Swing Dance Festivals take place all over the world and are a fantastic opportunity to learn from international teachers, dance to the best bands, meet dancers from other scenes and improve your dancing. We asked student Norman Wakeman why he decided to travel to swing dance festivals and what his experience was at Birmingham Swing Festival 2019. Norman: ‘Having starting dancing for the first time last year I felt it time to maybe expand into weekend festivals and Birmingham seems to offer a wide range of options of tracks and classes. Lindy Hop, Balboa, Shag & solo Jazz all featured and w ..read more

Introducing: The tiniest social dance floor in the world! ‘Swing at The Bothy’ is the notorious biweekly swing social dance run by The Swing Era, a swing dance school in Birmingham (United Kingdom). The Bothy is a shed with rustic charm in the beer garden of the beautiful independent Prince of Wales pub in Moseley. ‘ Swing at the Bothy’ is sometimes referred to as Birmingham’s version of Herrang… but then a tiny notch smaller! Ever since The Swing Era started running classes at a nearby dance school in 2014 the students have come to The Bothy for a drink and a dance after class. We boldly mak ..read more

The other week DJ ColoNel Swing AKA Martyn Nelson hosted a DJ workshop at Cherry Reds. Here’s what you missed! First things first… Tools of the trade! DJ Hardware Hardware wise, assuming you don’t have to provide the speakers to the event, your laptop will do. Also it’s useful to get a 3.5mm jack (red + white one) & phono cable that can go into any mixing desk/Dj mixer or speakers. Now for the Software… A pretty standard way is to just get a playlist together and use itunes queing function. It’s not the most convenient things to use as a DJ though, so here’s some DJ software that we fo ..read more

We love vintage swing music… Keep dancing and training with our ‘Swing at The Bothy’ playlist on Spotify: Swing at the Bothy Playlist The post Our Spotify Playlist first appeared on The Swing Era ..read more

The latest blog by swing dancer Charlotte “I can’t dance” – does this sound familiar? Even if you know you can dance somewhat, every beginner swing dancer wants to get past the awkward rock-step tri-ple step stage and onto the thrills of social dancing with everyone. Blog Post By Charlotte Bailey And once you’ve caught the swing dancing bug, you want to learn fast! It can be pretty nerve wracking as well when some in your class learn quicker than you. But if you feel like you don’t have a natural talent for dancing, this shouldn’t stop you! Here’s the reason why natural talent isn’t neede ..read more

So here’s part 2 of on Jazz Routines, read part 1 here. #3 The Big Apple Difficulty level: Difficult It’s 1936, and three white students from the University of South Carolina manage to get special permission to smuggle into the black-only Big Apple Night Club to watch dancers from the balcony. They witnessed dancers in a circle, and when someone cracked out an awesome dance move, someone would call out the name of that jazz step and then everyone in the circle followed. This was the original free-form version on the dance. It left such an impression on those 3 students that a year la ..read more

Jazz steps give you the opportunity to strut your stuff on the dance floor solo,  and is a great way to add flair to your partner dancing. The best way I’ve found to learn Jazz Steps is through learning the Jazz routines, so here’s some popular jazz routines every swing dancer should know! #1 The Shim Sham Key Song:  Jimmie Lunceford’s ‘T’aint What You Do (popularised by Frankie Manning), Stompin’ at the Savoy (Benny Goodman), and Tuxedo Junction (Erskine Hawkins). Difficulty Level: EASY If you’ve ever been social dancing, you know how it goes. You’ve got your eye on y ..read more

The Swing Era is bringing a new dance course to the heart of Moseley at The Dance Workshop. We’re bringing 6 exhilarating weeks of swing dancing classes for adults, all geared towards giving you the skills and confidence to develop your dancing. There is a range of sessions for everyone of all abilities, from basic to advanced: Level 1 is an Introductory course into Lindy Hop, where you & your friends will learn the basic steps & build a solid foundation ready for the next level. Click here to book your place now! Level 2 is for the improver/intermediates, where we’ll build on level 1 ..read more

We’ll be dancing at Moseley Festival this Saturday 2nd July! Meet us  at 12.45 outside Lewis’s  and we’ll show off our dancing  in the performance space in the centre of the Village Green at 1pm. Then join us for tea and cakes afterwards! There’ll be a host of stalls in the centre of Moseley: arts and crafts, charities, street food, community groups and campaign organisations, so don’t miss out this Saturday : ) The post Moseley Festival first appeared on The Swing Era ..read more

Social Dancing Every Fortnight on a Thursday! Join us after Thursday’s dance classes every 2nd & 4th Thursday of the month for a drink and a friendly dance. We’re so busy dancing with our partner in classes that we barely get chance to get to know them, do we? These social dances are the perfect opportunity to make friends and practice what you’ve learnt in class! I for one only really started improving when I went to these socials, so if you want to make the most of the class, best join us afterwards for a bit of a boogie ; ) and it’s FREE, so no excuses, really! Though if you really ..read more