Team

Organizors

Meet the organizor of the first Dutch Open West Coast Swing!

Femke

Femke Hermens is a professional salsa instructor who runs her own dance company in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. For more than a decade now she has taught thousands of people to dance and enjoy salsa and other latin dances. A few years ago Troy Anthony who is a salsa and bachata teacher in the US, saw Femke compete at a salsa competition in Curacao. He asked her if she also danced west coast swing. According to Troy, her smooth style and musicality resembled West Coast Swing dancing. At that time she didn’t even know what West Coast Swing was! Troy encouraged her to look this dance up and start taking classes. It took her a couple of years before she eventually decided to start taking classes. Femke started her west coast swing journey in 2012. She traveled to different congresses in France and Budapest and followed workshops of some of the best teachers around. She also took quite a few private classes from teachers such as Olivier Massart, Kyle Redd, Maxime Zzaoui, Torri Smith, Maxence Martin & Virginie and Michael & Catriona. In 5 years she managed to make west coast swing grow not only in their own city but she also helped increase the popularity of west coast swing all over the Netherlands

During this short time she organized different WCS events inviting great teachers such as Michael Kielbasa & Catriona Wiles, Maxence & Virginie, Olivier & Virginie, Adam & Rita and more. Now she is determined to take west coast swing to the next level in Holland by organizing DOWCS! DOWCS will be an opportunity not only to help west coast swing grow in Holland but also to bring west coast swing dancers from all over the world to our unique country!

For more information about Femke’s dance company look at Salsa Tipica

For questions you can contact Femke directly by mail: info@dutchopenwcs.com
or by phone: +31 (0)6 13 18 37 32

Nettie

Nettie is the “anchor” of team Tipica. Femke’s mother has been the silent force behind all of Salsa Tipica’s endeavors helping out where neccesary. Nettie will be DOWCS’ hostess. If you have any questions during the weekend? Feel free to ask her!