DJS
These fine folks will keep you on your feet and moving all night long.
Jody Glanzer
Ottawa, Canada
Hailing from Ottawa, our head of music is a veteran DJ of the Lindyhop, Blues and Balboa scenes. She has been sharing her love of music and movement through DJing, since 2001. The intensity of emotion, rawness, and passion, of the music draws her to it and it makes her feel alive! During her sets, she dances vicariously through every person on the dancefloor and it shows.
Playing songs that are "danceable" seems so meh. There is so much incredible music out there, why set the bar so low? Jody gets excited to share her musical finds with dancers and aspires to play songs that compel you to dance! She is passionate about sharing artists' stories told in song (while highlighting Canadian content as much as possible). She uses the music to shape the room's mood, weaving a magical spell. intended to keep you moving, captivated, and enjoying your moments while forgetting the time.
Jody has spun for competitions, performances, exchange weekends, dances, and parties at a dizzying variety of venues through the years. Ballrooms and bars, clubs and churches, art galleries, auditoriums and museums, lofts and house parties, decks, docks, bonfires and beaches, a bowling alley, a boat house, a few gazebos, a covered bridge, a train car, a planetarium and even the top of the CN Tower! This has started to feel Suess-ian. Would you, could you in a park, in the dark... here and there? Yes, she would DJ anywhere!
Janine Woods Thoma
Montpelier, Vermont, US
Already a lifelong musician, necessity landed Janine in the DJ booth in ‘16, when she co-founded Vermont’s Green Mountain Blues and transformed into “somebody who brought the tunes”.
It’s her ever-growing passion for the role, the music, and the dance that has kept her tuning the grooves for dance floors since. Janine delights in bringing modern gems; Funky Blues is her fav, but she’ll shake your roof with everything from West Coast to Piedmont, tickle your ears with Delta roots, and seduce us all with jazzy Ballroom and raunchy Vaudeville that’ll make us blush.
Her greatest joy in the booth comes in the leading the crowd on a journey, and crafting the feeling that each and every track played, fresh or classic, is exactly what your body and soul were craving.
Jim Salminen
Vancouver, Canada
Jim has been Vancouver’s premier brain surgeon, astronaut, and race car driver since the early 1700s. He also dabbles in blues DJing, which he’s only been doing for 25 years. Jim’s favourite things to do are DJ at parties and dances, play tennis, and roller skate with his skating crew, though he’s never done all three at once. Jim’s first pet was a guinea pig named G.P. He (Jim, not G.P.) is awkward at small talk and flirting but he hopes you come talk to him anyway.
Gabrielle Kern
Montreal, Canada
Gabrielle grew up loving jazz. She discovered blues dance in 2004 and quickly got hooked! A long time instrumental musician, she finds dance is a chance for the body to be the instrument – a physical expression of the music. As a teacher, she loves exploring how music can move you and how you can move to music.
Before too long, Gabrielle was DJing and now regularly spins for local, regional, and international Blues, Balboa and Lindy Hop events. Gabrielle loves playing music that gets dancers out on the floor and keeps them there! Her passion is music that moves you, be it blues, classic swing, vintage-style jazz, or more soulful funky tunes. Be careful, her music will often inspire you to dance long after your feet would have called it a night!
Brooke Filsinger
Toronto, Canada
Brooke has been spinning the tunes for longer than she cares to admit. From North American dance exchanges and competitions to European music festivals; to Asian swing dance clubs and back again to Toronto for late nite house parties, Brooke is constantly in search of her next DJ adventure.
Be it Swing Standards, Blues, Funk, Motown, or Soul, Brooke loves full-bodied, ‘scrumpditiliumptious’ music, the kind that you can really sink your feet into.
She’ll play that stuff that makes you just have to keep dancing all night long!
Charlley Ward
Durham, North Carolina, US
Charlley Ward has played the Blues for over half a century. He appeared three times at the Durham Blues Festival, twice at the Piedmont Blues Festival and twice in the semi-finals of the International Blues Challenge with his group, The Bull City Blues Band. His unique style is derived from his association with Durham Blues great John Dee Holman and his own original eclectic original material that ranges from urban Blues like Albert King to Country material like that of Holman’s. He also played in Rock and Soul bands like the Snap and The Catz.
He is a skilled storyteller whose tales of the legends of African American Folk Heroes have delighted audiences across the country. In 2007 he discovered the art of Blues Dance and has since danced, taught and DJed at Blues Dance events throughout the United States, He won the 2022 solo Blues Dance Competition at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland Oregon.
.png)
Sapo Nadamas
Montreal, Canada
Sapo is mostly appreciated for the eclectic side of her sets. She was the music coordinator for Montreal Bagel N Blues from 2009 to 2017 and has Djed at Seattle Fusion Fest, DJX in Philly, Vermont dance escape, Blues Muse, CTLX, Mystic Blues, Frankie’s 95th (blues late night), Melting Pot,Toronto Alchemy/DJX fusion weekend, Berlin Bear Blues & Fusion, High-Fidelity Fusion, Vancouver & Montreal blues & fusion dances.