Amanda has been dancing since age five. Experienced in dance instruction, choreography, performance, and show production, she has taught blues dance, lindy hop, jazz, ballet, tap, contemporary, sacred dance, and hip hop. She has also had instruction in other dance forms such as Argentine tango, flamenco, modern dance, popping/breaking, and ballroom dance. Amanda has been dancing, choreographing, and competing in blues dance since 2000, and teaching blues dance nationally since 2003 with Ogden Sawyer.

Shawn Hershey came from an extensive music background, studying classical trumpet performance at the Eastman School of Music, so when he started lindy hopping in the late 1990s with the Lindybaby studio, he quickly got hooked! He has studied extensively at camps and workshops with nationally renowned instructors and started teaching swing and lindy hop in Boston around 2002 with various partners. Shawn began teaching and performing lindy hop internationally with his sister, Betina Hershey.

Since Shawn and Amanda joined forces in 2005, they have collectively won or placed in half a dozen national blues competitions, and have taught and performed together at workshops and events around North America, including Austin Blues Party, Down Home Blues, the Fusion Exchange, and BluesSHOUT! Their style of blending lindy hop, ballroom, blues, and Argentine tango into their dancing is both beautiful and powerful, and earns them praise wherever they go.

Currently, Amanda and Shawn teach with a collective of Boston dance instructors at New School Swing in Charlestown, MA and Blues Union in Somerville, MA, and Shawn runs two successful swing bands, The Fried Bananas and the Shawn Hershey Quartet.

David Madison and Haley Smith have been teaching Blues since the beginning of the Bay Area Blues scene, which they were instrumental in helping create. They’ve since travelled across the globe to spread their love of Blues Dancing and love of teaching Blues.

Their love of teaching comes from continually investigating and then transferring the fundamental essence of Blues to their students. Their classes are high energy and have a playfulness and interactive nature that is infectious and entertaining.

Explaining and demonstrating are not enough, Dave and Haley have the lofty goal of wanting every student to walk out of the class with a mastery of the material.

Through the magic power of his huge smile, Lucky Skillen brings dancing joy wherever he goes. Lucky started dancing in 1996 and began teaching in 1998. Since then he has taught and performed many styles of dances in Asia, Europe, and North America. He has also had the privilege of working with such celebrities as Neil Young, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Katie Holmes, and Frankie Manning. Lucky teaches a wide variety of dance classes in which he creates a fun and playful atmosphere. He believes that play is learning and learning is fun!

Currently Lucky spends about nine months out of the year touring and teaching across Europe and the United states. The three months that he is not traveling he work with the Dancing Classrooms Program in NYC teaching inner city kids how to ballroom dance.

Two of Denver’s best dance instructors, Joe and Nelle DeMers are known for their performance Swing, Lindy Hop, and Blues. They are continually ranked the best instructors at workshop and competition weekends in which they teach. They are the owners of Overstreet Dance Gallery in Littleton, CO; a ballroom venue for music, dance, and art.

Joe and Nelle are part organizers of and teachers at Mile High Blues and have toured the world teaching and performing Blues and Lindy Hop in countries such as South Korea, Japan, Canada, France, Hungary, England, and all over the United States. They are proponents of Frame Matching and the creators of ΔPTED, a framework for teaching partner dance connection. Their level of instruction is exceptional and they always innovate creative moves and movements while adhering to the aesthetics of the dances they teach.

They have been competing since 2003, and have taken home several National Championship titles at events such as Blues Shout, International Lindy Hop Championships, Swingtime on the Rockies, Camp Hollywood, and Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown. Their performance troupe, the Woodside Jumpers, have placed at events such as International Lindy Hop Championships and Camp Hollywood. In 2008, they were awarded the Spirit of Lindy Hop award at Camp Jitterbug. Visit their website at www.joeandnelle.com.

Ruby Red discovered social dance in 2000, and by 2001 was swing dancing regularly in San Francisco. By 2005, she was teaching and DJing at the first iterations of San Francisco’s Friday Night Blues. Since then she has traveled the US and to the UK to teach, DJ and share her love of Blues and Swing with other dancers. Now based in Chicago, she helps run Bluetopia, Chicago’s monthly blues dance, and continues to travel to other cities to connect, collaborate and bring inspiration back to her community. Not only a continual student of dance, she’s also a certified massage therapist and has studied other movement forms including Kung Fu, T’ai Chi and Iyengar Yoga.  (dance.ruby-red.com)

John Joven has been been Swing dancing since 1998 and Blues dancing since 2001. He initially learned all of his first moves on the social floor by watching other great leads. Eventually he joined Chicago’s Big City Swing and has been performing and teaching with them since 2004. He and Ruby have been cultivating the Chicago Blues scene together since 2005, with open practice sessions and more recently, a variety of workshops. His dance expertise draws on Blues, Lindy-Hop, East Coast Swing, Charleston, Balboa, & Carolina Shag. A former Chicagoan, now hailing from NYC, John is the quintessential social dancer – you rarely find him off the dance floor.

