About Teachers

Get to know your instructors with these short biographies of Virage Dance Company's teachers.

Sergei (Serhiy) Shvetsov

Sergei's pictureDancing virtuoso Sergei Shvetsov began his intensive ballroom training at the age of six. By age ten he had qualified as a member of the IDSF (International Dance Sport Federation) where he remained a member for eight years until his move to Canada.

The Ukrainian sensation has competed in every ballroom syllabus level from juvenile to gold in both Standard (Smooth) and Latin divisions. Competitions he has won include The Ukraine National Ballroom Championship and Polish National Dance Competition. He was also honored with the title of Candidate in Masters of Sports by the government of Ukraine.

When the movie Shall We Dance was filmed in Winnipeg, Sergei was one of few Winnipeg individuals credited as a dance actor. He has also appeared as a ballroom dancer in a commercial for Manitoba Public Insurance.

Sergei became infatuated with Salsa in 2001 and was one of the founder of the Salsa Explosion demonstration team. He has performed at numerous events such as Folklorama, Winnipeg Street Festival, and Dance Under the Canopy. He also performs with Ted Motyka Dance Studio.

Sergei has enriched his salsa savoir-faire by taking workshops, teaching, and performing. He has studied with Salsa greats, including: Francisco Vasquez, Edie "Salsa Freak" and Al "Liquid Silver", Orville Small, Marie-Josee Strazzero and Roberto Arenas.

Sergei Shvetsov also holds a bachelor's degree in computer science.

Natasha P. Kartika

Natasha's pictureNatasha's love affair with dance began when she was seven years old. For months she begged her mother to take her to ballet classes and eventually, her mother agreed. The moment Natasha stepped onto the floor she was in her element. Her ballet dancing segued into Indonesian folk dancing and soon she was performing at major events such as the opening of the 1997 South East Asian Games in Jakarta.

Natasha moved from Indonesia to Winnipeg in 1999 and continued learning Indo-Chinese folk dances. Before long she was performing at Winnipeg's renowned Folklorama festival, the Winnipeg Street Festival and Chinese New Year's Celebrations. As her love of dancing grew she expanded her dancing repertoire to include ballroom and swing dancing.

In 2002 Natasha was seduced by salsa dancing and has since worked to enrich her skills through workshops, teaching, and performances. She has learned from salsa greats such as Fransisco Vasquez (California), Super Mario (UK), Tito and Tamara (Puerto Rico), Juan Calderon (New Jersey) and Dave Paris (New York). Since then, together with Sergei and other Virage Performance Team members, Natasha had performed on world class stages like the Canada Salsa Congress in Toronto and Malaysian Salsa Festival.

Natasha also graduated with a bachelor in applied mathematics from the University of Manitoba.

Jennifer Metelski

Jennifer's pictureJennifer has many years of teaching experience and is a graduate of Brandon University with a Bachelor of Education with greatest distinction, prior to that Jennifer graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts as a Dance Major. She has studied dance extensively both locally and internationally, including at the respected Lou Conte Dance Studio in Chicago as well as the acclaimed Decidedly Jazz Dance Works in Calgary. Jennifer is an award-winning choreographer, with awards from LADF (Minneapolis), Dance Power (Winnipeg) and the Brandon Festival of Arts. She is currently the head of the Dance Major Program at Westwood Collegiate.