Jake (Spincat) Meadley

Following in the footsteps of many of the dancers from the early days of the Swing era, Jake Meadley (aka. Spincat) has devoted most of his life to sharing his passion for dance.

When Jake first stepped into a dance studio in 1988, the dance director asked Jake how long he had been dancing, as the director was impressed by Jake's ability to dance. When informed it was his first time, the director told Jake he was a natural and to give up everything and dance. Jake was in year 11 and not ready to finish school so just continued to dance for fun. Eight months later a friend took Jake to another dance studio where the director there said the same thing.  Within 5 weeks of starting medal classes, Jake had not only learnt his part of the routines for the exams, but had also worked out the 'follow' part and was assisting to teach the girls their steps for the routines. This continued to happen for further medals that Jake studied and found them easy, but really enjoyed assisting
teaching the classes. In December 1990, Jake reached the finals in The Australian Ballroom Dancesport Championships, after having only competed for 10 months.

In December 1993, Jake returned from 18 months in America and wanted to return to dancing, but didn't want to compete. He wanted dancing to be fun, to be something he could share and use to bring fun and enjoyment to others. So Jake applied for a teaching position the week he returned home.  Within a year Jake had worked himself into the top 5 teachers in Victoria and earnt himself an award for his efforts as a leading male teacher as well as 6 straight Gold awards for choreography and performance of student showcases at State level.  In 1995 Jake completed his A.M.D.S. teachers qualification and won 6 straight Gold awards for choreography and performance of student showcases in the Nationals.

From 1996 to 2001, Jake learnt and taught under Australian Ballroom Champions Tony Sutty and Mark Wilson who mentored Jake to a greater undertanding of dance frame, connection, control and technique in partnership dancing. In 2000 Jake received his A.D.S teachers qualification for International Ballroom dancing.

In 2000, even though Jake had 9 years ballroom experience behind him, he felt he needed more to feed his hunger for dance. Jake stumbled across an advert for swing dancing in the local newspaper and attended his first swing
class in Doncaster, Victoria on the 10th of February. Soon afterwards Scott and Claudia offered him a teaching role with Swing Patrol and since then Jake has anchored a regular venues in both Sydney and Melbourne  as well as
School gigs, Festivals, the Melbourne Zoo Twilights season, The Whitehorse Council music series for 4 years and all manner of swing events and gigs.

In 2003 Jake started classes in Albury/ Wodonga, and travelled the 8 hours return trip from Melbourne nearly every week for 4 years. During that time he also ran classes in Wangaratta, Shepparton, Bendigo and Echuca. As Jake
is an avid outdoors dancing freak, he became a regular local celebrity at various annual jazz festivals. The first year Jake led his team of students from various Swing Patrol venues at the Wangaratta Jazz & Blues Festival in 2003, and since then it is solely due to Jake's dedication and passion that the swing dance aspect at that festival has grown and has become an integral part of the festivities.  Now with 11 spots over 2 days, Jake and the students from Swing Patrol are a  major feature for the Wangaratta Jazz and Blues Festival and have been invited back every year to date.

Since 2000 when Jake first started with Swing Patrol, Jake has learnt from many leading international Lindy Hop and Balboa teachers, and is continually altering, adapting and reshaping the way he teaches and dances so as to
bring his students the cutting edge of partnership dancing.

Since moving to Sydney Jake has been thrown into the limelight with his lead role in the 2008 Sydney Festival. From photo shoots 'in' the Archibald Fountain at Hyde Park for the Daily Telegraph, news spots in Channel 9 news, to radio interviews. The highlight for Jake was stepping onto the main stage at Hyde Park at the Opening Night for the Sydney Festival to teach swing to over 8000 people.

 It has been 20 years since Jake first stepped onto a dance floor, and 14 years since Jake first started teaching.  His passion continues to be seeing the development of his students, watching them having fun and putting a smile on their faces. Other than dance, Jake was a youth leader, camp leader and kayak instructor in Australia and The United States of America since he finished High School in 1989. He worked as a Programme Director on youth camps for four years and graduated in 2002 with a Diploma in Ministry. Jake loves to draw from his experiences and training to continually make classes a unique experience for his students. If you haven't been to one of his classes yet... what are you waiting for!?!

Throughout this time Jake has also gained various other notches for his belt including:

- Teaching bridal couples since 1994
- Dance choreographer since 1994
- Teaching primary and high school groups since 1998
- Teaching aerials since 2000
- Feature dancer for 'Child Star, The Shirley Temple Story', Disney productions.
- Feature dancer for the music video clip, 'Hold On', by Melbourne hip hop legends, Diafrix.