Kenny Nelson, hailing from Colorado, has been dancing blues since 2002. He is known for his creative mad scientist moves, fierceness, and connection. As a teacher, he strives to engage students through visual examples, detailed communication, and exercises. He has taught nationally and internationally including a recent 3 month stint in Portugal where he was teaching weekly Lindy hop classes and specialty workshops including blues. Kenny has also taught blues workshops in Madrid, at Berlin Blues Explosion, and Church City Blues in Adelaide.

If Heather Ballew was a natural disaster, she’d be tornado. A well-dressed, immaculately coiffed tornado. She has studied Blues since way back in aught aught and is continually refining her teaching, always looking for better ways to explain moves and concepts.  She started her professional career teaching ballroom and latin dance in 2002 and since that time she has also extensively studied west coast swing and argentine tango.  Heather believes that dancing should look good as well as feel good. As a participant of the 1990′s swing rennaisance, she swears she learned everything the wrong way first and had to relearn and refine every bit of her dancing multiple times.  She is known for her connection and rhythmic musicality.  She dances with beginners and professionals alike and she is a favorite on the social dance floor.  She can be found teaching at lindy hop, blues, and balboa events around the United States and abroad.

Rachael is an accomplished blues dancer and instructor. She focuses on concepts such as simplicity, clarity, expression, and body awareness which are critical to advanced social dancing. She strongly believes in incorporating both creativity and technique into social dancing and teaches her students how to find a balance of the two within their own dancing. Being an avid listener and fan of the music she dances to, Rachael loves to emphasize the importance of musicality in social dancing including rhythms and layering to match the music. Overall, she has a genuine passion for teaching every level of social dancer and is excited to share her knowledge and love for dance with those who would like to learn.

Karen Gilmore is a Ferrari, so she’s been told. She goes from 0-60 while Lindy Hopping, has a lightning fast response from Argentine Tango, and smooth handling from Blues. The Lindy Hop model was first released in 1999, an Argentine Tango body styling was added in 2002, with a Blues overhaul in 2005. She loves Blues music because it has so much variety depending on what area of the country it is from, and what types of instruments are used. This variety in sound inspires different types of movements to different types of songs.

When she teaches, she wants her students to learn the framework for dancing so they can dance to many styles of music with any partner.  Her classes focus on concepts of essential dancing techniques, communicated through fun and unique exercises and games.

Luke has been dancing Lindy Hop since 1996, and didn’t realize he was a Blues Dancer until being tricked into going to Mile High Blues 2010 by Karen Gilmore.  Up until that point his contention was that he was a Lindy Hopper who had fallen in with a bad crowd. He has been teaching group and private lessons off and on since 1998.

After attending Mile High Blues, Luke has been immersing himself in the national blues scene and has been caught twice organizing Blues Fusion dance weekends in Denver, Colorado. As a teacher, he looks for the “Aha!” moment when a student’s face lights up as they get a concept they didn’t understand before.

Ronnie Shellist has been a certified teacher and musician for 15 years. He spends his days teaching private instruction for harmonica and creating instructional material for his business Harmonica123.com Ronnie is as passionate in the classroom while teaching as he is on stage performing.  You can find him playing and teaching on YouTube to get a sneak peak. http://www.youtube.com/user/ronnieshellist

Gerry Hundt is a 4-time Blues Music Award nominee and has presented educational programs at levels ranging from elementary to collegiate.  He was recently featured as a Mandolin Instructor at The Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, and taught bass guitar and band dynamics at Les Stages Blues in Tournon, France.  Whether in person or via Skype, his private students have gained a deeper understanding and facility for the blues on their chosen instrument – be it guitar, harmonica, bass, or mandolin.

Shane and Keri have an outstanding passion for dance and travel both Nationally and Internationally to share their knowledge, see more www.gravitydanceproductions.com. They instruct, perform, coach and judge all ages and ability levels. With their diverse experience they appeal to a wealth of students who enjoy what Keri, Shane, and their company Gravity Dance Productions has to offer. Transforming the face of dance, Shane and Keri are technicians on the cutting edge, morphing body mechanics with revolutionary style.  Shane and Keri are proud to have placed 4th at the 2011 U.S. Open and excited to have tied for a Top Teacher Award at the 2011 Colorado Country Classic!  And they are very excited and honored to be involved with Mile High Blues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbtth0g95dE