DANCE LESSONS

We offer swing dance classes every Thursday evening. There are three swing dance lessons going on starting at 7:30pm!

7:30pm - 9:00pm Beginning Swing Dance Lessons

8:00pm - 9:00pm Balboa Dance Lessons

8:00pm - 9:00pm Lindy Hop Dance Lessons

Description on Dances & Lessons

Beginning Swing - The dance evolved from the Lindy Hop with the work of the Arthur Murray dance studios in the 1940s. East Coast Swing can be referred to by many different names in different regions of the United States and the World. It has alternatively been called Eastern Swing, Jitterbug, American Swing, East Coast Lindy, Lindy (not to be confused with Lindy Hop), and Triple Swing. Other variants of East Coast Swing that use altered footwork forms are known as Single Swing or "Single-step Swing" (where the triple step is replaced by a single step forming a slow, slow, quick, quick rhythm common to Foxtrot), and Double Swing (using a tap-step footwork pattern).

Balboa - a dance that originated in Southern California during the 1920s and 1930s, and also referring to a specific dance from that era that was the original Balboa (sometimes also referred to as Pure-Bal). The original Balboa dance is a form of swing dance that started as early as 1915 and gained in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s. It is danced primarily in close embrace, and is led with a full body connection. The art of Balboa is in the subtle communication between the lead and follow, including weight shifts, which most viewers cannot see. As a result, Balboa is considered more of a "dancer's dance" than a "spectator's dance".

Lindy Hop - an American dance that evolved in Harlem, New York City in the 1920s and 1930s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based on jazz, tap, breakaway and Charleston. It is frequently described as a jazz dance and is a member of the swing dance family.

Collegiate Shag - or "Shag" is a partner dance done primarily to uptempo jazz (200+ beats per minute). It belongs to the swing family of American vernacular dances that arose in the 1920s and 30s. It originated in North Carolina, but quickly spread across the United States during the 1930s and as far as Australia by the 1940s. The dance is still performed today by swing dance enthusiasts worldwide.

Charleston - is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade. Runnin' Wild ran from 29 October 1923 through 28 June 1924. The peak year for the Charleston as a dance by the public was mid-1926 to 1927.

Big Apple - is both a partner dance and a circle dance that originated in the Afro-American community of the United States in the beginning of the 20th century. During the summer of 1937, the students from the University of South Carolina started dancing the Big Apple at the Pavilion in Myrtle Beach. Betty Wood (née Henderson), a dancer who helped revive the Big Apple in the 1990s, first saw the dance there, and six months later she won a dance contest and become nicknamed "Big Apple Betty." The news of the new dance craze spread to New York, and a New York talent agent, Gae Foster, traveled to the Carolinas to audition dancers for a show at the Roxy Theater, the world's second-largest theater at that time.