About Shawn

Your Online Instructor: Shawn Trautman
Learn About The Dancer, Teacher, Author, Innovator, and more...

Shawn's decades of dance instruction experience and devotion to helping others allows him to focus his efforts and provide an outlet for everyday people to dance. Best known for his easy learning, no-nonsense dance lesson videos and full-color dance instruction book, Shawn continues to empower people around the world and get them excited about dancing.

Shawn Trautman dancing with one of his daughtersWhether wanting 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, Shawn's will inspire you to reach your goals. Who is Shawn Trautman? Below is a brief overview of your new instructor.

The Dancer

Long before Shawn Trautman's success as a dance instructor, he was known for his dancing. Early in his dance career, Shawn was featured in countless newspapers, on NBCs Wes Side Story, Jack Harris Show, and TNN’s Club Dance as well as many others. Shawn is considered by many to have one of the best all-around leads 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 understands just how difficult it can be for folks to get started in dancing. Time, money, confidence, body type, and ability are just some of the factors that come into play. Shawn addresses these factors and has a unique way of communicating steps and methods in easy to understand ways. His broad experience in both dance and advanced learning techniques makes his system of instruction 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 countless 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.
"Teaching dance is much more than showing someone footprints of where to step or how to spin as fast as possible. It's about partnering, connection points, foot positions, music, timing, leading, following, etiquette, having fun and personalized attention from the instructor - all at the same time. My DVDs are the only ones that bring all of these concepts together as if I were standing right there with you. My goal is to teach you everything you need to be successful on the dance floor using fast, easy, efficient, and fun methods that you won't find anywhere else. Learn to dance with any of my DVDs today and find out for yourself."
- Shawn Trautman

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: Shawn and Joanna Trautman

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, Dance Lessons 101.



The Innovator

Shawn has developed one of the most original and successful dance instruction methods for teaching new dancers. Shawn Trautman's Dance Collection has taught countless numbers of people how to dance in the comfort of their own homes since early 2005 and is now one of the best-selling dance lesson collections worldwide. His dance lesson videos make it easy to learn to dance with brand-unique features such as the “what you see is what you dance” format, close-up shots of the feet and tips for leaders and followers. Shawn does an excellent job of clearly communicated instructions, and split-screen technology helps you see the instruction from several different angles.

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.

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