with his dance partner Mike Marszowski (another SMU coach). In addition to coaching the SMU team, he also teaches youth students at the Dancesport Training Center with his main coach, Ryan Lewis.

     Besides dancing, Luis works full-time as a curriculum coordinator at the central office for a charter school district. In his spare time, he likes to binge-watch TV shows and movies, play word and board games, and read literature and history books.