Instructor Bio

Mike (the Girl) Legett began dancing in 2001 at a ballroom studio in Memphis, TN. She converted to swing a few months later in Knoxville, TN, where she fell in love with Lindy and Blues in the winter of 2002-2003. She flirted with Tango off-and-on before committing in February 2007, and it wasn't long before she left grad school to become a full-time dance junkie, a position she still holds in her current residence, Philadelphia, PA.

Mike's true loves in life are teaching, dancing, following, and music. There's no order, because for her, these things are intrinsically linked. In addition to national events like Lindy Focus and Enter the Blues, Mike has taught at countless regional events in Lindy, Blues, and Tango, as well as traveling all over the country to teach and perform. She performed in an all-girls Charleston troupe at Camp Jitterbug's Jump Session Show in 2007, and in the all-girl blues troupe, the Hoodoo Ladies, at events from DC to BluesShout in St. Louis. Additionally, she spent one month as the Instructor-in-Residence for Philadelphia Lindy and Blues, teaching 2 workshops, a masters' class, a performance troupe review, a four-week series, and over 60 private lessons. She considers it to be one of the most challenging, educational, and rewarding experiences in her career.

Mike combines an intuitive understanding of connection with an analytical speaking style to give her students technique, but also strives to challenge and inspire her students to push themselves further into the music. She aims to help leaders create artistic compositions that are clearly led; she wants follows to have the ability to be the completely literal follow, and the inspiration and freedom to be an imaginative and dynamic contributor. In the classroom or on the social floor, she seeks a connection that involves active communication from both partners, to make a dance together.

DJ Bio

Mike's love of blues and jazz has been obsessive for some time, and once she started running a weekly blues dance out of her home in Atlanta in 2008, she committed herself to the art of DJing.  She has since gone on to DJ sets around Atlanta, Orlando, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia Beach.  She prides herself on providing a variety of styles and eras in each of her sets, and strives to create a sound that is both unique and inspiring; she also aspires to expose people to new music,  and to challenge their dancing.

Some of Mike's favorite artists:
Sidney Bechet
Roy Eldridge/Artie Shaw
The Firehouse Five Plus Two
Nathan James and Ben Hernandez
Chris Thomas King
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Django Reinhardt
Nina Simone
Koko Taylor
Seth Walker
Fats Waller