About Us
About Us
The Perth Swing Dance Academy is a dance school run by a small group of guys and gals who are passionate (some might say obsessed) about Swing Dancing, vintage styles, jazz music, jazz history and practically everything else from the swing era.
Our goal really is to share what we enjoy about swing dancing with, well any and everyone! Our classes not only teach you how to dance but cover information about the history of swing dancing; the music and musicians of the era; the styles and fashion; the current worldwide swing dancing community and any other interesting bits of information about that age that we learn.
It’s very much an ongoing journey and experience for all of us so we’re glad that we have the opportunity to pass it on. We believe that the Lindy Hop went hand in hand with the big events of the time and so dancers should have some understanding of the culture that Lindy developed in.
The Teaching Team
Shawn Rego
Shawn can still remember being so terrified when going to his first swing dance lesson, he almost didn’t walk in! That was back in 2007 and he was hooked from day one. About 6 months later joined the Perth Swing Dance Society’s performance troupe, The Hullabaloo Hoppers where he is happy to be flipped over by one of the girls if the occasion calls for it.
Since then he’s won the 2009 Swing Blast Jack & Jill, the 2009 Hullabaloo (Perth Lindy Exchange) Jack & Jill, a swing DJ battle and has been the coordinator of The Hullabaloo Hoppers for the past 2 years. He’s also been off dancing in Toronto, Montreal, Dubai and Melbourne.
A fan of that old swingin’ jazz sound (particularly the faster ones), he can regularly be found swinging out at the various social dances in Perth.
Always happy to dance with anyone from the pros to absolute beginners, he believes the key to a great dance is to have fun, engage with your partner, turn those ‘mistakes’ into your own special variation and smile!
Dabsy Cola
Dabsy Cola’s first encounter with Swing Dancing was in 1998 when she attended the Cleo’s 50 most Eligible Bachelors competition with a friend. Her friend exclaimed, “Look at the men!” while she, amazed by the craziness of the aerials, could only think, ‘Look at the dancing!’
Her second experience was in Perth, about 9 years on, at a little bar called the Mustang. She then signed up for classes about 3 times a week and was … ADDICTED and has not stopped dancing since.
She has since attended and danced in New York, Lindy Focus in North Carolina, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, and even danced on the Great Wall of China. Her goal in life is to dance in every country she travels to. She has often been heard saying, “I choose Balboa over Lindy!” She believes the key to dancing is to have fun, smile and laugh!
When she is not dancing, Dabsy is busy being a Media Geek teacher, working on her photography, and thinking of more ways to take over the world.
Aaron Greenfield
In the worlds before Swing, primal dance reigned. Heavens sought order. But the phoenix can fly only when its Lead is fully grown. Rhythm and the pure essence of Heaven, the sweat of the Dance, the powers of Melody and Swing all worked upon a certain brain, a young brain. And it became magically fertile. That first egg was named Lindy Hop. Dancing 5 nights a week caused the egg to hatch. The nature of Lindy was irrepressible!
10 years on and many Monkey Magic episodes later, Aaron is still confusing follows with his unique platter of mostly forgotten, half-made up moves with a side dish of cheese. His dancing style is characterized by a keen understanding of the process of breaking dance moves down into their most basic parts, thereby creating a stream of consciousness freestyle. His motivation for doing this could be to truly understand the pure essence of Lindy, or because he’s lazy and doesn’t want to have to remember any moves. He hasn’t decided yet.
Cindy Allanson
Cindy is easily one of Perth’s most graceful and stylish follows! A “pocket rocket” who seems to have more energy than the rest of us put together, she is also one of the friendliest follows in the Perth scene. She’s been dancing for over 7 years now, has been in the Hullabaoo Hoppers, performed at Telethon as well as the Oz Concert and taught all the way over in Canada!
With her flair for vintage glamour and fashion it’s very hard not to spot Cindy on the dance floor! We certainly are lucky to have her as one of our casual teachers.
Simone Clements
Oh my god! Is that Anne Hathaway!?!? No, it’s someone even better! It’s Simone, a fellow Lindy Hopper. One of the ‘rising stars’ in the scene and our current teacher in training, Simone continues to wow us all with her styling and ability to pick up even the zaniest moves that Aaron throws at her!
You’ll find Simone’s happy cheerful face all over Perth, and not just because her more famous imitators are on billboards everywhere. She loves to Lindy Hop and would be more than happy to say yes to a dance provided they don’t attempt to get her to sign an autograph, take a picture with them, or clip her hair to sell on eBay. Simone has taken her Lindy Hop passion to dizzying heights by gracing the Hullabaloo Hoppers performance troupe with her presence.
Cheryl
Cheryl’s bio will be up soon!
Our Resident Cupcake baker
Elida Solecio
Elida’s seriously delicious bio is coming soon to a Lindy Class near you …
