Built by the community.
For the community.

Jo Hoffberg

Jo is a force of nature: she's an international choreographer and a competitor with a genuinely absurd number of titles, but teaching is what she's best known for — and what she cares about most. Since 2007 she's taught Lindy Hop, Charleston, vernacular jazz, aerials, competition prep, and weekend intensives across the US and abroad.

Her love for Black American vernacular dance runs deep, and you can see it in how she teaches: inventive and versatile on the floor, always rooted in respect for where these dances come from.

The trophy shelf, briefly: inducted into the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame twice (2012 Rising Star, 2022 Shining Star) and the Camp Hollywood Hall of Fame in 2014, with titles from ALHC, the European Swing Dance Championships, ILHC, the National Jitterbug Championships, the U.S. Open, and the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown.

And she's still a student. She keeps deliberately throwing herself into other dance genres, because she's convinced you can't be a good teacher unless you're also a good student.

Gabs Novellino

Gabs is the creative mind behind iLindy's education, shaping the ultimate online learning experience for our community. She leads new course production, books teachers for live classes, improves user experience, writes weekly newsletters, and creates engaging social media content. If you love iLindy's curated courses and instructors, she is the one to thank!

Gabs started dancing at four years old and has never stopped. While spending a year abroad in Leeds, UK in 2012, she discovered the Jazz dances, fell hopelessly in love, and decided to dedicate her life to this passion. She is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, researcher, DJ and event organizer primarily in Brazil, and other Latin American communities. She specializes mainly in Lindy Hop, Authentic Jazz, 1920s’ Charleston, and Collegiate Shag.

In 2023, she became a Frankie Manning Foundation Scholar and also a part of the team that organized two editions of ILHC Latin America. Gabs is a huge history geek and loves to dig deeper into the roots of Jazz music and dance. As a guest in the culture, she honors the opportunity to share the legacy and culture of Black American artists who created this art form.

Tim Collins

Tim started swing dancing at 16. Twenty-five years later — Frankie 100 in Manhattan, SwingBreak, Lindy Hop India, Ghana, Bollywood, stages on three continents — he's still at it. He founded Swing México and built iLindy so great dancing wouldn't stay locked in local scenes. The platform now hosts 30+ instructors from around the world.

Outside of dance, he builds digital infrastructure for experts who are great at what they do but need the systems to match. He co-created adamlovesguitar.com, and through Strati.Club he architects the strategy, messaging, and platforms that make that happen.

Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Father of three. Still dancing.

Sam Aguirre

Sam handles the iLindy big picture: how are we doing, what could be easier, and how do we grow. She was the first New iLindy hire back in 2020, which means the branding you’ve been looking at ever since? She helped build that. She also ran marketing, finances, and the inbox for a while “until iLindy grew enough to bring in people who do all of it much better” than her (her words, not ours).

When she's not zooming out on the business, she's making her own music or on a stage somewhere eating and manipulating fire, singing and nerding out, usually in that order. She also runs a Spanish-language channel devoted entirely to gloriously weird music.

Sandy

Sandy is the voice behind pretty much everything iLindy says out loud. She runs our social media, plots our emails, answers your comments, and generally carries the iLindy mission to every corner of the internet.

Her swing roots go back to Guadalajara, where she was part of Swing GDL, the collective that put Jalisco on the Lindy Hop map by dancing in plazas and parks until people couldn't help but dance. These days she teaches at Vía Libertad and struts with Chulastown, a chorus line of Mexican dancers.

Prateek

Prateek's responsible for keeping our numbers in order, making sure we're all paid on time and the business is businessing.

He's a finance and operations pro with 5+ years across the US, Canada, and Mexico. Before this he spent his days deep in accounts payable at high-volume, multi-entity companies — so nothing about a dance school's finances scares him.

Mostly, he likes making processes less annoying. Fewer spreadsheets held together with hope, more dashboards that tell you something useful.

Arzu

Arzu is a swing dancer, choreographer, video editor, videographer, and the director of Canela Swingrise, based in Mexico. She's been dancing for 12 years and performing for more than 10, and swing has shaped a big part of her life ever since she found it.

Over the years she's performed, taught, choreographed, and collaborated with more than three swing projects and communities in Mexico. She's also competed internationally, with highlights including a third-place finish in Novice Jazz at the International Lindy Hop Championships World Finals, and most recently, first place in the Mix & Match at Herräng Dance Camp in Sweden.

As iLindy's video editor, she works on new content and courses, bringing together her experience in dance, visual storytelling, and video production — making learning and enjoying swing feel as engaging on screen as it does on the dance floor.

Dann Esparza

Dann is a graphic designer and visual artist with a passion for visual storytelling, branding, digital experiences and illustration. He loves combining creativity, strategy, and aesthetics to turn ideas into meaningful visual experiences.

He is always exploring new styles, learning new tools and looking for ways to make design more impactful.