Eyal Vilner is one of the leading new voices in the New York and global swing scene. Born in Tel Aviv, saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, composer and bandleader Eyal moved to New York in 2007 and started his big band the following year. The Eyal Vilner Big Band has been performing widely in New York City’s landmarks such as Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, Smalls, Minton’s Playhouse, Harlem Jazzmobile and Central Park SummerStage. Internationally, Eyal has performed at the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Tel Aviv Museum, Jerusalem Theater; Ghent Festival, Belgium; Teatro Alameda, Spain; Théâtre Plaza, Montreal, as well as Paris Jazz Roots, the historical La Bellevilloise, Le Duc des Lombards, and Caveau de la Huchette in Paris, to name a few.

Eyal’s interest in the exchange between sound and movement within the jazz idiom inspired his musical journey and yielded collaborations with acclaimed dancers and choreographers. Among these projects are theater productions, dance festivals and competitions such as the International Lindy Hop Championships,  The Xperience, Midsummer Night’s Swing, and the celebrated SW!NG OUT show at the Joyce Theater (co-creator and musical director). This show, which the New York Times has called “Groundbreaking,” has toured throughout the US, in venues such as the Jacob’s Pillow and the LA Music Center.​

The big band performs Eyal’s original compositions as well as his new arrangements of jazz classics. Their music, which derives from the tradition of jazz, swing and the blues, strives to bring a unique voice to this beautiful art form. The big band’s first seven albums: Introducing the Eyal Vilner Big Band, Almost Sunrise, Hanukkah, Swing Out!, Live in Washington Square Park!, The Jam!, and Swingin’ Uptown received rave reviews and made it to the Top Jazz Radio Charts of the US and Canada. 

Evita Arce is a renowned Lindy Hop dancer and teacher based in New York City. Highlights of her career include dancing with Jazz at Lincoln Center, competing on “So You Think You Can Dance“, touring with the Broadway show “SWING!”, and making her Broadway debut in Regina Spektor’s run at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Evita was also featured in the Swing documentary “Alive and Kicking” which follows her path in the international Lindy Hop community.

Since 2005 she has taught and performed all over the world including Europe, Asia and Australia. With her dance partner Michael Jagger, they were invited to bring their company “Syncopated City“ to perform at the Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Stage in 2012 and 2013. Evita has danced for Caleb Teicher & Company since 2017, performing in “Meet Ella” and “More Forever” both beautiful new works featuring American dance forms of Tap, Jazz, Swing and improvised partner dancing. Currently, Evita is part of the creative team for “Swing 2020“ which has been postponed and is in process to premiere at the Joyce Theatre in July 2021.

In the strange and difficult time of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Evita was given a virtual art commission from the Guggenheim’s, “Works & Process” series that premiered June 18. Evita’s teaching experience has spanned across local Swing communities, Ballroom dance studios in L.A., 10 years on staff at Dance Manhattan and 5 years teaching experience in her own online school for Swing dance, SyncopatedCity.com.

Multi-Bessie award winner (2021/2023), New York Times lauded “Queen of Social Dance” and celebrated Best Dance & Breakout Star (2021) LaTasha Barnes is an internationally awarded and critically-acclaimed artist-scholar, curator, choreographer, and tradition-bearer of Black American Social Dance co-based in Phoenix, AZ and New York. A Richmond, VA native, she is globally celebrated for her musicality, athleticism, and joyful presence throughout the cultural traditions she bears: House Dance, Hip-Hop, Waacking, Authentic Jazz, and Lindy Hop, among them. Barnes’ expansive artistic, performative and wordsmithing skills have made her a frequent collaborator to The New York Times, Summer Dance Forever & Foundation Hip-Hop Center Amsterdam, International Center for Prince Studies, Singapore-based Timbre Arts Group, Jacob’s Pillow and many more. 

Barnes’ leadership and business acumen have placed her in positions of service as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees for Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival®, Directing Board Member of the Black Lindy Hoppers Fund, the Frankie Manning Foundation, and consulting artist to efforts such as the Al Minns Next Generation Project and events like Paris Jazz Roots Festival,Women’s Jazzination (Shanghai) and International Lindy Hop Championships.

Expanding the scope of impact for the communities she serves, Barnes completed her self-designed Masters in Ethnochoreology, Black Studies and Performance Studies thru New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study (2019). Her thesis and continued applied research are working to bridge the gap between communities of practice and academic cultural dance research, performance, preservation and pedagogy as well as expand the reach of dance as a healing tool for disabled US military veterans like herself. 

In support of this dialogue, Barnes was honored to be a contributing author to the 2022 National Dance Education Organization Ruth Lovell Murray Book Award winning text Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century – Univ. FL Press (2021). Ensuring future artists and dance scholars maintain authentic cultural context as they move through the world bearing forth Black dance traditions. To further support this effort Barnes joined the esteemed faculty of Arizona State University School of Music, Dance & Theater in Fall 2021. Now Associate Prof. of Dance, Barnes is the second tenured Hip-Hop Dance professor in the US, proudly representing the class of academic educators who actively contribute to the cultures studied. She is also expanding dialogue and critical heritage efforts in service as a 2025 Race, Arts & Democracy Fellow of ASU’s Center for the Study of Race & Democracy.

From the analysis of her research and in deeper concert with the mission to strengthen Black artists reverence for and expression with Jazz, Barnes is honored to be the visionary creator and Artistic Director of the multi-award winning and NYT critically acclaimed intergenerational and intercommunal cultural arts project  The Jazz Continuum.  First commissioned by Guggenheim Works & Process, further supported by The Joyce Theater (2022) TJC is a recipient of the prestigious NEFA National Dance Project grant (2022), and two Bessie Awards for Outstanding Creation/Choreography & Outstanding Music Direction.

Additionally she is also honored to be a part of the Brain Trust that developed the ground-breaking stage production Sw!ng Out, bringing the passion and power of Lindy Hop and its community to the concert stage. The New York Times said of her collaboration with Caleb Teicher in Swing Out, “Barnes is especially extraordinary for the way the past and the present can pass through her…”

Across all her endeavors, Barnes’ eternal purpose is to inspire fellow artists and arts enthusiasts to champion artivism in their creative expressions and daily lives.

Nathan Bugh is known worldwide for his intimately rhythmic style of Lindy Hop and vernacular jazz. He “rocked the stage” at Carnegie Hall, dancing Lindy Hop with the New York Pops Orchestra; he performed in Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater in Swingin’ Frankie’s Way; and he danced in the CT&Co’s More Forever, at Jacob’s Pillow.

Nathan is also co-creator/choreographer of the Joyce Theater’s SW!NG OUT, one of the greatest theatrical presentations of Lindy Hop in the modern era. His on-film appearances include: “My Fair Wedding” S.3 E.3 Great Gatsby Bride, Making Money w Charles Payne, Fox and Friends Christmas, Rebel In The Rye, and The Weepies – Be My Honey Pie. As a national jazz-dance competitor, Nathan has taken 1st place in Lindy, Slow Dancing, Solo, Team, Jill&Jack, Video, and Cabaret divisions.

Throughout the 2010s he was one of the most eminent solo-jazz contestants in the world, winning both the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown (2012) and International Lindy Hop Championships (2014), as well as achieving 3rd place in the ILHC invitational (2018). He was also the director and choreographer of “Yeah Man,” the 2015 ILHC Team champions.

Nathan is based in New York City, where he performs frequently and teaches social-dance classes. He has taught the Columbia University Swing Club since 2006, and he is adjunct dance faculty at Marymount College.