Course Level: Open Level

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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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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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 fightlead confrontations towards a constructive outcomeprevent conflicts by setting up structuresreduce stress and frustration when practicing togetherbuild trust and notice when trust is missinguse these skills to find a training partner

Bonus for teachers

How to:

get faster progress in classbuild trust with your students and partnerhandle 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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Want to improve your dancing? Wonder how great dancers hold their balance and why their footwork always looks so easy? We have the answer: learn and train solo!Dance your triple steps cleanly, whether fast or slow, traveling or turning; keep your own flow and rhythm reliably no matter which partner you dance with. Join Solo Skills & Drills: put in the solo work you need to make partner dancing easy!

What will I learn in this course?

Example themes include:

body isolations & body awareness/posturespins & turnsquality triple steps & other footwork variations

What should I know before joining?

This course is mixed-level, from intermediate and up. Anyone can benefit from this course, even advanced dancers. In order to progress well we expect you to have at least 6 months experience in Lindy Hop and Charleston and to know the Swing Out (for example you have taken our Swing 4 course). To have solo dance experience might be useful but is not needed.

If you are not sure whether the course is right for you, don’t hesitate to ask us 🙂
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Want to improve your dancing? Wonder how great dancers hold their balance and why their footwork always looks so easy? We have the answer: learn and train solo!Dance your triple steps cleanly, whether fast or slow, traveling or turning; keep your own flow and rhythm reliably no matter which partner you dance with. Join Solo Skills & Drills: put in the solo work you need to make partner dancing easy!

What will I learn in this course?

Example themes include:

body isolations & body awareness/posturespins & turnsquality triple steps & other footwork variations

What should I know before joining?

This course is mixed-level, from intermediate and up. Anyone can benefit from this course, even advanced dancers. In order to progress well we expect you to have at least 6 months experience in Lindy Hop and Charleston and to know the Swing Out (for example you have taken our Swing 4 course). To have solo dance experience might be useful but is not needed.

If you are not sure whether the course is right for you, don’t hesitate to ask us 🙂
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Understanding the various layers of the music will help you hear a lot more in the music and therefore have an easier time knowing what is happening in the song while you are dancing. This will help you better know when to express what and with what feel.

What will I learn in this course?

In this course, we intend to go from basics all the way up to very complex concepts in musicality, but intended for intermediate and advanced dancers.

This course will improve your partner dancing immeasurably, but the training you can do completely alone, no partner needed.

What should I know before joining?

You should be comfortable with hearing the 1 in the music. You should have been social dancing to swing music for at least 1-2 years before taking this course.

If you are not sure whether the course is right for you, don’t hesitate to ask us 🙂
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