Vassia Panayiotou and Avgoustinos Tran entered actively the world of swing dance in 2009, when they fell in love with the Lindy Hop dance. Quite soon, they started practicing, performing, and traveling abroad for classes and festivals.

In 2013, they founded “Rhythm Hoppers“, an Authentic Swing dances team based in Athens where they teach Lindy Hop, Authentic Jazz and Charleston on a weekly basis. The team leads the Rhythm Hoppers performers troupe and since 2013, Vassia is leading the Rhythm Hoppers Chorus Line, a female performance troupe focused on the authentic swing dancing of great female dancers of the 30s and 40s. The Rhythm Hoppers Chorus Line has won the 3rd and the 2nd place at the Savoy Cup Chorus Line Competition 2018 and 2019 respectively.

The last years, the team has grown bigger with Vassiliki Papadopoulou, Alexandros Velentzas, Maria Vasilakou and Yannis Nikolaidis joining the teachers team. The new members are talented dancers and dedicated teachers with international awards and placements.

The Rhythm Hoppers team aims to spread the Authentic Swing dances by organising classes, weekly practice parties, the ARH festival, workshops and of course the “Graduation Swing Party” event at the end of every dancing season, where the teachers and students of all levels perform choreographies.

The Rhythm Hoppers team focuses on the authenticity of the dance, as well as on creating a nice environment in classes for students to learn, express through movement and connect with their partners and music.

Both in the classes and in their general activity in the Athenian community, the group focuses on the roots and history of Authentic Swing and Jazz dances, spreading the message that we are guests in these dances that belong to the African American cultural heritage. The Athens Rhythm Hop festival was created to support these ideals and is held annually to celebrate the African-American culture within a healthy and respectful community.

In addition to their work in Athens, all team members travel quite often abroad to teach, perform and compete, winning many placements.