WELCOME BACK WORKSHOPS

Time & Cost

Workshops: 7:00 – 9:00 PM

Practice in the ballroom: 9:00 – 11:00 PM

Cost: $25 – pay at the door

Thursday, Nov 11, 2021

Balboa w/ Lian & Matt

Balboa is a type of Swing dance that developed in the 1920s and 1930s in Southern California. It is named after the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach where it was popular! Balboa is an 8-count dance characterized by its intricate footwork and rotational movements. It lends itself nicely to fast music, but you can dance it to any tempo, including slow tempos.

In this workshop, you will learn basic rhythms, footwork, connection, and core moves that comprise Pure Balboa (closed connection) and Bal-Swing (open connection). This workshop is for everyone! No prior experience required!

Collegiate Shag w/ Amanda & Zach

Collegiate Shag is a type of Swing dance that originated in the 1930s. It was popular with college kids during the Jazz and Swing era! There are many different styles of Shag, but this particular style is danced with a 6-count basic, quick and flashy footwork, and a chugging rhythm. It can be danced in closed position, open position, or side by side.

In this workshop, you will learn the basic rhythms, footwork, connection, and core moves of Collegiate Shag. This workshop is for everyone! No prior experience required!

Intermediate Lindy Hop w/ Joanna & Andrew

Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the African-American communities in Harlem, New York City, in 1928. It was very popular during the Swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy Hop is taught as an 8-count dance and is characterized by a move called the Swing Out. You may also spot Lindy Hoppers incorporating 6-count Swing, as well as other dances that preceded it, such as Charleston, Jazz, and Tap.

In this workshop, you will polish your basics and core Lindy Hop moves as well as learn some new, fun figures to add to your repertoire! This workshop is for those who are comfortable with closed and open connection, triple steps, basic passes, and swing outs.

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Happy Birthday Austin Swing Syndicate!

Austin Swing 14th Anniversary DanceI’m so excited that this year is our 14th year of growing, supporting and nurturing the swing dancing scene in Austin and I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to be part of it.

The Austin Swing Syndicate is such a special swing dance community and I hope you will all help us continue growing the love of swing dancing in Austin for years to come!

In honor of our 14th year, here are 14 things that make the Austin Swing Syndicate the best place to dance in the world!

Read more

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Flash Mob Starts Again This Week

If you haven’t seen the video already, you should know that the Austin Swing Syndicate has quite a talent pool of swing dancers ready and willing to flash mob Austin! Our first flash mob at the Alamo Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane was quite a success! Check out the video!

Read more

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Say What??? We’re Starting a Swing Dance Flash Mob Team!

We are starting a Flash Mob. Not quite like this, it'll have more swing outs and such in it vs Michael Jackson. :)

The flash mob we want will have less Michael Jackson Poses and more Swing Outs. 🙂

Oh, hi, hey there! I wanted to share something really exciting with you. Many people over the years have mentioned that it would be super fun to do a Swing Dance Flash Mob in Austin, but the idea has been really intangible, somewhat ethereal, shrouded in mystery , almost metaphysical… There were unanswerable questions, like… How do we start a flash mob??? What do we need to do to make it happen? Would anyone even show up for practices?

Luckily, I’m here to help answer these questions! My name is Dominique, and I’m one of the Austin Swing Syndicate’s brand new At-Large board members. My favorite pet-project possibility during elections was a desire to help start a Swing Dance Flash Mob Team in Austin, or at least get the ball rolling until our members will be able to keep it afloat on their own! And so we’re going to be making it happen, starting on Thursday April 11th! At the Fed! From 8:45-9:45 in the Art Gallery! Read more

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Rollerskating on Tuesday, April 2nd

Rollerskating with the Austin Swing Syndicate
Part of our continued initiatives this year as a board is to create events where our members can mingle and get to know each other. Too often our conversations go like this:

A Person: Hey, wanna dance?

Another Person: Sure!

A Person: What’s your name (again)? >.< Another Person: I’m Another Person, what’s your name?

A Person: I’m A Person.

…dance, dance, dance…

Another Person: Well, thanks for the dance, it was fun!

A Person: Thanks, it was.

And we think that works for us pretty well, except it’s TOTALLY LAME for developing community and making real friends, and pretty much every person needs community and real friends, dancers included.

Now you may be saying, “Hey! I do have real friends, don’t be stupid!” Ok, most of you probably do, but who doesn’t want MORE?!?! Read more

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Join Our Thursday Night Staff!

Join our Staff at Austin Swing Syndicate

We will be hosting training sessions in the coming weeks for those interested in joining the Austin Swing Syndicate staff. This is a great opportunity to help your local swing dance scene as our staff are our most important helpers! Thursday nights would not happen without them!

Please note, for the shifts we are training for, pay is $10/hour in cash!

Here’s how it works: There are three types of shifts. Opening, Front Desk, and Closing. Below is a schedule for training for these shifts. If you are interested in training for any of these, you will only need to show up for the part of the training relevant to the shift you would like. Read more

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6th Annual Swing Central Tradition Continues

6th Annual Swing Central at Central Market - Swing Dancing Competition
We’re so excited to announce our 6th year of collaborating with Central Market to put on a local swing dance competition.

ALL LEVELS are welcome to compete, and we highly encourage it! This is a great opportunity to get a taste of competing before the Lone Star Championships at Lindyfest in mid-March!

The Swing Central contest is a Jack-and-Jill format. What’s a Jack-and-Jill, you say? The format includes 2 parts, prelims and finals. During prelims, contestants are randomly paired into couples and judged individually. Usually they rotate and each individual gets 3 different dance partners during prelims. Then once finalists are announced, couples are again randomly chosen, but are then judged as a couple. Read more

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Thoughts on Dancing Series – Lindsay Chronister

I figured as one of the leaders of the Austin Swing Syndicate I would help start of our blog by writing about my personal story of how I started dancing, why I love it, and what I hope for the swing dance community in the coming years.

First, it’s time for a background story. I still remember the first swing dancing lesson I took. It was my senior year of high school and the leader of my small group at church thought it would be fun for our little group of three to go dancing together. So, on a Tuesday night, we finished our study early and drove over to Southside Preservation Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.

The first swing dance I learned was Balboa, which was strange for a first experience. There I am, an awkward, introverted senior in high school learning the balboa, a dance where a close embrace is key. Honestly, I didn’t really like Balboa at the time (love it now!) but after the lesson a guy named Riley taught me the east coast swing and danced with me a few times. We were around the same age and it was definitely nice to have someone who knew what they were doing to dance with. It gave me a taste of how fun swing dancing can be if you stick with it, and I did!

From stories I’ve heard other people tell who are now long-term swing dancers, nearly everyone has a Riley who took the time to dance with them when they were just beginning to learn and showed them just how fun swing dancing can be. I hope I’ve been a Riley on some level to a few people as well!

Now, why do I love dancing?

Like many of you, I first fell in love with dancing because it’s fun and that’s the main reason I still dance today. Read more

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Welcome to the new Austin Swing Syndicate Blog!

Hi Austin Swing Syndicate!

I’m so proud to announce our new website! I hope you find it helpful as we continue to develop it over time.

Lots of people helped contribute to creating this, but I want to give special thanks to Jonathan Jow for building the final website and Laura Glaess for designing our logo and other marketing materials like business cards and posters. Another big thanks to Ian Alexander for helping with the content!

Also, we have replaced the forums on the old website with a bright, new, shiny blog! The forums haven’t been used in quite a long time, so we’ve decided to modernize and start a blog. The best part is, all of you are welcome to contribute!

To contribute, all you have to do is… Read more

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