Boulder Swing Dance

As an intermediate dancer, I love that they have monthly classes for folks beyond the beginner level. The month of July has been a special topics month, instead of their typical progressive series, which has been really fun.
I’ve peeked in on the beginner class a couple of times, and everyone always looks like they’re having a blast. All of Boulder Swing Dance’s instructors are experienced, friendly and 100% in love with swing dancing. They create a supportive, judgement-​free, creative space in which to learn swing. Like many swing dance classes, you don’t need a partner, because you rotate partners throughout the class. This means you learn how to dance, not how to dance with your partner.
They also put on a twice-​a-​month social dance, every other Saturday night. It’s DJ’d, and so far the DJ’s have all been excellent. There is a beginner lesson before every social dance.

Great place to learn swing dancing. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere and the instructors are both friendly and knowledgeable. Everyone rotates throughout the class so you don’t need to have a partner.

Great teachers and just an unbelievable environment to learn a new form of dance. I have grown so much in the time I’ve been there and it is extremely affordable. Thanks for the great dance classes!!!

I am trying to do new things. I am a traditionally horrible dancer, so I did some looking around and found the Boulder Swing Dance web site. Classes are cheap ($ 10 for a drop in class or $ 35 for a 4-​part series) and they start frequently (a new session every month) so I took my chance and jumped in on the next beginner-​level class that came up. This was Lindy Hop 1, which meets on Monday nights. Tonight was my first lesson, and I cannot wait to go back next week.
I have never danced a real dance before in my life, but John and Shana did a great job explaining everything clearly enough that it always felt natural to move on to the next step. The atmosphere was really relaxed and everyone seemed to have a genuinely good time.
It is certainly okay to attend these classes on your own. My friend and I went without partners and a couple of guys stuck around from an earlier class to even things out. Not a big deal at all. I was concerned about not having the comfort of a familiar partner, but that soon was relieved as the class is structured so that every follow dances with every lead at least once. And since it’s a «rotate clockwise» arrangement, there’s no need to worry that nobody will choose you to dance. You just get the next person in the circle, and then the next. This setup not only eases the awkwardness of choosing a partner, it gives you the opportunity to dance with several people, and all of them will have a slightly different style. You don’t learn to dance with your date, you learn to dance with anybody.
The studio was a bit hot and everyone got really sweaty but, since everybody was sweaty, it was okay. I highly recommend wearing something comfortable that will allow you to breathe.
After just the first session in this series, I feel like I progressed from hopeless to kind of okay at this particular dance, which is way more than I had anticipated.
Trying new things is awesome!