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FM2007 Instructor bios

Frankie Manning

No one has contributed more to the Lindy Hop than Frankie Manning.

Frankie was one of the star dancers at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in the 1930's and 40's and is credited with creating the first air-step (aerial). He was part of the exciting performance troupe, Whitey's Lindy Hoppers from 1936 to 1941.

Today, still dancing in his 90's, Frankie is the unofficial Ambassador of Lindy Hop to the world, spreading its popularity to the far corners of our planet while traveling and teaching the dance that he helped to pioneer.

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Carla and Ben

Carla Heiney is competitively one of the most successful women in the swing dance community; with 4 ALHC titles, 5 US Open titles, and a World Lindy Hop Championships title.  She has traveled all over the country and the world teaching, and over the past several years has been a staple of the San Fransisco dance community.

 

Ben Morris is one of the only swing dancers competing as a Champion in both the West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop circuits.  He is a 3 time US Open Champion, as well as a recipient of the Golden Budgie Spirit of Lindy Hop award given at the National Jitterbug Championships.

 

Ben and Carla began working together in October of 2006, and competed with their routine for the first time at the 2006 US Open Swing Dance Championships.  They took first place in the Open Showcase division, becoming the first Lindy Hop couple to do so since the early 1980s.  They love dancing together and are looking forward to seeing where their partnership takes them.

Carla currently runs and teaches at the popular Tuesday evening South Bay dance venue, Swing Central. www.RedwoodCitySwing.com

 

Chad and Melanie

Chad Kubo is the original Ambassador of Swing in San Francisco. He has been dancing lindy hop for over 9 years, and has performed and taught workshops across the United States, including performing in and choreographing a stage play about swing dancing at two premier repertory theaters. He is the co-founder of San Francisco’s Lindy in the Park, and the co-founder of The Doghouse, one of the Bay Area’s largest ongoing weekly swing dances. Drawing on his 32 years of martial arts experience, Chad emphasizes movement and body dynamics in his lindy classes, such as Zen and the Art of Lindy Hop, Creativity and Musicality, Aerials, Stealing and Switching Partners, Jazz Movement, and Floor Craft.

Melanie Moore has been dancing for five years, and comes to lindy hop from a background in educational psychology. Chad and Melanie together run The Doghouse, and can be found teaching in various venues around the Bay Area

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Damon and Heidi

Damon has been dancing his entire life. Starting with vernacular jazz/blues he went on to hip hop, and eventually studied over a dozen different dance styles until coming full circle focusing primarily on the vernacular jazz dance, lindy hop, in 1995.

He has taught dance extensively on both coasts, and studied the development of vernacular jazz/blues dance regionally and nationally, traveling to New York, Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, and New Orleans. He has been interviewed as a jazz dance historian in documentary and for radio.

Damon has been a featured instructor at numerous swing camps and jazz festivals including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Texas Swing Riot, the Montreal International Swing Dance Festival, and Chicago's Lindy University, and workshops and camps across the U.S. and Canada.

Heidi began dancing and teaching in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1999 and has been dancing, teaching, and performing ever since. She now lives in San Francisco, California, where she teaches classes, workshops, and private lessons.

Heidi's expertise includes Lindy Hop and Blues dance and she enjoys helping students of all ages and ability levels improve their dancing. Admired for her clear explanation of fundamentals, Heidi brings to all her classes and workshops not only a focus on solid techniques, but more important, a love of dance and a dedication to the learning process.

 

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Elliott and Catrine

Catrine and Elliott tought at the Herrang Dance Camp in the summer of 2002 and subsequently competed in the Lindy Hop World Championships. They have also taught in various venues and at various workshops in Northern California.

Catrine was a founding member of the Rhythm Hotshots and has performed and taught Lindy Hop and Tap all over the world.

Elliott is an energetic social dancer that has performed and competed with "Loose Change" (www.loosechange.ws) a San Francisco based dance troupe the he co-founded with Jason Christodoulou.

 

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Jean and Bromley

   Jean and Bromley

Jean and Bromley first teamed up in August of 2004. Jean taught performance swing dancing to UC Berkeley students as part of "The [M]ovement". She is also well-versed in hip hop, having danced in the professional hip hop troupe Culture Shock.

Bromley's expertise lies in his gymnastics foundation. He trained under Olympic Gold medalist Tim Daggett and was able to pave his way through college as a competitive gymnast.

Together they were also a part of the Bay area's premier Swing Dance troupe, The 3 Minute Maniacs. They are known for their explosive aerials, high energy, and passion for the dance.

Recent Awards:

1st place S.F. Balfest Strictly Lindy contest (Qualifying for ALHC 2007)
2nd place U.S Open Lindy Showcase division
3rd place Rhythmic Arts Festival Lindy division
2nd place Boogie by the Bay Lindy Showcase division
3rd place Sac Swing Jam Strictly Lindy (Qualifying for ALHC 2006)
2nd place Swing Central Strictly Lindy contest

They are extremely excited to be teaching at the Frankie Manning workshop weekend.

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Johnny and Jenna

Johnny Lee, known for his high energy and eye-popping stunts, is the founding member of The San Francisco Jitterbugs, who have performed for over a hundred corporate and Fortune 500 companies for the past nine years.  He has over 15 years of ballroom and swing dance training, and has been teaching, competing, and performing for the past 10 years, and has taught locally at many venues.  He has been on the cover of magazines, on televised shows and events, full length motion pictures, performed at half time shows for the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders and has held 1st Place titles to many swing competitions.  He has taught regularly at some of the nation's largest public Swing Dance events and camps. 

