Tonja's skill set was formed at the start of her career by great leaders and mentors like Richard Mundt and Antoinette Benevento. Her abilities led her to achieve record breaking results as an instructor with the Fred Astaire organization and she continues to apply those principles while leading many instructors and studio teams to incremental successes. Her passion is to equip teachers with systems that deliver optimal results for their students to go beyond their expectations. In addition to her noteworthy industrial insight, Tonja achieved ballroom championship acclaim as a Fred Astaire National American Smooth Champion in 2007 and 2008. As an Ohio Star Ball finalist in the Open Professional American Smooth in 2007 she was also featured on PBS America's Ballroom Challenge