München (Munich!) has a great swing scene - alive and kicking.

Lindy Hop [wikipedia], Balboa [wikipedia], Boogie Woogie [wikipedia] (~ East Coast Swing) and Rock’n’Roll [wikipedia] (the acrobatic version) all over the place.

Since starting dancing (RnR some years ago, Lindy a year ago, all just socially until about half a year where I took on the others as well and started going to some real trainings), they’ve become an essential part of my life that I wouldn’t want to miss.

If you happen to come to Munich, here are some links for you:

  • Swing and the City, the homepage of Christine von Scheidt, a world class dancer and trainer as well as judge in some contests gives Lindy Hop classes that are excellent.
  • The Cord (Sonnenstraße, very central location in Munich) has a great metropolitan flair and a swing night every monday thursday, often with live music (which may or may not be great for dancing). Cat and Chris of ‘Swing and the City’ give teaser classes there, too.
  • Salon Erna at Optimolwerke (near Ostbahnhof, also quite central, at the big party areal in Munich) is the home of Swing on Sunday. There is a beginners class as 19:30 with changing trainers and topic (usually Lindy Hop). While a bar like Cord, there are mostly dancers here.
  • Swing it! is organizing social dancing events with livebands about once a month. Unfortunately, the previous location closed down (not due to Swing It, which got the place really crowded), but they’ll hopefully find a new home soon. [Update: they’re in Brickhouse now]
  • Boogie-Bären is the dancing club I’m in. They have four Lindy Hop classes on Tuesday, two Balboa classes on thursday and Boogie Woogie classes on most days.
  • Near Fürstenfeldbruck (north-west of Munich) there is the Tanzfabrik Überacker where Fabi and Gino will take good care of you; I learned a lot from them in their classes at Salon Erna. They got me addicted to Lindy Hop. :-)
  • Keep on Swinging, is the home of Fabi and Chrissi. They are giving occasional workshops at the Tanzfabrik
  • If you are at the university for some time, got to the University Sports Programm. It’s exceptionally cheap (like 7.50 EUR for a term for a regular student), and that includes lots of sport offers, such as a Rock’n’Roll and Boogie Woogie class. Thats where I started dancing before going to Berkeley, discovering Lindy Hop there and continuing it in Munich later on.
  • And of course World of Swing: Markus and Bärbel are very well known dancers and trainers. If you are into swing, you probably have seen or met them already. They are giving Balboa and Boogie Woogie-Classes and organizing large dance events such as Rock that Swing or the “Munich Balboa Weekend”.
  • In summer, there will hopefully be a weekly dance event in Hofgarten park again, at the Diana temple.

P.S. My personal favourites / recommendations: Go to Cord or Salon Erna to see how much fun the community is, then take classes with Swing and the City or Keep on Swinging.

[Update: this blog article is quite outdated. Please visit my Swing information site or Swing and the City for up to date information.]