Course Categories: Online Pass

Welcome to our course all about rhythm!
Rhythm is so  crucial to lindy hop. When you understand and express your rhythm better, your movements will look and feel better, and your dancing can better reflect the feel and values of this Black American art form. In this course we'll share ideas and exercises that we love, which have helped many students make their dancing more rhythmical, more "in the pocket" of the music. Our goal is to help you develop your ability to hear and react more in each moment of your dancing; we'll explore a variety of approaches to improve your awareness and build references in your own body, and we'll give you a few variations and decorations to give your training some fun and variety, and all so that you'll be better able to express yourself in a way that matches the rhythm section.
This course is meant for lindy hoppers who are already comfortable with the basic ideas and repertoire of the dance, and we'll work on both your solo and your partnered dancing. The first class is an introduction and listening session, and for the rest of the course we'll hit the dance floor to put those ideas into practice.
IN PROGRESS: we're in the process of recording and editing this course; we're aiming for about 8-10 lessons in total and it may take some time before they're all published. Thanks for your patience!
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This little routine, choreographed by Kris to Wynton Marsalis’ lovely New Orleans Jazz version of O Christmas Tree, will give you a little fun and a challenge or two, and keep you warm over the holidays. Have a great time learning it!
Once you’ve learned it, we’d love it if you would film yourself and post on our facebook or slack communities. Get all dressed up and do the whole thing, or wear pajamas and just dance a short part of it… whatever you like. It’s just a little way we can share with each other 😉
Happy Holidays!
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Welcome to our Lindy Library!
On this page we’ve collected as many moves from our Swing 1-6 courses as we could (and added some bonus videos, too). Just like in a dictionary where you look up a meaning of a word, in this library you can have a quick look for a move, including the counts and what steps it consists of.
Videos are grouped by their content. In the description below the video player, you can see in which course and class this move appears, so if you’re looking for more details you know where to go 🙂
An important note about lindy hop culture
This dance is not a fixed list of moves. You don’t need to collect lots of moves to be a great dancer, and you don’t need to see the library as a fixed list that can’t be changed. Quite the opposite!
Great lindy hop can be done with only a few moves, and every dancer can create their own at any time.
So: we encourage you to use this library in a way that honors the origins and culture of lindy hop. Use it as a reference, to revisit moves you like or moves you want to practice; with no pressure that you must “complete” your list.
And, once you’ve looked at and practiced a move, it’s important that you don’t stop after learning the move. Try to explore what else you can do with it. How can you change it to make it your own? Learning a move from a video should just be the first step. The real work should start after that: make it your own, explore it further, create something new with it. We hope you take this philosophy to heart and experiment and explore with each move in the library.
By the way: we would LOVE to see what you create. Come and join us in the train together sessions to practice the moves, get creative with them and if you like, share what you’ve created with others at the end of the session.
Most importantly, have fun!
P.S. one more little note: you might know many of these moves by different names. In lindy hop, some moves have a very common classic name that nearly every lindy hopper agrees on, some moves have a few names, some moves are really common but have no name, and some moves are just things we made up. You’re welcome ;P
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The Shim Sham is a classic! Find out how different it can be when some of Lindy Hop’s inventors add their own style to it. Al Minns and Leon James were two of the most famous lindy hoppers of their time, and in this course you’ll learn their interpretation of the Shim Sham. Their steps and combinations are a bit more challenging than the classic shim sham version that we modern lindy hoppers got from Frankie Manning, so the routine gives you a lot to dig into.
Aside from just being a fun routine, the combos are really great for putting into your dancing, whether you’re choreographing or improvising, and it gives you a window into how Al and Leon injected their own style and flair into the dance.
Join us and put a whole new spin on your Shim Sham!
What will I learn in this course?
Of course you’ll learn the routine itself, we’ll guide you step-by-step through all the moves and sequences you need to be able to dance Al & Leon’s Shim Sham with confidence. But you’ll get much more than just a routine out of this course! You’ll also train important concepts that will improve your dancing overall:

Basic rhythm, groove and posture
Swinging rhythm; Ball-changes, Half-breaks
Classic but challenging moves: Full-breaks, Eagle slides, etc
Combining kick movements with other jazz elements

What should I know before I join this course?
This course is mixed-level solo dancing, from beginner-intermediate all the way up – anyone can benefit from this course, even advanced dancers. We will build up each movement “from scratch” with no assumptions about which moves you know, but we’ll dig deep so there will be a challenge for any level.
If you haven’t done any solo jazz before, you might feel more comfortable starting off with our Solo Jazz for Beginners course. On the other hand, if you are eager to work hard or a fast learner, you can even give it a go without any prior experience.
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The Trickeration is an amazing jazz routine.  It has such strong and inspiring rhythms, such a great flow and groove, when you dance it you feel like you’re really swinging.  It also has some real challenging moments, it can be hard to get “just right”, so it’s a great routine to use for training.
The Trickeration is also rooted in the history of the dance; an old Harlem chorus line routine, shared with modern lindy hoppers by the late great Norma Miller and passed on by those who learned from her, carrying it forward lets us be a part of the lineage of swing dance and its culture.
Come join the other worldwide fans of the Trickeration – make your dancing more cool, more rhythmical, more swinging, more tricky!
What will I learn in this course?
Of course you’ll learn the routine itself, we’ll guide you step-by-step through all the moves and sequences you need to be able to dance the Trickeration with confidence. But you’ll get much more than just a routine out of this course! You’ll also train important concepts that will improve your dancing overall:

Basic rhythm, groove and posture
Swinging rhythm; Ball-changes, Half-breaks
Changing the groove to fit your movement
“Air-time”; precise combos

What should I know before I join this course?
This course is mixed-level solo dancing, from beginner-intermediate all the way up – anyone can benefit from this course, even advanced dancers.  We will build up each movement “from scratch” with no assumptions about which moves you know, but the learning pace will be fairly quick and the techniques and sequences are not easy.
If you haven’t done much solo jazz before, you might feel more comfortable with our Al & Leon Shim Sham course first, or even Solo Jazz Basics (which also has a lot of not-so-basic challenges in it).  On the other hand, if you are eager to work hard or a fast learner, you can even give it a go without any prior experience.
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We’re now ready to dig deeper into classic Lindy Hop.  You’ll learn how to dance some of the most beloved classic moves, popularized by the legendary Frankie Manning.  You’ll also learn fundamentals of leading and following turns in swing dancing, and dig deeper into swing music and how you can draw inspiration from it for your dancing.
What will I learn in this course?
Each of these moves will come with its own fun variations, but this checklist shows the fundamental moves you’ll learn in the class.  Once you know these, you’re ready to move on to the next level.

face-to-face: promenade; slingshot with turn
opening up: sendout with redirection; follower’s and leader’s underarm turn, left-side pass
musicality: dancing to swing melody and phrasing

What should I know before I join this course?
Swing 2 is a natural progression from Swing 1, where we continue developing things we started there.  If you’ve been taking beginner courses elsewhere, this might be a great place for you to start with us; just email us at [email protected].
Whether you’ll take this course alone or with a partner, we created a video to explain how you can get the best out of your online learning experience with us. You’ll find it in the Lesson Content section, under the main video of the first class.
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Lindy Hop evolved out of the Charleston; we will follow this natural evolution, and start with basic Charleston steps that are as easy as walking. We’ll take you step-by-step through 6 weeks of learning the basics of swing dancing, taking you from simple side-by-side Charleston movements into the swinging rhythms of Lindy Hop.
Already in the first course, you’ll learn what makes Lindy Hop so special. It manages to combine the structures of partner dancing – like dancing in closed position, or across from and criss-crossing past each other – combined with the freedom of self-expression and creativity that lets you make the dance your own and make your partner smile.
What will I learn in this course?
Each of these moves will come with its own fun variations, but this checklist shows the fundamental moves you’ll learn in the class.  Once you know these, you’re ready to move on to the next level.

connection in social dancing: rhythmical, visual, physical, emotional
charleston, side-by-side: basics; Skip ups; freezes & play
charleston, opening up: sendout, take-in; open position basic; follower’s and leader’s underarm turn
lindy hop: side-by-side basics; half-turn; sendout, take-in; Passes and Strolls

What should I know before I join this course?
No experience needed!  Whether you’ve taken a few taster classes already, or have never danced before at all, this course is a great start.
Whether you’ll take this course alone or with a partner, we created a video to explain how you can get the best out of your online learning experience with us. You’ll find it in the Lesson Content section, under the main video of the first class.
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Have you ever found yourself deep in a fight with your dance partner over what was meant to be helpful feedback? Do you sometimes feel that critique seems to only go one way and you don’t know how to address the situation?
Because we don’t get the necessary training in how to handle conflicts constructively, many dance relationships get stuck or even break up before experiencing the great rewards of working together.
In this eBook you’ll learn
How to:

address a difficult topic without ending up in a fight
lead confrontations towards a constructive outcome
prevent conflicts by setting up structures
reduce stress and frustration when practicing together
build trust and notice when trust is missing
use these skills to find a training partner

Bonus for teachers
How to:

get faster progress in class
build trust with your students and partner
handle difficult cases

This eBook is written specifically for dancers. The concepts of Constructive Conflicts are kept to the point and with concrete step by step instructions on how to implement them into your dance life. It draws on proven concepts and techniques for conflict resolution and applies them directly to the dance setting.
„I’ve had the luck to meet Ali at the exact moment my relationship with Lindy Hop would take a turn from being an occasional hired teacher, to become a scene builder, team leader and school developer.Ali’s influence was, and still is, nothing but inspiring. The way he deals with people, but specially how he manages his own SwingStep team is a staple of impressive skills.As a team leader, I felt an amazing feeling of „being comprehended“ while reading this book. It was like mind reading. A lot of the issues I was having inside of our teaching team, are here clearly presented in a solvable manner. Being a social animal is not easy. Building a real team, even harder. But this book gave me a lot of tools that I can conscious use to identify, address and solve, in a peaceful manner, past and future conflicts.One of the most useful readings so far… Only wish it had been around for longer.“
David Afonso
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