30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge: What Got You Started In Lindy Hop

As announced last week, today I'm going to start a new series.

Every Friday for thirty weeks, I will write about a topic from the list of the “30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge“.

Week #1: What Got You Started In Lindy Hop

It was somewhen in 1995, when I saw a dance show in my hometown. A group of four dancers (I think) showed a Charleston and a Lindy Hop number. Maybe more, I don't remember the details to be honest. But I remember the atmosphere. It was magic!

I always liked Charleston moves, the energy of Lindy Hop (without knowing, that this dance was called like that) and the fashion of the swing era.

At that time, I took ballroom and other dance classes at the local dance school and we were a clan of a few people spending a lot of time together.

One day, we watched “Swing Kids” and again I was impressed by the dancing.

I had to learn those dances.

So, in 1997, I attended the Swiss Lindy Hop Weekend. I had never danced Lindy Hop before but of course, I didn't register for the lowest level. Hey, I'm a dancer ;).

Man, that was hard when we had to do some warm up dances and I had no idea about swing out, bounce and whatsoever. Somehow, I dealt with the situation and it worked quite okay (at least in my point of view…).

After the weekend, I didn't dance Lindy Hop at all. And one year later, I did exactly the same thing again and attended that event. But still, I didn't keep on dancing Lindy afterwards.

One year later, the same dance school offered Lindy Hop classes for beginners and that was my chance to learn the dance from scratch.

And eventually, on Sunday, September 26 in 1999, at 5.30 pm, my Lindy Hop career started.

That's why, I always indicate 1999 as my starting year.


> Next Friday: #2 Your favorite place to dance