Celulle 133

About our

Teachers

Astrid Akay

Artistry is in Astrid’s blood! Growing up with a love of dance, music and theatre, Astrid studied 4 years of theatre studies at the Royal Conservatoire de Liège, before travelling internationally with various theatre projects. One such project, based on a poem by Hatian author René Depestre, introduced Astrid to African American blues and working songs, piquing her interest in jazz music and history. It was this newfound love for jazz that led her to discover Lindy Hop and other authentic jazz dances.

Today Astrid is part of the Brussels performance group the Jazz Maniacs. Her central interest in jazz dance is the old-school style of Lindy Hop, and the freedom of improvisation in jazz - which for her is also influenced by her professional background as an actor and theatre director. As a teacher, Astrid is passionate about sharing this love for music, improvisation and jazz history with others.

Carole Martins

Carole has been passionate about dance and swing music from her young age, a natural attraction that quickly pushes her to take the road to Boogie Woogie competitions in France and Europe. It was only in 2014 that she discovered Lindy Hop in search of novelty and inspiration.
Her favorite thing: " The social Dance", to connect, share, follow, build in pairs, give, learn from each other, exchange and enjoy this music that she adores.
Very quickly, this interest in couple dance also allowed her to realize the importance and the positive impact of solo danse. A unique opportunity to enrich your dance with a better freedom of interpretation, a new vocabulary and a connection to the origins of this dance: the Jazz Steps and more particularly to have fun with simple or complex rhythms. In 2016, Carole began to teach, taken by the desire to share her passion while continuing to train as a dancer and as a teacher. Carole is an organic and passionate dancer who won't leave you indifferent and might even inspire you by watching her dance.

Details

Elena Cancilla

Elena was born in Sicily and theatre was her first love.
Although convinced that she couldn’t dance, a year after she moved to Brussels, in 2011, she registered with the Apollo Swing School for Lindy Hop classes.
She was immediately hooked and a few months after her first class, she was already participating in international lindy hop, jazz solo, Charleston and blues workshops.
She is aware that she still has a lot to learn about jazz and swing history and culture, of which she considers herself to be an attentive observer.
In her classes, she aims at sharing her passion and help make everyone feel confident and happy while dancing.
Jazz, swing and blues express values she strongly believes in, such as authenticity, freedom and a sense of community.
As Elena explains, theatre was the place where she started looking for herself, and Brussels is the city where she can travel through various cultures and get inspired by them. “Jazz is an endless journey which started from my ears, infiltrated my body before reaching my soul.”

Details

Ezra Weill

Ezra Weill hailing from Seattle Washington is a circus artist to pay the bills and a dancer to feed the soul. He believes that everyone is a dancer and that we all just need a little help finding that funky groove we have hidden inside. Community, authenticity and freedom are among some of the values of back American culture, jazz, swing and blues and Ezra places them at the heart of his classes.

Jérôme De Paepe

Jerôme started dancing at Apollo Swing in 2012 and has been hooked ever since. He loves movies, good beers, otters, and of course - swingouts.

Details

Morgane Borra

Coming first from the Rock ‘n’ Roll world, with her father being the lead singer of the Belgian Blues-Rockabilly Band, The Wild Ones, Morganne spent all her life listening to Gospel, Swing, Blues, Rhythm’n’Blues, Country, Rockabilly and Rock’n’Roll. She grew up as an Old Soul, always attracted to and fascinated by things from the past; specifically, it was her love for African-American Culture that led her Lindy Hop.

Details

Sander Costermans

Ever since Sander was a teenager, he has been drawn to jazz and the style of the swing era. He started dancing because he just couldn’t sit still when listening to music. A member of the Jazz Maniacs and the Old Soulz performance crews in Brussels, Sander has had the opportunity to perform and teach at events around the country and even abroad. As a dancer, he tries to recreate an authentic, old-school style, but with his own unique character added to the mix; while as a teacher, Sander hopes to enable his students to dance comfortably with anyone they happen to meet, and to enjoy themselves when they go out dancing.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Newsletter

- Sint-Gillis - Cellule 133 -

Celulle 133

Classes

Monday

Tuesday

Astrid Akay

Carole Martins

Elena Cancilla

Ezra Weill

Jérôme De Paepe

Morgane Borra

Sander Costermans

How to get there?

Subscribe to our newsletter