What is Lindy Hop
Lindy Hop is a dance originating from Harlem, NY during the 1920s & 30s alongside Jazz music. It is a partnered dance created by Black Americans that spread throughout the country and the world. The dance is fun, lively, and social.
Choose Your Role
In Lindy Hop we dance with other people in a partnered way, utilizing a “lead and follow” social dancing dynamic. Not sure which role you choose? Here’s the basics on what each role entails to help you decide which one you’d like to try first:
Leaders
give non-verbal, physical signals to their partners to initiate movements and shapes. They plan ahead and create interesting ideas and sequences.
Followers
respond to their leader’s signals and are responsible for continuing momentum, following through on the leader’s initiations, and contributing to the visual style of the dance.
Both roles do this by listening to both their partner AND the music, to create one magically awesome dance.
Think about it like a coloring book: the leader creates the outline, the follower colors it in.
These roles get even more nuanced and fun the more you do them, but we hope that helps you choose which one you’d like to learn to begin your dance journey! Just because you choose one role now, doesn’t mean you can’t learn the other one later (in fact, we recommend learning the other role once you get a feel for how you like your first role – it can be really insightful to see things from the other “side”).
Choose How To Learn
Group Lessons
We offer a monthly lesson series on Thursday evenings to get you started! Each class in the 4-week series will add to your knowledge of the dance.
Private Lessons
For a more personalized lesson, many of our instructors offer private lessons to either help you get started or expand your knowledge.