Alex Krebs, Portland, OR — Tango Instructor & DJ

Alex teaches Argentine tango for the social dance floor, emphasizing the improvisatory side of the dance through a strong communication between the lead and follow and on musicality. Alex tries to give his students the vocabulary necessary so that each person can find their own unique way of dancing — dancing the tango of their own body. He has studied and danced in Buenos Aires. Alex has taught in all over America from the West Coast to East Coast and south to Texas. He has also taught in Canada, Germany, Itlay, Sweden, Amsterdam, London and throughout the UK. www.tangoberretin.com

Ally Yancey, Portland, OR — Instructor

Five or six years ago
There was a gal with no flow
But she discovered the swing
With tango had a fling
And blues she fancied fo' sho'

Andrew Sutton, Sacramento, CA — Instructor & DJ

Whether you are a beginner struggling to understand the basics of a dance, an intermediate working on the details of making it feel better, an advanced dancer that needs that next inspiration to jump start his dancing, or a teacher looking for new & fresh ideas... Andrew's classes have provided all of that and much more to thousands of dancers around the world, taking them to their next levels, which is exactly what he will do for you.

Andrew stands out as a teacher that teaches for both the leads AND the follows. He stands out as a teacher that teaches Advanced material for Beginners in a way that they get it and don't feel it is too advanced. He stands out as a teacher that continuously blows open stereotypes and brings new developments and concepts to the dance and as someone who will open your eyes to see the world of dance in a new way. He will describe & break down your habits that you didn't realize were there and help guide you to build your style of dance based on what you want it to look/feel like, rather than what you are used to it looking and feeling like.

Throughout his classes, you might notice Andrew using physics, philosophy, specially-trained teaching techniques, socratic methods, group activities, special rotations, and/or any other variety of teaching techniques he has found to help develop your dancing. From his instant musicality technique of how to be ONE with the music, to his multi-layered concept of the layers of a lead, you can be sure his classes will be a unique experience for you to enjoy. www.smoothsavoy.com/

Ben Long, Portland, OR — Instructor & DJ

Ben Long has been dancing Lindy Hop since 1999 (he is in disbelief that it really has been ten years). His first two years of dancing were with the Swingin' Hep Cats, a dance troupe from Bainbridge Island, Washington. In 2005 he was persuaded to try Blues and Tango. Since then he has been working to reconcile the three dance forces that are within him. Accordingly, he is known for his eccentric dance style, musical tastes, and socks. Among the many awards he has won, he is most proud of winning "Best Hell Costume" at Portland's Tuesday Blues Halloween contest in 2006. His other qualifications include a public speaking course and a degree in marketing. He emphasizes improvisation, musicality, and "..." in his dancing and teaching. www.lostmouse.com

Bill Borgida, Austin, TX — Instructor & DJ

Over the past 14 years, Bill's workshops have helped all levels of dancers become more aware of how their body works, how to use it to communicate and more fully express music and connect to another person. In his classes, you will not just learn "the rules", but you will understand how technique really applies to your dancing, and how to differentiate between "styling" and "technique."

Bill's passion for Blues dancing dates back two decades when he used to attend house parties in Washington DC. As he developed his interest in Lindy Hop, one began to influence the other. And now he sees them as complementary dances, two ends of a continuum which blend and borrow from one another, always inspired by the music. Long before Blues was a household word, he would sneak a Blues lesson in to his Lindy workshops - both to share his passion for it, as well as to teach the technique common to both. www.billborgida.com

Brenda Collins, Portland, OR — Instructor & DJ

Brenda is fulfilling her childhood dream as a professional dancer and instructor. Brenda's early dance training included about 30 dance styles. She has also studied musical history and theory, dance history, dance instruction, several physical health methods, and other related subjects adding to her knowledge of the body, dance, music, and teaching. Brenda continues to study and train with coaches, historians, and practitioners, always striving to increase her understanding and ability.

