Stephen Yang
Steve started lindy hop in 2003 in Beijing, and went to his first exchange in Singapore in 2005, where he met Frankie Manning for the first time. After dancing lindy for 7 years, he was introduced to blues at an event called The Rent Party in San Francisco. With the simplicity and flexibility of the blues basic step, and his extensive background in technique, Steve’s musicality and creativity skyrocketed. San Francisco was previously home to several notable annual blues events, but in 2013, there was no such event. Noticing this vacancy, Steve brought together the group that created BluesQuake with the purpose of empowering them to create the kind of event that they wanted. The result was our 2014 event that went way beyond anything he could have ever imagined. And now we’re back, solid in knowing that BluesQuake is what the world wants. |
Jennifer Vo
Jennifer Vo began blues and social dancing during her freshman year in college at Stanford in 2008. She has dabbled in various dance styles, but always comes back to blues for its deeply compelling rhythms and profoundly expressive music. What she most loves about dance is that it gives people a dedicated space to connect with other people and to embody art through motion. Jennifer lives in Mountain View, California, and is also the finance chair of Sundown Blues Society, which runs two weekly dance venues in the Bay Area. Last year, she helped to create BluesQuake from the ground up as the Scheduling and Logistics Coordinator, and she's looking forward to using spreadsheets and schedules to fuel another amazing weekend of dancing and fun! |
Jose Gamero
José started swing dancing in 2001, as a freshman at the University of Florida (Go Gators!), and danced on and off until about 2005. After a long hiatus from dancing, he was persuaded by a friend to try Blues Dancing in 2010. Immediately hooked by both the dance and the community, he quickly became an active part of Portland's blues scene. He joined the Board of the Portland Blues and Jazz Dance Society, PB&J, in the spring of 2011 and couldn't be happier with the people that serve with him. He is currently the Executive Director of PB&J, runs Rose City Blues, and helps organizing Blues Recess events around the country. You can often see him rockin' a bow tie and hat and is generally happy just to be surrounded by good company. He's an avid movie watcher, frequent traveler, and you can always count on him to point you to some delicious eateries. Also, he's terrible at asking people to dance with him, but he'd love to dance with you - so please ask. He likes to follow and switch, too! |
Angie Huang
Angie is a small, colorful bird presently living in Sacramento, CA. She loves dry, salty snacks, crunchy bugs, and perching on unsuspecting humans. Sometimes if you put on some Rihanna she'll do this thing where she lifts each leg and bobs her head to the beat and it is sooooo cuuuuute. You can spot her on the dance floor by her eight inch wingspan and supple chest plumage. Ghostwriting services are available on commission from [email protected]
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Brandon Istenes
Brandon’s life can best be understood as an extremely prolonged butoh performance. He passed most of its years in the vicinity of San Luis Obispo, CA, where he began what would be a long series of oblique representations of historical African American movements, a variation which is ongoing, though it is now typically set in San Francisco. In the course of this he sometimes participates in the coordination of events, a pas de danse that The New Yorker has described as “A post-postmodern tour de force… blurring the lines between avant-garde performativity and the ordinary enterprise of yet another Generation Y bohème.”* * The New Yorker absolutely did not say that. No one has ever said that. |