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Dragon Swing main party on Saturday, November 24th: In the Wieliczka Salt Mine, 122.5 meters underground
We invite you to a Lindy Hop venue, the like of which you have never seen!We have official...
Startujemy z zajęciami dla średnio-zawansowanych 23.05.2012
Sekcja Kultury Muzyki i Tańców Swingowych "KMITA Swing" zaprasza na zajęcia z Lindy Hop na...
Zapraszamy na swingowe imprezy taneczne!
Sekcja Kultury Muzyki i Tańców Swingowych Kolejowego Towarzystwa Kultury w Krakowie...
Życzenia wielkanocne 07 April 2012, 19.27
Życzenia wielkanocne
Z okazji Świąt Wielkanocnych,składamy najserdeczniejsze życzenia:dużo zdrowia, radości,...
Home Archives Dragon Swing 2011 Workshops Instructors
Giedrė & Mindaugas
Giedrė Paplaitytė

Giedrė started dancing before she went to school. As a child she was always surrounded by music but never thought that dancing could become the essence of her life. After taking a bunch of folk and modern dance classes Giedrė discovered Lindy Hop in 2003. Since then jazz dances became her own art of life.

Together with her fellow dancers Giedrė started teaching Lindy Hop in her hometown Vilnius in 2006. She is a member of Lindyhop.lt dance troupe with whom Giedrė travels and performs. Sharing the love for jazz dances and teaching jazz dances is her biggest passion. Since 2007 she is teaching solo and with Mindaugas Bikauskas.

Giedrė has made her first steps as an international teacher in spring of 2010. After the first success she has participated in several international jazz dance contests and has been seen on the social dance floor in New York, Hamburg and Stockholm just to mention a few.

 
Mindaugas Bikauskas

Mindaugas started dancing in 2006. From the very beginning it was obvious, that jazz dances and jazz music will be his main activity for most of his life. After half a year he joined the local Lindy Hop dance troupe. After a year Mindaugas started teaching and spreading the spirit of traditional Lindy Hop like it was in the old days.

Mindaugas has already traveled through most of popular social scenes (New York, Stockholm, Ljubljana, Hamburg, Blogna ect...) and says that this is the main thing making jazz dances more and more popular. During his trips, he attended only one competition yet and took first place in Jack’n’Jill at Swinglandia 2010 workshop, Kiev, Ukraine.
 
Mindaugas's biggest passion in jazz culture is the music. Being a DJ and a dancer he came up with an idea to expand jazz culture in Vilnius scene. In the winter of 2008 he started a band, consisting only of dancers. The band Rhythm Junkies are getting more and more popular among lindy hoppers around the world. Mindaugas says, that the most important thing is to know jazz music from the inside. That experience Mindaugas and Giedrė always try to share in their classes are: rhythm, musicality, expression and individuality.
 
 
 
 
 
Giedrė and Mindaugas are known for their rhythm and musicality. Lightness of their style comes from deep studies of the original dancers. This couple will teach you with the biggest passion for jazz. Their aim is to introduce you to the happiest dance ever known. In their classes you will learn how to be comfortable with all tempos on the social dance floor.
 
Oksana & Vitaliy
 Oksana started dancing quite early and has been dancing for 14 years by now. She had had all kinds of dances as background among which are ballroom dances (latin and international), modern-jazz dance and tap, before she completely switched to swing dance in 2001. She has been teaching various dances since 2000 and in particular lindy-hop since 2004 for the only Swing Dance Studio in Ukraine, Kiev Swing Dance club.
 
Vitaliy, on the contrary, has been always dedicated to swing dance from the very beginning and has also been teaching starting from 2005 for the Kiev Swing Dance Studio. They have been dancing and teaching as a couple for five years by
now and are regularly seen in the biggest European events for some of which they are also some of the organizers. Vitaliy is one of the organizer of a big and well-known swing dance camp in Ukraine, Swinglandia, for which he normally helps to 
create the main theme and to develop it through various performances and concepts. Together they are also two of three main organizers and some of the main choreographers of the yearly competition called "So You Think You Can Swing" that
takes place in Ukraine and involves participants and choreographers from several countries. They were winners of the very first Kiev Swing
 
Dance Club cup in 2008 that they are always judging since that time. And, putting most of their attantion to the social element of the swing dance, they both are regularly prizewinners or finalists of international Jack-n-Jill competitions (starting with 2005 in France where they were in final for the first time together).
 
They are also one of the leading couples of the performance group within the Kiev Swing Dance Club that regularly performs in Ukraine and from time to time abroad. The performance group started performing internationally back in 2006 in Barswingona dance camp at the team competition where they took the 3rd place.
 
