WHO'S WHO IN SW!NG OUT

LAURA GLAESS (Dancer) started dancing in 2001 in San Antonio, TX. It wasn’t a very large scene, and her teachers hadn’t been dancing very long, but she instantly fell in love with Lindy Hop, the music, the history, and everything involved. When not in a pandemic, Laura travels the world teaching, competing, performing, and learning. She is a passionate believer in dancing with swing, with rhythm, and in pushing for something new while maintaining a connection with the original vintage context of Lindy Hop. She feels that honoring the history of the dance and its inventors is a crucial part of practicing the dance. She is madly in love with jazz music and movement and strives to convey that love to her students. She is also a strong believer that the best thing to do to get good at dancing is to DANCE. Classes are amazing and helpful, but they are merely supplemental to getting out there on social the social dance floor and just doing it. Laura believes that the local scene is the backbone of the global community, so she is an active participant in her home music and dance communities. Laura is also an artist, and works on blending her love of music and movement with a fine art medium. You can buy her prints at www.etsy. com/shop/lauraglaessart, T-shirt designs at lauraglaess.threadless.com/, and you can see her latest routines and dance tutorials at www.youtube.com/c/lauraglaess.

AJ HOWARD (Dancer) brings a unique style and energy to the Lindy Hop community. Getting introduced to the world of Lindy Hop at the age of 19, AJ quickly took an appreciation to dance which lead to him running home, getting changed, and heading out to dance almost every day of the week after working his job at a car dealership. He burst into the scene in 2016, winning competitions throughout the US with his partner Jennifer, showing the dance world what Sacramento really had to offer! Competing at international events such as Camp Hollywood and the International Lindy Hop Championships, AJ became well known for his generous use of aerials paired with his energetic dancing. AJ has also had the honor of performing with dance groups such as HellaBlackLindyHop, San Francisco Jitterbugs, and the Midtown Stompers, and the privilege to spread his love of dance through teaching at Lindy Hop events in the US, on a Carnival Cruise ship, and around Europe.

MICHAEL JAGGER (Dancer) has been an international Lindy Hop instructor for 16 years. His stage credits include South Pacific (associate choreographer, Chichester Festival Theater, UK), two consecutive appearances at Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Festival with his dance company, Syncopated City, which he co-directed with his dance partner, Evita Arce. They were featured dancers for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in Let Freedom Swing, a celebration of jazz for Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Kennedy Center and again with the J @ LCO for a tribute to Benny Goodman at the Rose Theater in NYC. As a principal dancer, he starred as Lindy Hop specialist in several productions of the Broadway musical Swing!, including regional productions at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, the California Music Circus in Sacramento, and the 2008 Japanese tour. He would like to acknowledge his mentors, the Elders, and Karolina for all that they have afforded him to be on this stage!

JENNIFER NICOLE JONES (Dancer) is a New York City based Dancer. Originally from Akron, OH. She received a BFA in Dance Performance from Wright State University while performing with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. Jennifer has performed in many regional and Off Broadway productions.

DEE DANIELS LOCKE (Dancer) started Swing Dancing at the age of four with her dad in the basement at her grandma’s dance parties, wearing her mom’s heels and her favorite plaid skirt. After a hiatus into hip-hop performance during her school years, she was called back to Lindy Hop, and co-founded her college swing dance club. She has become an influential member of the Minneapolis scene, teaching and mentoring. For two decades she has shared her love of Lindy Hop and Jazz with dancers young and old. Dee loves feeling free on the dance floor and advocates for self-expression and individual creativity as the true spirit of Lindy Hop and Vernacular Jazz. Weaving music and movement allow her the expression. She dances for joy both in partnered or solo dancing and searches for presence in each moment. She loves responding to the music and partner, priding herself on making each dance unique to the musical experience and partner, creating an authentic dance conversation. She has taught, performed, and choreographed nationally and internationally, but mostly she wants to have a good dance, and she wants you to have a good dance.

BRIAN LAWTON (Understudy - Dancer) is a dancer, instructor, choreographer, and director. He has an eclectic background in ballet, jazz, and modern as well as Latin and Ballroom dances with a specialty in the vernacular jazz dances of the 1920's-1940's. He has performed on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Shakespeare in the Park’s Comedy of Errors, and with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Madison Square Garden and in their music video Go Robot. He was the Choreographer and Resident Director of the A Charlie Brown Christmas National Tour and is a Resident Choreographer for Norwegian Cruise Line as well as the Assistant Director/ Choreographer of the new musical Part of the Plan (TPAC) and the Associate Director of Distant Thunder (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma).

