Amanda is always captivated by the siren’s call of a slow swinging tune.  Amanda is ever-exploring Balboa dancing, including Slow Balboa, as a social dancer, teacher, choreographer, and competitor.  In addition to holding Balboa classes and practices in her local D.C. scene, she also competes in Balboa & Slow Balboa, including placing 2^nd in the Great Lakes Balboa Escape Slow Balboa competition in 2023 with Connor Cole.  Amanda is one of the organizers of Stardust Slow Balboa Weekend.

 

Olga was born into a family of teachers and since early years has been an energetic live wire – studying music, doing athletics, martial arts and gymnastics. In 2007 she was introduced to Lindy Hop and this is where the real passion story begins. She got dance hooked and started to explore more of the dance world by getting into Blues and later Balboa. Later she began to share her love for swing music and dance by teaching. Now Olga is the international balboa instructor, teaching solo and couple Balboa all over the world. At her classes she pays a lot of attention to getting the students interested and involved by giving challenging and fun tasks, working both on technique and musicality and infecting them even more with the love of dancing.

For the time being she is passionately developing a new direction of swing dance practices – iSoloBalboa – offline and online solo classes for balboa leaders and followers which aim at polishing up technique and developing creativity and personal aesthetics.

 

Connor first learned Slow Balboa from Mickey Fortanasce, Jacob Wigger, and Kelly Arsenault and found that the dance opened up a newfound appreciation for the slow and swinging music that he had always loved. Along with Amanda Gerken, he helps organize balboa events in D.C. and holds placements in Balboa competitions, including a recent 1st place showing at the New York Balboa Week competition with Amanda Gerken. He is one of the organizers of Stardust Slow Balboa Weekend.

Andreas Olsson lives in Stockholm, Sweden. Andreas was introduced to Lindy Hop in 2001 and a few years later to Balboa and other dances. In his early career, Andreas focused on performance and competition. He often competes and was awarded first place at events as Balboa division at National Jitterbug Championships (Camp Hollywood), Lindy and Balboa division at International Lindy Hop Championships, American Classic Balboa Championships (All Balboa Weekend), Rendezvous Championships (New York Balweek) and Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout. Andreas is also the reigning champion of the American Classic Balboa Championships at All Balboa Weekend together with Olga Marina.

As a dance teacher, Andreas has a warm and comfortable approach towards students. He is known for being good at breaking down the dances in an understandable way through inventive exersizes and class contents.

 

Kelly, from Knoxville, TN, has been dancing as long as she can remember. As a child she took ballet and jazz, but she was especially drawn to modern dance. At age 11, Kelly joined the Tennessee Children’s Dance Ensemble. She was with the modern dance company for 6 years, performing around the globe including Taiwan, Singapore, and Indonesia. Kelly attended the University of Tennessee from 1997-2001, during which time she was a member of the UT Dance Company. She was also a dancer and choreographer for Circle Modern Dance Company. In 2003, Kelly moved to New York City where she continued her modern dance career performing with Von Ussar Danceworks and MAD About Dance. When she met Mickey in 2004, she discovered her love for balboa and lindy hop; and so began their amazing friendship and partnership.

 

Mickey and his partner Kelly Arsenault took their first Slow Balboa and Laminu lessons at the Balboa Rendezvous in 2005 from Dean Raftery. Where Lindy hops and Balboa pulses, Slow Balboa swam across the floor. It was like nothing they had ever seen. Mickey attributes most of his success with this dance to Kelly Arsenault, who was one of Dean’s favorite slow balboa partners. She was also able to teach Laminu with Ray Cunningham. Together Mickey and Kelly started teaching Slow Balboa tasters everywhere they went to whoever would learn. Seeing the Slow Balboa scene grow so large with events happening all over the world has been a surreal experience. After years of hard work Mickey is incredibly excited to bring a new Slow Balboa event to D.C. in the United States as one of the organizers of Stardust Slow Balboa Weekend.