Marie & Felix

Marie N’diaye is a choreographer, performer, jazz dance educator and dance researcher. She specializes in jazz dance (African American Jazz), including the partnered form (Lindy Hop), focusing on the heritage of Harlem dancers from the Savoy Ballroom as well as the tradition of chorus lines from nightclubs and theaters (such as the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club, Connie’s Inn….) and applied his scientific method and dance teaching to conduct research based on the embodied practice of jazz dance through the study of original video clips and collaborations with elders and other established dancers.

Marie N’diaye has been teaching Lindy Hop since 2007. Working with numerous partners (Madrid-based Felix Berghall, London-based Stephen Atemie and Berlin-based Felipe Braga), she has taught a variety of styles and tempos, from the embrace of slow drag to the breathtaking speed of fast Lindy Hop!

Marie is the founder of the non-profit organization Collective Voices for Change, which promotes cultural appreciation and respect for African-American jazz dance. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Black Lindy Hoppers Fund, whose mission is to support and promote black dancers and artists in their practice, interpretation and transmission of jazz dances, particularly Lindy Hop.

She completed her Master’s degree in Dance Anthropology & Ethnochoreology in 2023, as part of the international ERASMUS program: “Choreomundus” involved in safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).

Felix Berghäll is a dancer, performer, choreographer and teacher of Swedish, African, American and vernacular Lindy Hop, as well as a DJ and music researcher…

From the first competition in 2001 to taking the stage at the famous APOLLO Theatre (Harlem, NY) in 2014, Felix’s favorite place to be is on stage. There’s no other place he’d rather be, it’s where he feels most at home. He performs almost every weekend, traveling for events around the world, and has been part of everything from small productions to hour-long theater shows.

He has worked for the past 5 years to co-organize one of the world’s largest events focused on Lindy Hop and African-American vernacular jazz, Herräng Dance Camp.

Felix has been dancing since the age of 8, beginning by training and competing in the Swedish Bugg dance style as well as Lindy Hop, Boogie Woogie and Double Bugg. All dances derived from the Lindy Hop and Afro-American vernacular jazz. He was in love from the beginning and was really taken by the music.

Currently, he is also part of the leadership of a new NGO, Collective Voices for Change, with other dancers and academics to create a platform to address social justice issues in the jazz dance community. The current focus of the initiative is to discuss issues of cultural appropriation and racial injustice.