Get Involved

There are many ways dancers can get involved with Sugar Swing and the swing dance community!

Become a Taxi Dancer!

Volunteer Dancers in Classes

Sometimes there’s a shortage of leads or follows in one of our classes, and we recruit volunteers to participate in the class and balance out the numbers. There are a couple of rules for this to ensure our paying customers are treated fairly:

Pre-requisits

• To become a taxi dancer, you are at least 1 level higher than the class you’ve taken:
  • You’ve taken the class before in recent times, are comfortable with most the material, or
  • Are registered and currently taking the next level higher class
  • Are 2 or more levels higher, and have been dancing awhile
• If you are about the same level of dancers in the class, we may ask that you pay for the course
  • We offer 50% off for repeat customers on a level!

Note

• If there are too many taxi dancers who arrive:
  • wait 10m after class started to decide on what to do
  • they can choose to swap roles (lead becomes a follow) for that day
  • the person who traveled the farthest, or most inconvenienced, stays
• We generally don’t need taxi dancers for Swing 2 classes, but sometimes!
• Taxi dancers should notify the instructors of their intent to join the class 1+ days ahead of time

Important

• Take the class as a student — we ask that taxi dancers not to give unsolicited advice to the students or TA the class, and to instead ask the instructors for help
  • We are all here to have fun, and dancing is a vulnerable place for beginners. As a Taxi dancers, we recognize that you have more skills and want to help! However, please note that Taxi dancers are not TAs or trained instructors
• Please treat the beginners with respect! This means, you are not there to hit on new students. Know that, as a more skilled dancers, we ask that you do not misuse your position of influence

If you’re not sure whether or not you meet the requirements,  just ask!

Social Dances

We love our volunteers! Our dance event organizers are always looking for volunteers to help make an event run smoothly. Our volunteers receive discounts on dances, so it’s a great way to save money and still come out to lots of events! Volunteers are needed to take admissions, work the bar, and for other roles.

If you would like to volunteer at an upcoming event, contact the event organizer. You can do this by visiting the Facebook page for the specific event and either messaging the organizer or posting on the wall. You can also join our Sugar Swing Volunteers Facebook group (linked below) to stay in the loop. From time to time we also need dancers to participate in classes when there’s a shortage of leads or follows; read the section Volunteering for Classes below to learn more about that.

Join our Facebook Group!

For general inquiries or to put your name in for the next event, contact us.

Staff Positions

In addition to our permanent staff, Sugar Swing has a selection of casual staff who take turns performing various roles. These roles include event organizers, deejays, and instructors. These folks are compensated for their time and must undergo training for the role. If you’re interested in a staff position, contact us.