Instructors

Kyra Isaacs & Charlie Wieprecht

Kyra Isaacs

Kyra Isaacs began swing dancing in 2011, continuing her love for dance she has had her entire life. She found swing dancing to be an outlet of unrestricted creativity and joy. Kyra has a unique style that combines aspects of her previous dance experience, personality, and creativity. She uses connection in new ways, surprising her partners and creating a feeling of teamwork within the dance. Her goal in teaching is to inspire people to dance in a way that is authentic to themselves and the music.

Charlie Wieprecht

Charlie Wieprecht began his dance journey in 2009 in Baltimore City, crawling up the ranks and eventually becoming one of Mobtown Ballroom's most beloved instructors. Since then he has travelled and taught and competed across the country and across Baltimore. He is proud to have performed with Guardian Baltimore and to have taught kinesthetic history with their Moving History program in Baltimore City Schools. Through dance he has explored his love of teaching and is always grateful to have an opportunity to share what he knows. When not dancing or teaching, Charlie can be found looking at birds or giving impromptu history tours of Baltimore.

Akemi Kinukawa & Bobby White

Akemi Kinukawa

Akemi is dedicated to preserving and sharing the spirit of Lindy Hop, a dance pioneered by Harlem's Black-American community in the 1930s. Her work, from original dance pieces to dance theater, educates on its history and promotes its legacy of inclusivity. Lindy Hop transformed her life as an immigrant with no dance experience and limited language skills. Through the dance, she discovered a powerful means of self expression and a sense of community. Now, she honors this dance and its history by sharing her experiences. Akemi founded Project Connect, a dance company bringing interactive Lindy Hop theater to underserved communities. She is a Senior Teaching Artist of Dancing Classrooms, cultivating life skills through social dancing in NYC public schools, and teaches adults at You Should Be Dancing...! Studios. She has performed in major productions including SW!NG OUT in Princeton, New Jersey, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis, and Midnight Summer Swing at Lincoln Center. She also performs with Harvest Moon Hoppers, honoring the 1930s Black American New York Lindy Hop pioneers.

Bobby White

Bobby teaches traditional swing dances around the world, and holds championship titles and placements in Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Solo Jazz. He is an American Lindy Hop Champion and has served as a judge at the international Lindy Hop Championships among high placements there, including 2nd place in the 2024 ILHC NORMAlizer with Akemi Kinukawa. He is the co-director of the Lindy Hop performance group the Harvest Moon Hoppers, which specialize in dancing in the performance style of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. He is the author of the popular swing dance blog Swungover*, and the book “Practice Swing.” As a dancer, he is widely recognized for his floppy hair, and as a teacher, by his sound effects.

Erin Morris & Nathan Bugh

Erin Morris

Erin Morris has been teaching, performing, and competing in jazz and swing dancing for over 25 years. She has enjoyed international artist residencies in Vienna, Berlin, and Krakow but above all loves contributing regularly to her local communities and students. Erin received her MFA in Dance in 2023 from Washington University in St. Louis and is now adjunct faculty. Her art-making focus has been on blending her background in Black social jazz dance with personal explorations in postmodernism, and she finds that all paths return her to the importance of improvisation and collaboration with musicians. In 2024 she launched the performance initiative “Jazz Shift” with renowned drummer Steve Davis (her husband), aiming to shift perspectives on how jazz sounds, how jazz moves, and what is possible when the language of jazz explores both fluency and futurism. Whether in the studio, the classroom, or the jazz club, Erin is committed to laying bare cultural roots and discovering a present that is individual, informed, aesthetic, and connective.

Nathan Bugh

Nathan Bugh is one of the world's leading exponents of Lindy Hop and vernacular jazz dance. His on-stage appearances include: Carnegie Hall (Swing Swing Swing w/ New York Pops), The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Meet Ella, SW!NG OUT), The Apollo Theater (Swingin’ Frankie’s Way), and Jacob’s Pillow (Earthbeat!, More Forever, SW!NG OUT). He is also one of the creators and choreographers of the Joyce Theater's SW!NG OUT. An active swing-dance competitor since the late 1990’s, Nathan holds numerous first-place titles in Solo Jazz, Lindy Hop, Team, Invitational, Slow Dance, Showcase, and Mix/Match divisions at events like the International Lindy Hop Championships. Recent results include 1st 2023 ILHC Video Showcase, 1st 2024 BTP Invitational Crossover, 2nd 2025 Lindyfest Invitational Draw, 2nd 2025 BTP Invitational. Nathan is a veteran dance instructor, with 20+ years of experience teaching students of all ages. He teaches the Columbia University Swing Club (2006-present) and is adjunct dance faculty at Marymount Manhattan College (2022-present). He has headlined many national and international swing-dance festivals, including Camp Jitterbug, Lindy Focus, Southwest Lindy Fest, Herrang Dance Camp, Paris Jazz Roots Festival, Nanjing Lindy Festival, and AJW Korea.