Brenda has put the majority of her focus over the past many years into the Lindy Hop, Balboa, Blues, West Coast Swing, and Salsa communities. She believes we are all born with dance in our bodies, and that each of us can use this activity as a means for personal expression, connecting with others, and exercise. Brenda loves the image of being able to dance anytime, anywhere, to any music, alone, or with anyone. She spends her time living this dream for herself while assisting her students in accomplishing their personal dance goals.

Chris Ransdell, Tulsa, OK

Chris started swing dancing in 1998, and started teaching Lindy Hop and Blues in 2001. Since then he has taught at over 30 local, 12 regional, and several international blues workshops including: Blues Rising (San Francisco), Enter the Blues (Atlanta), From Montreal With Love, and Denver Blues Summit.

Chris truly adores teaching. His teaching style bends the rules and incorporates many genres of dance into his blues. His goal is to create a well rounded dancer out of each student. After establishing a solid foundation of connection, he teaches you how to be creative and expressive through musicality and motion.

Dustin Henwood, Portland, OR — Instructor & DJ

There once was a man with confusion
He shook his hips but his feet were for blues'n
He tangoed the floor and waltzed with a roar
And then danced out the door
Yelling "Fusion!"

Janet Bickford, Berkley, CA — Instructor

Janet developed her passion for dance in 2006 when she discovered it to be the perfect balance to her left-brain engineering life. Her explorations have included west coast swing, lindy hop, tango and blues dance. She has performed with two swing troupes in the bay area and taught at the Oakland blues room, RA blues, and Friday Night Blues (San Francisco). Janet's passions also include rock climbing and yoga and she finds that these activities breathe life and meaning into her dancing. Janet will be teaching Ballroomin' Bash with Lucky Skillen

Jason Isbell, Portland, OR — Instructor & DJ

Jason has been dancing since 2002, when a friend dragged him kicking and screaming to a lindy hop dance at the Viscount Ballroom. After six weeks of tripping over his own feet, Jason was finally able to execute a passable swing out and never looked back. He began teaching in 2003 in Corvallis, Oregon, and then moved to Portland three years ago and quickly entrenched himself in the Portland lindy hop and west coast swing scenes. Jason is the president of the Portland Lindy Society and the head organizer for the Portland Lindy Exchange, a three-day event that happens every March that brings swing dancers to Portland from all over the country to lindy hop to the best live bands and DJs Portland has to offer. An active instructor, DJ, and organizer in the west coast swing, lindy hop, and blues scenes in Portland, Jason currently teaches west coast swing, hustle, and nightclub two-step with Trina Siebert and lindy hop with Aisha Lodjic at The Ballroom Dance Company in Tigard, Oregon.

Jeremy Lightsmith

Jeremy's years of studying communication & team building skills have been personally influencing dancers in the Lindy Hop & Blues dance communities for years. But until now, his ideas were only available in one-on-one environments, small retreats, and local classes. We are proud to be one of the first national dance events to bring his skills to the public and expect his class to bring you many insights to improve your partnering & team building skills both on & off the dance floor. www.onemanswalk.com

Josh McLaughlin — DJ & Instructor

Josh has been DJing at local dances in the Portland area for the past few years. His feelings on DJing is to try and have a diverse set while maintaining a high level of enerygy. He has Djed at such event as Oregon Dance Fair, Come Rain Come Shine 2007 & 2008. Josh has also ran a local dance called Second Saturday Soul, where he began his love for playing Soul music.

Karissa Lightsmith

Karissa is one of those hidden treasures of dance and if you take a class from her or dance with her you will start to know why. She has incredible control and body awareness that most of us wouldn't imagine humanly possible. She is not just another good dancer though... she can actually explain what she is doing and provide you with techniques to help improve your control & body awareness too!

