We are delighted to have you with us!
If the first class is still ahead of you or if you have just started you might have some questions. Questions about how it all works, what the Social Hour is, what happens once you have finished the Beginner Classes etc. But there are also questions you might not ask, because you are not yet aware of some of the supplementary programmes we have for Beginners or that you are not just simply welcome, but explicitly invited to our Socials.
In this post we want to answer most of those questions and also a few that usually arise during the first few months.
But before we tackle those questions in detail, we first want to warmly recommend another post. Was ist Lindy Hop? – What is Lindy Hop? explains concisely what the dance you have decided to learn actually is.
In order to keep this post manageable we have sorted the different topics into separate sections:
Beginner Class – Structure and Contents
The Beginner Block consist of three courses –
6-Count
8-Count
Lindy Charleston
– that each take a month.
Even though Lindy Hop has, strictly speaking, no basic step – that one pattern everything builds upon – but a multitude of different patterns and steps that have evolved over time, we use three of the most typical basic patterns as foundations for our Beginner Block.
Despite all their differences they are not different dances that are danced to different songs, but elements of one extremely versatile dance. Don’t worry, you don’t have to figure out how all of it fits together on your own – that’s what the Improver Level is for.
Since each month is self-contained, and the different courses within the Beginner Block don’t build upon each other, you can start every month, and it doesn’t matter which of the three courses you take first.
If you aren’t quite sure yet if you want to book the whole Beginner Block you can just start with your first month. Should you find during your first course that you would like to continue with the other two, you can always upgrade your registration. Just choose the 3 month option on the registration form and let us know in the notes that you have already participated in the first month and just want to upgrade your registration.
Even though you can upgrade to the 3 month package after your first moth, we have to take the availability of open spots into account when registering participants. Thus we would advise you to register as soon as you know that you’d like to continue, to make sure that there are still spots available.
And even if you can’t commit to three months in a row and want to book the courses separately, we’d advise (and ask) you not to wait until the very last moment with your registration.
The sooner you sign up the higher the chances that we’ll have a spot for you.
Each course consists of four classes, each lasting 50 minutes, that build upon each other. Should you miss a class, don’t worry. We always start with a short recap of last week’s class before we continue on with the new content. Should you feel that the recap at the top of the class wasn’t quite enough for you to catch up, just talk to one of our teachers during the Social Hour that’s happening immediately after the Beginner Class. We’re happy to help you.
Another chance to catch up on the things you’ve missed or might want to practice a bit more, is the twice-monthly Open Friday.
speaking of Social Hour and Open Friday … how fast you will progress has less to do with time and more with distance. The time that has elapsed since you started your first class is no reliable indicator for the speed of your progress as a dancer.
Whether you improve fast or slow has much more to do with your milage on the dance floor since then.
We’d recommend you stay after class for at least a couple of songs or, better yet, spend the Social Hour with us.
The Open Friday is not just a chance to catch up on things you missed in class, you also can use it to ask the teachers questions and have them give you feedback. But, of course, we are always happy if you just want to dance with us.
“You are a beginner for as long as it makes sense for you to take the beginner classes.” That statement, concise as it may be, falls a bit short. To focus on the absolute basics – to content of the beginner block – will always make sense, not matter how advanced a dancer you are. There will always be a part of the most fundamental elements of our dancing that we can improve upon.
The better answer to the question “Who is a beginner?” would be: “Everyone who benefits more from participation in the beginner than the Improver class.”
We can’t say in advance how long that will apply to you. We all progress differently. Some of us progress very fast at the beginning before spending a long time on a level where they feel they are making no progress at all (that they actually did make progress is something they will only notice later), others need a little more time in the beginning until they no longer have to focus on every step, only to discover later that they have a much easier time not only with the things they already know but also with new things they learn.
The line between Beginner and Improver can be a bit blurry at times. Should you find that you still struggle with the basic steps after having participated in all three Beginner Courses, then the time to switch to the Improver has not yet come.
Lindy hOp is A Marathon, not a Sprint
Once everything you learned in the Beginner classes works, more or less, smoothly even on the social dance floor, it’s time to move on to the Improver level.
Should that not be the case after your first round of Beginner courses, it doesn’t hurt to repeat one or even all of them. When you participate for the first time everything is new and sometimes you are so focused on one thing that you miss another. If you repeat the classes you are able to concentrate on all those things that didn’t get enough attention the first time.
You say A, but B also works
The thing that makes Lindy Hop Lindy Hop is not – first and foremost – the steps or the geography of certain moves, it’s the way we make those steps and how we communicate non-verbally via our connection to our partners when we lead or follow.
The same steps with the same geography can be part of very different dances – just as the same basic plot could belong to comedy or a thriller.
