Partner Dance Styles

Other Styles

Swing

We teach the original style of swing called Lindy Hop, dating back to the 1930's, as well as a slightly more recent and simplifed form call East Coast Swing. Swing used to be danced to fast big band music, but these days a lot of people have slowed things down and now tend to use slow to medium tempo swing, jazz, and even blues, in addition to the old fast big band standards. Swing is an extremely versatile dance and allows plenty of room to add your own personal touches. Within swing it's perfectly acceptable to break out of the basic step and simply shake it together. These days it is also blended with blues, tango, and even salsa.

An offshoot of swing is the Charleston, which has two forms, one dating back to the 1920's and reminiscent of the flappers, and one emerging a decade later. We primarily dance the second. Charleston can be combined with either style of swing, and involves a lot of kicks and quick footwork. The photos of us wearing blue and black in our gallery are mostly of us dancing swing.

Blues

The latest blues dance movement is an evolution of swing, even though blues dancing itself has existed as long as the music. It is danced to very slow to medium slow blues and jazz of all styles. We'll teach you what we know as blues dancing today through two general areas of dance: swing, and tango. In both cases the footwork is quite flexible, moves are up to your wildest imagination (of course we'll teach you some basic moves as well), and connection and musicality are of utmost importance. Be prepared to dance close to your partner. You'll learn how to lead and follow subtle footwork, body rolls (or undulations), and plenty of spectacular (but still sensual) dips.

Wedding First Dances

For more info, visit our Wedding Dance page.

Creative Partner Dancing

This is a rather open-ended term for what has become an open-ended style of dancing, something that we consider to be uniquely ours. We have drawn upon other dance styles as a foundation, but then simplified and filtered them down to what is essentially the essence of all partner dancing: connection between two partners (also called leading and following), movement across the floor, and using the music. WIth these core concepts in mind, just about anything becomes possible, and we're no longer limited to a series of memorized steps. As we have delved into this style of dance, we have also discovered that it's much easier to learn than other styles. Students who learn the core concepts are able to start dancing much sooner than if they focus on learning a set style instead.

Salsa and Merengue

One can't deny the sensual appeal of salsa. Don't be misled, however: salsa is usually danced to rather fast tempos, involves lots of spins and turns, and can be quite a workout. While the footwork is relatively simple, the moves can become as advanced as you like. There's a little less room here for improvisation unless you don't mind mixing forms, as we do, and adding in a bit of merengue, rhumba, or other forms. We'll show you how to transition in and out of salsa whenever you feel like it.

Merengue has the simplest footwork of any dance form, and uses a lot of hip motion. Any turn that is done in salsa can be done in merengue. The music usually uses a fast, almost march-like beat that's easy to hear and dance to. This is a great starting point for the Latin dance styles.

Club Dancing

This is our term for the style of dance one would see in almost any type of club, whether they play rock, hip hop, or techno. It combines footwork, body isolations, and musical awareness, and is really just about feeling comfortable dancing in a social setting. We also teach invidviduals or couples to partner dance to club music.

Poi and Fire Spinning

This is the art of spinning two lengths of either chain, string, or other material with some form of weight on the end. In the case of fire, this means a head made of wick and soaked in fuel, and for practice poi it can be just about anything: streamers, tennis balls, bean bags, or even balloons filled with water. Poi is an incredibly fluid art form, and helps build strong coordination between both hands and throughout the body. For more poi info, visit our small poi corner.

The Basics

Every class we teach is based on the basics. In partner dancing we have narrowed them down to three core areas which form the foundation of all partner dance forms. We believe that any form, however well learned, isn't complete without them:

• Connection: how to signal weight shifts, turns, and pauses
• Movement: footwork, moving across the floor
• Musicality: how to hear and move to the music

This means that whether you prefer swing, salsa, blues, or any other form, you will still learn everything you need to know to dance with any partner, even if he or she doesn't know how, even if he or she knows a different dance. Having strong skills in the basics will also allow you to progress more rapidly in any future class you take.