Meet The Team

Aaron Rodriguez got his dancing start doing line dancing in a country bar in the wine country, then moved onto ballroom while attending Chico State, and finally took up lindy hop with some of the ballroom dropouts. Since then he's traveled all over the country for swing dancing and enjoys learning new things about it and improving his dancing whenever he can. After taking a short break from dancing, he joined the Swing Cats in 2009, took a year off of the troupe, and joined again in late 2011. He works as a software engineer for a startup in the Peninsula, and when not dancing, he enjoy's playing video games, cycling, and working out.
Angela Lee was dragged into the Lindy scene by her boyfriend in Beijing, China, 2004. Her eyes were really opened when she first attended Sea Jam in Singapore a year later--she never had thought partner dance could be so much fun! For all sorts of reasons, she pretty much stopped Lindy Hopping from 2005 till the summer of 2008, when she returned to the dance floor at Wednesday Night Hop. Lindy hop is all about having fun and making great friends for her. Other fun stuff that she does includes but not limited to ^_^: outdoor paintball, photography, watching animated movies, cooking, playing rock band, watching dance clips on Youtube (a lot)!
Audrey Kanemoto has been performing for zero people in the privacy of her own room as long as she can recall. She started Tap dancing at age 9, added Jazz at some point, and earned featured dancing roles in high school productions of "Oklahoma!" and "Bye Bye Birdie". Desiring to sing as well as dance, she joined a choral ensemble and sang in the chorus for "Singin' In The Rain" before getting small roles as Lucinda in "Into The Woods" and Connie in "A Chorus Line." Throughout college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and while studying abroad in London and Florence, Audrey sang whenever she could in small groups and ensembles. Today, Lindy Hop and movement inspired by traditional jazz music consumes her life, traveling, performing, competing, choreographing, and teaching. She has performed with Lindy Hop dance troupes SF Bounce, Three Minute Maniacs, and Swing Cats. Today, you can find Audrey co-hosting two peninsula venues, Bayside Bounce on Mondays in Foster City and Wednesday Night Hop in Mountain View!
Brian Zimmer hated (failed at) dancing for most of his life. Through a strange twist of fate he ended up being coerced to dance while passing a swing dancing group in college and has been hooked ever since. Fate had a pretty good time watching Brian fumble around awkwardly for months – he had no sense of rhythm, and had to ask all of his follows to find the beat for him. However, Brian prevailed and showed fate what's up! Brian has taught at various locations throughout the Bay, including Wednesday Night Hop, UC Berkeley, Pixar, and Google. He is sort of OCD about understanding the mechanics of dance, and brings this to his teaching through imparting solid technique grounded in understanding momentum (he credits most of this to Jean and Bromley training him as a member of the Frequent Flyers). He also believes that any class that you're not having fun in is probably not worth your time. In the "real world", Brian is currently a (you guessed it) software engineer in Silicon Valley. When he isn't working or swinging, he dabbles in tap dancing, hip hop, and photography; reads sci-fi and philosophy; attempts to gain more culinary prowess; and utillizes his Netflix account to the greatest extent possible.
Hailing from San Diego, and now wailing from the Bay! Evan Goodwin started dancing ballroom in 2008, before growing wise to the charms of swing. After feeling that pulse and targeting those big hits, he hasn't turned back. Outside of dance, he's an engineer by day. Outside of that, he's playing music, soccer, and speaking wobbly Spanish.
Gilles Bouvier was raised on cheese and creme fraiche in Paris, France. He came to the United States in 1997 to work as a chip design engineer in the Silicon Valley. Just as he was starting to discover the Lindy Hop, he was exiled (okay, not really) to Britain for 6 months. But the Swing madness had already got to him and he started taking classes with Graeme & Ann in Bristol, England. Back in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998, he continued to learn under Rob & Diane. When not practicing Jazz steps, he is either rock-climbing, hiking a mountain, playing a little guitar, spending too much time on his Mac, or thinking about French food.
Irina Degtiar's interest in dance is rather ADD - starting with jazz dance in 2001, she's tried every style she can get her feet on. From salsa to bellydance to modern, her interests have her dancing almost every night of the week. A fateful audition for Movement swing, a performing group at Cal, in 2008 brought her into the social dance scene. The fun energy and friendly people have kept her swinging since. In the spare bits of time she's not dancing, working, or sleeping, Irina enjoys hiking, cooking, and seeing as much of the world as possible.