Lessa Thieme, Seattle, WA — Instructor & DJ

Lessa has been studying and performing various forms of dance for most of her life. She learned lindy through a happy accident of fate, when at the '98/'99 New Years Eve dance in Tacoma, WA, she was petitioned by a then-acquaintance to become his teaching partner. Eventually she discovered Blues in a dark back-room at a Lindy exchange in Vancouver, and she's never been the same since.

The unavoidable pull of Blues' sultry rhythms has captivated her, drawing her in, willing her to discover ever more dizzying heights of elation through movement. In her continuous discovery of blues, she has found that her best, most creative, and most satisfying series of movements come when she stops thinking about what she's doing, and just allows the dance, the music, the connection, to flow through her. In this conduit-like state, she finds serenity. It is this experience of transcendent, divine dance that she strives to impart to as many people as she possibly can.

She recently discovered tango, and is hoping to grow her passion for dance in this new direction when she has more time. (She's trying not to hold her breath for this...)

Whatever direction life takes her, she knows her passion for dance will always keep her on her toes.

Lucky Brian Skillen, New York, NY - Instructor

Lucky Skillen has been swing dancing since 1996 and teaching since 1998. Since that time he has taught and performed a wide verity of dances in Asia, Europe, and North America. He has also had the privilege of working with such people as Neil Yung, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Katy Holms, and Frankie Manning. Lucky teaches a wide verity of classes. In these classes he creates a fun and playful environment. He believes that play is learning and learning is fun. Lucky offers a unique insight into technique, connection and the use of momentum due to the many forms of dance he has studied. Most of Luckys classes are concept based. They consist of a short choreography to illustrate several different movements. He then leads the students to discover the concepts behind the movements make them work. Lucky believes in a path of self discovery in dance. He would like for all of his students to become their own teachers and find their own truths in dance.

Mihai Banulescu, San Francisco, CA — Instructor & DJ

Mihai's teaching is defined by curiosity, creativity and compassion. He constantly grows and improves his pedagogy and curriculum, comes up with many unique exercises and loves giving individual feedback in a gentle, useful manner. Mihai started dancing in 1997 and has been teaching blues full time since 2005. He has taught workshops and festivals in over 20 states and has been invited back in almost every town. He has also been DJing blues, swing and tango since 2003 and organizes San Francisco's Friday Night Blues - the world's first and largest blues-only weekly dance. www.beyondblues.com/mihai

Tina Donth, Austin, TX — Instructor

I've had the privilege of teaching with "Lindy rock stars" and U.S. Open (Westie) champions. So, when Tina told me she didn't like writing about herself, I said "OK; let me write your bio"...

Tina Donth is one of those rare followers who can connect on many levels across different dance styles — a true "Fusionist!" Her connection is solid, articulate and seamless. Tina is present and attentive in a way that makes leaders smile and look up to see what just happened. When Tina syncopates, hesitates, floats, highlights or adds her own flourishes to what was just led, her movement and ideas are "explained" clearly — without distracting flow or stopping momentum. And this, to me, is the essence of the language of partner dance: to take what your partner "says" and give it back with a little further elaboration. That is how the "conversation" of dance happens.

When you look at Tina dancing you not only get to watch an impeccable follower, but you also get treated to great taste in styling and musicality. Having studied ballet, tap, flamenco and jazz since age 7, Tina doesn't just "do" the dance; she inspires and invites: following the music and embellishing it. She moves like she is an instrument in the band.

Tina was a founding member of the "Swing Affair," an organizer of the first SoFlex, and she has taught with many other teachers like Mike Sluyter with Four on the Floor (Austin), Edwin Li (Bay Area, CA) and Mihai Banulescu (Bay Area, CA). - Greg Avakian

Trina Siebert, Portland, OR — Instructor & DJ

Trina has been dancing since '95 and teaching since '98. Her favorite styles are the contemporary social dances (west coast swing, nightclub two-step, and hustle) as well as blues and Argentine tango. An active competitor on the west coast swing circuit, Trina has been an invited instructor, performer and DJ at workshop weekends and dance conventions throughout the Northwest. Students appreciate her clear and relaxed instructional style; her philosophy is that dancing should be fun and accessible for everyone. As a DJ, her taste is eclectic, but she has a soft spot for dirty blues and anything that has a great groove.

