Instructors
Lennart Westerlund will be our special guest during the camp and to be interviewed in our "Talk on Friday".
Lennart started to dance Swedish style jitterbug at Lasse Kühlers dance school in 1980 and became a member of recently formed Swedish Swing Society in 1981. In the early years he competed frequently at different places around Sweden and he also spent lots of hours dancing socially. Around this period of time he furthermore became a member of the board of above mentioned society and was also an active part of organizing the very first Herräng Dance Camp in August 1982. After getting his first impressions of African-American swing dancing in 1983 he was hooked and turned into becoming one of the pioneers of the first modern revival of lindy hoppin'. In 1984 he travelled to New York to meet and study with the late Savoy dancer Albert Minns, whom he later on the same year also invited to Stockholm for teaching and lectures. After mister Minns' visit Lennart together with a few dance friends formed Swedish swing dance company The Rhythm Hot Shots (later Harlem Hot Shots) in 1985 and started to study old film clips to learn more about not only the lindy hop but also the charleston, tap, acrobatics and other things related to the African-American swing dance tradition. Gradually these studies lead to that the company started to perform and teach and later on also to become professional. In 1986 Lennart got in contact with Frank Manning and in 1987 mister Manning was for the very first time invited to Stockholm to work with the company.
When The Rhythm Hot Shots started to receive some international recognition during the early 90s, Lennart was one of the main dancers. The company travelled extensively throughout the decade and was among a handful of other dancers and organizers an active part of bringing the dance back into some kind of limelight. At the same time as being a dancer in the troupe, Lennart also started to do lots of administration (especially for the Herräng Dance Camp which The Rhythm Hot Shots had become an active part of back in 1989), research, film productions et cetera. In year 2000 he was a part of introducing the lindy hop to Russian dancers and in 2004 he opened swing dance studio Chicago in central Stockholm.
Lennart recently left the Harlem Hot Shots but he still travels teaching on an international basis and occasionally performs. During the Swedish summers he is one of the main characters and workers at the Herräng Dance Camp and for the rest of the year he is seriously involved in the Chicago dance studio project.
Angelika Dolleschall and Peter Schulze are instructors for Boogie Woogie at the dancing club TSC Roth e.V.
Detailed description soon to come.
Christian Seeholzer has been giving lessons about the Structure of Music at the BB Dance Camp since 1992. Although he is living far away in Koblenz, he is an integral part of Munichs Boogie-scene. For more than 20 years he is collecting records, movies and soundies of our music and dances. Furthermore, he has been a jazz drummer and a dancer. His particular interest is the combination of listening to music, playing, and dancing. And of course, a good portion of Christians featured humor can be seen not only in his classes but also in his dancing.
Christian Seeholzer: "In Musical Formation we will analyze the way typical swing and boogie music is structured and have a look at its roots. We will also have a look at certain rhythms and peculiarities within the pieces, which I will demonstrate on the drums. This class is a contribution to your listening to music more consciously, to help you in preparing formation dance and to inspire you to interpret the music you hear with your dancing."
Christiane and Dieter are already a fixture of our Whitsun Camp. As "dinosaurs" of the German Boogie Woogie scene, they bring together a large amount of tradition and many new trends in "Boogie Woogie". After a long and successful career as Boogie Woogie competition dancers, they have always succeeded in putting new focuses in their development as dancers.
Thus, they can look back on many and various experiences from national and international dance camps and workshops. Especially in the last years, they have found a new area of interest: show dances. With their "Four Seasons"-Workshop, they give competition couples the chance to do highly intensive exercises with them four times a year.
Christiane and Dieter continuously study further and learn more and more in dancing, not only in Boogie Woogie. They work together closely with dance pedagogues and professional dancers. In 2009, Christiane obtained a German trainer B licence for dance.
Evita Arce and Michael Jagger, full time dancers in New York City, bring an exuberant energy and joy to every project, whether it's teaching classes world-wide or performing in renown theaters. Their combined resumes span the globe from Dubai to the UK, Sweden to Australia! Evita and Michael were the featured Lindy Hop couple in the 2008 Japan Broadway tour of SWING! They have performed at The Rose Theatre and The Kennedy Center with Wynton Marsalis and The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Commercials and other television appearances have popped up frequently for Evita and Michael since they advanced to finals in Las Vegas on season 3 of FOX's "So You Think You Can Dance"--the only Lindy Hop couple to do so.
