Instructors
Director/Owner
Nery Garcia is the founder, owner and director for Elegant Rumba Dance Company. Nery is credited with being one of the “World’s Best Leads” by world-renown salsa dancer “Edie, The Salsa Freak,” and is featured on her “World’s Best Leads” DVD series. He was also a featured contestant on “So You Think You Can Dance” Season 4 on FOX, and a featured dancer on MTV’s MADE, “MADE into a Salsa Dancer” episode. In 2008 he established Elegant Rumba Dance Company, which has quickly become the premier salsa dance company in SW Florida. Over 1,000 students per year learn how to dance with Elegant Rumba, and Nery’s celebrity status and extraordinary teaching technique draws people from all over the world to train with him.
Instructor
Giana Montoya is a professional dancer, actress, choreographer, and director of SHIVA LATINA, who inspires her students to reach new levels in both social and professional dancing. She fuses her skills and extensive training in Salsa, Latin, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Musical theatre, Yoga, Burlesque, Modern, and Flamenco, creating powerful, emotional, and sexy performances and choreography. She has won numerous championships and is the 2006 and 2007 champion of the “So You Think You Can Dance” HSF Freestyle Competition (San Jose), the 2009 Professional J&J Competition (SJ), and has performed and competed at such events as the Mayan Competition (Los Angeles), the West Coast Salsa Congress, Las Vegas Congress and the SF Salsa Congress. Montoya is a guest instructor, performer, and coach for many venues across the country. In 2009 she founded her dance company, SHIVA LATINA in Sacramento, CA and has since expanded coast-to-coast to Florida where she has joined her partner, Nery Garcia