City Matters recently wrote a great article about Swing Patrol. They covered everything from our journey so far, future plans, and even touching on our amazing dance troupes and teaching team!
“Every week the ballroom of the Bishopsgate Institute opposite Liverpool Street Station hosts a swing dance class.
Similar events in 34 other locations in London attract over 1,500 students. The word ‘swing’ used to refer to the big band sound of the interwar years. In recent decades the term has come to embrace a range of dances, including the 1920s Charleston…
A leading force in the movement is Swing Patrol. Launched by Scott Cupit, the company started initially in his native Australia, where it continues under his business partner. In 2014 Scott appeared on TV’s Dragons’ Den and made a successful pitch to the panel and Deborah Meaden for investment in UK Swing Patrol.
He’s now preparing to launch Swing Train, a chain of fitness shops where swing and other types of music will be combined in a ‘joyful cardio fitness workout’. Like swing itself, Swing Patrol is several things at once…
Currently 120 members belong to four headline troupes with names like ‘Skyliners’ and ‘Dixie Dinahs’. They perform in swing-era costumes at corporate events and parties, and to fellow students at performance events. A recent example was Swing Patrol’s ‘Christmas Extravaganza’ in the plush, starry-ceilinged marquee of the South Bank Ballroom at Waterloo. Swing Patrol also has a high profile on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. In October 2015 the group broke the world record for the world’s largest Charleston at Spitalfields Market.
Last but not least in the Swing Patrol formula is the community side. Going to a Swing Patrol event is like entering a parallel universe ruled by joy. “People are almost pathologically friendly!” Rhiannon from Doncaster joked during the final dance of the Extravaganza.
By tradition journalists are meant to observe and, if things get too hot, ‘make their excuses and leave’. But after a while the temptation to put down the notebook and join in the dancing (badly) with hundreds of others become too much to resist.”
Read the full article here.
