Swing lesson 4 | Brunswick

(Monday nights at Bridie’s, Brunswick.)

Last night we continued our 6-beat phrases, this time moving into cross-hand open position, leads spinning beneath lifted arms and placing the follow’s right hand on our right shoulders forming a reverse tandem position (leads in front, follows behind), then doing a little 8-beat shuffle forwards.

I’m glad I’m getting a whole lot of 6-beat everywhere I go, as both Brunswick and Yarraville are focussing on these phrases. Unfortunately it means my 8-beat Charleston is being left behind a bit, and from some of the things I’ve learnt from my friends it’s got some pretty awesome phrases. It doesn’t matter though, as I’m sure we’ll end up back in Charleston territory one of these days, or perhaps next semester, so there isn’t really any rush; 6-beat is a lot of fun so I’m happy learning it.

Watching a few of the advanced dancers practicing Lindy before their class (after ours) is pretty inspiring; I really do want to learn Lindy as quickly as possible. CBD is doing Level 1 Lindy, but they’re half-way through their programme, so even though I’d be able to jump in as a Level 1, it’s still important to learn it from scratch, and missing the first few lessons would probably put me significantly behind.

I’ve got a fairly busy week ahead of me, so I’m not sure whether I’ll make it out to Swing Patrol Werribee this Wednesday, but I’ll do my utmost to get out there and check it out. If they’re half-way through a Charleston programme I might not go again, but I’m picking everything up really fast and really enjoying it, I want as much Swing as I can fit in and afford in a week!

Thursday we’ll be back at Acquae Vino, and this Friday will be the Fun Pit Social! Even after just one week of lessons, I think I’ve got enough 6-beat phrases to social-dance with our little group, we just have to try and break out of our habit of following the format that we practise the phrases in our lessons, and really get into leading and following.