Thanks to Ryan Francois & Jenny Thomas, in 2003, Evita and Michael were introduced to each other while working with Ryan's company in Los Angeles. Since then, Evita and Michael have been members of "Swing Xtreme" and have performed at The Edinburough Jazz Festival, Camp Savoy, and at the Lyric Theater in the West End of London.
Michael and Evita have won awards at several national swing events, most notably their 1st place wins in the Cabaret Divisions at ALHC and ILHC. Michael and Evita are recognized for their ability to combine technical feats with phenomenal dancing and theatrical story telling.
Currently, the two teach regular classes at Dance Manhattan and continue to travel the world. As teachers, Michael and Evita emphasize anatomy and efficient use of the body. Connecting movements and clearly projecting direction, help create their Lead and Follow technique. Above all other descriptions, one will surely say that Michael and Evita are inspiring to watch and a possess a warm welcome to any student of Lindy Hop.
At the age of 5, Frida started her dance career in the Swedish bugg and rock ´n´ roll federation. By the age of 11 she did her first Lindy Hop competition. She loves all kind of dancing and has under her growth studying ballet, modern, jazz dance and Swedish folkdance. In her teenage she met Markus “Mackan” Rosendahl and her Boogie Woogie career got started. From 2001-2010 they´ve been representing the Swedish national team.
From the small countryside city of Ludvika, Frida moved to Stockholm in 2005. In the capital of Sweden she came in contact with Chicago Swing Dance Studio and the Harlem Hot Shots. In 2009 she became a member of Harlem Hot Shots and with that she nowadays spends her life performing and improving her own dancing skills.
Frida is nowadays teaching booth youths and adults in Lindy Hop and Boogie Woogie in Stockholm, Sweden and the rest of the world. She loves to spread the joy of dancing and share her knowledge in the art of dancing.
With no doubt, Gabi and Leo Beck belong to the most longterm Boogie Woogie teachers in the Munich Scene. However, they surely do not belong to an “Oldtimer’s class”. Both are sport enthusiasts, keep themselves constantly up to date, no matter if it is the latest trends like Zumba or Jumpstyle or if it is special mental training for competitors. Their classes become a high value for those dancers that would like to look behind the scenes and that have understood that the majority of their own dancing comes from self-education. Of course it is a good training for teachers as well. We have invited them to our camp again as particularly Leo can contribute to our competition class with his experiences as international judge, judge trainer, former national team coach from one of the most successful German Boogie Woogie times and last but not least as part of the current advisory team of our national association.
Isabella Gregorio is a real Globe Trotter teaching and performing all over Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
Since 2006 she teaches at the famous Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden. Isabella is one of the producers and artistically directors of one of the most appreciated festivals in the world: Swing Crash Festival in Como (Italy). In May 2009 Isabella and Vincenzo Fesi had been special guests at Frankie 95 in New York City, the event organized to celebrate the 95th birthday of the Ambassador of Lindy Hop: Frankie Manning.
Isabella’s classes are fun, precise and full of content at the same time. She focuses on technique, which is demonstrated throughout steps and moves.
Jenny started dancing when she was seven years old at Lasse Khülers dance school in Stockholm. She stayed in the school for ten years and became maybe a better performer than a dancer. She got her passion for jazz music and singing from her mother at an early age and when Jenny was sixteen she left Khülers dance school and started study theatre. Since then she has been in several plays and cabarets, both as an actress, singer and a dancer. She started dancing lindy hop when she was sixteen. After two classes for Mattias Lundmark, she went directly to Nalen (the most famous dancehall in Stockholm) to dance socially. Herräng Dance Camp was the place that got her hooked on lindy hop and she hasn't stopped since.
2003 she started performing with the dance troup Shout n' feel it in Stockholm and 2005 she became a member of the perfomance group Harlem Hot Shots. Dancing and performing with the Harlem Hot Shots has also made her a skilled charlston and jazz dancer. Jenny has been teaching since 2004 with a variety of dance partners, her focus is on musicality and improvistion.
Karin is used to the boogierythm since early childhood. She teaches boogie on a wide range of levels in several clubs not only at Boogie-Bären e.V. Her aim is to bring the magic energy of boogie to the dancers. She says "anyone who has discoverd the passion of boogie, can not leave it alone. Boogiedancing starts where spoken language ends and is pure soulfood".
Ralph always liked boogiemusic very much, but did not dare to dance. 2003 a breaktrough happend and finally he started dancing. He teaches different levels since 2006. His biggest passion is the competition youth class of Boogie Bären e.V. which he is training.
