After starting her Lindy Hop journey in 2015 and loving to train and perform, Foteini – aka Dj Boogie Fo – started Djing as another outlet to express her love for Jazz. For the past two years she has been one of the main Djs of the Athens Authentic Jazz Dance project and she is now emerging into the local scene. From her you can expect a versatile set combining the works of great saxophonists with early Boogie and early Rhythm and Blues tunes.

Sakarias “The Champ” Larsson was born and raised in Frufällan, on the west side of Sweden. He watched jitterbug contests as a kid and there were some things with the music and the aesthetics of the dance that spoke to him and he decided to learn. One thing led to another and already at sixteen he started practice with The Rhythm Hot Shots (now called The Hot Shots). That was 20 years ago and he’s been with the group ever since.

The amount of hours he’s spent in the rehearsal studio is probably beyond sane. The recent past years he’s focused on sharing what he knows with the younger generation of Hot Shots. He finds motivation from his friends in the group, they keep him young.

Sakarias is on a never ending world tour in the name of lindy hop with probably 1000s of shows, teaching gigs and competitions. Apollo Theatre, Frankie 95 and 100, Basie Centennial, Last Bounce, Jazz Jam, ULHC, several tours in USA, Asia, Australia and Europe (only to name a few). He made it to the finals in Sweden’s Got Talent and out of 100s of dancers he was casted among the top 20 to enter the reality tv dance show Floor Filler. He’s also one of the founders of Chicago swing dance studio, one of the more famous lindy hop and jazz venues in Stockholm today.

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.

As an MC or DJ, Meghan works to make sure both the music that makes us swing and the people in the room have all the respect they deserve. Meghan is a Canadian lindy hopper who has been part of the global swing scene for fifteen years. You may have met her near a microphone or DJ booth at such places as Herrang Dance Camp, the International Lindy Hop Championships, Lindy Focus, Lindy Shock or Lindy Bout. If you haven’t met her yet, come say hello and strike up a conversation about Count Basie or the future of swing dance.

Rikard Ekstrand was first inspired to start dancing in the early age of seven. Today it’s his life and his way of living. Best chance to see this dancing creature is to visit Stockholm, Sweden, were he’s most often found. His focus in swing dancing and teaching lies in the art of rhythm, music and partnering. Except from swing dancing, Rikard is a quite well known street dancer in Sweden. He sees swing dancing as an artform and a culture legacy. Recreation of old techniques and styles is what makes Rikard go wild. He calls himself a student more than a dancer. “In the school of dance and rhythm you will never be fully skilled”. In 2006 Rikard started his cooperation with the Harlem Hot Shots and in 2008 he became a member.
Rikard also have a passion for competition, in which he has a long list of titles in both Lindy Hop and Boogie Woogie.

Mikaela was born in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up with a love for music and dancing. She first got in contact with Lindy Hop in the late ninetees and already then she felt extremely at home with the dance. Throughout the years Lindy Hop and other related dance forms have kept on growing on her and she finds it to be an endless source of inspiration. The more she learns about the music and its history, the more she enjoys it and the more she wants to learn.

Mikaela has been performing in different settings since around 2005 and especially enjoys the theatrical aspects of dancing. She finds the richness of jazz dancing a great form of expression, on and off stage.

Mikaela is happy to share anything she can about the dance, in and outside the classroom.

Pamela has been dancing since she was 5 years old. She did traditional Lithuanian folk dancing for years, until she found her passion in lindy hop at the age of sixteen.

In 2009, she began working at Hoppers’ Dance Studio in her hometown of Vilnius, Lithuania, where she surrounds herself with rhythm on a daily basis as she practices, performs, and teaches lindy hop and vernacular jazz. Pamela Gaizutyte is one of the most exciting followers to burst onto the international swing scene in recent years. Her creativity, personal style and sense of musicality are an inspiration. . Pamela enjoys spreading the joy of dance and sharing her knowledge, and is excited to travel to new and faraway places to do so.