29th Annual Black Hills Dance Festival April 24-26, 2025
Meet our 2025 Instructors & DJ's
Michael Kiehm
Michael Kiehm started teaching dance when he was only 17 years old. Fulfilling his dream, in 1982 Michael opened the Starlight Dance Studio in San Diego. Since its inception, Starlight Dance Studio has grown six times its original size with more than 30 talented instructors and more than 300 students. In 2017, Michael sold the Starlight and relocated to
Charlotte, NC. Michael regularly competes, performs, coaches, judges, and hosts dance events throughout the country on top of his very busy teaching schedule. Some of his most notable accomplishments include:
• US Open Swing Dance Champion
• Member of the National Swing Dance Hall of Fame
• “Rising Stars” International Latin Champion
• Several Pro-Am Ballroom & Latin Championship titles
• Grand Master and founder of the Global PDIA Instructor Certification Programs
• Founder of the Global PDIA Judges Certification Program
Jack Armstrong
Jack Armstrong has been teaching couples dance for over 40 years, holds dozens of championship titles and is a UCWDC Crown Division Competitor. He is a 9-Time UCWDC Classic Open I Grand Champion in 4 Nations, and a 3-Time UCWDC World Champion:
2023 UCWDC Classic Couples Crystal II World Champion
2023 UCWDC Classic Couples Diamond II World Champion
2024 UCWDC Classic Couples Diamond I World Champion
Tim Perez
Tim started dancing at the age of 13 in Arizona with a youth dance team called Young Country. It was there where Tim met his first dance partner. They went on to compete in the UCWDC (United Country Western Dance Council), attending regional events as well as the World Championship of Country Dance. They took third place at their first event! Tim has trained in multiple forms of dance (Ballroom, Ballet, Jazz, and Country.) Tim competed in the highest level in the UCWDC, Classic Masters Division. Tim has gone on to win multiple awards and World Championship titles in both couples and line dancing. Tim is also a 2x Feather Award winner and has won a silver medal in Line Dance at the World Country Line Dance Sport Federation. Tim was the Co-Event Director of Arizona Dance Classic in the Phoenix area and South Bay Dance Fling located in San Jose, CA. Tim sat on the executive board for the UCWDC as the Treasurer for 8 years, as well as both the Controller and Staff Coordinator for UCWDC’s World Championship of Country Dance. Tim was the Dance Teacher at Gilley’s inside Treasure Island Las Vegas for 12 years where he taught Line Dance lessons for guest and private events. Tim also has worked with different celebrities as a dancer and choreographer.
Adia Nuno
Adia discovered line dancing in 2017 and fell head over boots in love with the dance community and form of expression. After attending her first official Line Dance convention in 2018, she just knew she needed to share the variety of styles with her own line dance community. In 2019 she began teaching workshops to bridge the gap between "bar" dancing and "circuit" dancing.
In addition to being a co-founder of Nashville Dance Fest, KickStart Country Events, The Edge Dance Event and YESSS!! Dance Convention, Adia specializes in teaching many different line dance genres as well as country swing and two step. Her 10+ years of coaching/teaching cheerleading and Zumba have served as a foundation to Adia’s line and partner dance instruction.
Adia enjoys teaching lessons and generating enthusiasm at various dance spaces and one of Adia’s greatest honors was winning First Place with the United States Line Dancing Choreography Championship 2021 (USLDCC) for her dance Midnight Mess Around.
She spearheaded a project, KickStart Instructor Training aka KIT, in an effort to help new and developing instructors gain more knowledge and training to uplevel their dance teaching business and skillset.
Haley Manning
Haley has a passion for dance since She was 7 years old. She was introduced to dance through a performance team put together by Debbie Ellerton in Rapid City; the Hot Shots Dance team. With Debbie, she spent years performing, teaching, coaching, and choreographing. After the team retired, She continued sharing her love of dance in Line Dance classes through Heartland Dancing. For the last few years, she has been alongside Debbie co-teaching all of her Line Dance classes in Rapid City. They typically hold 2 Line Dance classes a week, teaching a range of levels from absolute beginner to intermediate.
Emily Myers - DJ
Emily’s deejay experience comes from working with top deejays on the circuit (both swing and country), and knowledge from her music background. She has been deejaying since 2005 and has played both competition and social music at several national events. Events include: Swing Diego, Desert City Swing, MadJam, Calgary Dance Stampede, Colorado Country Classic, Albuquerque Dance Fiesta, Dallas Dance Festival, Swingtime in the Rockies, 5280 and Phoenix 4th of July. She has deejayed many local dances in Colorado over the years. Emily is an active member in Professional Swing Deejays. She enjoys playing a variety of genres of music, new and old to ensure there is a song for everyone. Her passion and commitment are to the dancers to ensure the dance floor is full and dancers are having a great experience.