Teachers
We are very excited over this years line up. The dancers teaching at Gothenburg Queer Lindy Festival 2025 will be:
Grey Armstrong (he/him),
Maria Mallan (she/her) & Tamara Lobato Nieto (she/they),
Kate Bramley-Moore (she/her) & Linnea Damber (she/her),
Mina Warringer (she/her) & Anne Normann (she/her)
Grey Armstrong (he/him)
From regular panic attacks after classes to an international dance instructor, Grey’s dance journey has been intense and yet he never forgets those early days. Bringing opportunities for growth and confidence building, Grey loves to help dancers find their style within the foundations set by the Black culture. Although he loves the speed of Lindy hop, Grey enjoys highlighting other and lesser explored aspects of Lindy hop, like rhythmic variation, the pocket/lag, groove, and challenging well worn beliefs. Join him for fun classes where we find your artistry and voice in dance and daily life.
Maria Mallan (she/her) & Tamara Lobato Nieto (she/they)
Check out a video of them dancing here
Anne Normann (she/her) & Mina Warringer (she/her)
The focus for Anne and Mina is always on each dancer’s individual journey. The individual always comes first, the dance role comes second. In the partnership the focus is always the connection, respect for your partner and the opportunities that comes from dancing with a partner independently of the dance role. Both Anne and Mina share the love for swing dancing and regularly teach in the local dance scene in Gothenburg as followers, leads, switching and solo jazz.
Kate Bramley-More (she/her) & Linnea Damber (she/her)
Kate and Linnea both started learning Lindy Hop in the early 2000s and started teaching not that long after that. In 2009, they briefly swapped hometowns, Melbourne, Australia and Gothenburg Sweden, before meeting in their current hometown of Gothenburg. Since then they have formed an extremely close friendship and dancing collaboration.
Kate and Linnea combine great pedagogy with usable technique and moves. They have a fundamental belief that dancing should be fun and class should involve laughter, while being safe and inclusive.”
DJs and EMCEE
Hosting you through the social dances will be Sonnie Spoon (they/them), of London, England.
DJS:
DJ Spoon (they/them), DJ Wuthe (he/him)
EMCEE – SONNIE SPOON (THEY/THEM)
Sonnie Spoon, of London, England, is a fan of music.
Playing it, playing it some more, dancing to it, sharing it, talking about it, and generally overdosing on it daily.
They also have less than zero fear of holding a mic in a room full of people, which makes them a fun and playful emcee!
DJ WUTHE – STEPHAN WUTHE (HE/HIM)
DJ Wuthe at the “Gramophone”
Born in Berlin in 1966, a loyal collector of shellac records for nearly 50 years, trained as a theater sculptor, fashion and screen designer, he has turned his passion for music and the swing lifestyle into his profession: as an author, editor, and compiler of historical swing series on CD, as a consultant to current swing orchestras, and as a DJ for swing evenings throughout Europe:
Now booked from Stockholm to Cannes, from Budapest to London, from New York to Pasadena at international swing festivals and workshops—both as a swing dancer (social dancer) and DJ as well as a speaker on topics related to jazz and jazz dance history—he has not only amassed an immense collection of photos, records, and documents. He has also met numerous singers and musicians whose adventurous stories about the 1930s and 1940s are incorporated into his book “SWINGTIME IN DEUTSCHLAND” (Transit Verlag, Berlin 2012).
There are a variety of lectures on topics related to Jazz music and the social reflection in Jazz, e.g.: Jazz in the visual arts, Women in Jazz, Queerness in Jazz, and the politicization of a youth movement during fascism. These topics include various presentations illustrated with film clips, images, and music from the original “Hot-Koffer,” a portable gramophone from 1930.
The aim is to provide a tangible insight into the attitude to life in the context of that era. Historical information, original sound recordings, and humor from that period are used to convey the self-image of the time, as well as our modern interpretation of the topics.
And for many years now, he has enjoyed encouraging swing dancers to dance to the “intoxicating” sounds of original old shellac records, whether it be Charleston, Lindy Hop, Shag, Balboa, Foxtrot, Mambo, or even Jitterbug Waltz…
(Gudrun Fröba, JS, MDietz)
More at: www.swingtime.de
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JitterbugBerlin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephan.wuthe/
Bands
During our two nights of partying, we will have live music delivered by two great bands. They will give us that playful, jazzy and queer energy to make us move our feet throughout the nights.
Cats and Dinosaurs
We are excited to welcome back our house band who’s been with us every year since the start. This year, they will play for us during Saturday evening.
Cats and Dinosaurs is a swing collective from Gothenburg, and three of their members were part of creating the first Queer Lindy Festival in 2017! They honor the jazz pioneers, not by copying them note for note, but by embracing their energy and radical attitude. In this attitude they perform their original songs with feminist and left wing political lyrics. And being lindy hop dancers themselves, they know exactly what kind of groove the dancers need!
Find them at catsanddinosaurs.com
Pansy Craze Jazz Band
Welcome to a celebration of early New Orleans style dance music, with songs and inspiration from queer pioneers such as Gladys Bentley, Bessie Smith and Tony Jackson! The musicians of Pansy Craze Jazz Band have gathered from no less than four Nordic cities; Mariehamn, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Frederikssund, to cherish the African American music and the community that Gothenburg Queer Lindy Festival is a proud part of. Join in the parade!
Artwork: @mildredskompani