Band

Born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, MARTHA KATO (Piano) is a pianist, composer, and arranger in her blossoming career in New York. Based in New York since 2009, she has performed across the world as a bandleader and collaborator at major venues such as Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Blue Note Tokyo, Cotton Club Japan, The Jazz Gallery, Dizzy’s Club, Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, and Smalls Jazz Club. Playing in a wide range of styles and instrumentations, she has shared the stage and studio-recording with collaborators including Remy Le Boeuf, Miho Hazama, Takuya Kuroda, Alexis Cuadrado, and Pedro Giraudo. Martha’s awards and honors include the ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award and she is a second-place winner of Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition in Kawasaki 2014. She was a scholarship recipient of The Juilliard School and The New School, where

WHO'S WHO IN SW!NG OUT

she studied with Kenny Barron, Kevin Hays, Robert Sadin, Reggie Workman, and more. She is on Remy Le Boeuf's Grammy-nominated album Assembly of Shadows as a pianist.

JON THOMAS (Piano), a graduate from The Juilliard School‘s Jazz department (MM ‘19) helmed by Wynton Marsalis, has performed with artist such as Charles Tolliver, Marquis Hill, Dominick Farinacci, Bruce Williams, Richie Goods, Jazzmeia Horn, and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, among many others. A staple in the New York City jazz scene, Thomas can be found at his bi-weekly residency at Smalls Jazz Club which he has hosted since 2015. He has been a student to pianists Aaron Goldberg, Dan Nimmer, Aaron Parks, and Taylor Eigsti. In 2012

Thomas was awarded The ASCAP foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. Thomas is also a graduate of The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music (2015) and The Juilliard School (2019). Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, he benefited from the city’s wide range of jazz veterans and swing-rooted tradition. Sonically, his sound harkens to the creative influences he’s adopted. Influences such as Kenny Kirkland, Wynton Kelly, and Mulgrew Miller are apparent muses and thus lend their sound to his style.

JULIETA EUGENIO (Tenor Saxophone), is an Argentinian Saxophonist based in New York city. Julieta embedded herself into the Argentinian jazz scene and performed in renowned jazz venues in Buenos Aires alongside master musicians. In 2013, Julieta was accepted to study at Queens College for a Jazz Master degree in NYC. After her Master Graduation, nowadays, Julieta is playing alongside the finest jazz musicians from the worldwide and New York city jazz scene. Julieta had the opportunity to perform on one of the most prestigious jazz broadcast radios in the US - WBGO As well as being featured on a piece of ABC7 News nationwide alongside Master Philip Harper. In April 2017, Julieta Eugenio won the International Women in Jazz Competition as a member of the SIJ trio and will perform at the Saint Peter's Church for the IWJ Festival in NYC. Julieta has shared the stage multiple times with the Jazz Legend Johnny O’Neal, where she was featured on his residencies at Smoke Jazz Club, Ginny’s Super Club, Smalls Jazz club, Mezzrrow, and more. Over the years, Julieta had the opportunity to perform with prestigious musicians such as Leon Parker, Joe Farnsworth, Tardo Hammer, Pasquale Grasso, Bertha Hope, and Eric Reed, to name a few. In October 2021, Julieta performed at The Joyce Theater in NYC for a two-week residency with the Eyal Vilner Big Band as part of SW!NG OUT. In December 2021, Julieta performed at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC for the Rotunda Solstice Concert with the Eyal Vilner Big Band. In March 2021, Julieta recorded her debut album JUMP on Greenleaf Music, a record label by Dave Douglas. The album presents her own compositions featuring Jonathan Barber and Matt Dwonszyk. The Julieta Eugenio Trio has won the 2022 DCJazzPrix, an International competition presented by the DC Jazz Fest and has performed at The Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival, College Park Jazz Fest, and will be performing at the Elkhart Jazz Festival in Indiana and Washington DC Jazz Festival. Julieta started performed with SW!NG OUT in 2022 and has since toured all across the US including California, Texas, Oregon, Michigan, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and more. Julieta has presented her debut album in NYC with her trio at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Summer Stage, Smalls Jazz Club, Bushnell Park Jazz Festival, and toured in Los Angeles, CA, performing at Sam First, Just Jazz Series, and ETA Highland Park. Some of her other accolades include: "Best New Artist" (NomineeJazz Music Awards, October 2022); "10 Jazz Emerging Artists To Watch" (NomineeGRAMMY Magazine, 2023); Next Jazz Legacy (Semifinalist - 2023). 2023 highlights include performing at the Kennedy Center with the legendary Dee Dee Bridgewater for the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival.