If I’ve not said it before.. WELCOME to footnotes swing dancing classes – a whole new world of dancing, friendship, parties and shenanigans awaits you!This year is a different experience for me personally, new dance school, new class structure, new time frames, and a brand new outlook in general, but for you, I imagine, its just new-new everything!!
Even though I try to do my best in class to tell you everything you need to know, 45mins is not long, and I can tell most of the time you guys are like “quit flappin your gums and make with the dancing already!!” so, lemme share with you each week, info that will help keep you swinging red hot!
Firstly, the beginners class structure!
Firstly you should know, that there is no point waiting for “the perfect moment to start classes”, any Tuesday at 6.30 at the Grand Poobah is great! We welcome brand new beginners every week so we don’t expect you to have any previous experience, or remember anything from a previous class, just turn up and pay your $10.00 (or slide in for free if its your first class) and enjoy your evening!!
You will start every class with a warm up, usually to a mystery song that even I don’t know (this way, im as off guard as you, and we get to have a bit of a nervous giggle together!!) once we are warm, we are pretty much dancing already!!
Swing dancing needs three key ingredients to work – Rhythm, Direction and Momentum. We talk about the first two quite a lot in beginners class, the third one comes along when your leading and following start to come together, and is explored further in more advanced classes.
In beginners class we look into the six count rhythm, the 8 count lindy rhythm and various Charleston rhythms including 20’s and 40’s! It takes us eight weeks to get through it all once over!! For this reason, it makes sense that you do at least sixteen weeks as a beginner to become familiar with what your feet are doing, let alone all the other mysteries taking place.
Four months is a minimum requirement**, along with attendance to at least one Swing Out class/workshop, but there is no pressure to leave beginners after this time, in my experience as a teacher, I have found that the key to moving to a more advanced class, is to feel completely comfortable with where you are at (don’t worry though, I will give you a gentle nudge if I think you need one!). When you are ready to move into the intermediate class, you are also required to do at least two extra months of beginners to make sure you are really getting the best of both worlds (please make sure you have a quick chat with me before you move up, so I can make sure ive told you everything you need to know before you move up)
Swing dancing has been around for a very long time, there is a lot to teach and a lot to learn, on top of everything that we show you in beginners classes as far as rhythm goes, there are also offshoots of swing that you may not have heard of before, such as; blues, balboa, collegiate shag, just to name a few!
So the moral of this blog, is that you are always welcome in beginners class, you should stick around for a minimum of four months (but stay on for longer if you’ve missed classes or feel you’re not quite getting it), and talk to your teachers about how to progress forward, our only reason for being there, is to help you out!!
**four month minimum requirement is based on the following break down
- Minimum of 4 weeks of six count over any period of time
- Minimum of 4 weeks of 1940’s Charleston over any period of time
- Minimum of 4 weeks of 8 count over any period of time
- Minimum of 4 weeks of “teachers selection” including 20’s Charleston, tandem Charleston, or additional footwork classes
http://www.footnotesdance.com.au
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