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Questions & Answers:
What happens Saturday Nights?
 | Saturday Night Swing features an
outstanding line up of live swing bands, DJs, teachers and classes!
The evening begins with dance classes open to everyone including
absolute beginners, 7pm to 9pm. A Swing Dance Party
follows (9:10pm to past 1am). Everyone is welcome. See
Swing
Schedule for details. |
What happens Friday Nights?
| One Friday Night a month is Friday Night Blues
at Dovercourt House. The evening has a similar format to Saturday
Night Swing - two beginners classes followed by a Dance Party. Come to the
beginner blues dance lessons and learn to Slow Dance with style and good
technique! See the Blues or Swing Schedule page for upcoming Blues
Fridays. |
| Some Friday Nights are Waltz Nights. Beginner
lessons starting at 7pm followed by a Dance Party 9pm to 11:45pm. Waltz is
we believe one of the best, most fun and most romantic partner dances
ever. There is one Waltz Dance Party each month, either on a Friday Night
or a Sunday afternoon. We also present Waltz courses on Monday nights and
Waltz workshops on Saturday afternoons. See the Waltz page for details and
upcoming events. |
| Starting in March 2011 one Friday Night a month will be
a Rock'n Roll Dance Party! Beginner Rock'n Roll classes 7pm to 9pm
followed by a Dance Party 9:10pm to 12:30am. Lindy Hop can be done to
Rock'n Roll music as can 1950s Bop and Rock'n Roll dancing which are
modified versions of Lindy Hop. See the
Swing
Schedule for upcoming Rock'n Roll Fridays. |
Do I need to bring a dance partner?
| No. In lessons dance partners rotate so you do not
need to bring your own. This helps you to learn better by exposing you
to many dance partners and gives you a chance to briefly meet other
people. At dances the custom is to change partners for each dance. |
What should I wear?
| Wear comfortable clothes that you can dance in.
Casual to dressy attire is all fine. If the dance is described as a Ball
most people will be dressed up. |
What kind of shoes should I wear?
| Anything comfortable, whether dressy or casual,
ideally with some glide under the sole under the balls of your feet.
Wear shoes that are smooth enough under the front part of your foot to
allow swiveling on a wooden floor - this can be a leather sole, or it
could be a smooth or somewhat slidey rubber or plastic sole, or can even
be duct tape or masking tape put on the soles of otherwise very grippy
shoes. Rubber heels are fine - the heel can be more grippy than the rest
of the sole. |
What is the floor like?
| The floors we dance on are excellent large sprung
wood dance floors. |
Do we need to reserve tickets in advance?
| For Saturday Night Swing simply show up at the door.
There is no need to reserve or pay in advance. |
| For workshop weekends when some of the greatest Lindy
Hop teachers in the world come to town, paying for the workshops in
advance is sensible to save your place and receive an advanced
registration discount. For the dances on such weekends, simply show up and
pay at the door as usual. |
Is it licensed?
| Oh yeah. |
| Please buy all drinks from the bar. Free water
is provided in jugs near the bar. |
What about eats?
| Normally we do not serve food at dances and classes,
but you are welcome to bring your own snacks and eats. Also there are
decent places to eat nearby - see
Dovercourt
H. |
What about parking?
How do I get there?
| See
Dovercourt
H. for directions - we are conveniently located about one block from
the nearest subway exit. |
Can we come just to hear the band?
| Yes, of course. You don't need to dance unless you want
to. You can hang out with a friend, have drinks, whatever you like. |
Is there a code of behaviour or etiquette?
What is Lindy Hop?
| Lindy Hop is the most popular swing dance of all
time, and the most popular dance at Saturday Night Swing. See the
bottom of the Home Page and also the Dance Links page for links to
videos of Lindy Hop. A video is worth many words. |
| Lindy Hop is a joyful, playful, and improvisational
partner dance. The musical universe that goes with Lindy Hop is
wonderful. Lindy Hop is steeped in history and has a large, enthusiastic
and mostly younger following around the world today. |
| According to Leon James
(one of the original Whitey's Lindy Hoppers superstars): "Want to dance
Lindy Hop correctly? Then don't be real concerned about 'correctness'!"
