About Us
OUR COMMUNITY
Queer Dance Austin is an LGBTQ+ and ally inclusive space for the purpose of providing a comfortable and safe space to learn social dance for EveryBODY! If you want to lead, follow, or both, this is a great place to learn however you wish. The goal is to foster community through classes, socials, dance parties, and performances by and for Queer dancers.
CLASSES & EVENTS
Check out the Calendar for upcoming classes by QDA!
INSTRUCTORS
Shri & Eman (any pronouns) are local to Austin and enjoy teaching and hosting dance events for their local community.
Shri grew up learning Bharatnatyam and then explored different styles of ballroom dance. Recently, they performed on a salsa team and teaches partner dancing, Bollywood, and line dancing at various dance studios.
Eman is passionate about making dance enjoyable and inclusive for everyone. They founded Austin Disability Dance for this purpose, and enjoy hosting events to make different forms of movement more accessible.
FOUNDER
Ricki Anaya (she/her) is the founder of QDA and a Full-time Realtor who loves to social dance. She first started learning in Sacramento, CA as a follow but also as a leader just in case her dance partners, friends, family, girlfriend did not know how to lead. This lead to accidentally becoming a dance teacher for many years including a cable public access TV show called Salsa Dance Now. She has since moved back to CA and passed on QDA to Eman and Shri!
Ricki is currently working on a book: Queer Dancer where she talks about the power of queer dance but also the challenges and discrimination she faced. Ricki has been part of the Queer community since 1990 (when she came out) and loves this project as a form of community building, exercise and JOY!! Don't we all need more joy in our lives??