The team

The directors and driving force behind ¡Baila Swing! are Nerea Jenglemad and Miguel Pino, who have been teaching swing dances for years. They started out with the Swing Monkeys project in Málaga in 2017, and then moved to Vigo to found ¡Baila Swing!

To step out of their comfort zone and deepen their knowledge, they travelled to Los Angeles (California), Columbus (Ohio) and Austin (Texas), and have been to the Herräng Dance Camp (Sweden), regarded as the birthplace of the Lindy Hop revival, several times. In Herräng they were able to meet and take classes with legends such as Norma Miller, Chester Whitmore, Chazz Young, Sugar Sullivan and Barbara Billups.

They have trained specifically as Lindy Hop teachers with the internationally renowned Swedish teachers Åsa and Daniel Heedman, and have taken private lessons with highly regarded teachers such as Ariadna Beltrán (ESP), Simon Bresanelli (UK), Héctor Artal (ESP), Sonia Ortega (ESP), Nils Andrén (SWE), Bianca Locatelli (IT), Maxi Prado (ARG) and Stephen Sayer (USA).

Both have won prizes in national and international Lindy Hop, Collegiate Shag, Boogie Woogie and St. Louis Shag competitions. They have also appeared several times on Galician television (TVG) and have worked as dancers in three music videos.

For them, understanding swing culture means delving into the roots of African American culture and trying to grasp it in all its forms: they are always reading about the history of jazz and blues, and they practise other arts such as music, tap, hip-hop and funk.

They still travel regularly to train, improve and understand the contemporary currents of swing from a critical perspective.