Jenna Chalmers has been teaching and performing dance professionally since 1993. She has appeared in music videos, advertisements and commercials, and films such as the Sony TriStar's “The Thirteenth Floor,” and in the indie film “Swing.”  She has performed with the Brian Setzer Orchestra and the Manhattan Transfer, and has worked with GAP, Hewlett-Packard, Macys, and Pixar Animation Studios. Jenna has choreographed for Bay City Boogie, The Decobelles, and Retro Cabaret. She is the vice-president for a non-profit organization dedicated to the education and promotion of American dance forms and has appeared on TV and National Public Radio as an expert in the field. Jenna has trained, competed, and judged internationally; including the National Lindy Hop Championships, Swing for Choice, Blast from the Past, and the World Swing Championships in London.

Together, Johnny and Jenna teach at Tuesday Night Jump! in San Francisco to sold out Collegiate Shag classes. Not only do you learn how to shag, but also experience a night out of dressing up and dancing to live music with a cocktail in your hand.

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Manu and Nicole

Manu SmithManu Smith has been dancing Lindy Hop since December of 1997. Since then his love for the music and the dance has grown. Since 2000 he has been Dancing, performing, competing, teaching, DJing, and MCing Lindy Hop events. His teaching spans worldwide, including Singapore, Australia, Sweden, Barcelona, France, Korea, and Brooklyn. Dig it!

Some of Manu's proudest moments are:

1st place at NADC 2002 Strictly Lindy
1st place Swingin' New England 2002 Lindy Division
1st place Boston Tea Party
1st place Summer Hummer Advanced Jack & Jill 2001
and getting disqualified at ALHC in both 1998 & 2002

Born in New York, Manu currently teaches in San Francisco, CA at the 9:20 Special. He is also the co-founder of the Yehoodi.com Lindy website. When he's not dancing, Manu is probably staring at a video game screen trying to beat someone else's high score.

 

Nicole FrydmanNicole has been singing and dancing since she was a small child and, thanks to her parents' support and encouragement, has always been active in the arts. She studied classical acting at Tisch School of the Arts and in 1998 graduated from NYU with a BFA. Since then she has performed all over the country in national tours, regional theaters, summer stock, repertory, and even some major motion pictures. For example, you can catch her head fly by Julia Roberts in the dance scene of "Mona Lisa Smile".

In 1997 she discovered swing dancing to go along with the jazz she already loved so much. Since then she has become a professional dancer placing in over 40 local, regional, and national swing dance competitions and currently teaches swing at Dance Manhattan Studios. She considers her emphasis and style in teaching and dancing to be about connection with her partner and the music - all else is secondary.

She has also spent time and energy behind the scenes creating events, shows, workshops, galas, concerts, dances, etc., and continues to work in event production today. Some of her favorites include Frankie Manning's 88th Birthday weekend, the Harlem Jazz Dance Festival 2001-2003, and co-founding JellyRollProductions.org.

 

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Steve and Heidi

Steve & Heidi are the 2005 National Jitterbug Pro Balboa Division Champions and 2005 International Bal-Swing Champions who thrive on bringing their style of Balboa, Bal-Swing and Lindy Hop to dancers all over the globe.

With over 20 years of combined teaching experience, Steve & Heidi not only bring their knowledge of the way Balboa & LA Style Swing was originally done in the 30's & 40's but also bring lots of fun and exciting moves they have created and innovated over the years, combining LA Swing and Savoy styles with Balboa.

They bring to the classroom a teaching style which combines education and humor, making the dance lessons enjoyable and fun to learn.

 

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Todd Yannacone

Todd is from San Francisco and is a well-known social and competitive dancer in the lindy scene. He has won many national competitions and taught both nationally and internationally. He enjoys spreading his passion for lindy hop and is excited to be invited back to teach at this year's Frankie Manning workshop weekend. Some of his more recent accolades include being the 2005 American Lindy Hop Champion, 2005 US Open Champion, undefeated Rhythmic Arts Festival Lindy Hop Champion (for 2004 and 2005), and Champion in both the mid and fast tempo divisions at the 2005 Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown.

 

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Trevor and Andrea

Trevor Gattis began ballroom and salsa dancing in 1995 and took up Lindy Hop in 1998, learning from internationally renowned and loved Lindy Hop instructors Rob & Diane Van Haaren. In 2001, he joined Rob & Diane's performance troupe, The Swing Cats Rhythm Revue.

In 2001 he began teaching for Rob & Diane at Swing Central and in 2003 he took over the operations of the venue, which hosts more than 150 dancers every Tuesday night. Trevor currently choreographs new routines and performs around the Bay Area with his dance troupe, The Swing Cats Rhythm Revue.

Trevor deejays Wednesday nights at Steppin' Out and at various Lindy camps, events and local swing dance venues. In addition, he teaches Lindy Hop Lessons on Wednesday nights at Steppin' Out in Sunnyvale.

Andrea Owens has been in the fitness industry for many years teaching classes such as Cardio Funk, Step, Body Sculpt, Yoga/stretch, Body Pump, High and Low impact, Stability ball, Circuit, and Jump rope. She has also competed in the National Aerobics Championships with an appearance on ESPN in 1999! In 2000, she received her Master's in Kinesiology from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and is currently managing a corporate fitness center. Her addiction to swing dancing began in 1998. Since then, she has not stopped dancing and can frequently be seen dancing at the Bay area's various swing dance venues and teaching on Wednesday nights at Steppin' Out.

 

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