David Jay Martin ~ Board President

David got his first taste of swing dancing in 1996 when he pretended to be 21 to get into the Claremont Hotel Bar in Berkeley, CA. One lesson was all it took. For the next 5 years he went swing dancing whenever and whereever he could. While still living and dancing in the San Francisco Bay Area, he trained under Paul Overton & Sharon Ashe and joined a performance troupe. In 2001 life took over and he slipped away from dancing. It wasn't until after he moved to Columbus, OH that he went in search of the swing dancing scene that he had left behind. In 2007 he found his way into a SwingColumbus monthly dance. It was like finding an old friend. He was hooked once again. By January 2008 he had joined the SwingColumbus performance team and in November 2008 became the Board President. Outside of the 168 hours a week that he spends doing, thinking about and breathing swing dancing he is the Production Manager for the Jerome Schottenstein Center at Ohio State and attemps to spend at least a couple minutes a week with his loved ones and garden.

Mandy Agler ~ Events Chair

Mandy first started swing dancing in 1996 at home alone with a video from the local library and later debuted her skills (awkwardly) at a high school dance. In 2001 she made the bold leap to try dancing with other people, and almost never regrets her decision. She is on the performance team and also does teaching, event planning, DJing, and promotions for SwingColumbus and mentors officers of the Swing Dance Club at Ohio State in their own pursuits. In real life, Mandy works for a software development company and likes to talk about her vegetable garden to anyone who will feign interest.

Becky Daskalova ~ Marketing Chair

Becky has been dancing for awhile.

Shannon Varner ~ Performance Chair

Shannon began her dance career as a kid, clogging her way through all the Steam and Gas shows and county fairs in Virginia. She was a dance major in college, studying ballet and modern dance. Moving to NYC to work at The Julliard School and Martha Graham Dance Company, she discovered Lindy Hop during a free lesson at Swing46 and the addiction with Lindy began. She spent every spare moment in workshops and lessons, and soon began competing at national events and even appearing on TV.

Her boyfriend (and future husband) moved often for work, and Shannon eventually followed, digging into all the wonderful, varied dance scenes along the way in cities such as DC and Chicago. All this movement helped fuse her dance style into a bluesy, savoy-whip, charleston-frenzied mess.

It is her passion to teach and spread the joy of Lindy. With her dance partner, Mark Calkins, she coaches and choreographs for the SwingColumbus Performance Team. When not dancing, which is rare, she works for a marketing firm in Westerville. She lives in Galena with her husband, Jason, and enjoys naming all the wildlife that frequents their home.

Calvin Lin ~ Instruction Chair

Cal's first foray into swing dancing started in 1997. He took the beginning jitterbug lesson before a dance at Glen Echo Park in the Washington DC area, but was afraid to ask anyone to dance once the band started playing. When he noticed a couple of kids doing crazy, but cool looking steps - someone told him, "Oh, that's the Lindy Hop", and he replied, "I don't think I'll ever be capable of doing that." Just 2 years later, he was competing in a locally promoted Lindy Hop competition with someone named Shannon Varner, whose current whereabouts are unknown - if someone knows where she is, tell her that Cal apologizes for those competition bruises.

A little while later, he found himself going to lots of dance camps, attending these new kinds of social dance events called "Lindy Exchanges", and seeking private lessons from some of the best Lindy Hop teachers in the world.

In his life outside of dancing, Cal is an information technology geek - in fact, he proudly posted his results from the "How Geeky Are You?" quiz on his Facebook wall (100% geek). He lives near Worthington with his wife, who gave him the ultimate compliment of "You do Lindy Hop better than that pro from 'Dancing With The Stars'.