S! Foundation Tuesdays
Beg-Int Swing Dance Classes

S! Foundation Tuesdays
Swing Dance Class Sessions at the Beginning through Intermediate Level

Location:

Clifton Cultural Arts Center, https://cliftonculturalarts.org/

3412 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45220

Current Session: No Current Session Now. Next Session begins in September 2024

Next Session: Fall 2024 (Registration is Open)

• Sep 3, 10, 17, 24, Oct 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, Nov 5, 12, 19, 26, Dec 3, 10, 17

• Dates in Red may be moved to a different location

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Swing Dance Foundations is designed to get students swing dancing quickly, but also to be flexible & accommodating of students’ availability. Each individual evening (class) will stand independently on its own, so if you missed the previous week, that’s ok. Of course the more classes you can attend, the more material you will learn and the more practice you will get.

Each Tuesday class will be 1.5 hours long. Students can take as much or little of the 1.5 hours as they like, but we recommend doing the entire hour and a half. Each week the approach and material will vary so regular students are getting new material all the time, but the first half hour will always focus on fundamentals of technique, the second half hour will always feature beginning level repertoire, and the last half hour will introduce slightly higher level (beg-int) concepts and material to challenge, expand, and inspire. We will always center these classes around Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues, Balboa & Vernacular Jazz - the core idioms of our Swing Dance program.

“Swing Dance” is a family of American social dances that includes many idioms. They vary aesthetically and stylistically by geography, cultural trends, and/or time periods. Created by African Americans, these dances became enormously popular and today are enjoyed by people all over the world. Although there are different idioms and styles, all swing dances also share many similarities and are frequently mixed together or influential upon each other. In these classes, we will focus on the swing dance idioms of the “Swing Era” of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s and most closely associated with Big Band Jazz and Jump Blues music: Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues, Balboa, & Vernacular Jazz Occasionally, other dances may work their way into classes as swing dance is a living, creative art form. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Our Foundational Idioms

Blues Dance
Blues music is diverse. So is Blues Dance. As we explore how to dance to blues music, we will focus on the “conversation” you have with your partner while dancing and how to establish and maintain great communication with each other.

Jitterbug
The term “Jitterbug” means many different things to many different people of many different backgrounds, but it generally includes the most universal 6-count rhythms and movements across all idioms of Swing Dance. Jitterbug will get you on the dance floor quickly and present fundamental concepts that will guide the development of your technique and style in the future.

Partnered Charleston
Charleston and Lindy Hop are inexplicably linked together technically and historically. Partnered Charleston includes some of the more complex movement ideas in Lindy Hop. They feature lots of kicking and are very fun, but also demand higher level partnering and movement technique.

Lindy Hop
Emerging in the 1920s as a combination of the rhythm, styling and technique of African Dance (a la The Charleston) with the lead/follow partnering aspects of European dances (like the Waltz), Lindy Hop takes its name from a coincidental historical event of the same time period: the first ever trans-Atlantic flight piloted by Charles Lindberg in 1927. Created by African-Americans and traditionally danced to Big Band Jazz Music, Lindy Hop is the “founding father” of all future Swing Dance idioms.

Balboa
Born in Southern California during the Swing Era, Balboa is a close position partner dance that mixes well with Lindy Hop and Charleston. The story goes that the dance halls were so packed that there were sometimes rules about what was allowed on the dance floor and dancers had to confine their movements to smaller spaces, giving rise to the style and technique of Balboa.

Vernacular Jazz
Charleston, Shim Sham, and Big Apple are some of the African-American dances that became world-wide crazes and are featured in our Vernacular Jazz repertoire. These dances and many others are made up of “vernacular” movements such as Suzy Q, Shorty George, Tacky Annie, Spank the Baby, and Camel Walks. Learning these historical patterns allows you to “speak the language” of Swing Dance.