About Us

Based in Winnipeg, HepCat Studio is a dance company that is committed to raising awareness and promoting the benefits of swing dancing. HepCat Studio provides numerous services to its clients including dance lessons, DJs, and demos. Starting in September 2009, HepCat Studio was founded by Suneil Pandey and Keith Tang.

Suneil Pandey

Co-president of Hepcat Studio

Suneil was born and raised here in Winnipeg. In the fall of 2000 he started studying swing, ballroom and latin dancing. In 2001 he stared teaching for CMU and U of M Swing dance club. During following years, he introduced the original swing dance, Lindy Hop to Winnipeg, along with several other complementary dances such as the Swing Rueda, Balboa and Blues.

During his many years of dancing, Suneil has specialized in teaching and performing in dances such as: the Lindy Hop, American Jive, East Coast, Charleston, Blues, Balboa, Swing Rueda, Dips, and Aerials.

Using his love of dancing, Suneil has traveled the world training with some of the best swing dancers in the world. Eric and Sylvia, Bill Borgida, Jenny and Ryan, Steven Mitchell and Virginie, Sylvia Sykes, Ben and Sherry, and Frankie Manning are just some of the talent he has trained with.

In his many years of dancing, Suneil has been given the opportunity to perform for various organizations such as the Manitoba Ballroom Teachers Association, Winnipeg Blue Bombers Halftime show, Dancing on the Boulevard, and the Swing Cats CD release party. He has also taught at Dancing under the Canopy, the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, University of Winnipeg, The Lid and Patricia's Dance studio. Recently, he has traveled teaching workshops in places such as Bemidji, MN and Kenora, ON. In 2005 he started competing in various dance competitions such as the Ultimate Lindy Show Down, Midwest Lindy Fest, Plex, DuPlex, and XXXPlex, placing first in the Jack and Jill division at DuPlex, and second in the Jack and Jack division at XXXPlex.

Suneils' focus has always been about fun!

Keith Tang

Co-president of Hepcat Studio

Keith has been dancing for 6 years, making the most of his opportunities wherever he can find them. He has travelled to Chicago, Minneapolis, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Calgary, and Edmonton for dance workshops and competitions. In the summer of 2007, he decided to take a year off of university studies to experience the joie de vivre in Quebec City.

While there, Keith learned from some of the best swing dance instructors in the country including World Champions of Swing Benjamin Ricard and Genevieve Kerouac, as well as Jason Herron, founder of the Canadian Balboa Championships. Alongside taking lessons from them, he was invited to one of studio Port-O-Swing's dance troupes, Ruby Porto.

Coming back to Winnipeg, Keith can be seen sharing his dance experiences and teaching regular Jive, Lindy Hop, and Balboa lessons. As an instructor, his focus is for you to have strong fundamentals, simplify your movement, and have fun.

Wes Edmunds

Dance Instructor

Wes has been dancing for over twelve years now focusing mostly on traditional swing with experience Jive, East Coast (Triple Swing), Lindy, Charleston, Balboa and West Coast. He has also recently fell in love with Blues dancing and his dance travels over the past two years have been mostly dedicated to learning and dancing blues and bringing the current contemporary techniques of the dance back into Winnipeg for all to enjoy. Beyond having attended 7 out of the 10 PLExs, Wes has also been to numerous exchanges across Canada and the US as well as having attended both the Herrang and SONH dance camps. Over the past year Wes has begun teaching Blues and Lindy in Winnipeg and hopes to continue teaching and spreading the love of swing dance throughout Winnipeg. Currently Wes is busy getting the Winnipeg Swing Dance Association setup and running to give the people in Winnipeg one common easy resource for them to find out what is swingin' in the 'Peg!

Tiffany Ryner

Dance Instructor

Tiffany first started dancing when she was in high school. She was part of the Dance Major Program at Westwood Collegiate. In the four years she was involved in this program she learned, ballet, modern, jazz, and tap. She also had been involved in workshops including flamenco, and hip-hop. While in this program, she competed in the Manitoba Dance Festival receiving silver and gold medals for eight group routines and one duet over the four years. It was in 2008 when she attended her first swing dance class at the University of Manitoba. Since then, she has travelled to Edmonton and Minneapolis for swing dancing.

Jacklynn Stott

Dance Instructor

Jacklynn had not had any formal dance training until she joined the local swing dance club at the University of Manitoba. There, she took as many classes as she could and began traveling to dance exchanges and workshops. After her initial training within the university, she joined a local swing/aerials group called Jam Circle where she met Suneil Pandey. It was under Suneil saw her passion for dance and took her dance ability to the next level, giving her the solid foundation that she has today. Jacklynn has attended dance exchanges in Edmonton, Minneapolis, Chicago, and has taken part in multiple workshops taught by some of the best swing dancers in the world in Minneapolis and Seoul. She has performed locally and competed in Minneapolis. What was her greatest surprise when traveling? "When I went to South Korea for 4 months and attended a workshop weekend called the Korean Lindyhop Revolution (KLR), I couldn't speak with a lot of the dancers, but it was great being able to dance together well despite the language barrier. They're great dancers and luckily my basics were strong enough so that I understand what the leads wanted me to do when we danced. It was great!'