Swing Dance

Lindy Hop

Looking for a fun, social hobby? Want to dance or try something new? You’ve come to right place! Sugar Swing offers dance classes with well-respected, accommodating instructors.

  • World-class sprung dance floor. Air conditioned too!
  • Sign-up with or without a partner
  • No age restrictions… come if you’re 15, 25, or 95!
  • Skilled, encouraging instructors

Our goal is to provide fun, social classes to get you groovin’. The classes are primarily adult-oriented with an educational and recreational focus. Though with occasional exception; recitals, performances and competitions are generally not too common.

Lindy Hop is the original swing dance, first seen at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York, in the 1930’s, predominantly pioneered by Black Americans, and danced to swingin’ jazz music. It quickly spread across North America to all ethnicity and gave way to many kinds of other swing dances (such as Jitterbug, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing). Now it is danced all around the world, in many thanks to those such as the legendary Frankie Manning. Very social-oriented, full of improvisation, rhythmic, and just plain fun.

Schedule & Register

Courses & Level Progression

You are learning Lindy Hop! We encourage you to look it up on Youtube. Its basic is the “swingout”, but that’s a far incomplete picture. It is a melting pot of dance styles along with a number of unique moves that includes 6-count/Jive/East-Coast moves (these dances are very similar), Charleston, Jig-Step, Swingouts & circles, and much more. So to make things make sense, over a semester you’ll be learning mainly Lindy Hop (6-count and 8-count), as well as Charleston. Charleston, by the way, is an integral component to dancing Lindy Hop.

  • Our curriculum for all levels is currently broken up into one (1) series of Lindy Hop (8-count & 6-count) that lasts typically 9-10 weeks, followed by one (1) series of Charleston of 3-4 weeks.
  • Classes are typically not run on long weekends and holiday Mondays, and the summer sets of classes are shorter in weeks. As such, classes on Fridays through Mondays are often longer, 1hr 15min, and sometimes up to 1hr 30min. Tuesday through Thursday classes are often 1hr and sometimes 1hr 15min. Pricing is based on the # of class hours taught.

We hope you enjoy our swing dance classes. If at any time you are confused, frustrated, or disappointed, please chat with us so that we can remedy your situation.

Swing 1

Swing 1 is our beginner-friendly “Level 1” program. It is our well-rounded, flagship program. Everyone starts here whether they have dance experience or not. For people with prior dance experience, we recommend getting a level assessment.

For complete beginners starting out, we recommend enrolling for a level 1 series that starts in September, January, and May, and to enrol for the whole term/semester. The semester is mostly one style, 6-count & 8-count Lindy Hop, with a few weeks of learning Charleston at the end.

Swing 1: Rotating vs. Swing 1: Partners

Hopefully self-explanatory, the Rotating subtext is for folks who don’t have a partner or don’t mind rotating partners. Due to the nature of learning to lead & follow, our instructors would agree that students learn better by rotating. This can lead to an imbalance of leads/follows in some classes, but keep in mind that we go out of our way to balance the lead/follows with volunteers to ensure everyone can participate.

However, we understand that it is often more comfortable and preferred by couples to not rotate, eg, if dancing is seen as intimidating or if it’s for quality time. Hence, check out our Swing 1: Partners class. Prefer to not rotate? Swing 1: Partners is for you!

Swing 2

This is the continuation from Swing 1; we like to describe this as “50% of the time is reviewing material from Swing 1, and 50% is new material”. Requires minimum level 1 “Lindy Hop” and “Charleston” parts for prerequisites. Level 2 is often appropriate for dance students who have recently completed Swing 1.

For extra practice, students are also encouraged to volunteer for level 1 classes and to social dance. Dance students often choose to retake Swing 2 before taking Swing 3.

Swing 3

At this point in most students dancing, they continue straight from Swing 2 into Swing 3, or if things feel less solid, they retake Swing 2. Upon completing Swing 2, you would have been shown all the core moves and techniques. Swing 3 is where the dance technique is refined, trickier steps & styling are introduced, and more unique moves are taught that you don’t see as often! We will often instruct different dance styles or ways of dancing: more solo jazz, slow dancing, fast dancing, tandem Charleston etc.

Requires completion of level 2 or instructor recommendation. Faster paced, not for everyone. Dance students should take more than one semester of Swing 3.

Mad Kittens

Our performance team Mad Kittens is often a next step after Swing 3, followed by our semi-professional team Mad Cat Swing.

Level Assessment

If unsure about what level you should take, we recommend contacting our office for advice. Often, we suggest coming to the 1st classes of both options: the class you feel may be less challenging, and the other class that is may be too challenging. At the studio and right before the lesson starts, give your instructor a heads up that you’d like to be level assessed.

You’ll have a chance to feel things out, and be evaluated. Then for week #2 onward, come to the class series that is the better fit! You won’t be charged for the 2nd class in week #1, that’s a freebie.

Alternatively, you could ask to sign-up for BOTH classes too!

Accelerated Learning?

When offered, if you excel at movement and rhythm, are up for a challenge, and want to go fast, we sometimes offer a more-intense accelerated program. Most people should opt for the regular track that spans 12-14 weeks.

When not offered, we suggest signing up for both Swing 1 and Swing 2 at the same time.