Lessons
Hales Lessons
Half hour lessons will be taught by members of the OSwing community before Hales Dances. This is a great chance to brush up on some basic swing skills, or to bring a friend who wants to learn. Lessons will be mostly East Coast Swing, with some Charleston, Balboa, Lindy and Blues if we have time!
Beginning ExCo
The objectives of the beginning class are to give students experience with and basic knowledge of the fundamental dances of swing (East-coast swing, Lindy Hop, and Charleston), to teach good social dancing skills, and to inform students of the rich social history of swing dance and those who have performed it over the course of its nearly century-long history.
Continuing ExCo
The continuing class focuses on refining Lindy hop by working on musicality and departures from basic steps into more improvisation based on strong leading and following skills. We also teach techniques for fast Lindy hop (200-300 beats-per-minute), jazz movement, and beginning instruction in Balboa, a fast swing dance from 1930's Southern California. We want to emphasize the refinement of good general social dance skills, so that students will begin to think of swing as an expressive, musical, improvisatory dance instead of a series of "moves" to be memorized.