SWING DANCING IN LOS ANGELES AND ORANGE COUNTY

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FAQS and INFO ABOUT THE SITE

• What is the purpose of this site?
  To promote swing dancing and provide the latest swing information for Los Angeles and Orange County. Basically, this is the place to go to figure out the best places to go swing dancing. LA Lindy Hop NEVER requires you to log in to see the calendar.
  
  
• What dance events do you cover?
  Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing (sometimes called Jitterbug), Balboa, Shag, and Charleston. I also cover rockabilly, western swing, and some blues events because many swing dancers attend those events. I don't cover West Coast Swing, ballroom, or Salsa events. I don't cover events outside of LA/OC. I won't put a swing music event on the calendar if there is no place to dance. This is all to minimize clutter on the calendar, so that you can see at a glance where to go SWING DANCING in LA and Orange County.
  
  
• How can I support this service?
  Forward the address to your friends! Hit the Facebook "Like" button. Bookmark it. Visit often. Click on the ads. Link to my site if you have a website. But most of all, GO SWING DANCING AND SUPPORT THE VENUES! That's what it's all about.
  
  
• How can I add events to the calendar?
  Please email them to me. I will be happy to add your event! Here is the criteria for your event to be placed on the calendar (in order to keep the calendar focused and uncluttered):
  1. It must be a Swing dance event!
     I will make exceptions for Blues. Sorry, no Tango, Salsa, Ballroom, etc. on this site.
  2. It needs to have a dance floor or space to dance.
     I won't post jazz concerts that don't have space to dance. Dancing is the whole point. Any true swing dancer will say that playing swing music without providing space to dance is cruel. Some restaurants push this limit by not having a true dance floor. I will still post these if they push tables out of the way for dancers.
  3. It needs to be in the greater Los Angeles or Orange County area.
     If your event is out of town, I encourage you to post it on the comment walls! However, the calendar is only for local events.
  4. It needs to have a website for me to link to.
     This is an impediment to many smaller one-time events. I suggest creating a Facebook page for those events. As far as I am concerned, a Facebook page "counts" as a website. I can link to it and people can get the info they need there.
     
     
• How can I place an ad on your site?
  You can place an ad through Google ads, or post on the comment walls, or email me.
  
  
• Is there an email list that I can join?
  I don't have a swing email list. However, Mary Arnold sends out a great weekend swing event email called "WHERE TO GO SWING DANCING THIS WEEKEND". You can request to be added to her list by emailing her.
  
  
• What about swing lessons?
  Check my Links page. LA and Orange county have some of the world's best instructors.
  
  
• What are your favorite venues?
  All of them are special and I want to promote swing dancing at ALL LA/OC venues on this website! Having said that, I tend to like the ones with a more upscale nightclub atmosphere like the Cicada Club, and the outdoor summer civic concerts, Disneyland, etc. However, I also like our weekly events like Lindy Groove, PBDA, Rusty's Rhythm Club, Atomic Ballroom, Joe's Bar, Strutter's and Memories! All are important to the swing scene.
  
  
• What is the history of this site?
  One day in late July 2008, I went to my favorite swing website, nocturne.com, and found that it had been hacked and was down indefinitely! This had been the best source of swing dancing events info for Los Angeles. Since I couldn't find a good alternative, I quickly started my own site and had it up and running the weekend before Camp Hollywood. Since I do this research for myself anyway, I figured I might as well post it for everyone. It has been a lot of fun! In August 2010, I began work on LA Lindy Hop 2.0, completely re-vamping the site using Dreamweaver and a new server. I updated the color scheme with CSS styling, added a comment box where people can post events, added newsfeeds, put up a Google map showing all of the main swing venues in LA/OC, and added a Links page with links to swing teachers and bands. In 2011, I re-wrote the calendar engine in PHP and AJAX. The calendar is now generated dynamically and checks the Internet for updates every night to insure you have the latest information.
  
  
• What has the response to this site been like?
  It has been great! The number one response I've gotten is "THANK YOU". Thank you for all of your kind comments. Swing dancing has been so good to me. I'm happy to give back.
  
  
• Who are you?
  I am a hard-core swing dancer from L.A. and Orange County. I had the Disney pass and everything. Now I am living in Providence, RI, due to work, but I visit L.A. often.
  
  
• What are your swing credentials?
  I started swing dancing in January 1998 during the neo swing craze. The first swing club I went to was the Derby, and I took the lessons from Kim and Dave and later Erik and Sylvia. I attended a swing camp called "Monsters of Swing" in Ventura, and that's when I really became a fanatic. The Monday morning after, I signed up for as many classes as I could find, driving all the way from the West Side to PBDA in Pasadena a couple times a week. I went swing dancing four to five times a week, sometimes more (back when the Derby had a live swing band every night of the week). I went to a whole bunch of swing camps from Camp Hollywood to Swing Camp Catalina. I entered a few contests and made it to the semifinals at Jitterbug Jam 2001, and at the Great Southwestern Swing-Off 2003, and the top five at the Paseo Colorado Swing Contest in 2008. I've taught swing classes at the Derby and other places. But mostly I just like going swing dancing and meeting people! - Brian
  
  

(C) 2008-2011 | This page was updated on February 18, 2012 11:22 AM | Content, web design, and programming by Brian Shim