Posture, Bounce, Connection, Frame etc. are terms you are going to hear a lot in class. All those elements are crucial to make our movements on the dance floor into movements that are specific to Lindy Hop.
Lindy Hop is not the only dance that uses Triple or Kick Steps. But in Lindy Hop they are used in a very specific way. It’s also not the only dance that changes between Closed and Open Position, but the way we communicate that change makes what we do Lindy Hop.
That’s why it’s very important to us to teach not just the What but also the How of all the elements of Lindy Hop.
You’ll soon notice that the way we teach things is not the only way to lead or follow different moves. Particularly if you are already experienced with other dances you are going to be quite familiar with the geography of certain moves. But that doesn’t mean that those moves can be done in the familiar way and still be considered Lindy Hop. The goal is not, after all, just to move from A to B but to move across the dance floor and communicate with our partners in a certain way.
If you actually want to learn how to dance Lindy Hop and not just to be able to integrate certain Lindy Hop moves in your Cha-Cha-Cha, Boogie, Salsa, or Rock’n’Roll dancing, the How is at least as important as the What.
On the Beginner level we are building the foundation for everything that will come later. And just like when building a house, the foundation needs to be more stable the more storeys you plan to add on top of it. If the foundation is wonky, you might get away with adding one storey, but if you keep adding, your foundation won’t be able to support the load and its structural flaws will become apparent.
And in the same way that it is much easier to make sure your house’s foundation is solid when you start building than it is to repair it once you already have built three or four storeys, it is easier to make sure your foundational dancing skills are solid before moving on than to correct foundational mistakes once you have been dancing a certain way for a long time.
So when we ask our participants in class to do things a certain way we are not doing it out of a sense of tradition or because we think it’s the only way to do it, but with all the things in mind, that will come later. When you attend the Beginner classes you are laying the foundation of your Lindy Hop dancing and we want to make sure that your foundation is solid enough to keep building upon it for years to come.
You can use the Social Hour not just for social dancing but also to ask questions, to repeat things you did in class or – as an interested non swing-dancer to drop by and form an impression of the dances and the community.
The Open Friday is a mix of social, training and a chance for a “10 minute private lesson” with the teachers present. It is a closed event – for Vintage Swing Dancers only.
Pure Socials are different. At Socials we come together to dance. No structured repetition of what we did in class, no training, or practicing – just social dancing, regardless of your experience, you might have been dancing for years or just had your first lesson.
A lot of Beginners feel that they lack the experience to have fun on the social dance floor. Should you be one of them, let us tell you: it doesn’t matter how much – or little – experience you have to have fun on the social dance floor.
And in case you should be unsure if or how to ask people to dance – you can always ask your teachers, we’d love to dance with you.
In order for everyone to have a good time on the social dance floor we adhere to a code of conduct – that you can read up on here.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the next Social.
Social Hour & Open Friday
As mentioned above the Social Hour and the Open Friday are excellent opportunities to “make a few more kilometres” in addition to the weekly classes. How you use those events is up to you.
Social Hour
If something didn’t quite work out in class, you have the opportunity to grab one of the teachers (often the ones you just had in class) to help you. Which is particularly useful if you need clarification on something.
But apart from this the Social Hour is one thing above all else: social. It is a public event which means that people who are not yet Vintage Swing Dancers themselves can drop in and get an idea of how to dance to Vintage Swing Music. It is also a chance for dancers who, for what ever reason, aren’t taking classes at the moment but still want to dance once a week.
Our tip: Use the first few songs of the Social Hour – they are normally at the same speed and dynamic as the songs during the Beginner class – to practice a little with someone from class.
After that: ask someone to dance with you who isn’t in the same class as you and just have fun dancing.
Open Friday
While the Social Hour is for everyone, regardless if they are already Vintage Swing Dancers or just curious, the Open Friday is a closed event. It is meant for people who are taking classes and the wider Vintage Swing Community.
Should you have missed a class, it is the ideal opportunity to catch up.
But even if you have been to every class and haven’t missed a thing, it is a great opportunity to repeat, practice and, of course, to socialise on and off the dance floor.
Our tip: Regardless of how well you are keeping up with what happens in class, there is always room for improvement. The Open Friday also provides an opportunity to repeat the class topics with a teacher and get feedback on what works already really well and what needs a little more work.
If something doesn’t work perfectly – and, let’s be honest, when is anything ever perfect – the teachers can give you personalised tips on how to work on the issue and can point you to areas you might want to pay particular attention to in order to improve.