Being dedicated to the social side of the couple dance, in their teaching, Vitaliy & Oksana had put their most close focus on the connection of the swing dance to the swing music as well as to the technical side of leading and following
based on the swing rhythm. While so deeply interested in connection between dance partners, they are also well-known for their creative approach to moves and steps variations all of which are also based on rhythm and leading and following. 
Regularly teaching in Ukraine they have a reputation of very thorough teachers for their enthusiasm and consistently progressive teaching methods. Enjoying teaching very much and taking success of their students close to their hearts
they set their primary goal as teachers to breed social dancers more than anyone else.
 
Their principle for teaching has always been as follows: Make your technique work for your joy!"
 
Veit Hailperin
From the German lindy hop scene, and a newcomer into international teaching, Veit is best known for his feel-good leading and creativity on the social dance floor. He has learned from the best - including the Ninjammerz and Silver Shadows. He values freedom that lindy hop offers most. To enjoy and use those to a full extent he puts a lot of focus in his classes in technique, musicality and creativity. Veit can be seen all over at workshops in- and outside of Europe. If he is not dancing, he rocks the dance floor as Doctor Jazz. In his free time he writes articles about lindy hop. For example:  Stealing and A Dance is Like a Conversation.
 
 Veit has been teaching around Europe; spreading rhythm from Portugal to Sweden. He is also regularly seen in finals of Lindy Hop competitions throughout Europe
 
Competition Results:
1st place JnJ Crep'n Swing 09 with Anais Sekine (Fr)
2nd place JnJ Swinglandia 10 with Anna Yakshina (Ukr),
2nd place JnJ Ninjammerz à Paname 09 with Maria Kopylova (Rus)
3rd place JnJ MSJF 09 with Fleur Saillofest (Fr)
Alternate to the finals of "Strictly Swing" at the Boston Tea Party
2010 with Emily Vanston (US)
 
Anna Yakshina
AnnaEverything started with friend’s words: “I’m going to check swing dancing. Do you want to go with me?” 
Sure. I stuck here for almost 5 years now and not going to quit. I tried some dances before, but nothing was like Lindy. 
It makes every dance special. It’s old, but is developing all the time. It’s natural and making people communicate on a dance floor. And for me it opened the world.
Anna
 
Anna is a rising star in the global Lindy Hop community. She has been invited to teach with Nejc Zupan at prestegious internatinal workshops in the UK and Sweden including "Goodnight Sweetheart" in London. She regularly places in competitions he enters. She has won the Jack n' Jill at "Goodnight Sweetheart" Twice in a row, and has won the Jack n' Jill at Swinglandia twice, and most recently placed second while dancing with Veit (only to Mindaugas and Masha). 
 
AnnaRecent Competitions Won:
Swinglandia 2008 – Jack’n’Jill with Sergey Aslanov (Rus)
LindyShock 2008 – Couples competition with Sergey Pavlov (Ukr)
GoodnightSweetheart 2009 – Jack’n’Jill with Alf Lervag (Nor)
Swinglandia 2009 – Jack’n’Jill with Sergey Bulatnov (Rus)
GoodnightSweetheart 2010 – Jack’n’Jill with Alf Lervag (Nor)
 
Waldemar Jankowski

waldekExperienced and passionate, Waldek lives in Poznań, and over the last few years he has been travelling across Poland teaching West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Authentic Jazz, and other swing dances. Waldek's students especially value his individual approach towards each student. Those who have taken courses from him know that in his classes you never get bored.

 
Joy Arico
Watching Joy Arico dance is like seeing music out on the floor. Joy dances like she has a gallon of moxy in her quart sized container and she knows just how to serve it.
In 25 years of dancing Joy has loved cheerleading, West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, as well as Balboa and Blues. Her exuberant love of dance is matched only by her attentiveness to technique and detail. Her number one goal in teaching is to share the LOVE of dance. Music should be the ultimate driving force of dance and she is focused on sharing ways to enhance the natural body response to music.
Joy recently moved back to Rochester from New York City where she was heavily involved with Jook Joint Shimmy Blues and Blues Blaze. She has danced, competed and taught in virtually every major dance city in the United States. She has been honored to teach with such incredible partners as Damon Stone, Barry Douglas, Shawn Hershey, Tim O'Neil, Bryan Spellman, Justin Hileman, Steve Losh and now Aris Pikeas.
She has placed in the following competitions:
  • Blues Shout-1st Place Champions J&J 2011
  • Mile High Blues-1st Place J&J and 1st Place Strictly Blues 2011
  • Blues Muse-1st Place "The Jill Comp" 2011
  • Steel City Blues-3rd Place J&J 2011
  • Enter The Blues–1st Place J&J and 1st Place Strictly Blues 2010
  • Mile High Blues —3rd Place J&J and 2nd Place Strictly Blues 2010
  • Sweet Molasses Blues — 2nd Place Strictly Blues 2010
  • Hi De Hon-1st Place Solo Jazz 2010
  • North East Girl Jam —2nd Place Lindy Hop J&J 2010
  • Emerald City Blues — 2nd Place J&J 2009
  • Boston Tea Party — 3rd Place Lindy Hop J&J 2008
  • She has been a Finalist in several other competitions throughout the US.
 


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