Along with being Artistic Director of the Mad Cat Swing performance team and the Sugar Swing Dance Club, Birkley’s past clients for choreography have included the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Victoria School for the Arts, and Dance Fusion (Sherwood Park). He is consistently required to come up with unique routines for a varying number of people, situations, and skill levels, in a typically short amount of time. His works have gained high praise; a notable achievement has been their presentation on stage of Edmonton’s illustrious Winspear Centre each year for the past four years.

As team director of Mad Cat Swing, Sugar Swing’s premier performance team, Birkley has broken down several routines from original footage by masters of Lindy Hop, and retaught them to his team. These include the Tranky Doo, Keep Punchin’ Big Apple Contest, Al Minns & Leon James Shim Sham, Dean Collins Shim Sham, the California routine, and the First Stops routine.

From time to time he’s called upon to create choreography for school-aged dance students and wedding couples — demonstrating an ability to choreograph for all skill levels.

Original Works

• Edmonton Winspear Centre
  • Charleston Christmas ¹²³  (2015)
  • Carioca ¹ (2014)
  • St James Infirmary & Christopher Columbus ¹ (2014)
  • In The Mood (2012)
• Sugar Swing Dance Club
  • Clambake Carnival ³
  • Mad Kittens Lindybout team choreo ² (2015)
  • Mad Cat Chorus (2012)
• Personal endeavors
  • Partnered Big Apple Contest ²  (2015)

Collaborators

1. Krystal Moss
2. Sydney Alessandrini
3. Turlough Myers

Re-creations

The following choreography and routines, created by original masters of Lindy Hop, have been fully broken down by Birkley and may be divulged

• Keep Punchin’ Big Apple Contest
• California routine
• First Stops routine
• Tranky Doo
• Al Minns & Leon James Shim Sham
• Dean Collins Shim Sham
• Frankie 100 “Lindy Chorus”