ABOUT
We invite you to Krakow on 26-28.09.2025
Most up to date information can be found on our Facebook page.
HISTORY
CODE OF CONDUCT
TEACHERS
Having grown up in a family of actors and musicians, Grace has been performing since she was 4. With her lifelong love of jazz music and vintage fashion, when she discovered her first lindy hop class in 2012, she was hooked. She can be seen dancing Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag on social dance floors across Southern California up to five nights a week. In addition, she regularly teaches and competes across the US and Europe, placing/winning such competitions as ILHC, Camp Hollywood, and Hot Rhythm Holiday. She is also a sought after DJ, playing classic songs that inspire dancers of all levels to have fun connecting to the music, its history, and each other.
Grace brings her love of the dance to her teaching style, encouraging joy in her students, while keeping an emphasis on connection technique. She is greatly inspired by original swing dancers, especially those from SoCal, and loves to dive into old clips for new ideas. For her, swing dance is a conversation between two people, and she brings her love of that conversation to every lesson, reinforcing strong connection and beautiful basics.
As a naive Southern California college student, Blake discovered swing dancing with a whimsical New Year’s resolution to try learning the dancing he saw in Swing Kids (1993). Little did he know, SoCal was one of the world’s largest scenes, with a rich history and dozens of the world’s best dancers and instructors. Immediately hooked, he developed a relentless obsession for Lindy, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag. He’s since gone on to win in a variety of international competitions and has taught around the world in places like Europe, Korea, Japan, Australia, and the US.
In his free time, Blake loves to study vintage dance clips. He has a deep reverence for the original dancers and loves to teach classes that focus on particular styles and techniques they used. As an instructor he also focuses on imparting his values of partner connection, tasteful musicality, and developing beautiful basics. While he loves practice, competition, and performance, his favorite thing about dancing is just having a simple, deeply-connected social dance with a like-minded partner.
Jacob started swing dancing in 2003 and has been hooked ever since. Jacob discovered his love of Balboa in 2005 and began traveling to various events and competitions not much later. His first love is social dancing but he also enjoys competing as a way to set goals and push himself. As a teacher he enjoys using a mix of humorous analogies and serious instruction to create a fun and exciting learning environment.
Jacob has been teaching at national and international events for the last 15 years. He has honed his ability to break down and analyze the dance to make complex and dynamic movement happen with ease and comfort. He is known for his intricate, yet traditionally based, Pure Bal, as well as his unique shapes and movement in Bal Swing. He is also known for his continuous flow and effortless way of floating across the dance floor, while maintaining a highly rhythmic feel.
Jacob’s primary goal in all his partnerships has been to connect in a way that works for both him and his partner to find what they can create together. This has resulted in numerous placements and wins at all levels of competition, but more importantly, having ever-evolving social dances.
Olga was born into a family of teachers and since early years has been an energetic live wire – studying music, doing athletics, martial arts and gymnastics. In 2007 she was introduced to Lindy Hop and this is where the real passion story begins. She got dance hooked and started to explore more of the dance world by getting into Blues and later Balboa. She has been actively travelling the globe in pursuit of more opportunities to dance, learn and compete. Later she began to share her love for swing music and dance by teaching. Now Olga is the international balboa instructor, teaching solo and couple Balboa all over the world.
At her classes she pays a lot of attention to getting the students interested and involved by giving challenging and fun tasks, working both on technique and musicality and infecting them even more with the love of dancing. For the time being she is passionately developing a new direction of swing dance practices – iSoloBalboa – offline and online solo classes for balboa leaders and followers which aim at polishing up technique and developing creativity and personal aesthetics.
"I love balboa, because it can be so different - slow and fast, snuggly and dynamic, fun and playful, technical and musical. Balboa connection feels like a cosy warm hug for me, and the dance is beautifully spiced with cool rhythm play, subtle lead-n-follow and shared flow."
What do you know about Gio? Thank you for asking! Did you know that he started dancing at 10 years old, he was born in Sardinia, Italy and that he always travels with a portable iron to fix his shirts and look sharp?!
