Meet Frances

Frances started dancing as a teenager performing hip hop and Filipino folk dance all the way through college. At the University of California, Davis she took classes in ballet, jazz, and contemporary. Frances' passion for dance continued after graduation and she joined dNaga, a professional modern dance company based in Oakland.

Frances fell in love with partner dancing after a friend suggested going blues dancing, and in 2009 started training as a professional Ballroom and Latin dance instructor at Arthur Murray. Frances certified at the Bronze level and won an award as the highest ranked teacher worldwide. In 2012, she joined a San Francisco based salsa dance company called The Latin Symbolics and stayed with the company for two years before moving to Spain to fulfill a lifelong dream of dancing internationally. She trained and performed salsa with Irene Miguel and was a guest instructor and dancer for the Berklee College of Music campus of Valencia. Frances’s love for salsa propelled her to train and perform alongside Karel Flores and Eddie Torres, Jr.

Ultimately, Frances merged her love for dance with a lifelong passion for psychology and earned her Master’s in Counseling with a concentration in Dance/Movement Therapy. She wrote her thesis on the use of dance to cultivate secure attachment in relationships.

As a teacher, Frances’s goal is to make dancing fun and allow students to discover their own expression through movement. She especially enjoys working with couples and bringing joy and intimacy into their relationship through dance. She draws from her own experiences as a wife and professional couples therapist.

In her spare time, Frances enjoys traveling, reading, and spending quality time with her husband, two little boys, and sweet ol’ pug.