Learn About Shawn Trautman
"The Dancer, Teacher, Author, Innovator, and more!"

Decades of experience in dance instruction and countless students, Shawn Trautman is still following his passion and providing everyone with a chance to experience the joy of dance. Shawn has easy learning dance lesson videos or a full-color dance instruction book to put you on the dance floor, whether you want to learn to dance to prepare for an event like a prom or wedding, to connect with your partner, to have fun on vacation, or just to learn a new skill. Who is Shawn Trautman? Below is a brief overview of your new instructor.

The Dancer

Before Shawn Trautman became known as a great dance instructor, he was known for being a great dancer – now he’s well known for both. Early into his dance career, Shawn was featured and interviewed on TNN’s nationally televised show “Club Dance”. Shawn is considered by many to have the best all-around “lead” on the social dance floor and is a favorite of many when it comes to line dancing.

The Teacher

Shawn Trautman is a top-rated dance instructor who welcomes people from all walks of life to his classes, regardless of shape, size, or ability. He has a unique way of communicating steps and method in easy to understand way. His broad experience in both dance and advanced learning techniques makes his system of instruction new, easy, and fun. Having won numerous Top Teacher awards, Shawn has honed his teaching skills to cater to the specific needs of dancers regardless of their skill or talent level. He can easily teach new dance student the basics, and coach world champion students on progressing with their dance technique and advanced choreography. Shawn has trained and educated numerous individuals, couples, and entire dance teams since 1991 and has had many students move on to world champion status. During the late 90’s through 2001, Shawn continued to enjoy success with his students both through private lessons and group classes while he pursued his undergraduate and graduate business management degrees as well as career in program management.

In 2002, he found he had a vision for a new and very innovative way to teach students worldwide how to dance. Consequently, Shawn and his wife, Joanna, then launched an acclaimed line of popular and unique dance seminars called Dance Xpress and XI Dance. Through the course of a one-day seminar, Shawn and a team of instructors led groups of 20-100 people through sports-based curriculums and multi-media presentations. Even the most skeptical students were dancing with confidence by the end of the day. With the launch of Shawn Trautman’s Dance Collection in 2005, Shawn was able to take the personal feel of his private and group traditional dance lessons and combine it with the advanced learning techniques and up-to-date technology used in the XI Dance curriculum. His collection takes the dance lessons out of the studio and into every viewer’s living room making it easy for anyone to learn to dance.

The Author

Shawn and Joanna recently co-authored a unique dance instruction book called Picture Yourself Dancing, which can be found at Barnes & Noble, Borders, BJ's, and other retailers. Picture Yourself Dancing is a written from the perspective of the dancers themselves, and offers an account of their knowledge and understanding of dancing with nearly two decades of experience. The book provides easy-to-follow dance instructions for anyone, although Picture Yourself Dancing was written specifically for beginners with very little or no dancing experience. Shawn and Joanna assist the reader as they explore advanced learning techniques and dance floor basics while jumpstarting their dancing.

Picture Yourself Dancing examines the world and etiquette of social couples dancing and provides an in-depth look to dance cultures to prepare you for the dance floor in various dance communities including Ballroom, Country, Latin, and Swing. In addition, there’s also a section dedicated to preparing to dance for weddings that gives a very detailed look at the necessary elements that every couple should consider when getting married. Last, the book was packaged and written in conjunction with the Trautman’s original product for beginner couples, the Couples Ultimate Dance Sampler.

The Innovator

Shawn is a consultant, corporate trainer, choreographer, and public speaker on many different forms of lead-and-follow dance, as well as line dancing. He continues to constantly improve the quality of his products and continues to produce instructional DVDs, teaching both private and group classes, and designing curricula. In addition to holding an MBA in organizational leadership and communication, Shawn has an extensive project management and planning background with the defense industry, the Federal Government, and the commercial sector where Shawn is the founder and CEO of Xpress Innovations, Inc.