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If you landed here you've heard about our amazing Absolute Beginners Jive Course, including a free trial class. Look through the content below to find out what to expect.

Absolute Beginners SwingJive Course

The Absolute Beginners SwingJive Course is designed for you if you have never done any jive or swing dance before. In fact, most new starters have never done any kind of dance class at all. These courses are a perfect starting point for a weekly adult, evening partner dance class and they lead into an exciting, fun and sociable new world.

Limited Places in Venues... or Learn Online!

To maximize your enjoyment we limit the number of places depending on the size of the hall. Our 'Fixed Partner' courses are designed so that you stay with your partner throughout. Our 'Partner Rotation' courses feature partner rotation throughout, so you can book on your own, with a partner, or with friends. Venue-based learning is supported by free online, on-demand access to the same course at our online school. If venue-based learning doesn't suit you, then join our online school to learn exactly the same content at any time, anywhere in the world!

See What Others Had To Say...

"Hi, Just wanted to say how much my husband and I enjoyed our first dance session last night and what a fun night we had and to thank you." Kind Regards, Angela, Farnham

"They made the course fun and gave lots of encouragement. We thought the method of teaching, concentrating on and perfecting one move at a time, worked." (Anita & Mike, Farnborough)

“The best thing I ever did was to learn to swing jive, I just love it. Thank you for all the great courses, keep up the good work.” Denise, Fareham

See What You Can Learn on The Free Trial...

Whether you attend one of our venue based classes, or trial online, you should be able to dance the following moves by the end of our free trial class:

Open To All Adult Ages and Levels of Fitness

As long as you can walk you should be able to take part. The beauty of this style of dancing is that you can push yourself to whatever energy level you are comfortable with. Dancing is a great form of exercise, you'll be having so much fun that you won't notice all those calories you are burning!

Options For Learning With A Partner

Fixed Partner Courses

Most of our 10-week courses are designed to be taken with a dance partner that you book with. You stay together throughout all the lessons, so this option is ideal when two people want to learn exclusively together. These courses have a 2 person minimum booking requirement, so you need to book both places at the same time using our online booking system.

Partner Rotation Courses

Occasionally, we run "partner rotation" courses. Teachers will organise the room so that dancers rotate partners at regular intervals for participants, which makes it a great opportunity to socialise. There is no minimum booking requirement on partner rotation courses.

Although we may occasionally offer "lead" or "follow" tickets that specify your role, everybody booking an "open" ticket could be asked to dance either role.

Book Your Course Places

Unless stated clearly, you should assume that a course is "Fixed Partner".

Simply book your spaces on our free trial class at the class that suits you best. Our system will send a registration email to confirm the venue, date and time details - please check your spam filter if these don't arrive in your inbox within an hour of booking.

Get a Head Start!

If you would like to get a head start before attending a trial, you can take our online free trial, which contains the same content, or even book a private lesson first before your trial class, either in-person or online!

Who Typically Attends Venue-Based Classes?

Our 'Fixed Partner' courses are popular with couples keen to share a hobby, spend quality time together and rebuild a social life, often at the end of the child-rearing years. We also welcome many couples preparing for wedding receptions, other celebrations and holidays.

Pairings include parent/offspring, sibling/sibling, friend/friend pairings as well as couples who are life partners.

Our 'Partner Rotation' courses are popular with individuals, couples and groups of friends who are looking to get active while expanding their social circle.

These are adult-only classes, so all participants must be at least 18. There is no upper limit.

Dancing helps us be happier and healthier!

What to Expect on Free Trial Day

Arrive just before the advertised start time for your lesson so the teachers can greet you. Groups are typically between 12 and 30 people, everybody is an absolute beginner so everybody will be experiencing similar nerves and excitement. Once it's time to start we do a gentle warm-up and teach a couple of simple moves which you can dance on a loop. Before the end of the session, the teachers will demonstrate all the moves coming up on the course.

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Paying For The Course

Most people pay for the full course directly at the end of the beginners' trial session. Enjoy a discounted price if you pay on or before the night of your trial. If you wait until the following day or week the full price is charged.

If you are committed to joining the course regardless of the free trial on the first week you can pay in advance via the relevant course booking page. Payment secures your place on the course.

See What You Can Learn on The Full 10-Week Course...

Building Your Abilities Week-By-Week

The Absolute Beginners SwingJive Course continues on the same day, time, and place for 9 further one-hour sessions after the free trial week. The course builds week by week, recapping the move from the previous lesson as part of the standard format, and drawing on moves from earlier in the term as you start to build sequences.

For this reason, we don't want any participants to get left behind, so we are looking for people who can commit to attending most weeks (or can catch up via online learning). This ensures a higher quality learning experience for the whole group. For this reason, we only accept payment for the full course. Most customers understand the benefit of attending every week and pre-payment is a great incentive.

Each evening we run 2 or 3 x 1-hour classes. There is normally a 15-minute handover between classes. During this interval, (either before or after your lesson) we will leave music running, you are welcome to practice and chat with the team.

Beyond Absolute Beginners

Once you've completed the Absolute Beginner SwingJive Course, you'll be able to follow on to the natural continuation course, either Intermediate Yellow or Intermediate Green, which can be taken in either order.

Teachers will demonstrate moves for the continuation course, or you can view them on this link. There is a series of 9 x 10-week courses, progressing along a pathway that you can follow, explained on this link.

Swingeasy, our weekly PAYG class and dance format, is a great sociable alternative too.

Beyond these courses, you can find new challenges via workshops and mini-courses, and have fun at our live band events. Swinging Balls are open to all. Our celebrated Swinging Balls have been running for over 20 years. They have built a splendid reputation, attracting the UK's finest jive and swing bands along with huge attendances.

You can visit our home page for more info about lots more classes and events.

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You'll Love The Music

You'll recognise most of the music we play. At the beginner level we use big songs from big artists of the swing and rock'n'roll eras of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

As you progress to higher levels we'll introduce you to more amazing music for dancing, some you may not have heard before! This includes original music from current jive, swing and rock'n'roll bands and less well-known retro music too.

Check out some of the typical music we use on this Spotify playlist! There are are more playlists on this link.

Can't Make Free Trial Day?

As location-based courses run over a set 10-week period, the free trial evening is one specific date each term for each beginner's course. If you are unable to attend that date then other options could be open to you:

  • Free trials may be offered for the 2nd or 3rd week. Tickets would only be made available after the previous week's lesson, and subject to availability.
  • Take an online, on-demand free trialsimply click on this link and take a trial on-demand. You'll still be able to book and pay the course fee for classes at your local venue. Make sure you return back to THIS PAGE to book for your local venue, as paying for the online-only course won't register you at a local venue.
  • Book the course without taking a free trial - use the "Course Fee" ticket option when booking your preferred course
  • Wait for a future courseclick here to join our mailing list for notifications

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    Terms & Conditions

    By booking a course we understand that you accept our terms and conditions, which can be viewed on this link. Terms and conditions cover issues such as payments and refunds, class sizes, arranging dance partners and health and safety.

    Terms & Conditions – Course & Workshop Bookings