Teachers
Smile Trio Mozambique
Smile Trio, that’s Eugênio Macuvel and the twins Elias and Augusto Manhiça.
Elias and Augusto started a cultural group dedicated to music, song and dance together with Eugênio in 2003. They soon joined a dance company and later created Hodi Maputo Afro Swing, where Elias now is a musician and general coordinator of the annual Mozambique Afro Swing Exchange and Augusto the musical director. They are also the band leaders of Banda Hodi which is a very popular band in Mozambique. They have performed around the world and attended some of the biggest dance and music festivals.
Eugênio has been choreographing since the age of 14, and he became artistic director of Hodi Maputo Afro Swing when the company was founded in 2014. Dancing and singing were a natural part of Eugênio’s childhood and he was a fast learner. Since then he has put together various large-scale choreographies, produced many artistic pieces on major stages, and has performed and choreographed around the world. As a dancer and teacher, Eugenio has participated in major dance festivals around the world and worked with great dance figures such as Fredrik Dalberg, Chester A.Whitmore, Remi Kouakou Kouame, Marie N’diaye, Valerie Salstrom, Angela Andrew, Lisa Josefsson, Mickey Davidson, Felix Berghall and many others.
Smile Trio Mozambique will be teaching Lindy Hop Afro Swing workshops during Day Shift and Mozambican dance workshops during Sunday Shift.
Valentina & Clément
Valentina Heck has been dancing almost all her life. She started ballet at the age of 4, and discovered swing dancing when she was 17. Now she’s rocking – sorry, swinging – on the dance floor!
Clément Madeline has been dancing swing for 10 years, and he founded Swing Base in Berlin. His focus is on finding a balance between the origins of Lindy Hop and the creation of new movements to make his own dance.
Valentina and Clément will be teaching Lindy Hop workshops during Day Shift.
Marnix & Merel
Merel van der Eijk and Marnix Kraus both started dancing Lindy Hop in 2016. It’s now a hobby that you could say has gotten out of hand, maybe even become an obsession. They found their dancing home at The Hague Hoppers in The Hague, where they also teach weekly classes together.
Their philosophy: dance doesn’t only involve you and your dance partner. There’s also the music, the band, all the people around you. Having fun together is at the top of the list!
Marnix and Merel strongly emphasise discovering your own way of moving, the way that suits you. They try to incorporate this into their classes, ensuring that people can inspire each other.
Marnix & Merel will be teaching Lindy Hop workshops during Day Shift.
Marieke
As a young girl, Marieke Roest enjoyed folk dancing and classical and jazz ballet. Then she took tap dance lessons for several years. And when she put on her tap shoes again 35 years later, the steps came back by themselves! These days, she also loves dancing Lindy Hop, Collegiate Shag and Charleston.
Marieke will teach the tap dancing taster class at the start of the Swing Shift party on Saturday night.