Swing Dance and Lindy Hop Lessons/Classes ...
Weekly, at the Tuesday night dance, there will be at least 2 lessons going on: an intermediate/advanced lesson, a free 30 minute beginner lesson and sometime yet another series. The intermediate/advanced lesson is sometimes a series of classes and sometimes is just a special class. Always check the schedule to see what is currently going on this week!
Our teaching staff is the best you will find. Our instructors teach all over the world are at the forefront of the dance. We also provide video reviews of all of our classes on YouTube.com.
Below you will find a list of our current series:
Upcoming Class Series
Building Your Basics
With The Jam Cellar Crew
This class is appropriate for dancers looking to solidify and evolve their basic Lindy Hop vocabulary AND for those who have taken our "Beginner Lindy Hop" class. In this class, we will introduce new moves while developing your leading and following skills, as well, we will introduce concepts improve your rhythmic timing and general fun-ness.
Pre-Req: "Beginner Lindy Hop" or equivalent experience (including Swing Out aka Whip, Circle, Charleston). No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Dates: Tues, October 12 - November 16, 8:30-9:30pm (6 wks)
Price: $70 - dance admission free with class
Location: Josephine Butler Parks Center
Intro To Balboa
With Bobby White & Kate Hedin
Some people only think of Balboa as the dance people do when the music gets above 240 beats per second and they're too tired to swing-out. But the 1930s dance, which many believe to be a child of Charleston, is a sibling of Lindy Hop in every way — a dance with its own spirit and look that can be enjoyed at any speed of swing music. Bal champs and fancy teachers Bobby and Kate will teach the basics (and some fancy moves) of the subtle-yet-beautiful Balboa.
Pre-Req: It is strongly recommended students have previous partner dance experience and don't mind touching others. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Dates: Tues, September 7 - September 28, 8:30-9:30pm (4 wks)
Price: $55 - dance admission free with class
Location: Josephine Butler Parks Center
Current Class Series
Beginner Lindy Hop
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Come learn to swing dance at the world famous Jam Cellar! Our six week beginners series teaches you all the basics, focusing on the original swing dance the Lindy Hop while also covering Charleston and the 6 count jitterbug. After just one session you'll be able to hit the floor with moves that not only look good but feel great. We rotate partners throughout the class so everyone develops the skills to dance with anyone anywhere!
Pre-Req: No experience necessary. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Dates: Tues, August 31 - October 5, 8:30-9:30pm (6 wks)
Price: $70 - dance admission free with class
Location: Josephine Butler Parks Center
Lindy Hard Stuff
With The Jam Cellar Crew
For the last three Tuesdays in August, the Jam Cellar will have, simply, Lindy Hard Stuff. We'll come up with stuff to challenge the entire class. We'll even have special guest instructors Mike and Laura from Texas, who are awesome, teaching whatever they want August 24!
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Dates: Tues, August 17 - August 31, 8:30-9:30pm (3 wks)
Price: $35 - dance admission free with class
Location: Josephine Butler Parks Center
Previous Class Series
Collegiate Shag Taster
With David & Chelsea
Collegiate Shag was an incredibly popular swing dance in the classic era and one that has a very strong cult following. Enjoy this two week taster which will give you more than enough to start your Collegiate Shag binge dancing. Both classes will cover the basic, then branch out into different material from there. So, people can drop into any class as a pure beginner, but neither class will be the same material.
Pre-Req: No experience necessary. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Your Inner Solo Dancer
With The Jam Cellar Crew
In July, we'll be focusing on the solo dancer in all of us. Not just solo Charleston (thought there will be plenty of that), this is a class series that will concentrate on how we all can express ourselves individually, weather alone or in a partnered dance. So, get ready for Charleston and Jazz routines, Lindy Hop footwork variations, and some answers on what to do with your damn arms while your dancing. $55, includes the dances.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Hollywood and Harlem: Classic Moves and Styling
With The Jam Cellar Crew
In the original days of swing, Hollywood and Harlem were the nation's hot spots for swing dancing. Though each dancer was unique, East Coasters and West Coasters tended to share certain styles and moves in common with others from their areas. In this class, the Jam Cellar crew will teach many of these Hollywood and Harlem styles and moves, to give int/adv dancers great tools for leading and following, and to give their dancing that classic look. (It'll also help you understand why you feel such different swing-outs from different dancers). Throw in a lot of discussion on the history of jazz dance, and this thing's a steal.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Becoming a Better Partner
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Steps are just part of the picture when it comes to social dancing. You don't want to just look good on the dance floor, you want to feel great too! We'll be working on having a stronger connection through being a clearer lead and more confident follow. Learn techniques to communicate better on the dance floor, while learning moves that put them into practice. Whether dancing with a beginner or pro, with one style or another, this class will raise the level of your partnering skills.
