Gallery & Bio

Official Bio

“Areski started taking classes with SwingStep in 2014, and dropped everything else he was doing: it felt like he was meant for this dance. He became a full-time Lindy Hop teacher in 2016. Bringing experience from his prior life as a sailing instructor, he has a good sense for understanding what is needed when, and how to express it. Training with SwingStep only helped become even more precise in his teaching, giving him the techniques to inspire people to work hard on their dancing.

He also did short studies of ballet, modern dance, jazz dance, hip hop and tap dance. Increasing his knowledge about movement and body awareness helped him understand how he wants to shape his dancing, and therefore also his classes.

As a teacher, he wants to make sure the students are always challenged, and having fun. His goal is to make techniques, concepts, shapes and movement accessible and to break them down in a way that students can see immediate results.”

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A bit more background

Born in Paris (France), I grew up in a French-German family. As a kid, we would spend summers in Germany, next to a lake: that’s where I learned to sail. I started going to sailing school at the age of 10, and became an instructor at 16, mostly working with the little kids (age 6 to 11) and adults (teenagers can be a pain). I was also a very active musician, having learned the trumpet, the piano, the guitar and ukulele, and having had some singing lessons.

In 2010 we moved to Berlin and in 2013 I moved to Heidelberg. I started various studies, but when I discovered Lindy Hop, I dropped everything else: the studies, the sailing and the music.

Inspired by my new passion, I started travelling to workshops. After a year, I decided to study dance in Mannheim (Germany) and worked on implementing my new knowledge in body control, awareness and anatomy to my Lindy Hop. After an injury at the shoulder, I had to stop the studies.

The long recovery helped me deepen my understanding of my body. I worked hard to connect the dots and soon started implementing the stories and facts I would hear from physios, osteopaths, and doctors in my solo and later partnered dancing. I started doing fitness more seriously, and successfully avoided more severe injuries since then.

I’ve now moved back to Berlin, Germany and work as a freelance dancer, dance instructor and MC.

My goal is to spread the love and inspiration I have for this dance, combining the knowledge I have from other disciplines and connecting all those different stories into one consistent worldview.

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