Irene & Malik
Irene is a visual artist and a dancer. Although she was originally trained in ballet, jazz dance attracted her because of the space for personal expression and freedom of movement. She also loves to explore the multilayered nature of jazz music (such as african, latin, bebop elements etc. ) and its relation to jazz dance. She gets inspired by reading and watching clips of the original dancers and besides solo jazz and lindy hop she loves to complicate her life with tap dance training, with an ever learning attitude. She has a lot of experience teaching at international festivals around Europe as well as competing, with many placements. After having experienced two quite vibrant scenes for a while (Ghent & Stockholm), Irene is currently based in Athens, where she is coaching and training with the lindy hop and solo jazz teams of her project Athens Authentic Jazz Dance.
Malik is a lindy hop and jazz dancer, teacher and performer from Istanbul, Turkey. He started dancing in high school with contemporary and ballet, and later studied musical theater. Next to social dancing, performing and teaching has become another motivation for him to dance and share. Since 2021, he started teaching and performing internationally, and had a number top 3 finishes in major Lindy Hop and Jazz Dance competitions. (2021 ILHC All-Star Solo Jazz 1st Place, 2023 Savoy Cup Adv Jazz Roots 1st Place) His music master studies include researching the history of jazz and especially the lives of jazz musicians and lindy hop/jazz/tap dancers. Leon James, Jimmy Slyde, Charlie Meade, Sonny Allen and Chester Whitmore are some of his favorite dancers and biggest inspirations. In his classes Malik likes and tries to share his understanding of African American Jazz dances with a respect to the past. In his classes he enjoys mixing classic steps with variations and working on movement technique and clear rhythms.
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