Meet the Team!

Directors

Ben Yau

The Innovator

He may not be able to swim, but he can dance like no one’s watching, an innovation he calls “shower dancing”, even though most of the time he dances, he is dry, and not in fact, in the bathroom. A Senior Unix System Administrator (a.k.a. a really big nerd) by day (and night), he fearlessly leads the One2Swing Jitterbugs through complex choreography that he bravely diagrams with the help of anything within reach. An award-winning lindy-hopper, his formations have also earned rave reviews from Patton, Eisenhower, and Napoleon. Among Ben’s many talents is his ability to silence entire rooms with a single joke. With his wife Sheri, he teaches, competes, and judges at events worldwide. They also are the masterminds behind One2Swing.com, the lifeforce of Third Saturday Swing, the best monthly dance event in Los Angeles. Ben and Sheri also teach weekly classes at the Dance Family Studio and private lessons. Ben is also the co-creator, developer, designer, and mastermind behind IamLindyHop.com, a site that asks, “What’s your story?”

Sheri Yau

The Type A

“This one time at band camp…” might not be words you would expect to hear from this national lindy-hop champion and co-director of our team, and yet she admits (proudly, we might add) that she was a card-carrying member of the color guard and her high school marching band. Did we mention she was also Valedictorian for her Master’s program? This walking Type A makes sure all the details are taken care of; from scheduling rehearsals to booking studio spaces to planning team events, Sheri makes organizing all 26 of us look as effortless as doing the kip! (Well, as long as she is the one doing the kip. When some of us do it, it looks more like someone is hoisting a sail…) Sheri recently created IamLindyHop.com with her husband and dance partner, Ben Yau. Together they travel the world, teaching, (eating), dancing, and spreading the love of dance! You can catch them live at their weekly lessons at the Dance Family Studio, or bring them to your computer via IDance.net

The Cast

Alanna Stites

The Bombshell

Professional hair stylist by day, swing dancer and extremely talented chef by night, this in demand baker has more than just cupcakes in the oven. In other words, we here at One2Swing Jitterbugs do not only get new team members through recruiting, we also get them through ** nudge nudge wink wink say no more! ** Heh heh heh.

I must say, Alanna looks like a vintage pinup girl from the 1940’s and 1950’s in that picture on the left, meowwwwwwww! Alanna recently tied the knot with the Crooner (Cliff) below!

Allen Reyes

The Clip Commander

When he’s not busy editing and uploading all of our dance clips (which he says is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week job), Allen can be found behind the camera, recording special (and potentially embarrassing) team moments. Our 2008 Co-MVP is a fun and playful dancer, and is a favorite of many follows on the dance floor. Allen can be found at the far corners of the earth, also known as Fontanta. Allen would also like to remind the ladies that he is not the only male on the team to own cats (thanks Cliff!), although he is the only one to sleep with stuffed animals.

Chris Do

The Cheerleader

Don’t let his smile fool you. Beneath that innocent facade is…well, actually, beneath the innocent facade is Mickey Mouse. Hailing all the way from Irvine, Chris was lured to our team with the promise of dancing with beautiful women, for which he happily makes the weekly Northerly trek. His enthusiasm for dance and for life is contagious! Chris is the resident DJ at Atomic Ballroom in Irvine, and can be found every Friday night in the DJ booth. On the weekends, he can be found at rehearsal, just like the rest of us. Chris would like everyone to know that deep down, he is a tough guy.

Cliff Quan

The Crooner

Cliff Quan: Musician first, dancer second, and probably stealth comedian third. Born and raised in Eagle Rock, California, Cliff keeps us all entertained with his music and his jokes! Cliff wants you all to know that he is really into Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, UFO’s, ghosts, and other “weird stuff”- and that’s a direct quote. He is not, for the record, into unicorns at all. Did we mention he has fantastic hair and his head tosses make the ladies faint? Cliff rips it up with the band Little Mo and the Dynaflos on the dance floors and once made a woman pregnant by merely winking at her during one of his songs. That’s called charisma, ladies. This crooner recently tied the knot with The Bombshell (Alanna)!

