Our Instructors

Phill Lowers

Owner / Head Instructor

Phill Lowers began his dancing and teaching career in 1967 after returning from a tour of duty in Viet Nam. He successfully trained and graduated from a teacher-training program with one of the top chain studios in the world. Continuing his training for 10 years he learned the business from the ground up through teaching, director of dance, staff training, supervising and managing winning many awards as Top Teacher, Top Supervisor, Top Manager and Best Studio for the organization. During this time he also competed in local and national dance competitions with students and with a professional partner winning many First Place Awards. He and his amateur partner held the title of 10 Dance Champion for two years in the Pro-Am Division. Going as far as he could go with the chain studio he headed for California to open his own school. He worked for a short time in a small independent school and within a year in 1977 opened Phill’s School of Dance in the city of Garden Grove, which eventually became Phill’s Ballroom Dance Studio in the city of Orange and has been in Orange to the present making it the longest operating independent dance studio in Orange County. After opening his studio he continued with competitions as well as teaching but realized his passion was not in competition, but in teaching people to be able to go out to a club or a wedding and feel comfortable getting up on the dance floor. Putting his energy into teaching Phill has taught many satisfied students for over 40 years in Orange County. His studio was the first to offer, “first dance” wedding dance lessons. Phill Lowers has been successful not only teaching adults and senior citizens, but also has many happy teens and pre-teens. The studio is a private lesson dance studio offering one on one lessons so each individual student can progress at his level. There is however, one free group lesson available weekly in each dance level to complement the private lesson His studio has a 2300 square foot raised “wood’ floor, with a state of the art sound system, very cool AC for your dancing pleasure, skylights and a beautiful reception area for relaxing before or after

Nadiya Lockitch

Dance Instructor

Nadiya Lockitch began her dance career at the age of 14 in the Ukraine and is still as passionate about ballroom dancing as she was since first stepping out onto the dance floor. With a lot of hard work and determination she entered competitive dance while in her teens, competing in both the International Latin and Standard styles. She climbed to 1st and 2nd places in local and regional competitions and ultimately won the Ukrainian National Championships.

Along with competing, Nadiya also became a highly successful instructor and choreographer for younger competitors, many of whom went on to take top places at European level competitions.  In 2007, Nadiya was offered a position as a dance instructor at a franchise studio in New York. There she rounded out her ballroom dancing knowledge and capabilities by adding the American Smooth and Rhythm styles to her repertoire.

During her time in New York, Nadiya competed in several Pro/Am and Professional competitions and performed in many dance showcases. She also trained many young students pursuing professional level dancing in the International style.

In late 2013, Nadiya relocated to Irvine, CA and is now enjoying teaching at Phill’s Ballroom Dance Studio, where she is meeting many wonderful people and looking forward to helping students achieve there dancing goals and ambitions.

Kim Robertson

Dance Instructor

Kim Robertson is a professional with over 20 years of dance experience.  She began dancing  at an early age as a classical ballet dancer in her hometown of Chico, California.  She trained very seriously for 10 years and performed in a number of ballet’s including “Swan Lake”, “The Nutcracker”, and “Alice in Wonderland”.

In 1998 her dreams in dancing took a different direction after seeing the movie “Dance with Me”.  She was completely inspired by the beauty and romance in ballroom dancing.  Within a couple years of this moment, she moved to San Francisco to begin training at the Metronome Ballroom.  Through time in Pro/Am and Professional competition in American Smooth, receiving her teaching certification through DVIDA, she has enjoyed 13 amazing years in ballroom dancing including 8 years of teaching all American styles of ballroom, Latin and nightclub dances to men, women and children.

Kim welcomes anyone and everyone.  She loves to help students achieve their goals, become healthier mentally and physically and most of all fulfill their hearts truest desires.