Connecticut Swing Dance Society - Swing into Spring!

Carol Fraser has 16 years of formal dance training in ballet, tap and jazz. She began her dancing career when she was 3 years old and performed in numerous troupes throughout the US. Her lindy hop career began in January 2000 at Dance Manhattan Studios. She has studied with some of the top teachers in the world, such as Bill Borgida and Sylvia Sykes, and performed in Manhattan and Boston.

Her awards are too numerous to list all of them, and her most recent accomplishments include 1st Place in the Champions Strictly Division with Peter Strom at the 2003 North Atlantic Dance Championships and 4th Place in the Lindy Division with Dave Graybill at the 2003 US Open Swing Dance Championships.

David Graybill Dave was born in Nashville, TN, raised in Kensington, MD and Wilton, CT, moved to New York City in 1993 for his undergraduate degree in Theater at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 1994, Dave discovered his love for swing dancing and has been doing it ever since. He has lived in New York, Singapore, Raleigh, Chicago, Oakland, and Los Angeles and has traveled to Japan, Indonesia, London, Paris, and Edinburgh for fun, and the love of teaching dance. He has worked with the Grammy-award winning folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary. He has worked as a Production Manager for the Oakland Ballet, and a theatre instructor for the Oakland School of the Arts. In 2003, he worked and traveled all over the United States with Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus as a lighting technician and pyro-technician. Dave started competing at Swing Dancing in 1998, and has since earned the titles of U.S. Open Swing Dance Champion, American Lindy Hop Champion, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown Champion, Georgia State Open Champion, Virginia State Open Champion, New Year’s Eve Dance Extravaganza & Swingin’ New England Champion. He currently lives in Connecticut teaching private, group, and club lessons and passes the time in between dancing, writing fiction, and articles for Swing Dancer magazine.

Tony Fraser Tony Fraser has been dancing and teaching hollywood and performance styles since the late 90's.

Tony is a best-of-breed aerials technician having taught at workshops and classes all over the east and west coast. He has also coached and taught multiple winning teams aerials technique, power development, strength training and air synchronization techniques. He loves to work with students at all levels, and his students would surely say his classes are about flying, getting better, and honing technique safely.

As a lindy hopper, he seeks to advance the hollywood performance style made famous in the 40's and 50' by bringing authentic looks together with strong lead/follow technique, tricks and lifts, next generation styling, and powerful aerials.

Tony is a US Open and ALHC champion with more than two dozen television appearances. Learn the basics of lifting, kinetic linking, spotting, power and technique as you practice lifts, throws, classic aerials, and even some big air. In this class, everybody will fly, even the guys.

Noëlle Gray With a diverse and professional dance background spanning 23 years, Noëlle Gray is Connecticut's most prominent Lindy Hop and Blues Dance instructor. In addition to teaching for Connecticut Swing Dance Society Noëlle has also taught Lindy Hop, Blues and Styling in London, England and throughout the Northeast at dance camps and workshops weekends such as Goodnight Sweetheart in England (GNSH), Swing Out New Hampshire, Junebug Jam, the Albany Lindy Smorgasbord and the Gargleblaster Blues workshops in Connecticut and Boston. Noëlle has also partnered with Bill Borgida in Lindy Hop and Blues workshops locally and abroad. Known for her solid technique, her graceful styling and great sense of humor, she is an increasingly sought-after instructor in the US and abroad

Shawn Hershey came from an extensive music background and Amanda Gruhl came from an extensive dance background, but both started lindy hopping in the late 1990s with the Lindybaby studio and got hooked! Shawn and Amanda started teaching together at the It's All Swing! studio in Boston in 2005, and have since taught lindy hop and blues together at the Boston Gargle Blaster Blues Workshops, From Montreal With Love, Swing Into Spring in CT, and the Blues Blast Workshop Weekend in central PA. Their style of blending lindy hop, ballroom, blues, and Argentine tango into their dancing is both beautiful and powerful, and earns them praise wherever they go, most recently at the Emerald City Blues Festival, where they took 2nd place in the Strictly Competition.

Joanna Lucero loves to dance. Ballet slippers, tap shoes, heels, Keds; whatever footwear she can find (and she has a lot), Joanna dances in. She has a background in ballet, tap, popular latin dances (naturally, being a Spanish chica), and Argentine tango. She began Lindy Hopping in college when she joined her school swing club. She was hooked from the very first swingout. Joanna eventually became one of the swing club teachers and found it to be a great learning and very rewarding experience.

In addition to teaching, Joanna also enjoys performing and competing. She has competed and placed at Boston Tea Party, American Lindy Hop Championships, Big Big Event and other regional events in the Northeast and Southeast. As a dancer, Joanna is just a tiny bundle of energy. She finds her joy in the music.

Carl Nelson is both a social and competitive dancer who focuses on Lindy Hop, partner and solo Charleston and other jazz dances from the 1920’s to the 1940’s. Just in the past year Carl has placed first in the Advanced Jack & Jill at Wicked Lindy, Solo Charleston at Sugarfoot Stomp, and 2nd place at the Big Big Event’s Open Lindy Competition. Carl’s energy and enthusiasm are contagious and he is an absolute gentleman on the dance floor, making him a favorite dancing and teaching partner of some of the nation’s best follows.

Damon Stone has been dancing his entire life. Starting with vernacular jazz/blues he went on to Hip-Hop, and eventually studied over a dozen different dance styles until coming full circle focusing primarily on the history and styles of swing and blues, in 1995.

He has taught dance extensively on both coasts, and studied the development of vernacular jazz/blues dance regionally and nationally, traveling to New York, Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, St. Louis, and New Orleans. He has been interviewed as a jazz dance historian in documentary and for radio.

Damon has been a featured instructor at numerous swing camps and jazz festivals and workshops and camps across the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of the California Historical Jazz Dance Foundation, and a member of the Northern California Lindy Society.