Daniel Young

The Sage

Daniel Young is a simplicity evangelist. Together with his wife, Tomoko, he travels around the world, spreading the good news (simplicity is good! pass it on!) door to door. Okay, so he doesn’t really travel door to door…but he does travel around the world, and he really is a simplicity evangelist. It must be true, because I read it on another website. Daniel is a nomad, and has lived in Indonesia, Philadelphia, Tokyo, and New York, to name a few. In his spare time, he enjoys designing websites (like this one!) and in his work time, he enjoys doing things on the computer (he could have gone into more detail, but he wanted to keep things simple.)

Delfa Mejia

The Hot Nurse

On the dance floor Delfa is a happy-go-lucky dancing whirling dervish, always ready with a smile and a dance. Off the dance floor, “HELLLLOOOO NURSE” … that’s right, Delfa is not only a swing dancer but she is also a hot nurse. She can easily lull you with a toss of the hair and a husky “How YOU Doin?”. Don’t believe us? Ten of her patients have already proposed to her, not all of them under sedation! In the meantime while choosing from her suitors at work and dancing up a storm with O2SJ, she aspires to use her nursing experience to help underprivileged people both locally and globally (already on her list she has spent time conducting nursing assessments in Kenya). Also on her aspiration list: inspire and empower women. You GO Girl!

Delphine Laurens

Zee Sassy One

Et maintenant, le moment que nous attendons tous: Delphine! As you may have realized, Delphine is French. Quite French. We made her take her beret off for the camera, and you can’t tell, but she is holding a croissant in her left hand. Delphine was born and raised in Paris, France and used to hang her laundry on the Eiffel Tower (she tells us that it dries faster that way). Her background is in rock and roll and Salsa (sadly, not the tasty chip dip), but she was mesmerized by some lindy hop video clips and stumbled from discotheque to discotheque, in search of instruction. Along the way, she managed to learn from some of the top instructors and acquired a dance partner and husband Augie, who convinced her to move to Los Angeles. Delphine agreed to relocate, and is happily pursing the American Dream of becoming an accountant. Delphine competes, teaches, and most importantly, dances all over the United States and internationally.

Jasmine Cheung

The Natural

Jasmine is a natural born performer – actually, when the doctor delivered her, she was doing a Chinese folk dance and seemed a bit annoyed that they interrupted her routine. She has a glowing smile and radiates joy, both on and off the dance floor. Our 2008 Co-MVP is always ready to perform, no matter how insanely hot or cold the weather, how bruised and battered she is, her eyes light up the minute she gets close to the stage. While at UCLA, she ran the Swing Club and Swing Dance Performance Team (it was, as she says while stroking her chin, Eggscellent.) Jasmine (better known as Jassy or Nuage) also loves to experiment with makeup and is most famous for her trademark “Smoky mermaid eye” look which has been trying to work its way into our routines for the last few years. Jasmine is a regular teacher for One2Swing at the Dance Family Studio in Pasadena, California with her partner, Sam “The Happy Face” Chan.

JP Babiera

The Panda

We actually imported JP from the Philippines. This hottie from Makati has women crawling all over him (especially during rehearsals when we are doing aerial work. Then we are literally head over heels for him!) JP, better known as “Panda”, was recently the inspiration for the hit movie about a panda who knows martial arts. The producers didn’t want to give him any money, so they changed the martial arts style from judo (which is what JP does) to Kung Fu. Being the resident Panda, he also gives fantastic bear hugs. Originally a full-fledged jock, JP traded in his soccer and roller hockey gear for his dance shoes when he found out there would be girls involved in swing dancing. He has a distinctive, yet gentle style and really takes good care of the follows.

Kennly Asato

The Ewok

Kennly is … short. Seriously short. We, the O2SJ bio writers would like to write more but really when we ask ourselves “What do we know about Kennly?” the prominent and overwhelming thought is .. “Well, she’s short!” Did you know on our team mailing list we estimate about 70% of the email traffic are short jokes about Kennly? Like this one for example: “I can’t believe Kennly got pick pocketed. Who could stoop so low?” Or: “Guess who’s doing the solo? Kennly because she is so low!”. Ha ha ha … Okay okay so besides being short, Kennly is also the team jokester and is able to silence He-Cap with a single insult. Don’t worry she makes up for it by being an awesome dancer. If you ever get the opportunity to dance with her (she leads too!) then you know she is awesomely fun to dance with. And seriously Kennly is just an awesome person. If you ever get the opportunity to spend any kind of time with her, she is really funny and always cheerful, even to those on her bad side! That’s quite awesome! Oh yeah, and check out her artificial flower hair clip business: http://bloomingvintage.com.

