INSTRUCTORS

INSTRUCTOR BIOS

Irina Amzashvili - Salt Lake City, UT
Dancing in all forms has been a lifelong passion for Irina (she/her). In 2009, at the age of 15, she stumbled upon Swing dancing and it took only one night of social dancing for her to fall head over heels in love with it. Though Lindy Hop was her gateway into the world of Swing, Irina's passion quickly expanded to include Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and solo jazz. She is proud to have spent her formative years of dancing in Southern California, home to some of the best Swing dancers, teachers, and music in the world. Irina has since received numerous accolades from events such as Camp Hollywood, The International Lindy Hop Championships, and Lindy Focus and has taught these dances all across the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Australia. Additionally, she is honored to have been inducted into the Camp Hollywood Hall of Fame in 2019 and the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame in 2022.
Irina's teaching style can best be described as patient and encouraging. Her goal is to guide her students through building solid foundations while inspiring individuality in personal movement, as well as helping build confidence through dance.

Anthony Chen - Salt Lake City, UT
Anthony's first ingress into the performing arts was at age 8 when his parents convinced him to learn and perform Chinese lion dances. Naturally, he then stumbled upon breakdancing during a national speech and debate tournament in middle school, and he had his first foray into swing dancing at age 16 alongside other young interns from a research laboratory. Since then, he has trained in other dance styles including West Coast Swing and various modern street dances, but most of all he enjoys using this background to expand upon his technique and creativity in Lindy Hop. On the social dance floor he is known to be playful, musical, creative, and clear.
Anthony holds first place titles from events such as the International Lindy Hop Championships, Montreal Swing Riot, Camp Hollywood, Lindy Focus, and Lindyfest and Lone Star Championships. His love of both leading and following, combined with his professional background in education, makes the classes that he teaches both clear and intuitive. He is an active scene builder in his community and founded Salt City Swing, a non-profit in Utah where he teaches locally.

Hannah Lane - Baltimore, MD
Hannah Lane is a dancer, researcher, and historian from Baltimore, Maryland. Throughout her time in the swing dance community, Hannah has developed a loving appreciation for jazz music, and for jazz dances including Lindy Hop, snake hips, and Charleston.
Alongside dance, Hannah is passionate about sharing research that centers jazz and nightlife histories of African American communities in her home state, Maryland, and throughout the U.S. She is also passionate about uplifting the stories of Shake Dancers through her research and oral history project, Queens of the Nightclub.
Currently Hannah serves on the board of Collective Voices for Change and is a participant in the Al Minns Next Generation Project. You can learn more about her work via instagram at @hannahpilarrr and @Queensofthenightclub. Stay tuned for her upcoming Queens of the Nightclub Substack!

Timothy Christopher
Timothy Christopher was first a musician! His journey with jazz starts with self taught piano from and old recordings. He stumbled into dance years later while looking for a Jazz jam when got back to his home town from college! He found himself in a room full of people moving there bodies around to swing music, but there was one couple that was dancing! The next day he found himself in the couples house learning this lovely dance called the Lindy Hop!
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Clearly he got obsessed with this dance and the culture surrounding the dance and now he is competing, dancing, and teaching internationally! He was in the most recent installment of the Swing Out Show in New York 2023, has performed at the Lincoln Center in New York and maintains good working relationships with most other instructors in the Lindy Hop scene.