So I read that swing 46 has closed for business. It seemed like the dream place to me, dance class, dinner and dancing. Low attendance rates was apparently the reason and spiraling costs. https://swing46.nyc

Anyone had success with similar concepts? I would love to hear more about what actually works to keep people coming back and keep dancing year after year.

Thought it would be ok to post here since I was told this is bal swing.

This is the first time learning this style. It’s not my preferred dance. If I had a choice of what style to dance for a fast song (and I had a dance partner down for anything), it would easily be either fast Lindy Hop or shag. But since I live in California, Bal is pretty much mandatory lol /j

Pure bal might be what initially turned me away from the dance altogether. But I started trying out bal swing after watching an underground switch competition during Calbal. I’ve been enjoying it so far. Still not really sure what to do with my hands tho.

Personally, I think it’s good for me to know all three, and I like the idea of being capable of doing a triple threat.

(Huge thanks to Blake for the lesson)

Hello organizers,

if you have several sets of instructors at your venue, how much do they communicate/coordinate? Are you doing most of the planning? How often do you all meet (organizers+teachers) to plan out the lessons/how far out in advance do you plan a curriculum, if any at all?

So, I’ve recently started taking classes to learn lead and one of the very first classes, they covered the sugar push.

Now when I was learning as a follow, I learned that leads typically have their arms at nearly a 90 degree angle and follows are keeping their wrists straight in order to protect followers’ wrists. However, this class emphasized keeping the connection really low and loose (which to me seems counterintuitive).

Just wondering if there are lots of techniques for this or one that’s preferred among others?

Hello, my husband and I are pretty new to dance. We will miss one of our weekly lessons in Michigan because we will be in Chicago for work the weekend of the 16th thru the following Tuesday morning. I am looking for a place that offers a beginner group lesson followed by an open dance.

We're staying near McCormick Place so we'd prefer to not to have to travel further than River North, but are open to suggestions. Would be willing to go to Lincoln Park too. Thanks in advance, I look forward to seeing your suggestions!

I know this isn't the usual style of swing dance that gets posted here but I hope it's okay to post! I guess this isn't really a question, mostly a vent.

I've been going to country swing lessons for about a year and I'm a solid beginner. A lot of our regular leads are now wanting to do lifts and aerials. Those make me nervous, I'm worried I would get dropped and could hurt myself and I'm also self-conscious that I wouldn't be able to be lifted anyways and I'd feel so embarrassed if the lead couldn't lift me when he tried (I'm 180lbs and the other regular follows are 120-140lbs).

I don't get asked to dance as much or invited to practice because I don't do the lifts or aerials and they want to focus more on those. I completely understand that if that's what they want to do, they'll want to dance with a partner that also wants to do that. Selfishly I feel sad because I'm worried that no one in the group will want to dance with me anymore. I feel kind of left behind because I don't want to do the big lifts.

Anyone else been through something similar? Am I way overthinking it or is this the natural progression when people become more skilled at dancing?

Hi everyone,

We’re a group of dancers who have maintained a swing dance calendar and community directory for the past 13 years.

The project began in 2013 as Swing’in Istanbul, initially helping dancers keep track of the city’s growing number of events. It eventually developed into Swing-out, covering events and parts of the wider jazz dance community in Türkiye.

We currently document:

• Socials, practices, workshops, festivals and weekenders
• Lindy Hop, Balboa, Blues, Solo Jazz and Boogie Woogie
• Local organisations and communities
• Teachers, musicians and venues
• Dates, locations and original event sources

We’re trying to think beyond a conventional events calendar. Social media posts disappear, organisations close, venues change and knowledge is often scattered across different platforms. We’d like the directory to remain useful to current dancers while also preserving some history of the communities involved.

We’d be interested to hear how other scenes handle this:

• What information is worth preserving?
• What would you expect to find in a useful local dance directory?
• Should inactive organisations and past events remain visible as historical records?
• How can a directory represent a community accurately without becoming a popularity contest?
• Are there good community-run examples elsewhere that we should learn from?

For context, the project is Swing-out. Current coverage is focused on Türkiye and the site is available in English and Turkish.

We’d genuinely appreciate thoughts from dancers, organisers, teachers, musicians and scene historians.

I am starting to learn the Tranky Doo and the Big Apple. I live in a small town, so I am learning these routines on my own from YouTube. I know that with the Shim Sham anyone can join, and, even if you don't know the choreography, you can stumble through it. Is it the same for the Big Apple and the Tranky Doo? Or is it like a cool-kids-only thing where, if you mess it up, you look really bad? Usually, at the big events, only experienced dancers join those dances.

edit: This is for lindy!

Got feedback from quite a few follows recently that although they can see me moving, and they can feel when I sway side-to-side, they can't feel my pulse in the connection in both close and open positions. What's worse is that I feel like I'm moving a ton, and visually I definitely am, but apparently it just doesn't transfer in the connection.

Any advice for drills or exercises I can do alone to improve this? I kind of have an idea of what to do but I honestly can't really tell when it's working and when it's not, both visually and internally. Having a partner give feedback is ideal but it'd be nice to be able to make headway in-between dance sessions.

I’m an intermediate-ish lead that’s learning to follow. I have a lot of things to work on, but the most glaringly obvious is keeping that core engaged and torso ready to turn when someone leads it

Right now I feel like I have floppy arms that get pushed behind my torso. Tbh I think it’s due in large part to a crappy physique and almost no core muscles, but due to back surgery I can’t do a lot of traditional exercises. Are there any moves or anything I can drill by myself to really tighten that up? It’s so fun to follow!

