Swing dancing for beginners

This is where your dance adventure begins!

What is Swing Dancing?

“Swing Dance” is a group of African-American dances set to swing music and other old school Jazz styles from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. The Swing family includes many different dances from the above period, like Solo Jazz, Collegiate Shag, Balboa, Tap and the most popular of them all: The Lindy Hop – also originally known as the Jitterbug in Europe.

These are all dances created by African-Americans, where rhythm and improvisation is at the core, and where being social through dancing together is central to all of them.

In Happy Feet Studio you can learn all of the above dances and we have courses for complete beginners starting every second month.

You can learn more about each dance below.

What is Solo dancing?

If you would like to dance without a partner then come join one of our solo courses. You can choose between two great dances: Solo Jazz and Tap Dancing.

In Tap dancing we make the music with our own feet while we in Solo Jazz practice old school steps from Charleston and Authentic Jazz to the tunes of swingin’ music.

Complete beginners to dancing will probably find Solo Jazz to be the easier starting point between the two of them, and you can get started on this great dance in our course called Solo Jazz 1.

What is Partner dancing?

If you are looking to learn a partner dance, then you can choose between Lindy Hop, Collegiate Shag and Balboa. These are all social partner dances where you learn to lead and follow to prepare you for the dance floor at social events.

The most popular of the swingin’ partner dances is called Lindy Hop and our beginner’s course called Swing 1 is a great way to begin your Lindy Hop adventure. 

In Lindy Hop, we typically choose a role of “follower” or “leader.” You can choose one to start, or you can learn both from the beginning. Leaders in the dance initiate movements, directions and rhythms with their partner, the follower. Followers respond to and interpret the leader’s suggestions, while also listening to the music and expressing it with their own movements. 

Whichever role you dance, you will both be initiating and listening, responding to the music and your partner. Like in a good conversation, it’s a collaboration. Leaders and followers are equal partners, contributing their own voices, while staying in control of their own movements.

Please note: Some of our Swing 1 courses are ELEF (Everybody Leads Everybody Follows). When signing up to an ELEF course, you don’t need to choose whether you are joining as a leader or follower, since you will be dancing both roles in class. 

It is both possible to sign up with and without a partner to these dances. If you sign up without a partner, you will be dancing with someone who chose the other role and who signed up alone as well. Note that you won´t be dancing with only one person, as there will be partner rotation.

All our classes feature partner rotation, where the teacher invites the participants to rotate partner. It’s of course ok to not join this rotation if you signed up with a specific partner and would like to stay together. However, dancing with changing partners is the quickest and best way to learn how to lead and follow. Read more about it here.

Next round of classes
6th of March – 4th of May

Next Round of classes

May 6th – June 27th

Registration for Beginner Courses in Lindy Hop
in this round is open

Registration for all other courses will open on the 18th of April

Partner dances

The most popular of the swing dances

Fast swing dance in close embrace

Goofy, fun and energetic swing dance

Solo dances

Authentic Jazz moves and routines from the golden era of jazz

Tap

An expressive dance, where you make music with your feet

Testimonials

Open Practice

Come and practice material from your class during Open Practice. It’s free  and open for everyone! Consider bringing a partner to dance with though. 

Swing Music

We have collected some of our favorite swing  songs, which are good for  practicing, and we put them together in a Spotify playlist 

Teachers

See our full teachers team consisting of almost 40 teachers, all very passionate and eager to share their knowledge with you!