About Us

Dance Club Blue Silver celebrated its 70th year in 2026!

Dance Club Blue Silver (DCBS) had its beginning as the German Canadian Harmonie Club on Sherbourne Street in 1956. Herbert Wickenhauser was its first President and the membership consisted of 14 people. Although the Club had its roots in Germany, in the next 60 plus years since its inception, it has grown to reflect the wonderful diversity of Toronto's population.

In 1982, a west end branch of DCBS was started in Mississauga at Hansa Haus. Ekko Hildebrandt and Hanno Wenzel played an important role in establishing this location. The Club remained at this location until 2015.

In 1986 the east-end branch of DCBS moved to Embers Banquet Hall in Scarborough's Warden & Eglinton area. In 2007 DCBS moved to TPA Yorkland until 2014 when it moved on to 4500 Sheppard until 2018 and subsequently to Sts Peter and Paul Hall on Milner Avenue and Chinese Cultural Centre. Currently, DCBS has its classes at the Centennial Recreation Centre in Scarborough (west of Markham Road and Ellesmere).

In 2026, the club celebrated its 70th in the making with a splendid dance party. The party brought many of the family club members, past and present, together to jointly celebrate this impressive achievement.

The main focus of the Club is International style Latin and Ballroom dancing and with specialty classes in American Smooth & Rhythm style. Every year, the Club offers three semesters of classes starting in September, December, and March for 10 weeks and if time permits, a Summer semester as well. The classes offered include adult dance classes, specialty dance classes and medal test classes. Classes are offered on Tuesday. Throughout the year, practice sessions are held at the east-end Ellesmere Community Center, 20 Canadian Road, ( Warden and Ellesmere ) on Thursday evenings. While instruction of dancing in International Style has been the main emphasis, the club also hosts several dinner & dance parties during the year for its members such as Oktoberfest, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine Day, St. Patrick’s Day and end of dance year party in June. Club members also participate actively in dance outings.

The Club has always been an influence on the amateur dance scene in Toronto. It hosts its own dance competitions, the Blue Silver DanceSport Trophy Ball, and club members help out at other dance competitions such as the Ontario Championships as well as Canadian Championships. Many of the past and present competitors have started their roots in Dance Club Blue Silver. These are considered vital in maintaining the high quality of dancing seen today.

The success of the Club is the result of the efforts of many volunteers who devote considerable time and energy to ensure its smooth operation and supportive dance teachers.

For many years, Jeff Henssen has been the principal Dance Director and inspiration for the Club. Jeff, Jive World Champion, first started with DCBS over 40 years ago and taught the classes until his retirement in 2014. Much credit also goes to Diane Kimler who greatly enhanced the club with her charm plus dancing and teaching skills for more than 25 years.

In 2003, Phil and Patricia had returned to teach for DCBS at our DCBS east end Toronto location classes. As well, they assumed classes at the west end in September 2014. They are both Standard (Ballroom) and Latin dance champions, coaches of competitive dancers and teachers of dance enthusiasts. In addition, both Phil and Patricia are frequent judges of many World Standard and Latin Championships as well as Head Judge of numerous Canadian national, provincial and major competitions in both International and American styles. Amongst their numerous volunteer roles, Patricia had served as a Presidium Member on the World DanceSport Federation international board and Phil is the Ontario representative of the Canada DanceSport Professionals as well as an examiner.

Phil and Patricia’s classes are fun and energetic as they share their knowledge and skills gained through their extensive teaching and judging experiences.