Online classes in Corona time
From the 1st of June we will offer two online solo dancing courses on Zoom:
Tranky Doo
The Tranky Doo is one of the most famous solo routines in the Lindy-Hop world. Check out a version of Harlem Hotshots:
In the last few weeks we have taught the Tranky Doo to a group of our regular students, and figured out an online format that works for many:
Instructions videos available any time
When you register you get access to a set of instruction videos that break down the Tranky Doo from start to finish. That includes practice videos, where you can dance along on different speeds. In principle, you could learn the Tranky Doo completely from these videos.
Weekly online interactive meetings
To help you practice, we also offer a weekly meeting with a teacher, where you can practice together with others, clear up things that are unclear, and fine-tune your movement. It also is a chance to interact with the people you miss meeting on the dance floor, and have some drinks after class!
In the last classes you will get the chance to send a video of yourself dancing, so we can address the most important points of improvement and give some personal feedback. Find out more about the schedule and registration here.
Solo Improvisation
Always wanted to join one of those jams or contests, but not sure how to? (Such as this super-pro example) This is your chance to get more comfortable with dancing by yourself and increase your vocabulary! Solo dancing will also improve your partner dancing, because it provides a chance to focus on the quality of your movement and makes you familiar with a whole range of footwork variations to throw in at any time.
In this course we will explore familiar shapes and moves, and see how we can vary with them endlessly, and how you can give your own twist to all the classics. Find out more about the schedule and registration here.
Regular (pre-Corona) Curriculum
Here you find an overview of our curriculum, and your potential route through our courses. New courses start every September, November, February and April, so each year contains 4 blocks. You can start with the first course (Lindy 1) at any of those times.
Below you’ll find more detailed descriptions of each of those courses, so you can make a good choice. We don’t teach each of the courses listed below in every block, have a look at the schedule to see which courses are offered right now.
Main course
The curriculum for the first year is fixed, it consists of 4 courses: Lindy 1 – 4. After that, in Lindy Recursion, a variety of topics will be taught, depending on the students in the course.
Extra’s
Besides the main courses, you can take a level higher or lower, ask your teacher for recommendations.
Some of the block we also offer other courses, e.g. solo and partner routines or a role switching class. See the scheme on the left for recommendations about when to take the extra courses.
In addition to this, we organise extra activities, such as practice sessions, summer classes and our annual festival Ceuvel Swing Camp.
Course Descriptions
This course is your starting point for dancing Lindy Hop. You will learn the basics of swing partner dancing: leading, following and improvising with your first moves. Before you know it you’ll be ready to join the dance floor at one of the weekly Lindy Hop parties in Amsterdam.
During the classes we change partners, so everybody will get to dance with all the leaders or all the follows. This is the best way to learn how to lead and follow, and it means it is not necessary to sign up with a partner.
Lindy 2 is for those who have done the Lindy 1 course or have about 2 months experience elsewhere. In this course, we solidify the basic techniques you’ve learned in Lindy 1, by using them in new moves. And we’ll introduce you to some of the classic must-have moves like Swing-outs and Lindy circles.
For Lindy 3 you should have been dancing for about 5 months, In this course, we will extend the vocabulary that you have built up, keep working on our swing-outs, add some Charleston and do some technical training: bouncing and turning. And last but not least: have a lot of fun!
Lindy 4 is the last course in your first year of Lindy Hop. We will go over everything you’ve learned in the first year and work on the more subtler detail of your dancing. And last, but certainly not least, we’ll add some new fancy and shiny things on top of all that technique!
In the Recursion and Recursion+ classes, we will work on techniques such as posture, bounce, rotation, stretch and connection and dive into it a little deeper. With this deeper technical knowledge, we’ll be able to dance fancier and fancier moves. Throughout the course, we will also start to speed up tempo! There’s a lot of flexibility, feel free to suggest specific topics. If you have a bit of experience in both leading and following we encourage you to switch roles between classes, or dance the material in the other role during the practice time after class.
Lindy Recursion is for those who have been dancing at least a year or spent a lot of hours on the social dance floor. In this course, we will assume you know the basics of both Lindy-Hop and Charleston, including swing-outs. If you want to join our classes but haven’t taken classes with us before, then please send us a message so we can advise you on which level will suit you best. We may ask you to dance with us beforehand, or take the first class as a try out, to see whether this level of classes match your and our expectations.
The Lindy Recursion+ classes are for dancers who have danced for at least one year, and have taken at least one block of Recursion classes before. These classes will cover similar material as the Recursion classes, but at a slightly higher level.
Note: if you take the Recursion and Recursion+ class together during the same block, then you’ll get a 50% discount on the second course!
The Busy Beaver level is our highest level Lindy Hop, aimed at dancers who have been dancing Lindy Hop for at least two years, and are up for a challenge. You know all basic figures and can easily lead or follow variations on those. You are interested to nerd out about the technique behind your dancing, eager to learn and improve your dancing. Throughout the course, we will also start to speed up tempo! There’s a lot of flexibility, feel free to suggest specific topics. If you have a bit of experience in both leading and following we encourage you to switch roles between classes, or dance the material in the other role during the practice time after class.
If you want to join our classes but haven’t taken classes with us before, then please send us a message so we can advise you on which level will suit you best. We may ask you to dance with us beforehand, or take the first class as a try out, to see whether this level of classes match your and our expectations.
More and more people know both how to lead and follow in our scene, and we really like that at AlgoRhythm! So what better than to work together with a group of ambidancetrous people on our proficiency in both roles, and in getting creative with switching roles, while learning more about what the roles are and how they relate? Nothing better.
This 10-week course has 3 learning objectives:
– Improve in both roles, and mostly in your non-primary role (if you have one)
– Get creative with smoothly switching roles with your dance parter at more and places in your dance
– Blending the two roles, so that at times you don’t know who’s leading anymore. For this we will discuss extensively which techniques overlap in both roles, and what the difference is between them, and where in a dance this shows up.
If you want to join you need at least some proficiency in both roles. You have been taking classes in one role for at least a year, and have been practicing your other role, perhaps in classes, perhaps only on socials or in private practice.
The dance level in this class might end up being quite varied, so we will do our best to tailor the class to this fact: we’ll have extra exercises ready for the more advanced dancers that can be asked for at any time, when you feel you need more challenge.
In this class we will go back to the early days of Lindy-Hop. Every week we’ll cover classic routines and moves while simultaneously learning some of the fantastic history behind the dancers of old times. This class is an ELEF class (Everybody Leads and Everybody Follows). You need to be comfortable with swing-outs to join, but only in at least one role. No experience is needed in your secondary role.
So this course is an ideal way to learn your other role, so you can start switching after!