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| Lindy Hop is done in
different styles/ways, and in old film footage you can see that no two
of the original great Lindy Hoppers do it in exactly the same style/way,
but as Malcolm X (the great black American civil rights leader, and a
Lindy Hop keener as a teenager in Boston and Harlem) said: "Any two
people who can Lindy Hop at all can Lindy Hop together."
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| Lindy Hop was first called Lindy Hop in 1928/1927 by Shorty George
Snowden (sometimes called the father of Lindy Hop) in New
York City, probably in honour of the first transatlantic airplane flight by
Charles Lindberg (Charles Lindberg was nick-named Lindy in front page
newspaper headlines like "Lindy Hops Atlantic"). Lindy Hop became
a huge craze in the Swing Era and continued to be very popular
into the 1950s. Other names for Lindy Hop include Jitterbug. It
went out of fashion in the dark ages of social partner dancing in the
1960s, and then began a revival in the 1980s which has spread all around
the world making Lindy Hop the most popular and widespread swing dance
in the world today. |
| Lindy Hop origins: The first Swing Dance is
Texas Tommy Swing (also called Texas Tommy) created from Polka by
Afro-Americans in California by 1910, and spreading to New York City in
1911. Charleston may have developed out of Texas Tommy steps (the
name Charleston comes from a dance show called Charleston which was
performed in New York City, not from the City called Charleston),
although some believe Charleston's origins are in the 19th century. Once
swing dancing reached Harlem, New York circa 1911 it developed further.
In the 1920s before the name Lindy Hop was used, the swing dancing done
at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom was called Two Step and Break Aways. Lindy
Hop was first called Lindy Hop in 1928/1927 by Shorty George Snowden
(sometimes called the father of Lindy Hop). Lindy Hop has always
included Charleston steps, (but unlike some say, it is not a development
from Charleston, but rather comes out of a direct line of development
from Texas Tommy Swing). The styles of Lindy
Hop generally done around the world today are close to Lindy Hop as done
in the later 1930s and into the 1940s. (1928 Lindy Hop is similar
in structure to subsequent Lindy Hop, but significant modifications were
made in the 1930s.) One of the great Lindy Hoppers of the 1930s is the
much loved Frankie Manning who is regarded by many as the greatest Lindy
Hopper of all time, and who also taught Lindy Hop around the world from
about 1985 until his death in April, 2008. |
What is Peabody?
| Peabody is a fun hugely popular Swing Era and 1920s
partner dance suited for tempos from medium speed to blazing fast. It
travels and can be mixed with Lindy Hop and Charleston. |
Can we do aerials?
| Fun and athletic and one of the great things in Lindy
Hop, air steps (or aerials) are advanced and considered too dangerous to be danced
on a social dance floor. They are done in performance and in
jams by people who know what they are doing (or ought to). In an air step one of the
partners, usually the follower, is in the air and is usually in motion
from the time she is airborne until she lands. Aerials or air steps
were introduced into Lindy Hop circa 1935 by Lindy Hop great Frankie
Manning and his dance partner. They started the Lindy Hop air steps
craze with the air step "over the back" which they did in a big Lindy Hop
competition at Harlem's world renowned Savoy Ballroom. If you want
to do air steps you need to be athletic - find someone who wants
to do them with you and take lessons from Lindy Hop teachers who have a
lot of expertise in the air steps they teach. |
What is the age range of those who come?
| Most of those who come are in their 20s and 30s, some
in their 40s, some older, some under 20. |
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| Above: Frankie
Manning & Lucille Middleton while on a Lindy Hop tour in 1938 |
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Above: Midori Asakura & Chad Fasca of New York City performing
Lindy Hop with other NYC
dancers
to a live big band aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid for a recent History Channel
special commemorating VJ Day (a still from the video). circa 2006. |
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Above: Nathalie Gomes & Yuval Hod the repeat World Swing
Dance Champions doing "The Lock" circa 2006 |
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