Irina Loseva started dancing lindy hop in 2008 in Moscow, Russia and continued dancing up to 5 times a week until she found herself in the lindy-friendly Bay Area in August, 2011. Irina placed 11th and 8th in Russian Swingdance Championships with Roman Karachinsky, and danced and choreographed in a Russian performance group Swing Family. Her dancing background includes ballroom, Irish folk, R'n'B and flamenco. Irina is currently a student. Outside of that she enjoys skiing, snowboarding, windsurfing and travelling to swingdance camps.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, James Yeh didn't start dancing until after graduating from college in 2010. Nevertheless, after his first few lessons he was quickly charmed by the playful and athletic nature of lindy hop, and devoted himself to learning the ins and (swing)outs of the dance. Ironically, he finds comfort in learning/performing choreography versus the infinite possibilities of social dancing. Outside of dance, he is a software engineer and enjoys tennis, rock climbing, and running.
Julie Tsai, an original member of the Swing Cats, is happy to still be a part of the troupe after a long hiatus. A native New Yorker, she transplanted herself a number of years ago to the Bay Area for school. Upon graduating from Stanford University she found herself unable to leave such a swinging area and created many 'opportunities' to keep herself dancing here. Her dance background includes ballet and social ballroom. As an undergraduate (and beyond) she has performed with the Stanford Viennese Ball Opening, Stanford Vintage Dance Ensemble with Richard Powers, and the Knotts Dance Company. She is also current Artistic Director of the Academy of Danse Libre. When not on the dance floor or at her clinic she can be found reading (anytime, anywhere), watching old movies or new theater productions, cooking (or just eating), gardening, and traveling the world.
Kim Carlson was born and raised in mountainous Montana. She started dancing in the SF Bay Area in 2001, including a short stint performing with Swingcats. Pursuit of a PhD at Yale pulled her to the East Coast and Far East (Borneo) for a few years before she happily escaped back to California! While not finishing her dissertation or practicing her swivels, you can find Kim on a yoga mat or trail-running through the redwoods.
Liz Song began her love affair with lindy hop after she took her first free dance class in 2006. Swiveling, learning social dance etiquette, watching (and experiencing) the dance connection between two people, having to stay present, and the playfulness of lindy hop has kept her hooked. She joined Swing Cats to build upon her love of social dancing with the discipline of learning choreography. (It's not easy for this cat!) Besides swing dancing, Liz loves to photograph nature, landscapes and textures, design stuff, bike camp and backpack, stare at obscure people and things, look for patterns, waste time on the internet, draw on her left arm, and get lost in the hills. :)
Peter Bullen is an absolute dance fanatic who loves to dance with boundless energy and goofiness, but only a few years ago, this was not the case! Up until the end of high school, Peter was too shy to leave the comfort of the DDR mat and get funky out on the vast dance floor. That all changed however, when Peter took his first dance class: Richard Powers' famous "Stanford is Swinging", a swing dance class for incoming Stanford freshmen. Peter realized how ridiculously fun dancing was, and couldn't help wondering why he'd never tried it before! To make up for lost time, Peter started dancing at every possible opportunity, and even signed up for Stanford's Dance Marathon, a 24-hour dance party to raise money for AIDS research. It was while dancing non-stop for 24 hours that Peter really learned how to dance. He discovered that dancing is not about cool moves, it's about having fun and becoming one with the music. Soon after, Peter joined Swingtime and became so lindy hop crazy that he started going out swing dancing to Swing Central every week! Of course, he still had plenty of dance left in him, so he started a new student group, Troposomatic Breakdance Crew! Since then, Peter has enjoyed countless dancing adventures in all types of dance - lindy hop, breakdance, waltz, house dance, but most of all, crazy dance! Now, Peter is happy and excited about embarking on all new crazy dancing adventures - with Swing Cats!

Belly dancer, was the answer Pinar Bailey gave when, in first grade, she was first asked about what she wants to be when she grows up. Her academically oriented parents laughed and worried a bit. Her dance interests broadened over the years from Turkish folk dancing in grade and high school, to ballroom dancing during college and finally lindy hop and vintage swing dances - such as Balboa and Charleston - since she moved to San Francisco in 2000.

Pinar has taught swing dances in California and competed and performed locally and across the U.S. for many years. She was a member of swing dance troupes like SF Bounce and 3 Minute Maniacs. She enjoys doing yoga and taking a variety of dance classes to apply body movement and alignment concepts to her dancing and teaching. When dancing, she is most captivated by the syncopated movement that originates from the unique rhythms and the experience of sharing how she interpretes the music in the flow of a dance with her partner.

Pinar grew up in Istanbul, Turkey before relocating to the Bay Area and recently got her Ph.D. in Biophysics at UCSF. She enjoys cooking, gardening and good design and one day would like to be a surfer chick.

Roman Karachinsky started swing dancing in the cold, cold Russian winter of 2009 at the Moscow Swing Dance Society, entered his first lindy competition two months later, and has been crazy about dancing ever since. A year later, he met Irina Loseva and they started competing together, placing 8th in main class of the Open Swing Championships of Russia. Eventually, he, Irina and a few friends formed a performance group called Swing Family, and choreographed several lindy routines for Moscow swing dance events and competitions. Roman moved to the Bay Area in August of 2011 to find an awesomely vibrant dance scene and joined the Swing Cats in October 2011.
Trevor Gattis made his way from the Tarheel State to the Golden State in 1993. Two years after that, he began to discover the wonders of social dance while attending Stanford University. After being versed in the basic for about 15 different dances through classes at Stanford and DeAnza, he was introduced to the world of lindy at the Monsters of Swing '99 swing camp. Since then, it's been a non-stop lindy-coaster ride. When he's out dancing, you can find him gettin' his groove on to old school R & B, dancing salsa, Argentine tango, and swing. When he's not dancing, you can find him playing ultimate frisbee, basketball, dabbling in video production work, gettin' jiggy wit it, working on miscellaneous programming projects, collecting music, practicing his moonwalk, and just enjoying life. Catch Trevor teaching and DJing at Cheryl Burke Dance.

Founders



 Rob & Diane van Haaren are considered trendsetters and leaders in the world of swing. They frequently travel all over the United States and Europe to teach and perform. They were voted the No. 1 Swing Dance instructors in the Bay Area, as noted by San Francisco Magazine, "Best of San Francisco," January 1998. They are known around the globe for their style and flair on the floor. They've been featured numerous times on both Fox and ABC television specials, as well as the PBS special with Wynton Marsalis, Frankie Manning, Illinois Jacket, and Jimmy Slide on the life of Duke Ellington, "Swingin' with Duke." Perhaps you saw them on Wynton Marsalis's Lincoln Jazz Orchestra's year 2000 tour in the Bay Area called "For Dancers Only." What's more, they were the opening act for former President Clinton during his visit to San Francisco.