Nottingham Lindy Hop are very excited to host a Brilliant Balboa – Introduction to Balboa afternoon workshop with the wonderful Mandy & Ian from Balboa Connection.

Explore this beautiful connected swing dance through foundational Pure-Bal and Bal-Swing rhythms and techniques that will have you social dancing basic patterns by the end of the session.

No experience or partner required. Dancers will rotate so all leads will dance with all follows.

Note: More experienced dancers can use the practice time to dust off their skills when in a rotation with appropriate partners.

BOOK NOW: https://nottinghamlindyhop.dancecloud.com/dance/36614

💛 2.15pm – Doors open, check in

💛 2.30 – 5.30pm – Class time with breaks and guided practice with Mandy & Ian

About the dance: Balboa is a wonderful partnered, connected, often rotational, swing dance. It uses a relaxed close hold connection as well as some more open positions, using smooth, shuffling, sliding, and swinging footwork patterns to enable us to dance smoothly to very quick tempos but can also be enjoyed at slower tempos too. Some of the techniques and moves in Balboa can also be incorporated into Lindy Hop dance or danced solo in Jazz freestyle. Dancing Balboa is a joy in itself, with a long history and culture to discover, but will also teach you more about getting comfortable with connection and relaxed rhythmical footwork.

Video examples: I’ve put a short playlist together of some Balboa dance examples on our You Tube page – Inspiration: Balboa dance

Teachers: Mandy and Ian have taught Balboa in Nottingham and Leicester for many years and are very experienced, kind and gentle Balboa teachers so you will be in safe hands while having a lot of fun along the way too. Our Lisa will also be around to help things run smoothly through the afternoon. 

Venue: St Christopher’s Church Hall, Trent Road, Sneinton, Nottingham (separate building to side of/behind the church).

Breaks: Simple refreshments are provided during breaks throughout the session. 

Travel: There is free on street parking around the venue with some, limited spaces inside the gates. The venue is also close to bus routes from the city centre and we can keep bicycles safe inside if you wish to cycle or scoot.

Clothing: Wear comfortable clothing, tops should cover the back, shoulders and chest. Layers are good that you can adjust depending on how warm you get but avoid tags/tassel/hooks etc that could get caught up. 

Footwear: should be comfortable with a slippy (not grippy) sole. Note you can temporarily adapt grippy soles with duct tape or dance socks if you don’t have anything that slides easily. Lisa can help you with this if you ask her. Follower dancers may be more comfortable in a slight vintage style heel or wedge (this should NOT be a narrow, spiky stiletto type heel however).

BOOK NOW: We’re trialling online booking for this event so please get your tickets in advance at the link below:

https://nottinghamlindyhop.dancecloud.com/dance/36614

Future: I’m hoping that if this event is successful we can build on this workshop to bring Balboa classes back to Nottingham so if you’ve not tried it before, this is the perfect time to give it a whirl, if you have then I hope you’d like to refresh your skills and join us in building a Balboa community here again. So please come along and support us if you’re able.

Love to you all, Lisa xx