Join Paul & Christi for a full day of Lindy Classes during the Fringe Festival!

Venue: Carlton Centre; Saturday 09 Aug

11am-1pm Aerial Attack (air steps & tricks)

2pm-5pm Ground Assault (int adv / adv lindy)

Plus an evening dance with a military theme!

£18 for all-day pass / £30 per couple – Partner needed for air steps.
Classes / dance also priced separately.

To book, please contact christi.rankin@gmail.com and join on facebook to stay up-to-date

Our last classes for this term are 22nd July for Blues, 23rd July for Lindy (<- cabaret night!) BUT we’re back at the usual times and venues after a month break for the Fringe Festival on the 2nd/3rd September.

Don’t forget to check out some of the awesome live acts at Edinburgh’s Jazz and Blues Festival (July 18-27) and stay posted to the Edinbop Facebook page for last minute Fringe outings!

We’re only 7 days away from the last shoeswing before the August break and what better way to go out than a cabaret!

The Summer Cabaret is set to be great fun and an excellent way to get into the festival spirit, so bring your friends and family along for a good time. There are still some places left if you’ve got hidden talents and would like to dazzle, don’t be shy ;).  Just email edinbop@info.co.uk

See you there!

We’re less than two weeks out from cabaret now and it’s set to be a really great night! What better way to get into the festival spirit than some fun acts and lovely dancing.

There is still space available if you have a hidden talent and would like to perform, just email info@edinbop.co.uk.

Thanks for all those who came along to our classes in May. It was fun month of teaching where we covered a wide variety of topics. It was great to see some new faces in our beginner class as well.

Thanks also for Julie who filled if for the last week when Leigh was injured (let’s not mention what lead, lead her into that coffee table :))

Week Two: 13th May 2015

Beginners: Open blues dancing.

We explored dancing in open. How we can use visual lead and follow to play with music and our partner. We did some exercises with gentle lead and follow using a single hand hold – walking round the room and then turning it into dancing.

We then took some more formal blues basics and applied them to open position. Moving forward and backwards and adding rotation.

To finish over we learned a free turn and a mess around (just for the fun of it!)

Some of the tunes we used in the class:

• Allen Toussaint – Happy Times
• Etta James – Spoonful
• Bobby “Blue” Bland – St. James Infirmary

Improvers: Conversational Dancing

In this class we explored how we communicate with our partner beyond traditional lead and follow. We started in open and experimented with ways in which the follow can change the movement. E.g. slow it down. As leads we explored how to give the follower space to add in the dance and to listen to when this is happening.

We then explored what moves are better places for the follower to add in the dance. Working on places were we could follow but add more using the “YES and..” principle. With the leads we also explored how to make moves more open to allow follower to add easier.

Now that we found some good spaces to add, we explored what types of things the follower could easily add and we provided some demos.

Some of the tunes we used in the class:

• Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns – Organ Grinder
• Little Walter – Blues With a Feeling
• Richard Berry – Sweet Sugar You
• Freddy Cole – Blues Before Sunrise

Week Three: 21st May 2015

Beginners: Funky Blues

We started with a vanilla basic pulse on our own to get used to the music. In solo we practiced adding “booty” swing to this basic and experimented with make it bigger and smaller. Then we teamed to try with a partner practicing how we can use your own movement to communicate with our partner. The class then explored how to feel the difference with a normal basic.

We then added some rotation to move again working on doing with our body what we want to lead. We then used this as a basis for the basket. We practiced this move and explored ways of changing the speed and duration of the move.

We finished off with Leigh’s favourite move.. a smaller version of the swing away with the weight on one side… jiggle, jiggle, jiggle!

Improvers: Fast Blues in Closed

This was a fun class which pushed us to look tackling faster blues music. We started out by dancing solo to some faster blues music to get warmed up. We then explored what moves and what choices work when the music is faster. We noticed that ballrooming  moves and big turns etc didn’t work as well and smaller contained moves in open worked well. We also explored half time moves and what of these worked with the music.

We worked on some footwork rhythms and variations we can apply to faster music well while keeping a clear pulse.

We then experimented with transforming some of our well known moves for faster music. Namely: fishtails and apple jacks.

Finally we talked about breaking up the fast music with some contrasting moves. e.g swivel hips, slow shimmy.

Some of the tunes we used in the class:

• Howlin’ Wolf – Wang Dang Doodle – Single Version
• Howlin’ Wolf – Smokestack Lightnin’
• Pee Wee Crayton – Blues At Daybreak

Week Four: 28th May 2015

Beginners: Blues in closed Embrace

In this class we explored the basics of moving about the follow in closed embrace. We also did an introduction to cross steps (also known as ochos) a useful move to have in your toolbox.