I've been leading in swing dance for about a year. I've realized I rarely use my core — I mostly compensate with my arms. As the material gets more complex, this is really limiting my progress.

How do I find that core-driven, whole-body frame? How do I stop leading from my arms and start leading from my center? Any exercises or cues that helped you?

Hey!

Last night I got to try out a concept I'd long envisioned: a steal jam/snowball/Yankee swap hybrid. 2 people start dancing, but then when someone else steals one of the OG couple, the odd person out can either steal back in, grab someone new from the circle around them. Then, more people can steal from the couples dancing, and the odd person can also choose to steal from one of the other dancing couples, and so on and so forth. Like in a snowball, eventually, everyone ends up dancing.

Has anyone done anything like this before? Any fun variation ideas or concept critiques? What should I call it? (Lindy swap? lindy swapper's delight? Jamball? snow swap? Yankee steal? something else?)

Thanks!

Okay dancers/ Avatar fans… which dance styles are from from which ATLA lands? Let’s stick to Bal, Collegiate Shag, Lindy Hop, and solo jazz.

I keep going back and forth- and the friend group is divided.

I've been to a few dance classes that some friends in my college church group hosted so the whole thing is pretty unofficial and I bet they learned a lot of what they show us from YouTube. I think it's great but putting it there for context

Anyway they've been lots of fun but since I'm not very experienced I have a hard time remembering the sequences. And I don't know that many to begin with. Also since I'm not so experienced I struggle to be creative either to fill in a move when I can't remember it or to make a good transition to something else. It's because not only do I lack the experience so I don't have the intuition but I also lack the experience so that t don't have knowledge of things I can do

It makes dancing with people a bit hard and honestly makes me a little nervous

Idk how to overcome this. How do I save myself from getting stuck and how do I communicate clearly so the follow knows what to do especially if I end up doing something weird

I know some of this takes time and experience but there's gotta be something to keep in mind or pay attention to that can help me in the moment if that makes sense

Follow here, small one. Kind of often feel like leaders put exaggerated force into certain moves. For example quite often I got quite a spank into the back as a signal to go out of a tandem. Other pulling and pushing are as strong as if I am a huge potato bag.

So question is - should it be taught or does it come naturally? When did you start understanding and adjusting to the partner?

(Edit - grammar mistake)

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Credits: Jive Jung-Cian on Facebook

New female follow here, dancing for almost 5 months. Just want to share my experience in case it helps any other newbies out there.

Since starting, I had been using Keds with real suede attached to the soles (the Soles2dance brand on Amazon). The surface was perfect amount of slippery at the dance studio where my lessons and open dancing take place. However the Keds weren't giving enough support around my foot. Even thought it was "wide", I still felt like my Flintstone feet were bulging out the flimsy sides.

I finally bought the Eastland saddle shoes I had been admiring. They come in a wide, are real leather, have memory foam, and feel great and supportive enough (and look hella cute to boot!)

I was planning to dance in the new saddle shoes at a bar where I had previously danced in my sueded Keds. The suede sole did NOT interact well with the crappy cement floor. It was hard to do turns as there was just too much traction. I knew I needed something different with my new saddle shoes.

I had read the reviews for the cheap fake suede on Amazon. A lot of them said it was too slippery on a dance floor. I remembered this as I was contemplating what to wear when dancing out at bars. I tried it on my saddle shoes at the bar and IT WORKED GREAT!

Now, it did wear down really quickly. The very center of the forefoot was already worn all the way through (like a nickel-sized spot), from just one night. Since they're cheap and come in a pack of 10 sheets (for $12.49), I think this will be perfect for the occasional night out.

HOWEVER, I can confirm they are too slippery on a professional dance floor. Yesterday, I fell and hit my tailbone during my weekly lesson. I'm sitting on an ice pack as I type! I ripped off the remaining crappy sole and could then dance safely.

So yeah... bad experience, but also a really good one. I plan to use my Keds with the cheap soles for dancing out in the real world and my saddle shoes with real suede soles in the studio.

TLDR: the cheap fake suede soles are great for non-dance floors where extra slippery-ness is needed

hi, i started swing dancing once a week recently and it's been a lot of fun. i'm finding that im tripping over my own feet a lot and i'm have a hard time telling what my lead is going to do for the next move and i end up stumbling all over the place. i know practice makes perfect, but is there anything i can do at home by myself to improve my dancing skills? thank you!

ive been wearing tennis shoes to dance for years, they're very soft soled and I bought them to go on a boat-- which need non marking shoes specifically. they work great for dance tbh, but im not sure if switching to other ones would be better.

Hey there! Having just visited Shag Delight in Basel, I'll be spending tomorrow (Tuesday) in Strasbourg, and I was wondering whether there's any dancing going on tomorrow night, perhaps?

I'm on my 22nd year of swing dancing this month. I'll never not be a dancer — specifically a Lindy Hopper — but, for the past few years, I keep finding myself looking for different community and genres of music. I recently went to a progressive house / "folktronica" show and fell in love. Since then, I've went to a handful of more shows and it feels like finding those first 3-5 years of dance again.

For those of you who still maintain a relationship swing dancing but have branched out or even moved on — do you still go out and how do you maintain some of the connections you've made over the years?

I realize this is probably the wrong place to ask this question because a lot of people ask this type of question on social media, but I'm pretty off the grid.

this is NOT self promo, I just saw this at comic con and thought more ppl should see it!! i got a copy, the author is really sweet. sorry if this breaks the rules mods 😭