Pattie Wells is one of the most experienced professional dance instructor’s in the United States with over thirty seven years of experience as a dance instructor, performer, choreographer, studio manager, adjunct faculty at SDSU, owner & director of the Pattie Wells’ Dancetime Center, dance educator, dance blogger (DANCE TALK articles, All About Dance featuring articles on each social dance genre) and owner & website content writer at DanceTime.com, soon to include global dance information.
Pattie possesses a rare distinction among San Diego dance instructors of having worked full-time in the dance business for over three decades from 1977 through 2014. She rose from teacher to supervisor and finally to manager of the Sunshine Ballroom and Dance Studio in the late 1970s. Pattie started her own business May of 1980. She has trained many San Diego dance instructors, as well as, students in both group and individual dance instruction and was the first to create many concepts widely used today in the dance business. In 1982 she brought back the term Jitterbug locally as a name for single time East Coast Swing. Pattie founded the San Diego Jitterbug Club, which has been a huge success (120-220 dancers attending weekly) since it started in March 1984 to present day.
Currently, Pattie is content writer for DANCETIME.com, DANCE TALK Blog and blogger for her upcoming website at PattieWells.com. She teaches a few private lessons and wedding dance lessons in San Diego, California. Her expertise extends to most of the social dance genres including all the American style smooth & rhythm dances (waltz, foxtrot, cha, rumba, bolero, samba, mambo, tango), the swing dances (East Coast swing, jitterbug, West Coast swing), Nightclub dances (L.A. & N.Y. Hustle, nightclub 2-step), Club Latin (salsa, merengue, bachata) and Country Western (CW 2-step, CW waltz) plus Viennese waltz, polka, quickstep.
Pattie opened Pattie Wells’ Dancetime Center in San Diego on January 5, 1998 and started a mentoring program for San Diego dance instructors. The Pattie Wells’ Dancetime Center was located in San Diego from 1998 until 2014. Pattie Wells’ DanceTime Center was one of the premier dance studios in the United States with a renowned, world class team of San Diego dance instructors and state of the art concepts for training dancers worldwide. The DanceTime Center supported the San Diego dance community with mentoring programs, full-time student discounts and the largest student enrollment in the greater San Diego area. It was home for dozens of San Diego dance instructors hired as both employees and independent contractors. The conceptual concept for dance instruction created by Pattie Wells has been adopted by many San Diego dance instructions, teachers and educators as a 21st century system of learning dance versus the out dated method of teaching dance sequences or amalgamations.
Many of the students that participated in the training and mentoring dance programs at the Dance Time Center went on to become successful San Diego dance instructors and some have traveled to many other parts of the country! The Dancetime Center averaged 25 weekly dance classes, 3-4 dance parties weekly, 10-15 highly qualified Independent dance instructors, annual showcases for 16 years and one of the friendliest dance environments on the West Coast. It was also the home of the San Diego Jitterbug Club for sixteen years.
Pattie’s love for dance started at age ten when she learned Chubby Checker’s new dance The Twist and continued throughout her life. Later, while studying at San Diego State University in the mid-seventies she worked for a year at Terry Clark’s Dance Studio. In 1977, she taught and became manager of the Sunshine Ballroom & Dance Studio located in Pt. Loma. In 1980, Pattie started Dance Instruction by Pattie Wells, running her own independent dance teaching business for 18 years, out of 4 or 5 different locations weekly. Very few dance instructors in San Diego share the distinction of working full-time as a professional dance instructor.
Pattie also trained and mentored many dance teaching professionals, as well as, tens of thousands of dance students and was the first to create many concepts widely used in the dance industry today. She implemented the unique system of repeatable classes in San Diego county. Her classes were offered through the Learning Annex for many years.
In 1983, Pattie and a partner, Ron Seale, brought back the term Jitterbug locally for single rhythm East Coast Swing. Pattie founded and hosted the San Diego Jitterbug Club for 30 years with the help of several committed volunteers. It has been one of the most successful ongoing dance venues since it started in 1984 with (120-220 dancers attending weekly). The local swing dance group, Swing Cats, started with a few friends at the Jitterbug Club.
She also instituted the progressive dance classes; widely expanded the class system in dancing; was the first instructor to promote and publicize Night in Vienna and Viennese Nights: A Victorian Ball and offer classes and workshop for these Viennese costume balls.
Pattie served as adjunct faculty in the “Music and Dance Departments” at San Diego State University, Grossmont College and Southwestern College from the mid-80’s until the 2001. Her business was written up in an article for “Business of the Week” in the San Diego Business Journal, as well as, being featured in the Los Angeles Times San Diego Edition and Dance Teacher Magazine.
In 2007, Pattie returned to San Diego State University earning a Master’s in Fine Art, Creative Writing. She has had published a dozen of her poems, several Italian poem translations of the poet, Eugenio Montale, and a short story in ZYZZYVA Literary Journal. Currently, she is working on a novel, revising a poetry manuscript, writing web content, blogging on dance at Dance Talk Blog and teaching private dance lessons. She continues her work as a dance educator working on a world dance resource website at www.DanceTime.com.
Pattie Wells’ Contact Info:
Email: dancetime@gmail.com
Phone: 619-275-3533 Bus.
P.O. Box 3893, San Diego, CA 92163
Private Lesson Location:
7528 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111