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Louise is a delightful tango dancer and is one of the best known Lindy Hoppers in the world. A popular and regular instructor at just about every major Lindy event throughout the 1990's. She has taught workshops in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and in North and South America, for a diverse selection of people including: The Rhythm Hot Shots, Disneyland, Swing Camp Catalina and the Tony award winning contemporary ballet company Adventures in Motion Pictures.

Originally a television producer, in 1992 she moved from working behind the scenes to step in front of the lights and since then, in addition to teaching, she performed jazz dance in the style of the 1920's to the 1950's throughout the UK and Europe. She has appeared on numerous UK television shows including This Morning, Blue Peter,The Bobby Davro Show and The Big City. In the feature films, Tom and Viv, B Monkey and in 1998 appeared in, and worked as assistant choreographer on, the British movie Swing. She has also performed in London's West End at: The Pheonix Theatre, The Queen Elizabeth Hall in Forces Sweethearts with the BBC Big Band, at the Barbican World of Dance Festival, and with the Jiving Lindy Hoppers and The Bob Wilber Big Band at Wembley Grand Hall. In England she toured and performed regularly with The London Swing Dance Society's Sugarfoot Stompers for whom she was co-artistic director and choreographer. In 1994, with Simon Selmon, she took second place in The American Swing Dance Championships (third place in 1993) and in 1996 they were nominated for a Feather Award as best swing dancers outside the USA. In 1999 she directed and edited Steven Mitchell's video series, also accompanying him as his partner and filmed, for Bridge to the Tango Video, her own instructional series with Catrine Ljunggren from the The Rhythm Hot Shots.

In the Argentine Tango, she has performed at London's Commonwealth Centre, in the pop video Argentina for Healy and Amos and with Daniel Trenner in the specially televised A Natural Ball and at Frankie Manning's 85th Birthday celebrations in San Francisco. In 1998 and 99 she worked as an assistant instructor on Puente al Tango's Journey to Buenos Aires, in 1996 she taught a tango workshop for 400 people at London's southbank festival, Ballroom Blitz, and has taught numerous workshops for corporate clients in the UK.

Louise has taught workshops in Swango , the new and developing improvised melding of swing and tango, for the Rocky Mountain Dance Camp, Oakland Swing Dance Festival, Living Traditions, and Hop to the Beat.

She continues to dance and teach Tango and Lindy Hop and has spent much of the last year teaching these richly historic social dances to high school students in the Boston area.


 
   

© copyright Louise Thwaite 1999