Lindy Hop is a dance that emerged in 1928 when Black dancers, "Shorty" George Snowden and Mattie Purnell, lost their grip and briefly broke away only to return to each other again. Lindy Hop is first and foremost a Black dance having been created during the Harlem Renaiisance and took flight at the legendary Savoy Ballroom as an expression of Black kinetic values such as call-and-response, improvisation and making African-American rhythms visible on the dance floor.

What is East Coast Swing, Jitterbug and Swing?

When swing dance schools or related festivals and events refer to east coast swing, jitterbug or swing, they're often referring to Lindy Hop, albeit a specific rhythm pattern featuring Slows and Quicks. These names indicate these organizations are engaging in cultural appropriation rather honoring the Black heritage or creators by using the names they gave their dances. Much like jazz, swing dances contain a multitude of rhythms and call on dancers to express themselves individually even while in partnership. East Coast Swing or Jitterbug was created to reduce the rhythms, limit individual expression and create a hierarchy where the leader, typically male, is the role dominant over the follower, typically female. Black social dances, rather, encourage mutual assertiveness. Lindy Hop and other Black social dances were dances of liberation, joy and freedom and made people fear upheaval of the status quo.

Where can I find social swing dancing in Denver?

Swingin' Denver offers a multitude of options through the year with our partnerships and collaborations across metro Denver and beyond often featuring live music. Here in Denver, you can also find options at The Pearl, Denver Turnverein, Avalon Ballroom in Boulder and other spots around town. When you find a favorite band, we encourage you to follow them so you can discover other venues where you can dance!

How can I stay informed about classes and events?

We encourage you to check out our website calendar and follow us on Facebook.

What should I wear to a dance class?

Lindy Hop is a casual dance and can be as athletic as you'd like it with a variety of rhythms, kicks, hops and bouncing. We suggest comfortable clothes that you can move around in, and non-marking flat shoes that will stay on your feet (open backed shoes or flip flops don’t work well.) Followers don’t generally wear heels in Lindy. If you have leather soled shoes, maybe bring a backup option in case you think the floor is a bit too slick.

Do you offer private lessons?

Some of our instructors do offer private lessons. Please email info@swingindenver.com. We offer private lessons for those seeking choreography, wedding dance help, improvement and other reasons.

What are the dance roles called?

The two dance roles are called leader and follower. Either gender can dance either role and switch during a dance if consent is there. Since we teach Black social dances, it's important to emphasize these roles are mutually assertive and both partners can be dancing different rhythms at the same. Much like how these dances encourage you to create bent lines and revel in asymmetry so is that asymmetry found between partners as we're constantly listening to the other partner and responding in time.

accessibility — Thoughts on all things swing

Kyle Smith’s feedback on this initial visual design shared on this blog post lives rent-free in my mind especially as a parent - “Kenny, this looks like baby poo brown.”

It’s been ten years since we hosted Percolatin’ Rhythm, a free live music event created to introduce ourselves to the Five Points Neighborhood. I was struggling with the image design and likely lacked a budget to hire someone. It can be a bit rough sometimes not knowing how to express your need for assistance.

Fortunately, that color text against a black background rated a 15.43 according to this Colour Contrast Checker though the choice of an italics font is questionable. Visual accessibility is important for our overall mission to increase accessibility and awareness of Lindy Hop and other Black social dances. Here are some important tools friends have recommended I use.

Photopea

Free Adobe Photoshop equivalent which has an eyedropper tool. If you don’t know the hex color code, drop the file into Photopea and select the eyedropper tool to find out.

Color Checker Online Tools:

Knowing the colors you’re working with, you can use the following tools to assess which color combinations are best. For our branding, especially on Instagram posts, we’ve found it useful to play with Opacity settings in order to create better backgrounds for texts while still allowing the image to “shine” through.

Coolors
WebAIM
Color Adobe (we don’t remember if they’ll eventually ask for money to use their service)
Colour Contrast Checker

Our preferences are Colour Contrast Checker since you can also test font sizes and types along with Coolors because it has resource material on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

If I have doubts about my colors or typography (font type, size), I’ll run it by my friends more familiar with visual accessiblity and willing to provide feedback. It’s always important to check in and see if you’re providing all the information necessary for enhancing access for all people.

We have a venue accessibility form! Big thanks to Max, Von, Noelle and Addie for their contributions shaping this form. You’re welcome to view and perhaps fill out if you manage a venue that already works with us or wants to!

Since our first Lindy Bop event, we’ve been striving to create Accessibility Guides for the various venues where we host events. Others include -

As you can see, they are a work in progress and inconsistently include the venues we’ve worked with since March, 2025. One example is us needing to include parking information for Little Man (thanks, Noelle, for asking!). We appreciate the folks asking questions and commenting.

We’ll even include a blurb about Lindy Hop or whatever dance style we’re featuring so people can better plan ahead. Increasing access and providing information ahead of time is crucial.

Due to our learning process, I wanted to help us reduce leaving important access information from our guides so I compiled everything we’ve included from past forms and new ones like parking and, even more, recently lighting. So take a look! What do you think? Are there other accessibility factors we ought to consider?

Marketing Materials - are they visually accessible?

We Have A Venue Accessibility Form!