Well… these are just some fun facts but what about Gio’s dancing philosophy? Lean in and I’ll tell you all about it!
Gio promotes an original take to dancing and encourages others to develop their own personal style. Gio dances with a lot of rotation, always with plenty of details, and hilarious poses - it might be too much at times, but he is working on it!
To all the nerds out there, Gio’s classes will give you something to chew on. Expect to go deep into details rather than trying many moves, the material will be structured and neatly presented and hopefully yeah… you will have a good time!
Natalia will be our MC and will teach Extra Classes with Blake.
WORKSHOPS
We will have 4 workshop groups available for you during Rock the Balboa! 2025. The group levels will be adjusted to the participants’ skill set, and placement will be determined by an audition. No audition is required for the Intermediate level group. Please read the level descriptions carefully to determine your level of experience when registering.
INTERMEDIATE
You have been dancing Balboa for a year, you know the basics and want to develop your dancing further by bettering your technique and expanding your vocabulary.
You’re familiar with basic Balboa rhythms and can lead/follow steps in PureBal (uphold/downhold basic, ad-libs/side steps, paddles, come around) as well as BalSwing (throw out/toss out, lollies, out&ins).
ADVANCED
You’ve been dancing Balboa for a while now, regularly attend social dances, and travel to festivals. You can lead/follow complex movement sequences, even at faster tempos. You play with rhythms and incorporate various stylings into your dance. You want to not only refine your technique, but also work on musicality, movement flow, and developing your own personal dance style.
MASTERS
You are a true Balboa rug cutter. You’ve been dancing for a very long time, regularly attend international festivals, and have already made it to the finals of several dance competitions. You are a prominent figure in your local Balboa scene and are likely already teaching or preparing to teach. On the dance floor, at any tempo, you combine complex transitions with impressive styling. You play with the texture of your dance, rhythms, and deeply understand the source of your movement. You know a lot about Balboa—but more importantly, you know there’s always more to learn.
Selected dancers may be invited to this group without an audition.
FRIDAY EXTRA CLASSES WITH NATALIA RUEDA AND BLAKE
Schedule – Friday, September 27:
- Leader Movement: Styling and Texture in Your Basics – solo class for leaders with Blake
- Following in the Flow: Movement and Creativity – solo class for followers with Natalia
We highly encourage you to attend both the solo and partnered classes – the material is connected and designed to create a cohesive, in-depth learning experience!
We reserve the right to prioritize dancers who register for the full package (solo + partnered classes).
PARTIES
- Thursday pre-party with DJs at Klub Spotkań Poczta Główna
- Friday and Saturday parties with Jazz Dreamers XL and DJs at Polskie Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne “Sokół” w Krakowie
- Sunday party with The Shoor Shoor Band and DJs at Klub Spotkań Poczta Główna
Polskie Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne “Sokół” w Krakowie
ul. Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego 27
JAZZ DREAMERS XL
“We are dreamers – jazz dreamers – hence the name. Our band is a group of musicians creating swing music tailored specifically to the tastes and needs of dancers.
THE SHOOR SHOOR BAND
The Shoor Shoor Band is made up of fantastic musicians from the Kraków Lindy Hop scene. They were once invited to play at a Balboa social, and their music instantly won over the dancers. There was no turning back — a band for the Balboa community simply had to be born!
KLUB SPOTKAŃ POCZTA GŁÓWNA
ul. Westerplatte 20, Kraków
On on Thursday and Sunday we will have fun at the Klub Spotkań Poczta Główna.
Besides the dance floor, you will also find cosy tables waiting there for those who want to relax and talk freely.
The club is located in a non-historic part of the former seat of the Polish Post Office. It is located in the former Postman's Club "Expresik" retro spaces. The decor is a combination of the communist era, Twin Peaks and a pinch of modernity. You will surely remember its interior.
COMPETITIONS
TBA
TASTERS
TBA
SCHEDULE
TBA
PRICES
FULL PASS
Regular – 840 PLN / 205 EUR
PARTY PASS
Regular – 390 PLN / 95 EUR
3 tasters; 4 parties, including 3 with live music
