Meet the Team

Ali Taghavi

Dancer/ Teacher / CEO

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
While I was working as a chemist in Paris and one of my colleagues was Patrick. I wanted to show my colleagues the few steps in Salsa I learned that summer. Patrick joined on one condition: I’ll take your Salsa class if you come and join one of my Lindy Hop classes, and after that we can see which to do… the rest as they say is history!

What’s your favorite thing about the dance?
It gets me into my flow-zone very fast! The combination of happy music, the social aspect of the dance and the physical activity gets me there quickly. I love it!

What’s your strongest skill?
I think perhaps connecting the dots between different ideas to make things clearer. Well, skill or not, at least that’s what I enjoy doing.

What’s your secret superpower?
I think I can handle a looooot of uncertainty and still make decisions and subsequently deal with any consequence, learn from that experience and make a new decision.

Kris Blindert

Dancer / Teacher / Heidelberg Boss

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
A colleague from work brought a bunch of friends along to a drop-in class and I was immediately hooked! In fact, funny thing – Ali&Katja were teaching that beginner’s class: you could say that I got to know my favourite hobby, my new inspiring career, two great friends, and even my boss, all in that one class!

What’s your favorite thing about the dance?
I love the combination of freedom and structure that matches jazz music so well. As a kid I was amazed by singers like Ella Fitzgerald, how they could take standard songs and riffs, and improvise to render them so playful and make them feel new every time. That is what Lindy Hop does for me.

What’s your strongest skill?
I’m very analytical and direct, so I’m very good at creating structure. What movements match with which concepts and ideas, how to break things down so they’re as easy as possible to learn and understand. At the same time I have a lot of love and respect for the Black American culture that Jazz is a part of, and I love weaving that in throughout my classes as well – with the hope of infecting my students with that same love 🙂

What’s your secret superpower?
Silliness! I think because I can be so focused and technical, it helps people to relax if they see that I’m not serious all the time.

Jean Bartolome

Dancer / Teacher / Social Butterfly

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
I went to a social dance where a friend celebrated her birthday and I noticed how much people were laughing during the dance.

What is your favorite moment in class?
When students realize it is the end of the class but want to continue.

What do you do besides being a dance teacher or what did you do before you became a dance teacher?

member in tamed e.V – Organisation for dance medicine

acquired the ZAM certification in November 2014

Music and Dance Project “zeitlust”: Electro – afro groove – breakbeat – shadow visuals. My part in this band is shadow visual dancing

Had/Have different projects with poem artists, pop comedians, dance theater ensembles, musicians of different styles, actors/actresses, cine & tv productions, etc. Dancing different urban dance styles since 1998

What’s your strongest skill?
Observation, patience & coolness 😉

Oliver Fuhrmann

Musician / Web Developer / MC

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
I saw people partner dancing “freestyle rock n roll” at a birthday party, so I thought I need to learn that stuff. And then I discovered that swing music is much cooler than rock n roll music 

What’s your strongest skill?
Keeping a good flow and structure in the class… most of the time 

Vintage or Modern?
Vintage all the way.

What do you do besides being a dance teacher or what did you do before you became a dance teacher?

Now: Playing music… yeah that’s what I do!

Before: I studied media informatics, worked as a web developer – I guess it’s my analytical brain… sort of.

Ananda Lopez

Dancer / Teacher

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
I always liked swing music, and I’ve seen people dancing to this music in movies, but only after a friend told me about weekly lessons I realized that it was actually possible for me to learn how to dance to swing.

What is your favorite moment in class?
When the students are really concentrated working together with their partner, trying to figure out a new move and they succeed. At this precise sweet moment I enjoy seeing that big smile on their faces.

What’s your strongest skill?
Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. This means that I am a fast learner when it comes to movement and dance.

What do you do besides being a dance teacher?
Being a Pilates instructor provided me with a wider comprehension of the body and its movement.

Aljoscha Zynga

Teacher / Dancer / Bar / Admin

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
One of my best friends had been a Lindy Hop teacher for a while. So I had quite some chances to look at the dance and it was growing on me. I had never really thought of me as a dancer, but once I started taking classes, I discovered that I actually am.

