Bio
I’m Karen Fantasia from Rome. I’m 31 and I work as a professional dancer from many years. I invested all my life studying dance, from ballet to contemporary dance, in which I’m more focus in my job. Five years ago I met some swing dancers for the first time during a night party and from that moment not only my life change completely but also my idea of what dance is, my conception of the music and rhythm, and of course I discovered a different texture of the movements. In general swing twisted my approach to dance, driving me in a new different world. I started with Lindy Hop and later I was really attracted by Jazz Solo. I was very encouraged by the first Swing Team in Rome, Swing Circus Roma, that is still my home today; I was one of the coordinator of the crew and now one of the teachers and organizers. Together we organized many events and parties for the Roman swing community, the official Icharleston in Rome and established many collaborations with swing band and musicians.
Icharleston Roma:https://youtu.be/nB9-zp4wOog
I attended different workshops and classes (Lindy Shock in 2018, Paris Jazz Roots in 2019, UpsideDown 2018, Herrang 2019 and many others..) and I led classes for schools and events in Italy: Swing on The Beach 2019 – Rock your Boogie Swing Festival 2018/19 – Florence Swing Cam 2020 and others. I also participated as a teacher at Upside Down 2018 in Ghent for a special class”contemporary contamination in to swing dance”.
During this long pandemic period I’m still teaching registering some video classes for my students, and giving them classes online. I found new forms to teach and also learn through online classes and platforms, and thank to this I didn’t stop my personal process and growing.
Today I’m also collaborating with the young team of The Collective Swing Crew, a crew of Italian swing dancers with different styles and backgrounds.
About awards I attended few competitions, but anyway I won the Open J&J of Swing’n Milan 2017 – Swing Out contest in Sicily Swing Camp in 2017 – Jazz Solo competition of Florence Swing Camp in 2020
I attached in my video some of the competition in Florence because its the last performance I had the occasion to do before the lockdown, together with an impro moment on the song “Mumbles”.
Karen