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.”

Ilario is a psychiatrist and a Lindy hop dancer. He took his first dance lesson during his Erasmus in Valencia. Before he met Lindy Hop, he had never thought of being able to dance.
Egle approached dance for the first time when she was five. Since then, she has attended classical, modern and contemporary dance courses.
Egle & Ilario met around 2010 and a couple of years later they started dancing together.
They began to travel around Europe, attending one or two workshops a month, where they were trained by the best international teachers in the world. The passion for this dance brought them to found the Spirit of St. Louis School in Rome. The thing that Egle loves the most about Lindy Hop is social dance, that dialogue that is developed between dancers and music, that energy unleashed on the dance floor between strangers. Ilario thinks social dance is the most engaging and fascinating aspect of Lindy Hop and a precious energy source in life.
In recent years Egle and Ilario have organized international events in Rome, for example Spirit Lab and Swingala, Lindy Hop and Jazz Roots festivals.

Elin fully embraced a dancing lifestyle when she came to Herräng the first time in 2010. Since then she has spent aaaall her summers in Herräng – living life, performing as a part of the HDC Chorus Line for the last 7 or 8 years (she lost count long ago!) and working in the legendary Midnight Ramble. The lively jazz scene of Stockholm taught her well, and nowadays Elin works with dancing in many different ways. Her expertise ranges from solo to lindy, coaching show groups and kids, performing everything from numbers to full length shows for young and old audiences, and occasionally competing around the globe. She teaches regularly both at Chicago Swing Dance Studio and internationally. She is looking forward to finally be back in the Athenian sun!

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.