Swing dancing (i.e. Lindy Hop, Balboa, Boogie Woogie) is my big hobby these days. It started with Rock’n’Roll dancing some years ago, and when I was in Berkeley I picked up some Lindy. Since February I’ve been going to social lindy dancing every couple of weeks.

This month I’ve become a member of Boogie Bären (yes, that is “boogie bears”), a Munich dance club, and started taking classes in Lindy Hop, Boogie and Balboa every week, in addition to my usual lindy social dancing on sunday.

Right now I’m right in an “extreme dancing” phase. It started tuesday with the Lindy classes (yes, both of them, over 3 hours), followed by the boogie beginners class on wednesday and the balboa beginners class on thursday. Friday there was a great balboa and swing party in a bar, with top attendees: the teachers of the workshops on saturday and sunday (which I have attended and will continue to attend tomorrow), Andy & Christelle from Lyon and Marty & Valerie from Cleveland. They’ve been great teachers so far, and their skills are very impressive. And they showed us some really cute moves.

After the second half of the workshop on sunday, there will be social lindy dancing in the evening again, monday evening there is swing dancing in another bar in Munich [Update: with live music, Route 66, in addition to the usual singing DJ], tuesday will likely feature a liveband and boogie dancing (it’s a holiday, so no regular lindy classes that day), followed again by boogie beginners course on wednesday, balboa class on thursday, maybe balboa and swing dancing in a bar on friday. Maybe I’ll then watch the German championships in Boogie Woogie and Rock’n’Roll on saturday, social dancing on sunday and monday again, and so on.

It’s getting somewhat out of hand, as you can see. I should focus more on my diploma thesis instead… so I’ll skip saturday. ;-)

[Update: did I mention that Munich has a fantastic Lindy/Balboa scene? Upcoming events include a big balboa weekend 11./12. november, the new years swing ball and the Rock that swing festival in February.]