Irina Amzashvili

Dancing in all forms has been a lifelong passion for Irina (she/her). In 2009, at the age of 15, she stumbled upon Swing dancing and it took only one night of social dancing for her to fall head over heels in love with it. Though Lindy Hop was her gateway into the world of Swing, Irina's passion quickly expanded to include Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and solo jazz. She is proud to have spent her formative years of dancing in Southern California, home to some of the best Swing dancers, teachers, and music in the world.

Irina has since received numerous accolades from events such as Camp Hollywood, The International Lindy Hop Championships, and Lindy Focus and has taught these dances all across the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Australia. Additionally, she is honored to have been inducted into the Camp Hollywood Hall of Fame in 2019 and the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame in 2022.

Irina's teaching style can best be described as patient and encouraging. Her goal is to guide her students through building solid foundations while inspiring individuality in personal movement, as well as helping build confidence through dance.

Anthony Chen

Anthony's first ingress into the performing arts was at age 8 when his parents convinced him to learn and perform Chinese lion dances. Naturally, he then stumbled upon breakdancing during a national speech and debate tournament in middle school, and he had his first foray into swing dancing at age 16 alongside other young interns from a research laboratory. Since then, he has trained in other dance styles including West Coast Swing and various modern street dances, but most of all he enjoys using this background 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.

He holds first place titles from events such as International Lindy Hop Championships, Montreal Swing Riot, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, Lindy Focus, and Lindyfest and Lone Star Championships. His love of both leading and following, combined with his professional background in education, make the classes that he teaches both clear and intuitive. He is an active scene builder in his community and founded Salt City Swing, a non-profit in Utah where he teaches locally.

Gaby Cook

Gaby is an esteemed, active professional in the global lindy hop community. For nearly 20 years, she has established her career performing and teaching for major swing dance festivals worldwide — including Camp Hollywood, Beantown, Swing Out New Hampshire, Herräng Dance Camp, Lindy on the Rocks, Paris Jazz Roots, Stompology and Lindy Focus. On stage, she is a principal dancer for the acclaimed "SW!NG OUT", which premiered at the Joyce theater (2021) and tours regularly. Other stage credits include: “Macy's Day Parade Live Broadcast” for Nickelodeon's Blues Clues (2022), "Swing's the Thing" with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra (2023), “Decades of Dance” at the BET Soultrain Awards (2021), “Don't Mean a Thing” with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center (2021) and many appearances in film and TV. She regularly advocates for lindy hop in industry dance communities and is consistently "on-call" with university dance programs (past: Julliard, Marymount, NYU, Columbia). 

In New York, Gaby curates and teaches several swing dance programs, including Midtown Swing with AJ Howard. In class, she is playful, informative and honest. She prioritizes equality for followers and leaders in the classroom space — and has championed a movement first approach to teaching partnered dance content. Online at @gaby_cook.

AJ Howard

AJ is a NYC based Lindy Hop instructor and performer with nearly a decade of experience. His upbeat and energetic teaching style creates a fun and supportive environment for students to learn and grow. In addition to teaching and social dancing, AJ loves to compete and has placed at local and international competitions. As a proud member of the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame, he is committed to sharing his joy of the dance with all, and helping dancers of all levels develop their skills on their own individual dance journeys.

Laurel Ryan

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 disco and funk.

Kevin Weng

Kevin caught the lindy-bug sometime in September of 2010, and has since dived head-first into joy of swinging out (and other moves too). Once he started, he couldn't stop. It's becoming an addiction; he attends every workshop and big weekend event that he can and only find himself wanting more. It's just too fun. There is such merriment meeting people and making connections. It brings him joy sharing a beautiful song with anyone on the dance floor. And all the silliness lets him express himself so freely. He sometimes wonders why isn't everybody a Lindyhopper. So here he is, to spread the thing we call Lindy Hop.

Sam Nguyen

Sam will be teaching
the Newcomers Special track.

Sam (she/her) spent 18 years of her life believing she could never be coordinated enough to dance until she got hooked onto swing dancing at UC Berkeley. She quickly fell in love with the improvisation and partnership of the dance, and she danced probably waaaay more than she should have during her college years. Sam has since continued the entire gambit of dance, from teaching to organizing to traveling and competing. Currently, her big passion in dance is mentoring new dance teachers, creating curriculum for venues in the Bay Area, and learning more about the history, roots, and values of this Black art form.

Sam loves to incorporate silly playfulness, responsive partnership, and you-know-every-beat-in-this-song-don't-you musicality in her dancing. Coming from humble beginnings of gathering in random hallways and learning through YouTube videos, her dance teaching often emphasizes the tools needed for how to learn and how to take inspiration from an idea and make it your own. Sam’s endless lesson planning experience from being a high school teacher translates to even more endless lesson planning for dance; her lessons are crafted to emphasize partnership, connectedness, and having a blast while dancing. You can find her leading and following out on the social dance floor 'til the end of the night despite having to wake up at 7am to teach high schoolers.

Photo by Michael Tan

Calvin Lu

Calvin will be teaching
the Newcomers Special track.

Calvin, also sometimes known as "that guy who follows a lot," fell in love with Lindy Hop for its joyful expression, creative improvisation, and deep connection between partners. Since then, he has been actively involved in the community as an instructor, competitor, event organizer, and frequent up-past-3-am dancer. A lifelong student, Calvin always strives to make his classes fun and help students fall in love with learning and practice as part of the fun of being a dancer. In his teaching he also greatly values portraying dance roles as gender neutral, teaching to a wide variety of learning styles, and making good dancers who are also good community members.

In his home scene of San Francisco, Calvin helps organize The Switch Workshop, the Dancers Den, and the Bootleggers Ball. He also travels to various events and competes as a follower. At dances, he can frequently be seen drinking boba and trying to remember the names of the people he met that night.