Shag & Drag 2017 Instructors

About Lainey

Based out of NYC, Lainey Silver is a globetrotting jazz era dancer, performer, choreographer, and vintage fashionista. Lainey is an enthralling performer, who embraces the music and the audience whenever she hits the dance floor. She has performed, taught and competed across North America. She is a member of New York based Syncopated City Dance Company, the Lindy Hop All Stars, and the Sugarfoot Follies.
A fierce competitor, Lainey has won a number of contests, placing 1st in the 2015 Lonestar Open Balboa Jack and Jill, 1st in the 2015 Music City Shuffle, 1st at the 2014 Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown Slow Dance division, 2nd in the 2013 International Lindy Hop Championships Advanced Jack and Jill, 1st Place 2014 Nevermore Jazz Ball Challenge, 1st Place 2013 Lindy Focus Team Division, 1st Place Y12A Strictly Lindy…to name a few. In addition, she was honored to be crowned the 2013 Miss Camp Hollywood.
Lainey stresses connection to your partner, a solid base in fundamentals, and dancing as an expression of the music. She strives to nurture and inspire her students to embrace the history of jazz dance while supporting the development of lindy hop in the present.

About Irina

Irina began Lindy Hopping at the age of fifteen. It only took one night of social dancing for her to develop an addiction to it. As the years have passed since then, her passion for Swing dancing expanded to include solo Jazz, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag. Her rapid growth as a dancer can be attributed, in part, to the fact that her hometown scene (Orange County, California) is home to some of the best Swing dancers and instructors in the world.

Irina’s greatest joy as a teacher is to see her students progress with their dancing, no matter the increment. She likes to focus on clean, efficient technique and natural styling that results from being comfortable with one’s basics.

Anthony Chen

About Anthony

Beginning with his more traditional roots, Anthony started dancing at age 8 when his parents convinced him to learn and perform Chinese lion dances. At age 15 he was introduced to breakdancing at a speech and debate tournament, and shortly thereafter he found his home in the local swing community in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he quickly fell in love with Lindy Hop. Throughout his dancing career he has trained in several other types of styles from hip-hop to Argentine Tango to West Coast, but most of all he enjoys drawing upon them to expand upon his technique and creativity in Lindy Hop. On the social dance floor, he is known to be playful, musical, creative, and clear; sometimes people call him a “magical unicorn.” He holds first place titles from events such as Lindyfest and Lone Star Championships, Montreal Swing Riot, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, and International Lindy Hop Championships. His teaching style focuses on energy, technique and connection theory, and his love of both leading and following has been instrumental to making the classes that he teaches both clear and intuitive.

About Jonathan and Tressa

Known for his dynamic style, technical knowledge, and occasionally over-the-top humor, Jonathan actively dances, teaches and performs around the world. He is founder of the performance group Savage Rhythm. As an instructor and DJ, Jonathan has traveled throughout North America and Europe spreading the gospel of classic jazz dance, music and history. Through his experience as a student of the sciences of anatomy and kinesiology, Jonathan brings the unique perspective and knowledge of body mechanics and movement to teaching and the dance.

Tressa is normally heard through her laughter and sarcasm, but sought out for her enthusiastic passion for Lindy Hop, swing, and classic jazz dance. Bringing a background in theater and high impact sports, Tressa pairs Jonathan’s knowledge of music history, kinesiology and body mechanics with her own studies in the psychology of dance and teaching of sport. Her athleticism and supportive characteristics have led to her quick growth and escalation as a leader in the Phoenix dance community. She can most often be seen dancing at the two extremes of our jazz world – fast lindy hop and slow drag.

Dabney Hopkins and Karen Vizzard-Hopkins

About Karen and Dabney

Energetic and technically focused, Karen is an accomplished dancer, instructor, and co-organizer of Hep Kats and the Kats Korner in Mesa, Arizona.

Karen has lived, taught and coached Lindy and other Jazz varieties of dancing since first becoming enamored with it in 2003. A versatile dancer with experience in Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Solo and Partnered Charleston, Karen has taught and competed through the Southwest. Her other credits include performing with the Hollywood Hotshots, as well as being cast as a dancer in Katy Perry’s music video “Thinking of You” and being cast as a principle dancer for the episode “Static” on the TV show “Cold Case.”