Artists
Grace & Blake
Grace
Having grown up in a family of artists, Grace has been performing since she was 4. With her lifelong love of jazz music and vintage fashion, when she discovered her first lindy hop class in 2012, she was hooked. She can be seen dancing Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag on the social dance floors across Southern California up to five nights a week. In addition, she regularly teaches and competes all around Southern California and across the US, placing/winning such competitions as ILHC, Camp Hollywood, and Hot Rhythm Holiday. Grace is also a member of the performance company The Hollywood Hotshots, specializing in preserving historical American vernacular jazz dances in live events, music videos, film, and television. She is also a sought after DJ, playing classic songs that inspire dancers of all levels to have fun connecting to the music, its history, and each other.
Grace brings her love of the dance to her teaching style, encouraging joy in her students, while keeping an emphasis on connection technique. For her, Lindy hop is a conversation between two people, and she brings her love of that conversation to every lesson, reinforcing strong connection and beautiful basics.
Blake
As a naive Southern California college student, Blake discovered swing dancing with a whimsical New Year’s resolution to try learning the dancing he saw in Swing Kids (1993). Little did he know, SoCal was one of the world’s largest scenes, with a rich history and dozens of the world’s best dancers and instructors. Immediately hooked, he developed a relentless obsession for Lindy, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag. He’s since gone on to win in a variety of international competitions and has taught around the world in places like Europe, Korea, Japan, Australia, and the US.
In his free time, Blake loves to study vintage dance clips. He has a deep reverence for the original dancers and loves to teach classes that focus on particular styles and techniques they used. As an instructor, he also focuses on imparting his values of partner connection, tasteful musicality, and developing beautiful basics. While he loves practice, competition, and performance, his favorite thing about dancing is just having a simple, deeply-connected social dance with a like-minded partner.
Yulia & Sasha
Yulia and Sasha are two UK based Balboa dancers, easily recognizable for their zippy yet smooth style. They first discovered the dance in 2010, and ever since their enthusiasm for Balboa has been growing stronger.
Before starting to teach, they focused on their own development as dancers, training and competing, studying the history of the dance, and exploring partnership dynamics both in Pure Balboa and Balswing. The couple is often spotted in international contest finals. Two times California Balboa Classic winners, they also proudly hold the title of 6-time Pure Balboa Classic champions!
Currently, they run Balboa courses and mini-workshops in London, as well as travel to teach at dance weekends across Europe. In class, they strive to share the knowledge they’ve gained throughout their dance journey and encourage their students to appreciate the joyful energy of Balboa, its subtle humor and the precious opportunity to be in the moment with the music and one another. Lately, as Sasha has found a new obsession with tap dancing, percussion, and rhythm overall, they are becoming even more focused on different aspects of musicality, and aim to reflect that in their teaching.
Amy & Alex
Amy Lu and Alexander Lieu are Swiss-American swing dancers from Geneva, Switzerland where they teach weekly Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Lindy Hop classes for Geneva Swing.
They believe in bringing joy, humor, and energy to each dance. They both value solid partnerships with dancers of all levels, and making every moment important for each partner.
Combining their values and expertise in healthy functional movement and pedagogical design, they teach classes suitable for diverse bodies and all ages to inspire play, exploration, creativity, and individuality.
Hot Gravel Eskimos live on Fri & Sat
“Hot Gravel Eskimos”, the top-class eight-piece band from Milan lead by one of the most representative “hot jazz” specialist in Italy, multi-instrumentalist Mauro L. Porro, relives the pleasure of Classic Jazz tradition through exhilarating live performances of a musical repertoire focused on the original “Swing” music from the 1930’s and the beginning of the 1940’s.
For this to happen, the band performs with vintage musical instruments and bandstand instrumentation, with ad-hoc orchestrations based on precise musical transcriptions from its members’ own shellac libraries, as well as an immaculate stage presence recalling the thrill of the splendid “Swing Era”.
Marcella Malacrida, vocals
Pasquale Gravela, trumpet
Lorenzo Baldasso, clarinet, alto sax, vocal
Davide Vincenzi, tenor sax, clarinet, vocal
Mauro L. Porro, piano, soprano sax, cornet, vocal, arr. & transcr., leader
Yuri Biscaro, guitar, banjo
Marco Rottoli, double bass
Paolo A. Vanzulli, drums, percussions
BENNY’S FROM HEAVEN live on Sun
Benny’s from Heaven is open to two interpretations. On one hand, the band name is a reference to the jazz song and the film Pennies from Heaven starring Bing Crosby. On the other hand, Benny Goodman was the King of Swing. This band has devoted itself passionately to his repertoire, bringing this incredible music back to life.
Unforgettable tracks like Stompin' at the Savoy, Lady Be Good, Memories of You, and many more. A true musical treat—let’s dance!
Simon Wyrsch, clarinet
Christian Gutfleisch, piano
Axel Kühn, bass
Gregor Beck, drums