I'm going to be in London for about a week later this month (morning of the 20th - evening of the 26th) and want to do some dancing while I'm there. There seems to be dancing pretty much every day, which is great, but I am probably not going to go dancing every day. I was wondering if anyone who dances/has danced their had feedback on which social dances they prefer. I just want to try and plan ahead.

Feel free to DM me if that's better for you. Thanks.

Just got some sick new Slide&Swing boots, but sweat shows through them like crazy. They are a lighter brown. I can get the stains out with white vinegar after dancing, but they look yucky during dance. Any tips? I have already applied leather conditioner to them and have tried powdering the inside with baking soda to no avail.

Long story short, I've been taking beginner-intermediate Lindy Hop classes once a week in a new city as a female follow. There's a male lead in my class who gives me unsolicited advice almost every lesson when we dance together. He often says things like, "You should do this..." or "You should be more relaxed." or "I teach you" etc

In the last lesson, before class started, he saw me, called me over, and asked me to practice dancing with him. I thought, why not? But during the dance, he kept stopping to give me feedback again. For example, at one point, I couldn’t tell if he wanted me to do a swing-out or a circle, and he told me I should "feel when he will let me go." but he released me on the 7-count, I didn't have much time to react. (Please let me know if it's my problem) After we finished dancing, he told me, "Stay here." I was so confused and didn’t know how to react, so I didn't move. I thought he wanted to pair up with me at the beginning of the lesson, but he actually didn’t. Now that I think about it, the whole situation made me feel really uncomfortable.

I’m the only person in the class who doesn’t speak the local language (I’m in Europe), so I’m not sure how much of his behavior is due to language differences or if he's just being rude. But I feel like he treats me like a child. (He is like at least 50+, and I am 20s)

I'm the kind of person who tends to look for reasons within myself, so when things don’t go well, I usually feel like it’s my fault for not picking up the cues as a follow, and he also thinks it's my problem? Is it normal to give unsolicited feedback in class in Europe? Or should I talk to the teachers about this?

EDIT: Thanks for all the amazing answers so far, if there are specific videos or other tutorials that can help me develop this alongside the regular classes then I'd really appreciate it!

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Hey all,

I'm still very early in to dancing Lindy (or dancing at all for that matter!) and I'm wondering how you all come up with routines.

I'm a lead, and I see people doing all kinds of things where their partners just seem to "know" what's coming next, but if it's a social then it's clearly not been rehearsed, so what's the process that you go through?

Is it a case that once you get good enough a simple flick of the wrist in a particular direction indicates not just a move to that side but into a basket hold or a lift? Is it all in the eyes? Or am I misguided in thinking that any of this is spontaneous, and everyone's just at each others houses every night practising a full routine?! :D

So long story short i started dancing, because my ex was really into lindy hop and i started going to the classes which she was going with the beginners group and eventually i got into the next level group with her.

I never had much of an issue with the group there, because we started at pretty much the same level or the next level because i knew some people in it ... including my ex.

At socials i was always a bit shy and would dance only with her or the people i knew from the classes if they were there.

I feel that everyone at the socials is much much better than me. Also some of them go to different schools and do some really interesting moves that i don't know. I feel that i would be just a boring lead.

Every now and then I get a crush on someone during a festival and it's usually reciprocated (specially when both the dancing styles and the personalities match well). Sometimes this happens while being in a happy relationship, in which case I don't do anything, but the person stays in my mind.

I was wondering how others manage these situations: do you allow yourself to think about the person? do you talk about it with your partner? is it a bad sign to think of choosing the next festivals in a way that increases the likelihood of running into the person?

Hello everyone,

I have been taking classes for a couple of months (once a week) as a beginner follow. I have been trying to practice sometimes at home as well, but I never stayed for social dancing after lessons. Today was the first time I decided to stay and dance a little bit. I felt like I wasn’t able to practice getting leads’ cues on my own. I had two dances and I was panicking most of the time, not knowing what to do. One of the leads even asked me if it was my first lesson today :(

I already bought a ticket for a party next week, and now I’m a little scared to go.

Edit: Thank you all for the sweet and inspiring words and advice, I feel MUCH better now!! And I will have 2-3 dances every time after lessons. I really appreciate all of the comments:)

I diy’ed my shoes and now considering using a Dr. Scholl’s insole to dance longer, after seeing another dancer do the same. Got me thinking.. what other hacks do y’all swear by?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYtWPKrcIV0

I stumbled on this video after going down a YouTube rabbit hole and I have several questions for the swing dancing community:

• Does John do well in this or is it only Jessica?
• Does John act as a guide for her movement or is it mostly on Jessica?
• Why doesn't John's portion require any flexibility?
• When asked about the song style would they get those 2 choices from a pool of possibilities or would they plan to do one or the other?

I know nothing about swing dancing, just trying to contextualize a video I saw that was described as great.

Thank you.

Sorry if this question has been asked before, but is it hard for a 34 year old to learn to do multiple single foot spins with a partner - I realllyyyy want to learn but have never done a single foot spin before - any good recommendations of videos to learn from? and is it easy to learn?

