Michael Afolayan is a visual artist, musician, rapper, and theater and circus performer. He also works as an instructor at the Circus Days acrobatics school, teaching basic acrobatic techniques. Additionally, he is the founder of the Cultural Center of African Arts and Cultures ANASA, where he teaches polyrhythmic music of West Africa and promotes the arts as a means of communication and empowerment. Michael is an activist for human rights, particularly concerning second-generation immigrants. His work promoting intercultural dialogue and youth empowerment is truly inspiring.

Ursula Hicks began her dance training over 20 years ago in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and later Modern and Contemporary dance. Ursula graduated with B.A. in Dance Studies from Texas Woman’s University in the summer 2013, where she studied with Marry Williford-Shade, Sarah Gamblin, Jordan Fuchs, and Gladys Keeton.
Ursula brings such musicality and enthusiasm to the dance floor, it’s no wonder that she has placed in multiple lindy hop competitions including the International Lindy Hop Championships in Washington, D.C., LindyFest in Houston, TX. , and a number of other competitions. Ursula has also been on the board of directors for The Fort Worth Swing Dance Syndicate, and served as president of The Dallas Swing Dance Society.
Ursula takes pleasure in collaborating with fellow artists and social dancing in the DFW area and enjoys teaching dance to students of all ages. She is an absolute joy to watch and learn from.

Originally from Spain, Ana and Samu run their own dance school in Berlin (Rayuela Swing) and have been teaching and dancing together for over 4 years. Their main values are respect for the history of the music and the dance, connection and communication amongst dancers, and self-expression. In their classes they strive for personal feedback, material that can be used way beyond the hours shared in the classroom, and creating an environment where fun, growth and vulnerability can co-exist.

As a dancer, Tyedric explores, presents, choreographes, teaches, competes in, and embodies Black cultural and social dance traditions, with a specific focus on how they have evolved from and influenced each other. These traditions include authentic/vernacular jazz, charleston, tap, lindy hop, stepping, house, dancehall, breaking, popping, litefeet, hip hop and modern forms of Black social and vernacular dance that have yet to be codified.

He is currently studying house, and continually growing in many street styles. In dance, he values lineage, authenticity, community, partnership and fun. He strives to incorporate these elements in my classes as well.

His work consistently draws back to authentic jazz, as the foundation and axis on which all modern forms of Black social dance have been built. He wants to undermine the assumption that eurocentric forms of dance such as ballet and contemporary are the essential foundations of dance.

Nassia’s journey started in 2018 in Heraklion, Crete, where she quickly became deeply involved in the local dance community. As an active member, she began taking organisational roles and teaching. Her love and knowledge for music lead her to also discover her love for DJing. Do not miss her sets focusing on bebop, hardbop, blues and classic mellow jazz recordings.

Alex and Ioanna are an enthusiastic blues dance couple! They love to share their personal style of Blues dancing through teaching, adore choreographing captivating performances and cherish loooong nights of social dancing!

They are both highly trained dancers; Ioanna has been dancing since she was a child and Alex has been doing Swing dances for more than 12 years!

Since 2017 they have been focusing mainly on Blues, traveling around Europe deepening their understanding of the Blues dance and its culture as well as continuously developing their dancing and teaching skills!

Thanos is a leading figure of tap dance and body music in Greece, while sharing and performing around the globe. Mentored by Heather Cornell and Max Pollak, his work focuses on the music delivered from the body sounds and percussive movement, fusing and expanding to various musical styles from jazz & funk, afro & latin, to his eastern and Balkan roots.

Today Thanos was until recently a cast member of the dance and music group Cambuyon from Spain, premiered with them this February 2015 at the New Victory Theater in New York (Broadway) and is part of the international show “Body Music: see music, hear dance” under the direction of Keith Terry and Jep Melendez.

