Jodi will be hosting some Balboa Practice sessions.

Jodi was pretty much born listening to swing music, since her father was a multi-instrumentalist Jazz musician who jammed on a star-spangled band stand in their playroom! She began DJing in 2018 at the Balboa Experiment, after twenty years of swing dancing. Since then, she has DJ’d at M.I.T., the Balboa Speakeasy, Hop to the Beat, and JP Swings—as well as for many online events and fundraisers, including Paul Riding’s Global Online Social. Recently, she was a Spotlight DJ for a clarinet set with the online Swing DJ Relay. Her taste leans towards an “in the pocket” old-school groove, with a passion for Basie’s sidemen, Benny Goodman’s small groups, Anita O’Day, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, and Oscar Peterson. But as a Balboa dancer, she knows how to up the tempo, too! Mainly, she just loves watching people have a great time dancing to her tunes.

Jonathan took his first dance lesson in Montréal, Québec, almost 15 years ago. The punk kid he was wasn’t into Jazz at first, but he quickly grew fond of Basie’s piano, Hampton’s vibraphone and Hodges’ alto saxophone. His music collection started growing, and he eventually started DJ locally in Montréal and Québec City. He then got more opportunities to spin his tunes out of town, appearing as a DJ in events such as the Canadian Swing Championships, the Dirty Dozen Weekend and the Boston Tea Party. He’s excited to be back on the DJ team of Beantown Camp and to lead the DJ Summit again this year!

Peter will be co-hosting the Soul Party on Monday late night in the Lodge. The Soul Party is always a camp highlight and you don’t want to miss it!

Samuel will be co-hosting the Soul Party on Monday late night in the Lodge. The Soul Party is always a camp highlight and you don’t want to miss it!

Shelby Johnson is a self-proclaimed music snob, who fell in love with jazz at an early age listening to the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He really fell in love with swing music in the 6th grade thanks to a music appreciation class, and later started playing jazz in the 8th grade after 3 years in band as a drummer and percussionist. In high school, Shelby started playing the vibraphone and would transpose his parts for most pieces, as many pieces didn’t provide written music. This developed Shelby’s ear for music that was a huge catalyst for him catching the swing dance bug in 2011 in Orlando, Florida. And BOI, what kind of journey that has started! 2 years later, Shelby became one of the premier DJs in the Southeast, being featured at exchanges in Florida and South Carolina. In 2013 Shelby moved to Dallas, TX, where he continues to deliver awesome syncopated tunes for Lindy Hop, Charleston, Balboa and Collegiate Shag. Shelby’s passion for social dancing, teaching and competing landed him the 2016 Frankie Manning Ambassador Scholarship to Herrang Dance Camp where he expanded his knowledge on Jazz Dance and Music History. Now Shelby is back in Columbus, OH ready to continue bringing people groovy and rhythmic tunes to dance their best to.