Allow us to introduce ourselves! We are John Knapp and Meredith Stead,
award-winning dance instructors and championship partner dancers - as well as a happily married couple (we will celebrate our
17th wedding anniversary this coming February!). We are the owners of Shall We Dance, Inc.,
a premiere dance studio in Manhattan that opened its doors in 1994. We've taught over 10,000 students of
all levels and all ages at our studio and around the country.
We have appeared frequently in the media as dance experts, most recently on Fox-5 News and The Today Show; we've also been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and Brides Magazine.
In addition to teaching partner dance, we also act as consultants and advisors for Broadway, television, interactive software, and at various schools, nightclubs and events around the country. Most recently Meredith served as choreographer and motion capture coach for Britney's Dance Beat, an interactive video game. Both of us served as choreographers and choreographic consultants on the Broadway show SWING!; choreographers on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's CD-ROM Dance Party of the Century; and advisory board members of Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night's Swing.
We are also national-level partner dance competitors and certified competition judges. We've been competing for the past 10 years, holding top titles and placements in such diverse categories as Cabaret, Swing, Country-Western and Lindy Hop.
In January 2002, we released our video Preparing For Your Wedding Dance. After teaching hundreds of brides and grooms how to prepare for their first dance, we decided to make it easier and more accessible for couples to learn how to dance in the privacy of their own homes, and on their own schedule.
We met in 1982 through mutual friends and began our own married partnership in 1989. We've been dancing together ever since. Our first wedding dance was a waltz to Let Me Call You Sweetheart, sung by our own wedding guests! We hope we can be a part of your first dance, too.