Why is the teacher feedback so important? As Bobby White mentions in his book Practice Swing „Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent“ – and he is, of course, correct in that assessment. It is not only important that we practice, but also what and how. And in order to avoid doing a thing wrong and making it permanent by repeating it over and over again, feedback from the teachers can be very helpful.
Workshops, Specials & The Variety Hour
In addition to our weekly classes and socials we occasionally also offer Workshops and Specials as well as the Variety Hour as a supplement to our regular programme. Even though most workshops are meant for more advanced dancers, every now and again we offer workshops that focus on honing our basic skills and technical details. The purpose of these workshops (and the occasional Variety Hour) is not to learn new things but to strengthen the foundations in order to be better at the things we are already know as well as making it easier to learn new things.
Our tip: It’s always worth your time, even as a Beginner, to have a look at the workshops and specials on offer. If a workshop, special oder Variety Hour is suitable for Beginners is noted in the description.
General Tips
We already mentioned two things you can do to transfer the things you learn in class faster to your muscle memory: The Social Hour and the Open Friday, to increase your milage on the dance floor and get personal feedback from our teachers.
In addition to that there are a few other things that can help you, to make more of your weekly classes and progress faster.
Several short units of practice get you farther than fewer long ones – ideally you combine both.
Our tip: take single elements from class, e.g. the basic pattern or a specific move and think it through. Keep in mind what the teachers told you about it in class. If you are able to visualise movements in your mind, it will become much easier to actually do them. After that practice them – alone or with a partner – at home. A few minutes twice or three times a week are enough to make noticeable progress.
The foundation of all moves you’ll learn in class are steps – Triple Steps, Kick Steps or single (Rock) Steps.
Our tip: At home, if you are going from one room to another, don’t just walk there, triple step, kick step or step, step there. Use the floor to your advantage to push yourself forwards and backwards and activate your ankles for a regular rhythmical bounce.
Especially, but not only, when doing the Lindy Charleston or spinning we need to rely on our balance. There are many things you can do to improve your balance (like Yoga), but if you don’t have the time for more extensive exercises, there is a very simple thing you can do to help strengthen you balance – and it won’t take any additional time out of your day.
Our tip: When you put on your shoes, or take them off, don’t bend down. Instead bring your shoes up to your hands by lifting your leg and moving your foot. This allows you very quickly to find out how far you have to bend your hip and the knee of the leg your are standing on to reach a stable stance.
And last, but certainly not least: Music, Music, Music
“Without music, life would be a mistake” Nietzsche once remarked, and dancing pointless, we would add.
Music doesn’t just help us keeping the rhythm, it also adds verve to our dancing. Music is so much more than just a nicely sounding metronome. Swing – music and dance – have influenced and evolved along side each other.
Our tip: Even if your body is standing (or sitting) still, your brain keeps on dancing. This is why we recommend to listen to Swing Music whenever possible. It doesn’t just help you on the dance floor, it also brightens up your day.
Our recommendation/plea: You can find Swing Music through many different channels. But most give (virtually) no money to the artists. That isn’t an issue for all the artists that have already passed away. But there are also a multitude of contemporary musicians who produce Swing Music today and we think that they should get payed for the wonderful work they are doing. This is why we would ask you to buy music, whenever possible.
You don’t know where to find danceable Swing Music made by contemporary artists? Bandcamp offers Swing Music by a great variety of contemporary artists and quite a few also offer their music on their own websites (both physically and as downloads).
If you are looking for recommendations, you can follow us on Bandcamp and have a look at our collection.
The Community
All That Swing is organised as a non-profit association. You can read here what that means in detail.
For the community in Salzburg it means, in a nutshell, that we try to offer opportunities to learn and dance Vintage Swing Dances through regular classes, workshops and socials.
In order to be part of the community you don’t have to be a member of All That Swing, as we are ourselves just a part of the community, not the community itself.
The community is a multitude of different individuals who dance, connect, practice, go to festivals etc. with each other.
In order to stay in the loop and know where the community is meeting, who is still looking for a partner to register for classes, workshops or festivals, who is offering a seat in their car on the way to a particular event etc. or to stay informed about external events that might offer a chance to dance, a few different channels of communication have been established over the years.
Our tip: To connect with the community and stay informed about events other than the ones All That Swing organises, join the Facebook group Swing in Salzburg and/or the WhatsApp group.
We’d be, of course, delighted if you’d sign up for our Newsletter , which informs you once a month about all the classes, workshops, socials etc. that are coming in the near future.
You can also follow All That Swing on Facebook and Instagram .
Should there be questions this post hasn’t answered, feel free to ask us directly. We’ll happily answer general questions in person, but questions regarding dates, payments, registrations etc. are best be asked via email.
We are looking forward to seeing you on the dance floor!
Socials