Level-Up Your West Coast Swing

SPECIALTY WORKSHOPS – PRIVATE COACHING – TEACHER TEAM TRAINING

maria main shadow2

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welcome to smoothstyle

I’m Maria Ford, and Smoothstyle is my private dance studio. I develop dancers who have a foundation in WCS, teachers, and teaching teams.

LEARN WITH ME

PRIVATE COACHING

I coach dancers with a foundation in West Coast Swing who are committed to practice and progress.

WCS Keeners Club

The every-two-months deep-dive for intermediate-level West Coast Swing learners.

SPECIALTY WORKSHOPS

Bring me to your event or city for custom-designed workshops, private lessons, and specialty sessions.

TEACHER TEAM TRAINING

My unique WCS teacher TEAM training is designed especially for WCS instructor partnerships and teams.

develop your foundations

To learn West Coast Swing in Ottawa check out:

Rideau Swing Collective (spearheaded by past Smoothstyle team members), and Westie Underground.

BLOG

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How to give feedback to your dance-practice peers

March 3, 2026

Best practices for giving (and receiving) feedback in a dance practice.

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Partner Dance Etiquette

December 24, 2025

By request, these are Smoothstyle's top tips for how to behave when dancing…

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WCS Keeners Club 2026 reboot

December 12, 2025

WCS Keeners Club relaunches in 2026 with new attendance criteria, location, and dates.

maria ford

about me

Clarifier
Facilitator
Developer (Clifton Strengths)
Challenger (Enneagram)
Advisor (Sparketype)
INFJ (IYKYK)

working with me be like …

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★★★★★

Maria has been a remarkable teacher, coach, and mentor in my dance journey. She is always prepared with feedback at the start of each lesson, having studied my competitions videos or observed my social dancing in advance. One of the most valuable aspects of her coaching is her ability to identify the root cause of a problem and then provide the right tools to correct it. By sharing her experiences as a high-level performer, Maria has helped shape me into becoming a better social dancer and competent performer. For me, the passion and commitment she displays are invaluable to the progress I have made as a dancer.

— Vincent Mok

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★★★★★

Maria’s coaching has been a key element of my development as a west coast swing dancer. A unique balance of precision and packaging, Maria’s approach combines fine attention to technical detail with the ability to tailor feedback in a way that is digestible and that has enabled me to overcome ‘plateau’ moments in my dance progression. Her emphasis on quality of movement and connection has helped me deepen my understanding of the fundamental characteristics of west coast swing without compromising my individual style, cultivate better partnership skills, and create my own personal benchmarks for evaluating success, resulting in many ‘wins’ on both the competitive and social floor.

— Jessica Polzer

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★★★★★

Maria is amazing at identifying the one thing I can do that will most help me improve my dancing. She breaks things down in ways that make big problems approachable, and her advice has helped me a ton. Maria has made an incalculably large difference in both my skill and enjoyment as a dancer. I definitely get more compliments from follows since working with her.

— dAVID gEUKERS

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★★★★★

I just wanted to tell you again, Thank you for making my life better through dance. I always come away from my private lessons with you feeling amazing about my dancing, even though I know there’s still so much to work on. And I always come away from my social dances with you feeling like I had a blast and that I’m not half bad, even when I’ve messed up a bunch of your moves.

— G.