Klara started taking ballet classes from an early age, accumulating 18 years of practice in this discipline. As a teen, she did Jazz and Modern Dance for a couple of years and took part in different workshops like African Dance or Contact Improvisation. In 2005, she discovered Lindy Hop for herself and has been dancing mostly Lindy and Balboa ever since.
It’s the groove of the music that first brought Christian to dancing. Six years ago, he discovered the lightness of being while abandoning oneself to music and movement. And since that is easiest for him with Ragtime and Swing, he just stuck with those two genres. He likes to dance Lindy Hop and Balboa.
Klara and Christian have been teaching together at Boogie Bären since 2008. Both like the diversity and rhythm of Swing music, a fact that is clearly visible in their joy of dancing.
Markus is dancing since his early youth. Since 2000 he is dancing together with Frida Borg and soon they joined the national and international competition scene as well as the Swedish National Team. Since 2008, they have been a staple in international final rounds at World Cups, European and World Championships.
His dance style can be characterized by a close relationship to the music that includes a lot of feeling as well as some cool variations of moves. Spectators to his performances can always see that each of his dances is unique as the song is, no matter if competition, social or show.
Markus teaches regularly in Stockholm and has been organizing the “Rock’N’Roll Sundays” – a weekly Boogie party in Stockholm . Having fun and a good time is the most important part of his training concept.
Mélanie Stocker is the "Swiss Boogie Lady" - exclusively for the BB Dance Camp. No matter whether competition couple, national team, formation, club or social dancer - everybody can benefit from her long experience and special mixture of teaching. Although she has been dancing for more than 20 years now she is not stopping to educate herself.
Mélanie loves the Boogie Woogie and you will see her passion for the dance in her classes. Mélanie is traveling the world as a professional Boogie Woogie and West Coast Swing teacher. She also gives lectures at WRRC, is instructor at Herräng, choreographer or instructor at dancing master congresses, gives ladiesworkshops and last but not least is coach for mental training for competition dancers.
Description asap
Moe Sakan has a professional dance education in jazz, ballet, tap and contemporary dance, and has been dancing Lindy Hop since 1999. A pearl of the Orient, she has brought a sparkle to the London Swing scene since she moved there in 2000. There she started to compete and perform for theatre, TV and other shows. She won several UK and US competition titles and ranks among UK’s top female dancers. Remy and Moe have started working together in the framework of Remy’s assignment in Swing Xtreme, famous Ryan Francois’ dance company that Remy joined in 2008.
Remy fell into the pot of Swing dancing from an early age. World Champions in 2006 and N°1 in the World Ranking list in 2006 & 2008, Remy can look back on a successful career as Boogie Woogie competition dancer
Remy is constantly looking for improvement and momentum. His great fun and extrovert personality and spirit of course influence his dance style as well as many other dances that he indulged into since he could walk.
For 5 years, he has also been teaching internationally and is called in most famous internationals Swing camps and festivals to exchange and transfer his knowledge and passion. For him, dance is summed up by: “an enriching exchange between people and, more specifically, the Swing is a state of mind that summarizes life”.
His motto is "Lead, Follow,... and Express Yourself", so: come! Share! have fun! and just live!
soon to come
A beginners‘ class in 2005 was the kick-off for first experiences in Boogie Woogie. In 2007, she started training regularly with Matthias in preparation of doing competitions together. Their first competition as a couple was the 2009 Boogie Bären Cup, after which their dance careers really took off. Regina has been teaching in the South of Germany as well as in and around Salzburg since 2009.
The “late bloomer” Matthias started hitting the dance floor at 20 years of age. But he realized very quickly: “I want to be a competition dancer!” Thus began a 6-year-long period of competition dancing with his partner Angela Lex. They were very successful, but in light of Angela’s family plans, Matthias had to start looking for a new partner – and found a very likable and enthusiastic one in Regina.
Matthias has been teaching since 2004 – in Germany, Austria and Hungary.
2011 is Regina’s and Matthias’ teaching premiere at BB Dance Camp.
Rikard Ekstrand was first inspired to start dancing in the early age of
seven. Today it's his life and his way of living. Best chance to see
this dancing creature is to visit Stockholm, Sweden, where he's most
often found. His focus in swingdancing and teaching lies in the art of
rhythm, music and partnering. Except from swingdancing, Rikard is a
quite well known streetdancer in Sweden. He sees swingdancing as an
artform and a culture legacy. Recreation of old techniques and styles is
what makes Rikard go wild. He calls himself a student more than a
dancer. "In the school of dance and rhythm you will never be fully
skilled". 2006 Rikard started his cooperation with the Harlem Hot Shots
and in 2008 he became a member.