Pre-Req: For advanced beginner/intermediate level lindy hoppers. (Suitable for those who have completed our "Building on Basics" series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
What You Need
With The Jam Cellar Crew
We at the Jam Cellar care about you. No for real, in the aw shucks sort of way, not the creepy stare sort of way. So when planning our October classes we wanted to give you exactly what you needed to take your dancing to the next level, hence the series "What You Need". Every dancer is different and could benefit from different exercises, movements, and tips. National Lindy Hop Champions Naomi Uyama and Andy Reid will diagnose and adjust the course so our Jam Cellar students can get the most out of the series. From a swing-out clinic, to extra personalized attention, "What You Need" will deliver as promised.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Lindy Hop Technique
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Do you ever feel like you need a Lindy hop tune up? Want to really work on your basics, making both look and feel better? Then this month's "Lindy Hop Technique" series is perfect for you. We'll take time with partnering, rhythm, footwork, and bodywork as well. Get great technique from some of the strongest social dancers and swing dance teachers in the area.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Aerial (Air Step) Taster Class
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Performance Lindy Hop Choreography
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Our Jam Cellar Crew (mostly Bobby and Kate) will spend 8-full weeks teaching a performance choreography complete with aerials and other fancy moves. Why learn a performance choreography?!? First off, because you'll perform it. Several times, if you wish, at the Jam Cellar and at Glen Echo dances. Group performances are also a great opportunity to work on your uptempo dancing, learn how to do solid and good looking aerials, and learn how to show off a little. We will also build the sort of team comradery one only finds in combat. This performance should test intermediate dancers and advanced dancers alike. The two months of classes cost only $95, saving you over $25 in Jam Cellar class value.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. Partner Required.
Slips & Hips: Fanciness for Fabulous People
With The Jam Cellar Crew
We could be referencing lovely ladies underthings, or being totally in the know. We could be talking about falling, not being able to get up, and replacing much needed joints. BUT NO! Slips and Hips means fun times and fancy things for you to enjoy! We'll be covering slips and slides for the leaders, some great styling and hip work for the follows, and flashy embellishments and footwork for everyone. Come join the Jam Cellar Crew as they show you how to doll up your dancing.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Competitions, Choreography, and Cookies! (cookies not included)
With The Jam Cellar Crew
With the International Lindy Hop Championships (www.ilhc.com) happening right here in our own backyard we decided our awesome DC dance scene had better represent! We're making a brand new series to sharpen a social dancer's skills in the competition ring. From creating choreography to doing your best in lead & follow divisions - we've got you covered. Learn what the judges are looking for from the crew that has won and judged at some of the biggest contests out there. Just remember this series is BYOC (bring your own cookies).
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Swingout Clinics
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Ever felt like you needed personal attention on your basics? Want to take private lessons but can't afford them these days? In these swingout clinics our professional Jam Cellar staff will have the time to dance with each student and give constructive criticism, find specific points for individuals to focus on to improve their dancing the most. Everyone can benifit from a tune-up and the swingout is the place to start!
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Lindy In The Fast Lane
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Need to get your Lindy Hop up to speed? The focus of January's Int/Adv course is all about getting faster and doing it with ease. We'll focus on the basics and cutting away the extra work when you crank up the tempos. Add to that speed drills and some great moves that work well when the song is blazing and you've got Lindy in the Fast Lane.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Moves That Will Move You
With The Jam Cellar Crew
We think the title is pretty self-expanitory but, oh well, here we go just in case: In this series we will teach you cool social moves that (in our humble opinion) are awesome. The moves, other than just being cool, will challenge and hone your leader and follow skills. This class will be geared for int/adv Lindy Hoppers so it will move quickly - pun intended!
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Focus On Charleston
With The Jam Cellar Crew
his fantastic basic is one of the building blocks of swing dancing. Not only will it improve your pulse but it will take you to higher tempos. These classes will focus on different charleston positions (side by side, tandem, and face to face), being comfortable transitioning in, out, and between them, and building a good charleston move vocabulary.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Solo Charleston: Fall In Like A Gang Buster
With Abigail Browning
Solo Charleston is awesome, and you are too! Join Abigail Browning (Aba, not ABBA) as you learn a dangerously attractive and challenging routine to the classic Cats and the Fiddle song, "Gang Busters." In this class, gain the balance of Philippe Petit, razor-sharp lines, stunning technique, What-Not-To-Wear style, and enhance footwork possibilities for partnered dancing. Don't miss the opportunity perform and show off your skills at the end of the series!
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
The Shim Sham
With The Jam Cellar Crew
The Shim Sham is a classic solo jazz line dance borrowed from tap dance and adopted by lindy hoppers around the world. Aisde from being a load of fun, dances like this can also be extremely beneficial to your partner dancing. Don't be left out next time this dance starts!
