Dance Background
I love many
kinds of dancing but my main hobby is Lindy
Hop on which I became hooked
in July 1997.
Teaching
Jean Harper and
I founded All Jazzed Up
(AJU) in March 2000
to teach Lindy Hop in Reading; I left in September 2003 to study for a
PhD at Lancaster University but AJU continues! We ran weekly evening
classes and occasional workshops in beginner to intermediate Lindy Hop,
with forays into Charleston and Balboa. The underlying aim is always for
students to enjoy Lindy Hop as a truly lead and follow dance to great
music and with huge potiential for fun and musical interpretation.
I have close
links with the Oxford Swing Dance
Society and
the North Wales Swing
Dance Society
and have taught guest lessons in Lindy Hop and musicality for both. Jean
and I also ran a Lindy workshop for the Reading Academy for the
Performing Arts, and before focussing on Lindy Hop I taught several
guest lessons in Modern Jive for Le Jive.
Since moving to Lancaster I have been teaching regular weekly classes at
Ludus Dance on
Monday evenings at their studios in Lancaster.
I have also taught a number of Lindy Hop classes at for the Melling
community group and a series of bimonthly classes in Lindy Hop, modern jive, and Charleston as a bit of variety for the Thursday salsa class at the Gregson centre.
Qualification
In 1997-8
I trained at Greenwich University for the PGCE in teaching in Further
Education. My placement was at Woolwich College and my specialist module
in Maths and Statistics.
Performance
I joined the
London based Lindy Circle
Performance Group
in June 2001. With a
repertoire of partnered and solo Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Charleston
numbers we performed for cabarets at dance events such as the Swing Jam, and non-dance events
such as Christmas parties. Unfortunately with the move to Lancaster it
has not been feasible for me to continue rehearsing with the group!
Last updated 11/12/2006