Just got a pair of Madame dynamite shoes and I shoes that are 1 cm too long and has a weird awkward gap. I can’t exchange them, and honestly don’t have a lot of hope that I’ll be able to sell them in my local scene. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them to fit better?

I tried putting insoles in which helped… and I’m sure if I added a new notch to the strap it might help as well but I personally don’t want to do that, but still want some way to make the fit more snug.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Does anyone have recommendations for dancing shoes that are extremely wide in the front? Ideally still pretty, with leather soles and a small heel. I’m particularly interested in “edge cases“ among Harlem shoes.

I wonder how well customisation works, as the shoes can’t really be made on custom lasts for every customer. So far I had a pair of Volare‘s made to measure, but I’m not convinced they were actually wider than a standard pair.

Thank you!

Guys what should i do? My team are stuck because of me when it comes to learning choreography, its already been two days and they could not move to the next step cuz of me, i am having a hard time picking up steps, starting to get back stabbed cause of it

Hey everybody!

I'm a Swiss guy who is planning on doing a road-trip with a friend of mine from Indiana to Dallas. As we are both (well, he is soon-to-be) lindy hoppers, I wanted to know if any of you have some secret tips/insiders for spots where you can dance Lindy on our route!

The current pkan follows (roughly) these cities:

1. Nashville
2. Asheville
3. Birmingham
4. New Orleans
5. Houston
6. San Antonio
7. Dallas

Thank you so much for anyone that leaves a tip!

Hi all! When I first started dancing Swing, I had to do a lot of research to find events, tutorials, festivals, etc. Even now, I find I need to ask experienced dancers where they get their content. I want to solve this problem and give all of us the chance to access great content, history, events, communities, etc. For example, I want to learn about up and coming swing bands, history/movements in Swing, traditions (e.g. Jam circle), etc. What content do you regularly follow and genuinely enjoy?

I'm a beginner in lindy hop, and I just feel so happy. My level is basic, but I'm just trying to go to social dancings and the fellow advanced dancers are so supportive.. and sometimes it is like a little magic happens. Sometimes it is like something switches, and there is such a synch with the partner, and I don't feel clumsy anymore..it's perfection. And I feel so deeply happy.

I'm a woman who both leads and follows. I try to be welcoming and ask newcomers to dance, but I struggle a bit with leading very new followers. I'd be really interested to hear how others approach this - any sure-fire tips? And does your answer change if you know they've been to a handful of classes, rather than none? My main aim is for my partner to have fun and not feel too stressed!

Edit: thank you for all the responses. Lots of useful ideas to think about!

Probably a dumb question, but if you are writing something and wanted to refer to those terms, what word do you use? [role, position, job, side?] do you prefer”

It would be much easier than constantly saying “lead” or “follow” or throwing in a bunch of “vice versa.” …and I want to sound more experienced than I actually am haha

In my day to day, I can get very sweaty hands. Its just how it is and how I live my life, whilst most people will not get as sweaty hands as me, I am sure it is not that uncommon.

Does anyone have any experience in this and can recommend me some tips.

This topic hasn't come up in a long time. In recent years it has become pretty common for people to stream music instead of purchasing it so how are we DJing now?

I am trying to get back into DJing by using Apple Music, both the Mac software and the monthly streaming product. It seems pretty great to have access to thousands of albums for the monthly cost of less than one of them, and Apple Music (the app) lets me BPM-tag the songs (after tapping) which then can appear in a sortable column. This seems to be all I need in order to DJ a night of dancing but maybe there are great products / tech stacks out there that make my setup look silly. What do yous guys use in 2025?

-yakov in florida

Can we start a thread devoted to good ass swing music that we have recently discovered? Here’s my submission: Kenichi Tsunoda. Has tons of albums on DSPs, go look around. Beautiful sound wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piv48UcwSZA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahYR7CGfs84

What have you found lately?

Switch dancer here!

I started out as a follow, but I've been working hard on my leading for the past year and a half. At this point, I would say my social dancing is 50/50 lead/follow, with a good sprinkle of switch dancing in there that I won't quantify.

Skill-wise, I think my leading is catching up to my following. They obviously inform one another, of course, but I'm trying to take all classes as a lead now.

I'm assuming it still makes sense to call myself a primary follow, but when does that change, if ever?

I live near D.C. and want to take a trip out to one weekend. Ideally somewhere close-ish, but it also looks like the main one is the ILHC finals in NYC... and I'm definitely not qualified for the socials there.

Where would you recommend going as a beginner?

My new girlfriend and I are going to a barn dance soon and I am unsure about the etiquette of dancing partners while dating.

Back in college I dated nobody but danced with hundreds of girls, just for the love of dancing. My girlfriend never swing danced before.

Do people in relationships just dance with each other all night long or is it common to still trade dancing partners as there is no inherit romantic aspect of swing dancing?

I’ve begun seeing people abandon Facebook, and with it will mean the inevitable loss of Facebook Lindy hop groups. But, as a community, we once kept scenes alive without the use of social media like Facebook - Yehoodi’s proved that! It’s time to go back to some of those old strategies.

Post your scene’s non-Facebook webpages here and let’s build a new archive so people can still find local events.