American Jive, sometimes described as Rock ‘n’ Roll, was super-cool in the age of Elvis, it had a huge revival later in the 20th century and just keeps going strong because it’s such fun. We start you with 6-beat single-time basics before adding heaps of fun variations to keep your dancing fresh. Our Jive classes are also a great route into the other dance styles that we teach. To supplement the practice time during the classes we organise frequent, top-class social events to exercise your new dance skills including live performances by touring bands supported by expert DJs.
We have regular start dates and introductory offers for new beginners.
Lindy Hop, the Rolls Royce of swing dancing, grew out of the cultural mix of Harlem’s ballrooms and then decided to stick around and eventually become globally popular which is great for each generation of new converts. Evolving from it’s late 1920’s birth to populate the planet, it embraces Charleston and Black Bottom as well as influences from Ballroom, Tap and popular ‘animal dances’. This make The Lindy Hop a fun, freestyle, flexible way to let yourself go to swinging music from the last 100 years and can be danced to all types and tempos of swinging music.
This video shows a world-class demonstration to an up-tempo number and uses mostly double-time steps. We chose it as it exhibits much of the true spirit of the dance and avoids 'exhibition' moves such as throws which some people associate Lindy Hop. Enjoy the video and don't think that we expect you to be this good. We will teach you social dance skills in these classes and each dancer will progress at their own pace without pressure because the key to this dance is FUN!
We have regular start dates and introductory offer for new beginners.
The '20s are about to come roaring back so get ready to party!
Charleston has more variation than you might expect and if you sprinkle in some Jazz dance steps then there is plenty to play with. Charleston can be danced in more than one style and can be solo or partnered. Our classes will teach you steps and also raise your general dance skills, with the long-term health benefits that brings, and will also improve any Jive and Swing dancing that you do.
We have chosen an inspiring dance competition video to show you how different dancers have different looks. Please do not think that you have to achieve these high-tempo skill levels in any of our sessions.
Stroll is a kind of 1950s-style line-dancing. A Stroll is a group dance rather than a partnered dance. There are popular, simple routines, there are variations on these dances and there are more advanced choreographies. Many are commonly danced to medium-slow tempos and others are more lively and so we shall mix tempos during the classes. At social events Strolls are used as a break from partner dancing and offer the opportunity to join a group on the dance-floor - even if some in the group are dancing a variation (as in the video). Learning strolls improves your general dancing by learning new steps and skills and offers a fun work-out for mind and body.
Here is a video of one of the easiest strolls that you can learn.
Contact us if your are interested in future courses for Stroll.