Swing lesson 3 | Yarraville

(Thursday nights at Acquae Vino, Yarraville)

I seem to be doing the tour of Melbourne Swing Patrol nights, or at least as many as I can get to conveniently. Last Friday saw my debut at the Fun Pit in Richmond, Monday at Bridie’s in Brunswick, and tonight – Thursdays at Acquae Vino in Yarraville with a goodly little crowd too. Some of the men-folk weren’t as confident as those at the other two locations, but most of them enjoyed themselves nevertheless. This is only the second night ever for Yarraville having only started last week, so they’re doing pretty well for one of Swing Patrol’s newest groups.

Tonight saw us learning the basic six-step I learnt on Monday, but this time with follows twirling once beneath the lead’s left arm to the open position. From there we twirled again to the side-by-side position with arms locked going into a leaning pose which everyone had great fun doing. It requires a little trust on the girls’ behalf as they have to have confidence that the guys won’t drop them, but for the less confident, a small but stylish lean was perfectly acceptable, and no-one met the floor tonight which is pretty good for a room full of beginners. Coming out of the lean, we swung follows out again with a spin to a reverse open position, letting them twirl yet again beneath the left-arm to the normal open position, then closing the same way that was taught on Monday. All in all the Yarraville teachers move through things quicker which leaves one or two of the members behind, but mostly the whole group learnt quickly and we had a blast twirling and spinning, and even doing the whole routine rather quickly to some faster music. The best thing about tonight’s class though was that we went overtime by roughly 40 minutes, so it was almost like a double lesson! I think Shob (short for the Indian name Shobhana) and Andy, the Yarraville teachers, really just enjoy teaching and seeing everyone enjoy themselves, so they really got into it and didn’t mind at all going overtime. Mind you, every teacher we’ve seen has really been into it, and they’re all fantastic people and great mentors, but Shobs and Andy just seemed to be a lot more free with the time schedule. Part of that though may be that at present there isn’t a level 2 class in Yarraville as again, it is only new; I imagine most of the groups are like this when they start.

I’ve ordered my 10 class discount card which should come in the post tomorrow or Monday, and am seriously thinking of trying out Werribee on Wednesday nights too. That’ll mean Brunswick on Monday, Werribee on Wednesday if I become a regular, Yarraville on Thursday, and the Fun Pit every second Friday. A bit expensive with so many lessons/night in a week, but it’s just so much fun, and really easy. Tonight after the lesson was done, our little crew started eagerly practicing with much more confidence than we have on nights gone past; it really is fantastic and enjoyable – I keep saying that!

My goal is to learn Lindy in 12 months if I can! That might be easy or it might be impossible – if it’s easy to get the basics down, then I want to at least dance Lindy competently in 12 months; I know it’ll most likely be a few years before I can dance with the style that the more experienced people do, but it looks great and I really would like to be at that level of skill – not only for its intricacy, but because it simply is a whole lot of fun.