Rikard also have a passion for competition, in which he has a long list of titles in both Lindy Hop and Boogie Woogie.
About 10 years ago, Rita Ergh was infected by the "Boogie Woogie virus". Dancing to her means energy, fun and joy. Rita has been teaching Boogie Woogie for several years at our club. Beginners, intermediate, advanced or competition dancers, Boogie-Bär or not, everyone enjoys to work with her. The same applies to her different training partners. The major element in her class is Fun: Fun in dancing, fun in teaching, fun with the participants. Thus, she belongs to the best liked teachers of the Boogie-Bären Club. Furthermore, she organizes many different events that are well known in the Munich and local scene. Dancing with Rita means sharing passion that she also shares with the show team Boogie Passion.
Masters of lindy, jazz and tap dance, Ryan Francois is constantly in demand for his performing, choreography and
teaching skills. Ryan was at the heart of the revival of Lindy Hop in
the early 80s when he traveled to New York to meet and perform for
the original Savoy Ballroom dancers as Frank Manning & Norma Miller.
He has been founder and choreograph of many internationally recognized
performance groups, e.g. the Jiving Lindy Hoppers. Furthermore, he
choreographed in 1992 one of the most famous swing routines - the Jitterbug Stroll.
Ryan Francois a 2 time winner of the U.S. Open and American Swing Dance
Championships is the foremost authority in the US & UK on all
dances connected and related to the Jazz & Swing era
Ryan worked as a
choreographer and performer on Swing Kids, Malcolm X and The Polar
Express. TV appearances include the
BBC TV Reality Dance Competition Strictly Dance Fever. Despite his busy schedule he continues to teach. It is the incredible depth and
breadth of his knowledge of swing, jazz and tap dance that keeps Ryan at the top of his profession. He brings the same technical
expertise, consumate professionalism and all-round good humor to a
beginners class as he does to a Broadway show or a Hollywood film.
Has been swing dancing since the age of 15, only 19 years old he joined the Rhythm Hot Shots that later became the Harlem Hot Shots. Today at the age of 29 he is still performing with the company that is well recognized for it's spectacular shows worldwide. Sakarias has been teaching a lot both internationally and within Sweden. Sakarias masters several dances from the swing era including Lindy Hop, Charleston and Tap.
In Lindy Hop Sakarias together with Frida Segerdahl made it to the finals ”Hellzapoppin” New York (2004 and 2005) and ”The Battle” (2006, 2007), he placed second in the fast and medium Lindy Hop divisions at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2007. As a solo dancer Sakarias has won the Authentic Jazz division at both ”The Battle” and ”Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown” 2007. He also made it through to the finals in the Swedish dance reality TV show ”Floor Filler” where he competed with his swing dancing against other dance styles. He likes to compete for the fun of it but believes that no other person really is to judge a dancer.
He is one of the founders and driving forces behind CHICAGO swing dance studio, which is the most recognized place for swing dancing in Stockholm today. Sakarias believe style is the most important part of swing dancing.
Two enthusiastics from Switzerland – this can only be Soraya and Mario!
Mario is known as cheerful and bubbly. Honestly, he belongs to BB Dance Camp like every Jack will find his Jill. He strucks with lessons on the highest level. His classes are full of fun but also don't miss the challenge of new dancing figures. On Marios list of sucess are competitions, performances and being the trainer of the swiss national team for several years noted. Additional he's also doing West Coast Swing for a couple of years now.
Soraya is a well known and loved trainer in Switzerland. As a former Rock'n Roll dancer is she firm in every little dancing step. „Acrobatics“ may be a synonym for Soraya. She as well has a long history of show performances.
DJ Stephan Wuthe at the gramophone and at Talk on Friday
Stephan Wuthe calls himself a record entertainer. Since 1995 he is working regularly as a DJ, participates at broadcastshows and is a sought after interviewpartner because of his enormous historical knowledge. Special attention deserve his Swing talks. It is amazing how Stephan charmes his audience with details, anecdotes and profound historical accuracy on the topic of swingmusic and the history of swingmusic.
Currently can you get a deeper look into Stephan`s huge store of knowledge with his book (only in german) Swingtime in Deutschland publ. 2012 at Transit Buchverlag.
Further information can be found on Stephan´s website