Activity Leaders

A 28 year veteran of the swing dance community, Adam is known for his musical and humorous dance style that focuses on empowering self expression for him and his dance partner. Notable accomplishments include his long time work with Norma Miller as well as his ongoing front line advocacy for LGBTQAI+ people in Lindy Hop. Adam has been a leading critical voice in addressing inequities for intersectional LGBTQAI+ identities in dance spaces in an effort to push the community towards enacting actionable and sustainable change. Adam is delighted to be sharing his unique Queer+ positive class style and lectures on Queer+ Jazz and Swing subjects this year at Lindy Focus.

Andrea Gordon is a social dancer’s dancer. Lover of music, rhythm, connection, and the ability to express your individual style, Andrea started dancing in 2006 to supplement her need – not desire – for human connection. From that time until 2013, she traveled to dance and occasionally compete, placing at a number of Lindy Hop events across the country including first place in the 2013 ILHC Pro-Am with Mikey Pedroza, first place in the ILHC Strictly Open of the same year with Jack Chen, and first place in the 2014 Inspiration Weekend Lindy Hop Tournament with Matt Richey, where she exclaimed victoriously “…damn, this is about to get real hard…” and left on a pretty high note if you ask her. Now, she’s returned to the community to teach Lindy Hop at Atomic Ballroom with her award-winning partner Matt Richey. Best known as your favorite friendly registration lady and “that one girl from the video”, let Andrea regale you with stories about how she almost took a class with Frankie Manning, what she almost learned, and how she almost placed at Camp Hollywood, a story better than the one about actually placing at Camp Hollywood.

Bobby White has taught Lindy Hop and Balboa around the world for over a decade. He is the writer of Swungover, the book "Practice Swing," and is co-director of the Harvest Moon Hoppers, an NYC-based group that hopes to honor the Black American pioneers of Lindy Hop.

Chisomo Selemani is a dance and teaching enthusiast. She loves movement, learning, collaboration, and cultural exchange. Her artistic endeavors in the Swing dances are inspired from her Zambian tradition and Afrobeats. Her teaching methodologies invite you to explore your own style and artistry. When she’s not dancing, she is co-hosting the podcast Integrated Rhythm and is highly involved in global issues and practices in communication sciences and disorders.

Jonathan Stout is a guitarist and bandleader, well-known to swing dancers everywhere for leading his bands for over 21 years at events such as Lindy Focus, Camp Hollywood, the California Balboa Classic, ILHC, DCLX, Lindy Shock (Budapest), Lindy Blossom Weekend (Seoul), Lindyfest, Stompology, and countless others, but any fan of swing guitar currently stalking the internet knows him for his mastery of the electric swing guitar style of Charlie Christian, and the acoustic chord-melody style of Allan Reuss. Jonathan was recently featured on the “Fretboard Journal Podcast”, and besides six albums with his Campus Five, and his solo guitar album and EP, he can be heard playing on records by Michael Gamble and his Rhythm Serenaders, Keenan McKenzie, Josh Collazo's Candy Jacket Jazz Band, Gordon Au, Janet Klein, Jeremy Wakefield, and Spanish sax player Enric Piedro.

Hannah Lane is a dancer, photographer, and historical researcher from Baltimore, Maryland. She works as a research archivist in the Study of the Legacy of Slavery department at the Maryland State Archives. Hannah is interested in topics such as violent rebellion against slavery during the 18th and 19th centuries; the history of sex workers and anti-sex work legislation; histories of Black dance, nightlife venues and jazz bands in Baltimore; and the history of Black and Latinx shake dancers.

Kenneth Shipp hails from St. Louis, MO as an instructor who grew up dancing hip-hop and DJing breaking comps before jumping into blues. He has spent the past few years passionately studying the family of blues idioms, incorporating his nerdy personality along the way. Kenneth’s life experiences inform his dancing and teaching style so that students walk away with a better historical and contextual understanding. With every class and practice, he'll encourage you to approach social dancing with coolness, relaxation, or in other words “Chill The F$%& Out.” When he’s not dancing, you can likely find him ranting about the latest blockbuster movie, game, or nerd convention, or desperately trying to dismantle toxic institutions.

A family friend tells the story of 4-year-old Laurel draping herself over the back of a couch to croon along to “Java Jive” by the Ink Spots, not missing a word or affectation. Was it fate that she become obsessed with lindy hop and jazz dance more than two decades later? Laurel’s main goal is to help dancers bring their full selves to the floor. She nerds out over educational theory and hunts for ways to encourage students to experiment, play, and collaborate. If her headphones are on she’s probably listening to 70s and 80s funk.

Dr. Marie N'diaye (PhD) is a Jazz Dance choreographer, performer and educator as well as a dance researcher. She specializes in Jazz Dance (African American Vernacular Jazz), including the partnered form (Lindy Hop), focusing on the legacy of Harlem dancers from the Savoy Ballroom as well as the chorus line tradition from night clubs and theatres (such as the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club, Connie's Inn...) and has applied 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 elders and other established dancers.

Marie is the founder of the non-profit organisation "Collective Voices for Change" aiming to promote cultural appreciation and respect of African American Jazz Dances. She is also a board member of the "Black Lindy Hoppers Fund", whose mission is to support and promote Black artists in their practice, performance, and transmission of Jazz Dances especially Lindy Hop.

Matt Richey, came up in the Lindy Hop and Balboa community since 2003, and then joined the West Coast Swing community in 2010. Matt is now a staple figure in the Southern California dance community. He instructs daily classes in Orange County in all three styles. His belief is “It’s All Swing”. Meaning there is always space to learn, share and collaborate from one dance community to another.

My name is Natalia and I am a jazz dancer, teacher and performer based in St. Louis, Missouri. I have been dancing most of my life but discovered Swing dance in Southern California in 2010 when I was 17 years old. What I love most about this dance is Jazz Music and the freedom to improvise through movement, whether solo or with a partner. Being a guest in this space and creating together with others, whether in a class, social dance or jam setting is a beautiful and vulnerable experience that I feel privileged to be a part of.

Shelby Johnson is a self-proclaimed music snob, who fell in love with jazz at an early age listening to the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He really fell in love with swing music in the 6th grade thanks to a music appreciation class, and later started playing jazz in the 8th grade after 3 years in band as a drummer and percussionist. In high school, Shelby started playing the vibraphone and would transpose his parts for most pieces, as many pieces didn't provide written music. This developed Shelby's ear for music that was a huge catalyst for him catching the swing dance bug in 2011 in Orlando, Florida. And BOI, what kind of journey that has started! 2 years later, Shelby became one of the premier DJs in the Southeast, being featured at exchanges in Florida and South Carolina. In 2013 Shelby moved to Dallas, TX, where he continues to deliver awesome syncopated tunes for Lindy Hop, Charleston, Balboa and Collegiate Shag. Shelby's passion for social dancing, teaching and competing landed him the 2016 Frankie Manning Ambassador Scholarship to Herrang Dance Camp where he expanded his knowledge on Jazz Dance and Music History. Now Shelby is back in Columbus, OH ready to continue bringing people groovy and rhythmic tunes to dance their best to.

Shoham has been described as "wholesomely raucous", and that's exactly the energy he brings to his emceeing. He'll make sure you get all the info you need, and have a lot of fun along the way.