Ivy Grey, Portland, OR — Organizer & DJ

Ivy began swing and ballroom dance in 1997 in Orange County, CA. Never one to be confined or traditional, she was a "Westie-Hopper" from day one. Ivy finally found her dance home when she moved to Houston, TX in 2005. Dancing to Luther & the Healers she discovered blues-swing fusion. During her summers in Portland, OR she learned Argentine Tango and enjoyed blues-swing-tango fusion. Ivy is also a blues and swing DJ. Enjoyed for her musicality and playfulness in dance, she is more typically known for her attention to detail and sense of responsibility in business. Ivy has nearly 10 years of event planning experience. When she should be sleeping or dancing, Ivy is a bankruptcy and tax attorney.

Andrew Sutton, Sacramento, CA — Instructor, Organizer & DJ

Please see bio above.

Kelly Raynor, Portland, OR — Housing Coordinator

Kelly moved her body to music for the first time at a Lindy Hop class in 2005. She was immediately hooked and fell asleep every night thinking "triple step, triple step, kick ball change." After a year and a half of Lindy Hop she began blues dancing and was suprised to discover that she had a sexy side. She recently decided to explore Argentine Tango after receiving feedback that she was very "leg oriented." She loves it when a dance is so intense that she forgets who she is dancing with. She doesn't love over-enthusiastic un-led wiggling.

Abby Kunnecke, Portland, OR — Volunteer Coordinator

Abby Kunnecke began her dancing days with classical ballet, but got lonely after 12 years of dancing alone and took up Lindy Hop. After four years of lindy, her obsession has made a move to blues. A lover of mix and match dancing, she has been known to throw in a swingout or two on the blues floor.

Alana Iturbide, Portland, OR — PFX Administrative Coordinator

Alana began dancing in 2002 in Vancouver, WA where she learned swing, ballroom, and latin dance. She then moved to Santa Barbara and continued dancing lindy hop where the famous Jonathan Bixby and Sylvia Sykes teach. She also did both swing and salsa dancing in Spain where she lived for 6 months in 2005. Since then, Alana has returned to Vancouver and enjoys dancing lindy hop and salsa. Her primary focus and passion however is Blues with which she has fallen in love over the last several months. She enjoys the freedom that Blues allows along with the "sexiness" of the dance... During the other hours of the week, Alana works as a financial analyst and plays with her new orange kitten, Ozzie.

Bobby Bosney, Seattle, WA — Photographer

Bobby is a photographer, dancer, performer and film editor. He recently was at the Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden for photography, dancing, performing and meeting people from around the world. His photography can be found at his site www.BobbyBonsey.com or on facebook. He has been break dancing for 5 years and lindy hopping and blues dancing for the last year and a half. He resides in Seattle, WA but is originally form Long Beach, CA.

Clint Zehner, Austin, TX — Webmaster

Clint loves long walks on the beach...sorry, wrong bio.

With a long and varied history, Clint has traveled...and is finding that it's getting harder and harder to avoid the police. He has been dancing swing weekly (and sometimes weakly) since 1999 and discovered the joys of blues dancing in 2005. In addition to PFX, Clint has been webmaster for over a dozen dance websites, most of which he has treated as his own personal empires, but prefers to think of as "benevolent dictatorships". Clint is the current VP of the Blues Association of Austin and one of the founders of the Austin Blues Party and the Austin Blues Exchange.

His favorite song is "Stormy Monday Blues."

Portland Blues and Jazz Dance Society, Portland, OR — All Around Help

The Portland Blues & Jazz Dance Society (PB&J DS) website is the primary resource for blues and jazz dance events in Portland, OR.