What is your favorite moment in class?
When people realize that this impossible looking move is actually very well doable only five minutes later.

What’s your strongest skill?
I think I am very good at making people feel comfortable in class and have fun while learning.

What do you do besides being a dance teacher?
I am studying film and art history.

Katja Uckermann

CasuallyFancy / Co-Founder

Katja has been to busy designing and making amazing clothing to fill out this form. See for yourself: www.casuallyfancy.com

Anna Clausnitzer

Dancer / Teacher / Bar

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
Birgit wanted me to work at the bar for her new dance school – Jeder ist tanzbar – which became the first swing dance school in Berlin. It was so joyful. There was no turning back.

What’s your favorite thing about the dance?
The lust for life.

What is your favorite moment in class?
When students’ self-confidence in the dancing is visibly making progress.

What do you do besides being a dance teacher or what did you do before you became a dance teacher?

– I did Chinese Studies in school. Besides that, I worked in a German-Chinese kindergarden and in a house for the handicapped, at both places exploring the world of music and dance.

– I have a partner-dancing background: I used to dance Ballroom/Latin and a lot of Argentine Tango. And I played saxophone for about 6 years.

Timo Winterwerber

Dancer / Teacher

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
I did ballroom dancing and decided to try the Unisport Swing course with Ali & Katja.

What’s your strongest skill?
Personal feedback and troubleshooting.

Vintage or Modern?
The best of both.

What do you do besides being a dance teacher?
I study english & cultural anthropology.  I dance Argentine Tango & Blues, and I’ve done Ballroom.

What’s your secret superpower?
Personal attention, bringing everyone along.

Laura Stahl

Dancer / Teacher

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
A friend dragged me along to classes at the university years ago. OK, it didn’t take much to convince me, ’cause – it’s dance! I mean who wouldn’t want to try out a new dance, right?

What’s your favorite thing about the dance?
You can be as creative as you want, develop something new, get inspired by or inspire your partner while dancing, which can get you into a real (dance) conversation with your partner. I also enjoy the relaxed and easy-going mentality of the swing community a lot. And, most importantly, the music just makes me want to dance.

What’s your strongest skill?
As a dancer: being an intuitive follower (or leader). The music literally makes me dance.

As a teacher: having an eye for the needs of individual students as well as the group to make the class a great experience.

What’s your secret superpower?
Personal feedback. Motivating people.

Caro Kloß

Dancer / Teacher / Social Butterfly

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
A friend I knew from Ballroom-Dancing told me that this would be just the dance for me and that we should sign up for classes at Swingstep in Heidelberg.

What’s your favorite thing about the dance?
The freedom. I danced quite a few different dances before but the combination of good communication between lead and follow and the freedom to play with the music and just break patterns or change from super sensual into super goofy in a second makes Lindy Hop my favorite dance of all.

What’s your strongest skill?
HIGH ENERGY

What’s your secret superpower?
I can recite super-long poems.

Tabea Naujoks

Dancer / Teacher

Tabea hasn’t filled out his questionnaire yet, she’s too busy being an awesome teacher and team member ;P

Annegret Beck

Customer service / Workshops / Admin

How did you discover Lindy Hop?
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire are the ones to blame. Hooked on old-time musicals and dance movies already as a child, I started tap dancing at the age of 13 and had a hard time explaining why I was listening to “grandpa-music” as a teen… Imagine my delight when I moved to the U.S. in 1997/98 and discovered that a lot of people actually danced to that music I loved… and I was no longer the (only) weirdo.

What’s your favorite thing about the dance?
The fact that a singular social dance is not replicable, but a “once-in-a-lifetime-moment”. In a time where we can save and replay almost everything, this still fascinates me. Even if you get the same partner and the same song – it’ll never be the same.

What’s your strongest skill?
Contagious enthusiasm.

What’s your secret superpower?
As a DJ: Make people stay at a party although they were planning to leave hours ago…