Augie Freeman and Delphine Laurens
Los Angeles
Augie Freeman discovered Balboa and Bal Swing during his first night of dancing at the 2003 California Balboa Championship. Having been completely blown away, he occupied all of his free time and money learning how to dance balboa with old timers and dance champions alike. Among his favorite old timers to watch are Willie Desatoff, Maxie Dorf, and Lollie Weiss, whom he has drawn the inspiration for his style, finesse, and dynamic movements. In the fall of 2005 Augie packed his bags and moved to London traveling to every balboa workshop he could find. During the 2005 Frenchie Balboa Festival in Toulouse, France he met Delphine Laurens. Delphine was born in Paris France and learned how to Lindy Hop and Bal after several years of dancing Rock and Roll and Salsa. She soon assisted in many workshops and lessons in Toulouse and in Paris. After she met Augie, they began traveling and dancing throughout Europe and finally returned together to Los Angeles in 2007.
They quickly became among LA’s favorite competitors and dancers. Placing in many local competitions they have also won 2nd place in the 2008 National Jitterbug Championships Am Balboa Contest. Delphine is also a member of Ben and Sheri’s NJC Championship in the Team Division, “The One 2 Swing Jitterbugs.”In 2009 Augie and Delphine were selected to attend Balboa's most prestigious masters level workshop in Virginia Beach, "The Balboa Experiment." With further inspiration and guidance from the top bal dancers in the world, they are eager to share their knowledge and entheusiam for the dance. Both of them can be found at Atomic Ballroom in Irvine every Friday Night teaching anything from Lindy Hop and Balboa, to Charleston and Shag. They have also taught at various workshops and events including The Fort Worth Jitterbug Jam with “The Hollywood Hotshots.” Their enthusiasm for teaching and for dancing as well as well constructed theories and light-hearted humor makes learning with them well focused and fun. Also avid collectors of Jazz music Augie enjoys DJ’ing various well known and obscure artists who play Hot Jazz and Big Band Swing.
Patrick Wall and Kelli Wilkerson
Sacramento
Patrick and Kelli have been dancing together since 2001 and have partnered for several years now and have taught and competed together all over the country. With Pats fancy footwork and Kelli's Strong style they are able to focus on having a fabulous time while teaching great connection, technique and lines in all the swing dance genres; including but not limited to Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, Blues and East Coast Swing. Above all, Pat and Kelli believe swing should be a social dance that is fun and energetic and they always try to bring that energy into their classes so the students feel they can dance with anyone to anything when they leave.
Beyond teaching nationally, Pat and Kelli are head teachers at the local swing dance venue, Midtown Stomp, and are also one of several creators of the venue Sweet N' Hot, also in Sacramento. Pat and Kelli have competed and placed in many top esteemed pro level competitions both as partners and as individual competitors. A few of these competitions include Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, Lindy on the Rocks, American Lindy Hop Championships, Swingtime in the Rockies, Camp Hollywood/National Jitterbug Competition, Camp Jitterbug and San Francisco Balboa Festival.
Eric Eltringham and Mary Freitag
Los Angeles
Eric and Mary met on the dance floor, hit if off, and have been dancing together now for over two years. Playing with each other, syncopating rhythms, yummy connection and just having loads of fun are why they became addicted to dancing. They both can't wait to share their love of dancing and the joy they find in movement everywhere they go.
Nathan Dias and Audrey Kanemoto
San Francisco
Nathan Dias is an accomplished swing dance instructor, performer, DJ and organizer in San Francisco. Dancing since 1997, Nathan learned his chops on the social and competitive dance floor, at national and international dance camps, and as a performer with the SF Bounce and 3 Minute Maniacs swing dance troupes. Nathan started teaching dance in San Francisco in 2005 and is the regular dance instructor at Cat's Corner on Wednesdays and at the Amura Dance Studio on Monday nights. Nathan is also a frequent guest instructor at the 9:20 Special in San Francisco. You can read more about Nathan and his classes and dance and dance activities at: http://www.swingornothing.com.
Audrey Kanemoto has been tap dancing for 23 years with a smattering of jazz, ballet, tango, waltz, and lindy hop along the way. She enjoys executing big ideas, so when she first started swing dancing in 2001, she produced a music video with a 40-person cast and crew that included all of her new friends and instructors. She continued work on her technique, style, and stage quality with lindy hop performance groups SF Bounce, The Swing Cats Rhythm Revue, and the 3-Minute Maniacs. In the last two years, Audrey has been traveling and competing at lindy hop events and camps earning a name for herself as an exuberant and passionate solo charleston dancer. One of her most notable lindy hop successes was a clean sweep of the three first place trophies at Inspiration Weekend 2007 in Orange County.