Perry Louis

JazzCotech

Perry Louis is one of the UK’s top old-school jazz dancers and DJs. He is prob­ably best known as founder of the JazzCotech Dancers, but is also a talented choreo­grapher, teacher, and pro­moter.

Through a career span­ning more than forty years, Perry has amassed a lot of vinyl (not to mention vintage clothes and shoes). He can now boast a collec­tion of more than 20,000 records.

Musical roots

Perry Louis grew up in the 1960s list­en­ing to ska, rhythm & blues, soul, and jazz played by his father and uncle, who ran the Victory Sounds sound system. Later, Perry visited local clubs that played soul, jazz, jazz-funk, and rare groove.

By the late 1970s, Perry was fre­quen­ting the now le­gen­dary club nights Crackers, Spats and Royalty. It was at Jaffa’s, however, that his jazz dance edu­cation really began.

Shiftless Shuffle

Perry Louis has DJ’d all over the UK and beyond, including Ireland, Denmark and Japan. He is resident DJ and pro­moter of London’s im­mensely popular jazz dance session Shiftless Shuffle, which he launched in the early 2000s.

Perry was also a resident DJ for many years at the Messin’ Around club night—both at The Jazz Cafe and The 100 Club.