Improvers: Dips and Tricks

By request we looked at some dips and tricks.

First one we looked at is dip on the back of the lead after a tuck turn. Hear we had to work to make sure our follow was well aligned with the lead. Once we had it we worked on making it a nice smooth transition throughout.

We then looked at a trick for the follows. Where after a turn into open the follower can anchor themselves and use counter balance to unwind into a turn.

Next up we worked on a leg flick trick by the follows. Lead by the leads coming out of a blues circle using the circular momentum we have created.

Taking a slight detour we reviewed our cross steps (ochos). We especially touched on the contra body movement in the follows to allow the cross steps to have a more curvy appearance.

We finished up by applying the same leg flick to the end of our ochos using the turn at the end of the ochos as our prep for the leg flick.

It was a fun way to round out the month!

We’ve had a few questions lately on what types of shoes work best for swing dancing, so here’s a few recommendations!

If you’re a new dancer coming to your first lessons, any smooth-soled, flat shoes will be perfect. Make sure they won’t slip off your feet on the dancefloor – ones that lace up are ideal.

If you’ve been dancing for a while, you might be looking at investing in some specific dancing shoes. Some dancers prefer suede soles and others like leather soles – this helps us glide on wooden floors in dance halls, means we can pivot, and saves our knees from a lot of potential pain!

For Lindy Hop, we recommend wearing flat soles to allow for the athletic movements and high pace. For Balboa followers, you may find wearing heels will help to give you the perfect position to shuffle away all night!

Some people buy ordinary shoes and then get the soles sueded – there is a locksmiths on South Clerk Street (almost opposite Sainsburys / the post office) that Edinburgh dancers often go to.

Alternatively, you may want to buy shoes already designed for dancing, such as Aris Allens or Bleyer. There are a few websites where you can buy swing dance shoes listed below, but always make sure you do some research into the fit before ordering them:
www.swingdanceuk.com
www.revival-retro.com
www.bleyershoes.com

This weekend is the Meadows Festival so come along and show off what Edinbop are all about with some public dancing and sharing the love with potential new dancers – whatever the weather!

ALL DANCERS ARE WELCOME to take part in a little social dancing – NO PREPARATION NECESSARY!

We’ll play a few tracks to get you set for lindy, balboa and blues – so there will be something for everyone. We’ll be dancing on grass and/or the pavement so you don’t need your best dance shoes!

Meeting point will be 1:45pm on Middle Meadow Walk, on the grass opposite Peter’s Yard. At 2pm, we may move to another spot closeby so don’t be late or you’ll miss us!

We’ll be done by 3pm so you can enjoy the rest of this awesome Festival (and find live bands for MORE dancing!): http://www.meadowsfestival.org/

Join/see any updates here

Some of you may have already seen in the newsletter that, prices will be increasing from June 2014.

Edinbop is committed to providing access to quality swing dancing classes and nights of social dancing for everyone, and as a result we aim to make our prices as low as possible.

Cabaret is back for a summer edition! Get your acts together and bring friends, family and anyone whose not yet witnessed the spectacle of this brilliant night to the Counting House in July. A great way to get ready for the festival in August!

Share your hidden talents with the most enthusiastic audience you’ll EVER find. And anything goes. Previous performances include dances, songs, live music, stories, juggling, breakdancing…the only rule is that acts are kept short.
3 MINS MAX.

So, come find me (Dan) at the Counting House on a Wednesday evening and let me know if you like to do an act on 23rd July, alternatively email info@edinbop.co.uk. Spaces are limited so get in quick!

(Classes will run as normal on the night & social dancing starts at 9pm. The first acts will kick off at about 9.30pm)

Edinbop is committed to providing access to quality swing dancing classes and nights of social dancing for everyone, and as a result we aim to make our prices as low as possible.

However, due to a rather steep 50% increase in rent for our Wednesday night venue, we have reluctantly come to the difficult decision of increasing the prices for the first time in a number of years.

To keep the impact to you as low as possible, the price of classes will now just automatically include social dancing (still discounted to £1) and the cost of social dancing alone will increase to £3. The new prices for Wednesday Shoeswing will apply from June 2014 and are shown below:

1 class (includes social dancing): £5.50 // £4.50 student
2 classes (includes social dancing): £10 // £8 student
Social only: £3

The Tuesday Spoonful prices will also be increasing – more details will be circulated soon.
If there’s anything you want to know about the Edinbop finances or the changes, please collar one of the committee members for a chat or email info@edinbop.co.uk.