Pre-Req: Some dance experience (partnered or otherise) is suggested, but certainly not required.. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Dean Collins Shim Sham
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Come learn Dean Collin's take on the classic dance The Shim Sham. This "group dance" was popular with dancers and performers in the 1930s and 1940s and remains popular today with many Tap Dancers and Swing Dancers. Oftentimes, accomplished dancers would choreograph their own take on this class dance. In this case, we will learn a version choreographed by the Lindy Hop legend Dean Collins.
Pre-Req: Some dance experience (partnered or otherise) is suggested, but certainly not required.. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Solo Dances: The Tranky Doo + Al & Leon's Shim Sham
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Learn two incredible solo dances. In this corner weighing in at 110 pounds we have Tranky Doo - the authentic jazz choreography invented by the dance legend Frankie Manning. She's traveled the world, she's named after a spunky chorus girl, and her strength is beyond compare! And in this corner weighing in at 270 pounds we have Al & Leon's Shim Sham - a fun and challenging twist on the classic line dance by two infamous members of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. Scourge of the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, he makes the basic Shim Sham quake in its booties. Both will improve your jazz movement and solo vocabulary. Both will be taught by the Jam Cellar Crew for the month of November. But which one will conquer your heart?
Pre-Req: Some dance experience (partnered or otherise) is suggested, but certainly not required. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Whitey's Lindy Hopper's Big Apple
With The Jam Cellar Crew
Big Apple is an exciting solo dance that developed during the Swing era. In this class, you will learn the extremely high energy, and exuberant choreography featured in the movie Keep Punchin' by the legendary dance troupe Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.
You've seen it performed at The Jam Cellar, Glen Echo and other local dances and now is your chance to join the crowd next time you see it going on.
Check out a video clip of the Big Apple on our video blog.
Pre-Req: Some dance experience (partnered or otherise) is suggested, but certainly not required. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Solo Jazz Extravaganza!
With The Jam Cellar Crew
This is the series you've been waiting for! Discover, brush up, or fine tune your solo jazz skills. Line dances like the shim sham show us lindy hoppers what can be done without a partner. Now learn new solo steps and take the classic ones to the next level. Build your move vocabulary and work on styling them to look great.
Pre-Req: For Intermediate/Advanced Lindy Hoppers. Students must be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Tap For Swing Dancers
With Heidi Schultz
Tap Dance has shared roots with the lindy hop and needs little introduction. Heidi will bring on a three week tap sampler for swing dancers of all levels to enjoy. From improving your rhythm to learning a new (old) take on the shim sham- there will be something for everyone. Bring your hard soled shoes and make some noise for the neighbors to love.
Heidi Schultz began teaching tap 17 years ago in Detroit, Michigan and currently teaches as an adjunct professor in American University's Department of Performing Arts in addition to Joy of Motion dance studio. She is a beast in the best sense of the word and teaches classes to more than half of the Jam Cellar crew.
Pre-Req: Some dance experience (partnered or otherise) is suggested, but certainly not required. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
Roots & Offshoots
With Special Guest Teachers
Here is a series like none other — we've combined classes in three different dance styles to make one amazing five week course that you can't find anywhere else. We'll go to the roots of lindy hop with one week of African Dance, then explore the shared syncopations with two weeks of Tap Dance, and finish it out with two more weeks of Lindy Hop's offspring and Washington's own social dance with DC Hand Dance. Every level of swing dancer can benefit from this well-rounded dance experience.
ABOUT TAP DANCE WITH HEIDI SCHULTZ
Tap Dance has shared roots with the lindy hop and needs little introduction. It developed and flourished during the last century and for a time was even called jazz dance, because jazz was the music with which tap dancers performed. Bring your hard soled shoes and make some noise for the neighbors to love.
Heidi Schultz began teaching tap 17 years ago in Detroit, Michigan and currently teaches as an adjunct professor in American University's Department of Performing Arts in addition to Joy of Motion dance studio where she teaches classes to more than half of the JC crew.
ABOUT DC HAND DANCE WITH MARKUS & TRENDLYON
From the Lindy Hop emerged the Jitterbug and during the 50's Washington, D.C. developed its own version and named it Hand Dance. From the early 50's to the mid 60's, Hand Dance was the hub of the Washingtonian dancing experience. It is characterized by gliding footwork and continuous hand contact between the partners, hence its name. This partner dance is seriously the coolest, ask anyone who knows.
Markus Smith & Trendlyon Veal are local DC Hand Dance Champions and innovaters in the dance. They are bad mother-shut-your-mouths.
ABOUT AFRICAN DANCE WITH CHANDA LUPUNGA-PHILLIPS
If you want to truly go to the root of all traditional jazz movement you must go back to African Dance. Grounded in rhythm, it will help you use the whole body to express yourself. Chanda Lupunga-Phillips, a native of Zambia, has been dancing in various capacities as a student, choreographer and teacher for over 22 years. She is currently teaching African dance classes, specifically, soukous dance styles in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.
Pre-Req: No experience necessary. No partner required. You can sign up at the door.