Laura Manning

The Ex-Pat

Laura recently returned from her self-imposed 10 year exile in London, England, which was probably caused because she is from a place (not a town, but a place) called Storrs, CT, whose biggest claim to fame was being named “America’s Best Place to Avoid Death Due to Natural Disaster” by Slate Magazine. We are currently rehabilitating Laura to the (American) English language (it’s not the loo, it’s the bathroom) and we are trying to introduce more food into her traditional British diet of bread and beer. Laura loves rock climbing, talking about dancing, denying herself meat, and screenwriting. Laura is currently researching the world’s funniest joke, so please contact her if you have any information on it. In her spare time, Laura enjoys going out social dancing, doing pushups, and exploring the simple joys of milk toast.

Masako Inoue

The Strong One

Masako is strong. Really strong. Her muscles have muscles. When Masako’s in the water, she doesn’t paddle; the waves get out of the way out of fright. You should have seen her pushup test at our team audition. Every 10 pushups she would look up and ask us if she should do more. At about 50, Chris Do a.k.a. The Cheerleader was seen whimpering off to the corner of the room.

Masako even has a dance background starting with classical Japanese dance when she was young though she didn’t stick with it because she didn’t like wearing kimonos. Dance wise, Masako brings a grace and elegance to the team. And now she can kip too! Way to go Masako!

Miki Kawamura

The Innocent One

If there was a vote for person who probably gets the fewest amount of dirty jokes told on the team, that would be Miki. Besides that, Miki is just a very sweet gal and also uber-talented on the dance floor from choreography to aerials to just looking good while dancing. She is currently dating Allen Reyes a.k.a. The Clip Commander and boy did she make him work for her hand in dating even though it was meant to be from the start. They met dancing and Miki even says how she got interested in dancing while she was out living in Riverside when she saw a flyer for a swing dancing club ..and it turns out the flyer was made by Allen. Isn’t that just enough to make you gush and want to go out and write a romantic comedy?

Pauline Yasuda

The Obscene One

Take the most dirty and obscene person you know. That person wouldn’t hold a candle to Pauline. She is so powerfully obscene. But yet ambitious at the same time. A believer in building communities, she has successfully brought the team culture and humor down to her obscene level and we thank her for that and the hours of obscene comedy she has provided us. Speaking of comedy, Pauline writes sketch comedy and performs at the famous ACME theatre (though it has recently come to light that the reason she may have spent all these years on her “comedy craft” was so that one day she could write a sketch where she could expose one of her breasts). Whether it’s joyously playing “Kip” to Jasmine’s “Rex Kwon Do” or shooting fireballs out of her butt or just lighting up the dance floor with her infectious energy, Pauline is always ready to help us all have a good time on and off the dance floor.

Quinn Nguyen

The Text Master

Quinn is Mr. Reliable. He is at practice on average 8.2 minutes early. He takes 4.3 pee breaks per hour (mostly due to his 2.3 liters of Diet Pepsi he drinks per day). He kips 4.5 girls 5.3 times per practice. We also know he loves to sew, he’s a bit of a perfectionist, he spends more time getting ready in the bathroom than most people (guys or gals), he enjoys having individual conversations with all 23,211 hairs on his head (not deep conversations but little check-in conversations just to make sure they’re all good), he has a guy-love relationship with Allen a.k.a. The Clip Commander, and deep down inside he is a very sensitive and caring little huggy bear. Oh, and if you ever want to reach him, text him. He even answers text messages faster than phone calls. At practice, we’ve found it more effective to text choreography changes to him instead of speaking with him face to face. Can you say “Textual Healing”?

Roy Samson

Roy Samson

The Smiling Buddha

Roy is awesome. Dancing with Roy is like dancing with the smiling Buddha (except that he’s Catholic). Follows who have social danced with Roy confirm that the smile is a permanent fixture on his face. While Roy has the uncanny ability to do just about everything, from aerials to fast dancing, to writing long email jokes, to being able to smile in any situation and having an infections guffawing laugh, this superhero does have just one weakness: He’s unable to keep his hat on during performances. If you’re curious, just search for his perfomance clips on YouTube and watch how he has to constantly keep his hands on his head in order to prevent his hat from falling. Though lately scientists have theorized it is not actually a weakness and more a symptom of his own “ginormous smiling” super powers – in that his huge smile is what makes his head grow bigger during performances which causes his hats to fall off. Team Director Ben has recently tried measures to counteract this “hat falling off” business from telling very bad un-laugh-worthy jokes to calling him “Ron” but Roy’s powers are too strong and the world is a happier place because of his smiling and laughing.

