TEACHERS

Tanja Wingerter and Kay Werndli

Tanja’s swing dance path started in Ljubljana in 2014 and continued during Erasmus exchanges in Montpellier and Madrid taking classes and social dancing almost every day. On her return, she started inviting teachers to Finland, teaching her own classes and finally co-founding the dance school Black Pepper Swing in 2017. Nowadays her days fill up with classes, event organizing and training different dance styles. She travels eagerly to become a better dancer and teacher. Her style is described as elegant and playful. As a teacher, she is determined to help every student to find their own challenges and ways of learning. In Lindy Hop, she particularly enjoys diving deep into partner connection and music.

Kay was first introduced to Lindy Hop in Bern, Switzerland. Soon after, he moved to Stockholm, which is where he truly discovered his passion for this dance. Taking as many classes as possible, and social dancing as often as he could, Kay developed his own style of Lindy Hop, influenced by the vibrant Swedish Lindy spirit. After moving to the Netherlands, he started teaching local classes at first and later on taught courses and workshops in multiple cities across the country as well as abroad. Now living in Finland, Kay continues to teach for Black Pepper Swing in Helsinki. In his teaching, Kay tries to take the best of these different Swing scenes that he has been part of and to pass this knowledge on to his students. In his dancing, he always strives to find a balance between being a supportive partner, creating and developing ideas together, and expressing his own individual style. Kay can be easily spotted on the dance floor because of his athletic dance style and his happy demeanour.