Our amazing teachers

I was already infected with the swing virus when Finn and Ellen shared their love of balboa in our Roffaswing scene. It wasn't love at first sight but now definitely here to stay! This lovely fast shuffle dance feels like a private party at a social. There are so many ways to vary the steps and express yourself. Come dance and feel the balboa vibe!

Lindy hop is a dance of improvisation, creativity & self expression, and helping people to find their own unique way to dance brings me great pleasure.

Sharing my knowledge of dance is a great joy - I love to see how students flourish & develop during classes.

I discovered Lindy hop in my hometown of Plymouth, in the Westcountry of England, 15 years ago, and was addicted immediately to the pure joy and energy that the dance brings.

I took my first balboa steps in 2009 and fell in love with the dance immediately! I am very excited that the balboa scene in The Netherlands is growing and I am thrilled to start sharing my love for this dance with new people. For me, dancing balboa is very much about finding connection and creating rhythms with your partner, thereby expressing that very specific mood that you feel in earlier jazz music. Faster songs especially can have that typical balboa mood: the spice of swing with a touch of mystery and romance. To find that feeling together with your partner is magical!

From the moment I watched the big dance scene in Swing Kids, I knew I wanted to learn THAT. Fast forward 10 years and I discovered a fledgling university club, the Dalhousie Swing Dance Society - and the rest, as they say, is history.

I’ve been dancing off and on for about 20 years now - I’ve taken a few “sabbaticals” because sometimes life just gets in the way but but stepping away has led to new insights, to new ways of moving to new ideas on how to teach the movement of this crazy dance called Lindy Hop.

Dawn Hampton, one of Lindy Hop’s greatest, said once in an interview, “There is no freedom without discipline.”

What she means is that, in order to truly express yourself as a dancer, as a musician, as anything, you need to build a strong foundation and that the freedom of self-expression, improvisation and creativity are born out of the building and strengthening of this foundation.

This is idea of constantly building and strengthening the foundation is central to my teaching philosophy… and it’s led me to experience some of my best dances while only doing “basic” moves. It ain’t WHAT you do it’s the WAY that you do it.

Variety may be the spice of life but if you don’t prepare your dish correctly, those spices will never achieve their aromatic and flavour potential - fine tuning the foundation helps the spices find their maximum impact.

I started dancing because I love the music. I was brought up in a musical family. My mom was a flute teacher, and my dad played rhythm guitar in an old style jazz band called the C-side Evergreens. Later in life I rediscovered Jazz, and found that it was sort of in my blood. Balboa is my first love in swing dancing. I find the intricacy of the dance fascinating. There is little room for error: either it works or it doesn’t. But when it does, it is the best thing in the world. A true feel good dance. And combined with the fast tempo’s makes Balboa exhilarating!

My Lindy adventure started with lessons in Delft, and I joined the Roffaswing scene in Rotterdam just after my first course. Since then, I have spent large parts of my spare time attending workshops and social dances; usually accompanied by a huge bag filled with bananas, towels and spare/dry T-shirts (spread the joy, not the sweat :) ). As a dancer I am characterised by my high energy level and the huge smile on my face, especially if a faster song pops on. I love the enormous room for improvisation and spontaneity that the dance offers; both for leaders and followers. Surprising each other during the dance, or catching your partner doing the exact same funky footwork variation at the same time; those moments are the best!

I've been dancing for as long as I can remember. Whether hip hop, salsa or ballroom, I wanted to try it all. Since I came across swing a few years back, it just felt right. I dove right in and picked up Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues, Balboa, Slowbal and Collegiate Shag. The connection you can create with someone while sharing a dance is so precious. You create a little world for yourselves by listening and reacting to the music and one another. The best of dances are filled with this non-verbal communication, tons of smiles and laughter.

This whisky lover from Amsterdam found out about swing dancing when she was asked to tour with a New Orleans jazz band as a dancer. When She moved to Amsterdam in 2015 she could finally dive into swing and blues dancing and started teaching soon after. She took all the classes she could find and traveled the world to learn from the best.

In her classes, she likes to help you find your own style in dancing and challenges you to find the best ways to connect to the other dancers and the music. She often gets carried away in the history of blues music and dance. And loves song lyrics that make you giggle.

I first started dancing when I was fifteen. It started with the classic ballroom and Latin dances. When I was introduced to Lindy Hop in 2012, I fell in love with the music and the love for partner dances ignited again. Since then I never stopped dancing. Now I find myself dancing with every rhythm, even at a traffic light. In 2016 I started with balboa. Balboa combines a delicate connection with high speed music, pure pleasure.

Dance plays an important role in my life. To me it’s all about having fun, expressing through music, connecting and creating with my dancepartner. My first encounter with swing dance was in 2014 at Harbour Hop. I fell in love with the the energetic playfullness on jazz music. Since then I’ve spent a lot of hours on the dancefloor and I have met a lot of great people. To me the best dances are the ones when you really get into the groove with your dancepartner and big smiles are stuck on your faces. Now I have the chance to spread the joy of Balboa by teaching this smooth and powerfull dance with its subtle weight shifts and body language. So let’s connect and have fun on the dance floor!

My love story with Lindy Hop began one lovely summer afternoon somewhere in Southern France, while on vacation. I saw a group of passers-by put down a boom box in the middle of a park and break into a wonderfully jolly dance. Which I can only guess now was Shim Sham. The excitement of the dancers was so incredibly contagious that the swing bug got me right there. I am forever thankful for this fateful encounter - it made me discover and fall in love with Lindy Hop and start exploring Solo Jazz, Balboa, Slow Bal and Blues. The smooth, flowing and energetic music compels me to dance while sharing the music and connection with the partner brings out a lot of fun, playfulness and creativity. It is my happiness fountain and I am excited to share my passion for dancing with others.

When I was 14 years old I watched a documentary about Sammy Davis Jr. and then I immediately knew that I wanted to tapdance!

I started taking classes next to all the contemporary and ballet classes I was already taking. After graduating Codarts' dance teacher department I started to travel and take classes from all my tapdance heroes all around Europe and eventually even for a few weeks in New York.

The magic of tapdance is in the sound of your shoes. You’re not just dancing, you’re making music with your own feet as your instruments! Therefore, I don’t just teach tap on jazzmusic, but I like to vary between hiphop, salsa, African beats, jazz, pop and much more, to make sure that all students I teach experience the variety and the countless possibilities of tapdancing.

It’s not just about the right technique, but also about feeling the groove, letting go, improvising and enjoying the sounds you’re making while dancing.

My very first dance was at our trusted little red boat back in 2016 where I got a quick Lindy Hop crash course and since then I haven't stopped dancing. After my first international festival it really went from being just a hobby to becoming a passion and I've been traveling abroad to dance at every chance I get. These days besides Lindy Hop I also dance Balboa and Blues which really expands my tempo range so I never have to leave the dance floor. I didn't just feel in love with the dance, but also with the music and the clothes. If you see me on the dance floor please ask me to dance, because I'm always in the mood for one.

My dancing journey started when I was 4 years old with a dance ensemble. I continued with a choreography school where I learned classical, ballroom, folk dancing and after that I just couldn't stop dancing anymore. I explored Lindy Hop somewhere during summer of 2012 on the streets of Minsk, Belarus, where I am from. From 2013 I started taking regular classes, continuously travelling to international events and experimenting with styles: Lindy Hop, Blues, Balboa, Solo Jazz, Collegiate Shag. Swing dancing makes me feel happy and balances my life. It brings a lot of joy through music, interaction with people and improvisation. Teaching is a new challenge that makes me very excited to share my dance passion and experience with our scene.