General

Aerials have been a key part of Lindy Hop since the beginning. When Frankie Manning talked about aerials his eyes would light up as he explained the joy of a well executed aerial with the music. Many of the Swing Patrol team continue this legacy and you will see fabulous aerials in many of our […]

Regular blues dancer, Dalvinder, has written about blues dancing and kindly shared it with us: 1) Dance to some awesome music… Muddy Waters, Irma Thomas and Etta James are just some of the artists you might hear when you dance the blues. Whether it’s a just one man and his guitar or a singer backed […]

 There are so many benefits of dancing for children and young adults. Jenny Silverstone from MomLovesBest.com, a research-driven parenting blog has put together this awesome article, capturing so many of the reasons that dance is so important at a young age and highlights the value of it as part of a school curriculum. This article […]

On Saturday 18th May, Swing Patrollers danced up a storm in the Spiegel Tent to the sounds of the Brighton Jazz Mafia Big Band. This amazing All Star 18 piece band, formed from the cream of the Brighton jazz scene, recreated the iconic sounds of the 40s and 50s and we all had a blast! Kicking off […]

It is with sadness that we write about the passing of the legendary Norma Miller, the Queen of Swing. On 5th May, at the age of 99 Norma left us, surrounded by family and friends. The last surviving member of the original Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, Norma has truly left behind a legacy. This was the […]

The Big Practice (and other things)…   Each year in February we hold a 2 hour session in the lovely large ballroom at Bishopsgate Institute. It is totally free of charge, and students of all levels are all welcome to come and ask absolutely any (dance-related) questions they have! We also have mini workshops happening […]

Swing Patrol celebrated their 10th Birthday party on the evening of the 23rd February. The festivities kicked off with a taster class at 7pm with the amazing Nick & Susie. We then danced the night away until 2am to the sounds of our awesome vintage DJs Ben Cook, Christopher Allen and Vic Araullo Peters! And […]

Our Christmas ball was a total sellout this year! Kicking off with our usual taster class taught by the lovely Lydia Francis and Luca Zanni, we then danced the night away to live music from Michael McQuaid’s Swing Stars interspersed with sets from our awesome vintage DJs! We had exciting performances starting with the Swing Patrol […]

London Throwdown is always one of the highlights of  the year for the Swing Patrol community! An epic weekend festival dedicated to throwing down hard and fast, this weekend is all about the art of competing. For the social dancers out there there was plenty of time for dancing to the live bands and DJs every […]

We love the Performance Ball. One of our biggest events of the year,  it’s the night where the students take to the stage! Each year the performances get more and more creative and 2018 saw some amazing ones! Check out our videos and photo gallery below to see the shows and social dancing!

Swing dancer extraordinaire Frankie Manning was a leading dancer at Harlem’s legendary Savoy Ballroom where in the mid-1930s, he revolutionised the course of the lindy hop with his innovations, including the air step. As a featured dancer and chief choreographer for the spectacular Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, he performed in numerous films (including Hellzapoppin’ (1941)), and […]