Meet The Instructors
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 owes her rapid progression in part to spending 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.
He holds first place titles from events such as International Lindy Hop
Championships, Montreal Swing Riot, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, Lindy Focus, and Lindyfest and Lone Star Championships. His love of both leading and following, combined with his professional background in education, make 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.
Sam Nguyen - San Francisco Bay Area
Sam (she/her) spent 18 years of her life believing she could never be coordinated enough to dance until she got hooked onto swing dancing at UC Berkeley. She quickly fell in love with the improvisation and partnership of the dance, and she danced probably waaaay more than she should have during her college years. Sam has since continued the entire gambit of dance, from teaching to organizing to traveling and competing. Currently, her big passion in dance is mentoring new dance teachers, creating curriculum for venues in the San Francisco Bay Area, and learning more about the history, roots, and values of this Black art form.
Sam loves to incorporate silly playfulness, responsive partnership, and you-know-every-beat-in-this-song-don't-you musicality in her dancing. Coming from humble beginnings of gathering in random hallways and learning through YouTube videos, her dance teaching often emphasizes the tools needed for how to learn and how to take inspiration from an idea and make it your own. Sam’s endless lesson planning experience from being a high school teacher translates to even more endless lesson planning for dance; her lessons are crafted to emphasize partnership, connectedness, and having a blast while dancing. You can find her leading and following out on the social dance floor 'til the end of the night despite having to wake up at 7am to teach high schoolers
Calvin Lu - San Francisco Bay Area
Calvin, also sometimes known as "that guy who follows a lot," fell in love with Lindy Hop for its joyful expression, creative improvisation, and deep connection between partners. Since then, he has been actively involved in the community as an instructor, event organizer, competitor, and frequent up-past-3-am dancer. A lifelong student, and a Game Designer by trade, Calvin strives to make his classes engaging and help students fall in love with learning and practice as part of the fun of being a dancer. In his teaching and curriculum planning, he highly values offering students multiple perspectives, supporting a variety of learning styles, and fostering good dancers who are also good community members.
In his home scene of San Francisco, Calvin has helped organize The Switch Workshop, the Dancers Den, Bootleggers Ball, and most recently, is the teacher coordinator for The Breakaway.
Karen Vizzard-Hopkins - Mesa, AZ
Karen Vizzard first became enamored with Lindy Hop in 2003, when she was introduced to the dance at a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert in Santa Monica. Since then, she has dedicated herself to becoming an exceptional follow, as well as a versatile dancer with experience in Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Solo and Partnered Charleston. She is an award winning dancer who loves to compete and does so any chance she gets. She would rather be on the floor dancing than sitting and watching! She is also the director of Phoenix’s award winning all female solo dance team. Her other credits include performing with the Hollywood Hotshots, as well as being cast as a dancer in Katy Perry's music video "Thinking of You" and being cast as a principal dancer for the episode “Static” on the TV show “Cold Case.”
Karen and Dabney (along with their children Alice and Joe) collectively make The Lindy Hopkins. Lindy Hopping their way through every adventure they take since they started partnering in 2010! Together they have taught across the United States, perform regularly with bands in Arizona, California, and Nevada, were resident performers at The Cosmopolitan Chandelier Bar with Electro Swing Club, produce 3 annual weekend events complete with competitions and “licentious” social dancing until all hours of the night, and more. In 2020 Karen and Dabney were honored to be recognized by the Arizona Dance Coalition for their contributions to the dance community through the “Creating Connections Award” and they have been honored to be part of the elite group of dancers inducted into the Camp Hollywood Hall of Fame.
Dabney Hopkins - Mesa, AZ
Dabney Hopkins loves to swing dance and has been actively doing it for over twenty years. His favorite thing is to spread his love of dance to everyone he can through teaching, social dancing, and organizing events. One of his greatest moments was when he and his partner were awarded the Golden Budgie (rock the house) award at Camp Hollywood in 2002!