GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION

 

Courses are an important element for our association to inspire people to learn and improve their swing dancing. We offer courses in Lindy Hop, Solo Jazz and other swing dances as Blues, Balboa and Collegiate Shag. 

We have listed general course information below, in case this doesn’t answer your question, please check our FAQ here.

 

We offer 2 semesters of courses per year, that are taught by either local or residential teachers:

• Spring semester from February to May
• Fall semester from September to December

 

Lindy Hop is a couple dance. During classes we often change partner. We recommend people to change partner so that leading / following can be practiced with different partners. Lindy Hop classes are sorted in different groups/levels named after Swing dance legends as Norma Miller, Ella Fitzgerald and Frankie Manning. Each group represents a different stage in your Lindy Hop dancing. 

 

Course name	Level/Group description
Beginners Lindy Hop	This is where your Lindy Hop journey starts, welcome! This is a Lindy Hop class open to participants who have never danced Lindy Hop before, or that have only attended a few tasters. It is also a good class to repeat the basics, before moving forward.
Lindy Hop – Norma Miller  Beginner +	This is a Lindy Hop couple class open to participants with at least 1 semester of experience. You are familiar with basic figures in 6- and 8-count and you want to solidify your Lindy Hop basics. This is a continuation of the Lindy Hop beginners group.
Lindy Hop – Ella Fitzgerald Beginner- intermediate	This is a Lindy Hop couple class open to participants with at least 2 semesters of experience. You are comfortable dancing both 8- and 6-count figures and can easily mix them. Figures like the Swing out, Lindy circle, Tuck turn, Charleston, etc., are familiar to you and you are eager to start expanding your dance vocabulary. You attend social dancing sporadically and you have perhaps recently attended your first workshops (local or international).
Lindy Hop – Count Basie  Intermediate	This is a Lindy Hop couple class open to participants with at least 4 semesters of experience. Your dance connects to the music and you have a good variety of figures (swing out, texas tommy, basic tandem Charleston, etc). You can lead or follow clearly and you are comfortable dancing to slow and mid tempo music. You have seen or maybe tried some footwork variations in your Lindy Hop. You go to social dancing frequently (at least twice a month) and you already attended some Lindy Hop workshops. Admission to this class is subject to approval by teachers.
Lindy Hop – Franky Manning  Intermediate-advanced	In this Lindy Hop class the teaching pace gets really challenging. You have at least 6 semesters of experience and you feel comfortable playing with the music and improvising. You feel at ease when dancing to fast music, and you cannot count how many moves you know. You go to social dancing every week and you’ve been to several local and possibly international workshops. Admission to this class is subject to approval by teachers.

 

Within the first 3 weeks of a semester, you have the possibility to transfer to another Lindy Hop group, if you are not satisfied with the group you originally registered for. This can happen only upon discussion with your teachers and with their explicit approval. After the first 3 classes, no changes will be possible.

Your progression over the subsequent semesters, depends on how often you practice at our social dancing events or if you are regularly attending local and international workshops. We recommend you to attend social events and workshops as often as possible, since Lindy Hop is primarily a couple dance best enjoyed on the social dance floor and the place to put the things you learn in class into practice. There is no replacement for hours on the dance floor!

At the end of a semester our teachers will help to assess, which group is best for you in the following semester. Some groups as Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie you’ll ideally do for 2 semesters before moving up. Our teachers do this assessment with the best intentions in order to create homogeneous groups where all can learn in the best circumstances. At any point, our students should feel free to ask their teachers for individual feedback before/after class to improve their dancing.

We recommend signing up for the Lindy Hop courses as a couple, but registration is surely possible without a partner. Submitting the registration form on the website unfortunately does not guarantee participation to the courses. The number of available spots for each class is limited and it is determined by the organizers. In case all the spots in any given class have been filled, or there is a high imbalance between followers and leaders, registrants may be put on a waiting list or their registration might not be able to be accepted. Swing Dance Luxembourg reserves the right to redirect the registering person to another group, in case the dance requirements for their registering group are not met. 

 

Solo jazz or Authentic Jazz as it is sometimes called, is an important tool to improve your Lindy hop dancing and we strive to offer you 2 levels of Solo Jazz:

 

Solo Jazz – Leon James Beginner-intermediate	This is a solo jazz course open to beginners. You will learn basic solo jazz steps and their easy combinations. The teaching pace will be gradual and material will be broken down. This is the class for you, if you want to build on your basics and you don’t feel comfortable yet with solo jazz routines and improvisation.
Solo jazz – Al Minns Intermediate-advanced	Solo Jazz is a powerful tool to become a better Lindy Hopper. In this solo jazz class the teaching pace gets more challenging. You have attended at least 2 semesters of Leon James. You know a wide range of jazz steps (apple jacks, half break, Suzie Q, Tacky Annie, boogie drops, etc) and you are familiar with a few solo jazz routines.

Other swing dance styles like Balboa, Blues and Collegiate Shag represent a smaller group of dancers in our scene but we offer it as much as we can, since it is inspiring to broaden your spectrum in swing dancing with these couple dance styles! Balboa and Collegiate Shag give you new possibilities to dance to faster music. Whereas Blues dancing places a high value on improvisation, rhythm and solo movements.

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