Sander & Astrid

Sander has had a passion for the swing era, its music and aesthetic, since he was a teenager. He studied fashion technology and loves to create clothes for dancers in order to enhance their movements. He's part of the Brussels swing dance community and together with the Jazz Maniacs and The Old Soulz dance crew he works on constantly learning about jazz culture, analyzing video footage from the great African American dancers, drawing inspiration from them to keep authenticity and creativity central in his dancing. Early Bebop is the music he finds himself drawn towards the most.

Astrid Akay is a theater directress and actress, dancing in Brussels with the Old Soulz and the Jazz Maniacs. Her central interest is the African American vernacular jazz dance, its history, its culture and its legacy today. How do we develop our own personal dance language while inheriting the powerful beauty and complexity of the original lindy hop ? How do we keep the freedom of improvising, and at the same time work very specifically on original video clips ? Also, how do we keep the meaning of dancing alive ? Those are some of the questions that are driving Astrid to keep learning and exploring the jazz culture.