We are starting 2018 with a bang here at Boulder Swing Dance! We have all our weekly lessons, practice groups, t-shirts, announcements for upcoming months, and even a swing dance work out for you.
PLEASE NOTE IN YOUR CALENDARS we are not starting our new class sessions until the second week of January. If you show up at Kakes on New Year's Day or in Longmont on January 3rd, we won't be there! Feel free to get together with a group and have a dance party of your own, but all of our instructors will still be North Carolina (Heather and Krister) or Sweden (Sarah, Anthony, Skye, and Freeman).
Mondays at Kakes
We start a new Level 1 Swing series this month on January 8th from 8-9 PM. If you are new to swing dancing, this is where you should start.
If you've completed a month of Level 1, then you're ready to start our Level 1.5 from 7-8 PM. This month we'll be focusing on swing outs and variations of this core lindy hop move.
Level 2 will be from 8-9 PM and is for those who've taken two months of 1.5. This month we're on our Charleston series where students will learned partnered Charleston including hand-to-hand and tandem.
For students who've been through all four of our Level 2 months, our Level 2.5 courses are just for you! This month from 7-8 PM we're running a Swing Rueda class. Swing Rueda is a fun group dance done in a circle. One person acts as a caller, calling out various swing moves and partner switches. This is a great way to learn new moves and to work on larger group dynamics. At the end of the month, the class will perform a Swing Rueda demo at the Monday night dance. Check it out here:
SOCIAL DANCE
No one wants to stop dancing, so we've extended our dances until 11!
After class, from 9 PM-11 PM we'll have our regular weekly dance. Staying for the social dance is a great way to try out moves you learn from lessons, as well as get to know your classmates, and it's free if you take a class.
BALBOA ROOM we'll be starting a Balboa-focused social dance in the small (awesome) room the first Monday of the month. This is to give our dancers some faster music, an intimate space to dance, and hopefully provide more room on the main dance floor for the first half hour when capacity is at it's max.
ON JANUARY 8th Jeremy Mohney and his band are playing for us, so stick around for some great live music! (And check out our Balboa room, as detailed above!)
Wednesdays at SKEYE Brewing
Join us for classes on Wednesdays at SKEYE Brewing! We're switching up the schedule a little bit, starting with Level 2 at 6:30 PM. This month is our Six Count month, focusing on moves and patterns with six counts instead of eight. You are able to attend this class if you have completed both months of Level 1.5 Of course, we still have our Level 1 for beginners starting at 7:30 PM.
ON JANUARY 31st we're having our monthly social dance after classes. Join us after classes from 8:30-10 PM for a beer, music and swing dancing!
Boulder has a swing dance workout hitting the stage! Swing Sweat is a fun way to learn solo jazz moves while also getting fit. Sarah has been working on the program for a while and is excited to debut it January 21st from 9-10 AM at Kakes. Wear comfortable clothes/shoes, and be ready to sweat! Be there every Sunday morning to work on increasing strength and endurance.
New T-Shirts!
We have ordered another batch of our Lindy Hops t-shirts! You may have seen them around and noticed how cool they look...
If you missed out on grabbing a shirt last year, or have started dancing with us since then, now's your chance! They will be $20 a shirt and should be available the second week of January.
If you don't know what they look like, here's Heather as an epic model for one. ---->
Practice Group
The Swing Lab/Practice Session will be continuing every other Thursday in 2018. The first one of the new year will be 6:30-7:30 PM on January 18th. As always, this is a group collaboration practice to work on moves, technique, or anything else that interests you. A $3-$5 donation is helpful to make sure the cost of the room rental gets covered.
Friendly Faces Cards
At Boulder Swing, we believe community is the most important thing, even above the dancing (gasp!). Starting in January, we are deploying the Friendly Faces Dance Cards. When you take a card, you have to fill in the names of five people you either have never danced with or haven't danced with in at least a month. Once you complete the card (can be in one night or over the course of multiple nights), turn it in to be put in a prize drawing! It's our little way of saying thank you for dancing with people you may not know, because it makes our community so much better!
Looking to the future...
Flatiron Stompers
Starting in February, instead of our Level 2.5 at Kakes, we are beginning a new session of our Flatiron Stompers team! No auditions are required, although you must have completed both months of Level 1.5 (except with instructor approval). It is a three month session, meeting every Monday from 7-8 PM, and you must register with a partner. Start looking now! If you are unable to find a partner, ask an instructor for suggestions.
East Simpson Swing
We are starting a new lesson venue in Lafayette! We are lucky enough to begin classes at East Simpson Coffee Company from 7-8 PM every Wednesday starting February 7th. We will be offering the Level 1 curriculum in February, and Levels 1 and 1.5 starting in March.
Upcoming Workshops
We are also continuing our monthly workshops starting in February, but they're moving to Saturdays, and will hopefully follow with a dance so mark your calendars now. The topics will be announced soon, but you won't want to miss a single one!
Social Events
Every month at Boulder Swing we try to take the time to focus on our community of dancers. This opportunity affords us the ability to get to know the people we dance with every week, and the folks whom maybe we don't dance with because they practice the same dance roll.
Get ready for some winter fun, because our January social outing is ice skating! Mark your calendars for January 27th at 11 AM. We will meet at Boulder's WinterSkate at the Teahouse Plaza, skate to your heart's content, and then probably head for some warm lunch nearby.
Goodbye Freeman
Freeman will not be returning as an instructor in Boulder this coming few months, but for exciting reasons–he will be teaching in Rome! If you happen to end up in Europe next year, stop by and say hi. We will definitely miss his presence in our classes and dances, but we are excited for his new teaching opportunities!