Samuel Chan

The Happy Face

Sam always has a big smile on his face. Although I guess that’s where the smile would be anyway, and not on his arm or something. Hailing all the way from Hong Kong, Sam started dancing at an early age. He writes in his bio sheet that his first ballet/modern dance was when he was in kindergarten and he was “wind”. We consulted his early dance teachers to find out what that meant and they gave us a knowing look, a bottle of Lactaid to give to Sam, and that’s when we understood why Sam always had a smile on his face. Besides his great happy performance smile, Sam also is a versatile dancer that continues to improve every day on every aspect of his dancing. He is also interested in photography, rock climbing, cooking, eating, reading, and ping pong … all at the same time. But “The one who shoots photos while climbing rocks to cook and eat food from a recipe book he’s reading and using as a ping pong paddle” was too long of a nickname so we’ll just leave it at Sam is also a very happy guy. (ha ha ha “Wind”)

Sharlene Choy

The Bird

Sharlene is our resident aerialist. Not only is she good at aerials but she also knows how to “land” properly from a “dangerous” situation making her the perfect aerial training partner for guys on our team.Kind of like training wheels for guys learning to do air. Except wheels don’t really help you in the air, only on the ground, so that doesn’t make sense. Besides being able to fly like a bird, Sharlene also has done many other types of dancing and performing and also has non-dancing interests in beach volleyball, gardening, all things vintage, and floral arrangement. Sharlene would like to one day open up her own flower shop, but in the meantime she happily helps run some of her family businesses.

Sonya Choy

The Happy-go-Lucky Gal

Sonya is so happy-go-lucky that she considers the world her hometown. Seriously, on the bio questionnaire for “hometown” she couldn’t decide what to call her hometown and ended up rattling off like ten different countries. Sonya also is a very active person because she just doesn’t like to sit still. She has done Ballet, Tap, Chinese Folk Dancing, Gymnastics, and lots of other stuff like that. She loves to eat and drink and write poems and collect stickers. We’d also like to say she enjoys swing dancing but it recently came to light that the reason she wanted to learn was just so as a pick up line she could say “I swing, do you swing?” But hey it keeps her on the team so we shouldn’t take for granted a good thing! (She feeds us mochi!)

Tomoko Young

The Mischievous One

If there was ever a word in the dictionary for someone who looked as sweet as an angel but for reals inside was, to put it delicately, “not-so-innocent”, that word would be used to describe Tomoko. I did look in the dictionary and did not find such a word. On a whim, I did look it up in a Japanese dictionary and there is a word for it: “To-mo-ko”. Though Tomoko is still learning English, she speaks the language of dance fluently. Tomoko is an awesome social dancer and we, the bio writers of O2SJ, highly recommend everyone dance with her at some point. Just remember after you’re finished say thank you and smile as she innocently smiles at you and not-so-innocently asks you about your natural hair color.

Vicky Chan

The Muppet Face

You need only watch Vicky shoot a fireball once to know why we call her muppet face. We’re not sure exactly how a human person can contort their face to display such a wild and varied range of antics but Vicky has this talent down pat proving she is certainly a wonder of nature. In fact, when we taped a short solo dance demo of her she managed to include all known 37 genres of dance into a 10 second clip. Who can do that? Seriously? Vicky, besides being a dancing and performing wonder, also helps run LindyGroove, LA’s (and possibly the nation’s) largest weekly venue. When she’s not doing all that, she does a lot of graphic design and event planning on the side, including designing the popular O2SJ “California Rolls” t-shirt. Yay Vicky! That’s how we roll!

Thank you to our previous and honorary members:

Anthony Winn, Augie Freeman, Barbara Yeh, Brian Abe, Catia Chen, Courtney Widger, Everest Ling, Laura Shigemitsu, Mae-Lae Louie, Michelle Lee, Neil Figuracion, Tiffany Cheung