Wherever there is a lindy event, there are instructor bios. These fill us in on the qualifications of the teachers what they’re known for, where we might have seen them. Most of these are honestly pretty boring:
X loves/is passionate about jazz/lindy and has been dancing an impressive number of years. X has danced in a super awesome dance group and won several important contests. X’s instruction emphasizes technique/form/styling/blah blah blah… X travels the world teaching jazz/lindy and is continually inspired to new levels of awesome.
I get it, you’re inspiring, you’ve danced for years, you’ve won contests. Oh, and look, a video clip and some pictures. Yay.
But there are some bios that rise above the average. Some are random sentences in the middle of an otherwise serious profile, others are a whole paragraph of awesome. They’ve made me smile as I’ve decided which events and classes to attend. Here are some of my favorites:
Andy and Nina: When Andy and Nina are not dancing together, you can often see her drop kicking him. In fact, sometimes she dropkicks him while dancing in front of hundreds of people who paid a lot of money to watch. Life is funny sometimes.
Sharon Davis: She has a particular love of early hot jazz and 1930s big bands, and a penchant for rhythm guitar, growl trumpet, scat singers and band members shouting random things in the background.
Bobby and Kate: Kate instructs with a thorough, mechanics-based method, while Bobby prefers rubber-band analogies and irk-irk noises. They currently throw each other around in Washington DC and help run the local dance, The Jam Cellar.
Max Pitruzzella: If Max was not a dancer, he would probably be a boxer!
Naomi Uyama: When she’s not traveling in the name of triple steps Naomi lives in New York City and spends most of her life not being Nina Gilkenson, despite the large amounts of people that think she is.
Karen Turman and Andrew Thigpen: Karen was first seen on stage at age 9 performing a tap dance to Lollipop in a striped leotard and has been dancing ever since (in fact, she can still be seen dancing around in a leotard from time to time)…. Andrew was first exposed to the Lindy Hop back in 1998 but didn’t actually develop rhythm until booty dancing in college…. Andrew and Karen are basically the same person except Karen likes unicorns and rainbows while Andrew likes dragons and beer. All they want to do is dance the Lindy Hop and make each other laugh. Having fun is awesome. They hope you like awesome too.
Nina Gilkenson: Lindy Hopper. Belly dancer. Hair-removal Laser Technician. The mysterious figure that is known only as “Nina” (and sometimes “Naomi”) has many titles from prestigious dance competitions. But that’s only a small part of her accomplishments. For instance, she can swivel in midair. She can simultaneously create vintage-style dresses and then destroy them while dancing. She can make 12-minute biscuits in 10 minutes. She writes upbeat musical theatre involving funeral homes. And last, but not least, she is a part of the award-winning Lindy Hop team the Silver Shadows, which sounds like it’s a group of super heroes. And that’s what she is. A Super Hero–one whose main super power is doing swivels in midair. And one day, they might save the world. Until then, she lives in Washington D.C. and falls down a lot.
Andy Reid: Andy Reid, who’s fame has been somewhat tarnished by his stormy relationship with wide receiver Terrell Owens, looks to lead the Philadelphia eagles to greater heights this year including a Superbowl victory. Andy Reid the lindy hopper, on the other hand, is a mysterious figure who wanders the earth like Kane in Kung fu and has little bio information on the internet. Other than this, he is a mighty fine dancer who people say is “known for his powerful presence, movement and technique” and stuff like that. Think of Andy as that secret ingredient that makes Coke taste SOOOOO good and not a thing like Pepsi.
In my (admittedly not so) humble opinion, all dance bios should be like these. They have inspired me to write such a bio for my lovely friend Kara who is expanding her teaching beyond the local scene. Maybe she’ll think it’s great and you’ll see her awesome bio on an event near you (please, Kara?)!
Kara Fabina, blues and lindy instructor, spends much of her life in cars, hotels, and strangers’ houses in an undying attempt to spread dance to infinity and beyond. After winning the coveted rising star award at lindy focus, Kara was crushed to find out it wasn’t part of a space program for the arts. Putting her disappointment behind her, she has gone on to teach lindy and blues up and down the east coast. She competes regularly, placing in events such as Hot Mess, Steal City Blues, Lindy Focus, and even out dancing a pink flamingo in Baltimore. She enjoys choreographing, and her pieces can be seen in two of the following three places: Enter the Blues, BamBloozled, and the off off Broadway smash hit “Where’s Waldo.” In between lindy events she relaxes by break dancing, sword fighting, cutting and dying her hair, puddle jumping, and giving away free hugs. She currently works as a customer service ninja for Dalmatian Corporation.
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