He is actively involved in the Athens Jazz scene and his collaborations include top greek jazz artists, the Coolspiritrio and his own leading projects Tapmotif Sextet and Acoustic Movement. He teaches regularly in the artistic space “Playground for the arts”, which is a faculty member of the “Orff Institute in Athens”. He is also constantly teaching to communities abroad, sharing tradition, concepts and his approaches in countries like USA, Canada, Spain, France, Switzerland, UK, Finland and more.

Marie has been dancing almost as long as she has been walking, training mostly in modern Jazz. She fell in love with Lindy Hop and other African American Vernacular Jazz dances in 2006.

A true scientist (She obtained her PhD in Neuroimmunology from Karolinska Institute, Stockholm Sweden in 2018), Marie loves history and facts. She has been applying her scientific method and dance education to conduct an embodied practice-based research of Jazz dance through the study of  original video clips and collaborations with many established dancers. She has also researched the cultural and social context of the Jazz dance era through literature study and interviews of artists. Her main focus is on the African American Jazz Women and Chorines (chorus girls) of the time. 

Marie worked and danced with the fantastic teachers of the Cat’s Corner Studio in Montreal, Canada and Chicago Swing Dance Studio in Stockholm, Sweden. She also teaches internationally, in France, Spain, England, Australia, Russia, USA, China… as well as at the world famous Herräng Dance Camp

Currently, Marie is a board member of the newly founded Black Lindy Hoppers Fund (an organization dedicated to support African and African diasporic dancers and artists in Lindy Hop and Jazz). She is also leading a new non-profit organization, Collective Voices for Change.

Remy Kouakou Kouame is an established dancer and performer. He started dancing Boogie Woogie at the tender age of 6, and went on to claim both the French and World Championships titles. He also dances Lindy Hop competitively and has more than a few Lindy Hop titles under his winners belt. Add a good measure of Solo Jazz to the mix and that brings us up to the present day. By now he has been an established teacher on the international scene for many years, and his fame and acclaim as a dancer and teacher continue to grow. He is to be found teaching, performing, and competing at international events and festivals around the world, sharing his joy and knowledge. His approach to Swing is unique and original, and as a teacher he promotes creativity and individuality.

Thanks to his parents, Smiltys had been familiar with jazz music since the day he was born! At the age of just 4 years old, he started acting in theatre, several years later playing saxophone and dancing contemporary dance became his hobbies as well. After graduating, Smiltys found outabout Swing dances and since then, there was no turning back! Many classes, various competitions and international festivals later, he discovered that dynamics between the thrill of the competitions and the chill of the social dancing, is what motivates him to dance. Known for his technique, variety of uncommon move combinations and attention to the connection, Smiltys tries to inspire and enrich his students with the history, musicality and small details that matters the most!

Since Martyna was a child she was full of energy and her parents knew it shouldn’t be wasted without a purpose. At the age of 6 Martyna joined rhythmic gymnasticclasses, but after 8 determined years she felt she hadn’t found herself yet. With an encouragement from her sister Martyna decided to try Lindy Hop. After her first lesson she couldn’t stop dancing! With a huge smile on her face Martyna continued and since then she had won several Lindy Hop and Jazz competitions, performed at different scenes for amazing audiences and created a few noticeable routines. Martyna states, “Now I fully enjoy teaching Lindy Hop and can easily say –I just can’t imagine my life without the Dance.”

Gustav is a Stockholm and Uppsala based dancer, he teaches regularly at Chicago Swing Dance Studio and Swedish Swing Society in Stockholm. He has been teaching and performing Lindy hop, around Sweden and Europe, for last ten years. He is a member of the show group MessAround from Uppsala. Together they have performed in Sweden’s biggest TV production, Melodifestivalen, and at events such as Herräng, Snowball. Besides MessAround he has been part of theater productions in Uppsala and Stockholm. His dancing and teaching origins from his love of swing music and the aesthetics of the 30s and 40s. You can hear him play trombone with the swing band Hornsgatan Ramblers.