SANDY & MINN (Sandy Lewis and Minn Vo)
⭐️ Based in Barcelona, Sandy Lewis was born and raised in South Louisiana dancing to Cajun and Zydeco music. After moving to Spain, she began swing dancing and immediately fell in love with Collegiate Shag. Her style is joyful, free-spirited, and a little rascally when the mood strikes. And her teaching style follows suit. You’ll learn while laughing — the lesson always comes with a wink, a smile…and maybe some swear words in between. She believes in empowering dancers to be themselves and encourages people to let their inner shagger shine on the dancefloor.
Sandy is one of the founders of the Barcelona Shag Society, which seeks to bring Collegiate Shag dance and culture to the community through monthly dances and lessons. She’s also the founder of the Shag Train, a weekly online community-based training session that brings people together from all over the world to dance and learn about the history and culture of swing dancing. When she’s not dancing, you can find her emceeing various swing festivals around Spain and being a kick-ass mom at home. Her favourite colour is red, and according to her son, her hair is fantastic.
⭐️ Minn Vo is LA’s premier dance competitor and one of the most versatile performers today. He has made his mark in television, commercials, film, and music videos. Inducted into the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame in 2004, Minn covers all areas of Vernacular Jazz Dance. Styles covered are Lindy Hop, Charleston, Balboa, Air Steps, and Collegiate Shag, among others. Minn has an extensive influence on the contemporary movement of urban street dance. He studied and worked with Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Nicholas Brothers, Ray Harsh, and Leonard Reed. Since 1997 his competition background encompasses a long history of 1st place titles in local, national, and world competitions.
KASIA & MICHAŁ (Katarzyna Dybowska and Michał Oblaciński)
⭐️ Michał and Kasia fell in love with swing dancing in 2005, successfully launching the Lindy Hop scene in Warsaw in 2009.
From the very beginning, they spent most of their spare time travelling around the world first learning and later also teaching the happiest of all dances both locally and internationally.
Since they came across Collegiate Shag in 2014 they are spreading their love for it all around Poland and Europe supporting its global revival everywhere they go. Alongside their students, they started the Collegiate Shag fever in Poland.
On a day-to-day basis, Michał and Kasia teach weekly Lindy Hop and Collegiate Shag classes and run the Warsaw Shag Team dance troupe in their SWINGOUT.PL Swing Dance Studio.
In swing dancing, they are looking for a perfect balance of a general dance technique, natural and functional movement, leading and following skills but also some childish craziness, musicality, fun and raw energy.
SIMONA & JAMES (Simona Pogosian and James D Farrell)
⭐️ Simona is one of the first swinging fellows that brought lindy hop to Lithuania back in 2004, and hasn’t stopped since. She fell in love with the diversity of movement and dived into everything that the swing world has to offer: from Lindy Hop, Balboa, Solo jazz to St Louis Shag.
But more than anything, Simona’s a wild soul. Authentic, sensual, joyful, creative, and awake in her dancing. You’ll see this girl playing and mixing bits of different cultures and dances, be it hip-hop or salsa. There’s always someone wondering “What’s that move she just did?”, cause it ain’t no charleston you’ve seen before, it’s something else.
On the dance floor, Simona’s having the time of her life. She believes that dancing is a shortcut to happiness and freedom to be your true self. Therefore, in class, she teaches how to find your own uniqueness, dance with joy, and spice the moves up.
⭐️ James is a skilled swing dance teacher, social dancer, choreographer, and competitor whose life has revolved around dancing for the last decade.
It was in 2015, after his first St Louis Shag class, that James became captivated by the rhythmic and expressive nature of Shag. From that day on, he eagerly seized every opportunity to dance and share the joy of Shag across Europe.
James teaches dance classes weekly, where he places a strong emphasis on nurturing creativity and versatility in his students, as well as passing on what he’s learning about jazz history and the cultural heritage of Black American social dances.
James also plays tenor banjo and ukulele and loves to dance to the top-shelf hot jazz bands that play in Berlin.
⭐️Nastya & Vlad (Anastasia Feoktistova and Vlad Kuznetsov)
Anastasia (Nastya) and Vladislav (Vlad) run Groovy Cats Swing Dance Club. Their experience contains many years of intensive practice, teaching, and performing in several swing dance styles: Collegiate Shag, Boogie Woogie, and Lindy Hop. Vlad has been dancing swing for over 15 years and over 9 years in a couple with Nastya.
Nastya and Vlad represented the Czech Republic several times at the annual Shag competition at the Balboa and Shag Weekend in Munich and won it five times in a row. They taught the Collegiate Shag workshops in Brno, Pilsen, Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, and Bucharest. Currently, they organize irregular workshops and train a regular Collegiate Shag group.
Who will we be stomping our feet to this year?
Shag Labs are 1-hour special masterclasses focused on specific topics that will spice up your dancing!
Auditions are not required for Shag Labs. However, there are indicated levels for the Shag Labs in the class schedule and you assess yourself which level is suitable for you.
CZK | EUR | |
CS/SLS full passes | ||
Early bird | 4200 | 180 |
Late Bird | 4600 | 195 |
Party pass | 1800 | 80 |
Shag Lab | 450 | 20 |
Shag COMBO | ||
Early bird | 6600 | 280 |
Late Bird | 7400 | 310 |
Early bird prices are available only for the first 30 FULL PASS registrations!
Centrum Loreto – Štorchova 1555/5, 180 00 Praha 8 – Libeň
Link to our Registration web : lektory.app/shag-republic-2023