FOLLOW US INSTAGRAM FOR THE QUICKEST UPDATES
TEACHERS
Olga & Andreas
At Olga’s classes, she pays a lot of attention to getting the students involved by giving challenging & fun tasks. What is so special about Balboa for her is the connection: “it feels like a cozy warm hug for me”.
Andreas is highly appreciated for his social dancing skills and his ability to connect and dance with follows of many different styles. He loves teaching because it inspires him to see dancers improve, it offers a possibility to learn more about dancing and to contribute to the ever-changing dance styles.
Jennifer & Gio
You can recognise Jenn by her distinctive style grounded in rhythm, creativity and improvisation skills on the social dance floor. Jenn’s teaching focuses on musical connection, partner responsiveness and equal agency for both leads and follows. Her dance classes go beyond dance as just steps and explore themes like listening, trust and presence.
Gio’s classes will give you something to chew on; expect to go deep into details rather than trying many moves, a lot of rotation and hilarious poses! He loves to have an original take on dancing and encourages others to develop their personal style. You will never catch this Italian dancer from Sardinia not looking sharp. His secret: he always travels with a portable iron!
Grace & Dominic
When Grace is not teaching or competing internationally, you can find her up to five nights a week on the social dance floor across Southern California. During a class with Grace, she radiates her love for the dance by encouraging enjoyment in her students, while keeping an emphasis on connection technique.
Dominic is a dancer and dance enthusiast based in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His dancing has been described as musical, smooth, playful, and connection centered. As an instructor, Dominic is known for his open communication style, and his ability to tangibly share concepts in various forms.
Alice & Blake
Drawing from her musical background in piano, Alice leverages her intuitive understanding of music on the dance floor and is known to deeply value connection, technique, and subtlety in her balboa. In just a short number of years of competing, she has become known for her poise, nuanced connection, and eye-catching agility. She has taught in the US, Europe, and Asia.
In his free time, Blake loves to study vintage dance clips. He has a deep reverence for the original dancers and loves to teach classes that focus on particular styles and techniques they used. As an instructor focuses on imparting his values of partner connection, tasteful musicality, and developing beautiful basics. His favourite thing about dancing is just having a simple, deeply-connected social dance with a like-minded partner.
LEVELS
IMPORTANT: many of our classes are ELEF (everybody leads everybody follows), as we strive for pure EQUALITY. ELEF provides equal challenges & opportunities in dancing and results in people being nicer to each other due to seeing the other side of the coin. This way of dancing elevates the communication within the dance and prioritizes the conversational value of Afro-American dances. In addition, we strive to break through gender stereotype’s which ELEF classes achieve by everybody dancing with everybody and having to deal with their own biases.
NOT SURE WHICH LEVEL SUITS YOU?
Please reach out privately to Swing Philosophy (Whatsapp: +31653577930)
LINDY HOP on Thursday w/ Grace &Blake: These workshops are for experienced dancers: comfortable with fast tempo’s, swing outs, sugar pushes and tandem Charleston.
INs&OUTs (ELEF): You have taken a couple classes OR one block of weekly classes OR you are new to Balboa, but you have been dancing other types of swing dances, and you are ready to learn fast.
SLIDE UP (ELEF): Your basics are steady (down/up hold basics, lollies, paddles, out & ins, throw out/come around). Social dancing is a no brainer for you, you participate often in workshops and festivals, but you would like to broaden your vocabulary and get more technical/musical about your dancing. You understand the value of both roles and the necessity of learning what your partner needs so that you can be in a total sink.
SWIVEL UP (PICK A ROLE with AUDITION): You comply with SLIDE UP level requirements and no tempo scares you. Dancers will be required to dance to fast tempo up to 250 bpm and feel comfortable with rhythm and improvisation. You are taking part in international festivals on a higer level and you travel regularly for Balboa events. There will be an audition.
THROW OUT (PICK A ROLE with AUDITION): Balboa is life for you! You teach and compete in Balboa. You improvise even in your sleep and create your own things in the dance. You geek out on the music and you are well read upon the history of Balboa. There will be an audition and if the teachers see you are not up for the level they will move you to SWIVEL UP level.
AUDITIONS for SWIVEL UP & THROW OUT: During the auditions the teachers will split the group in two groups of dancers who are as equal as possible to each others level.
MUSIC LINE UP
Enric Peidro is a self-taught musician who picked up the tenor saxophone at the age of 14, and he still loves it so. By now he is a well-recorded artist who can often leads bands and travels the world with other jazz musicians like Ray Gelato.
Although Peidro’s sound and phrasing are deeply rooted in the swing-era, his approach is so natural and genuine that he has achieved great popularity, being aknowledged as a real “keeper of the flame” among the classic jazz lovers all over Spain.
His own band ‘Enric Peidro Swingtet’ has also gained popularity in the Jazz scenes of Europe. He is dedicated to trying to find his personal voice within that musical language and delivering swinging, creative and imaginative music to audiences worldwide.
After a first performance at a Lindy Hop event in the Kompaszaal in 2015, the name for the band was quickly found. From that moment on, the Compass Ballroom Stompers quickly grew into one of the regular bands for the Lindy Hoppers. That’s because we have a connection: our swinging jazz effortlessly gets feet moving, while the enthusiasm of the heated dancers brings out the best in us.
The Compass Ballroom Stompers play tight swing from the 1950s. Many of the themes we play are slightly different: they are alternative melodies based on the chord progressions of standards from the Great American Songbook, known as contrafacts. Charlie Parker’s Ornithology, based on the well-known How High the Moon, is a good example of this.
The Compass Ballroom Stompers are under the musical direction of the stylistically consistent guitarist Matthijs Driessen. On tenor saxophone is the versatile Dano Roelvink, who likes to draw inspiration from Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, while Bendert Zevenbergen’s vibraphone playing evokes memories of Lionel Hampton. Bassist Leo Verbree is completely at home in the style of Django Reinhardt’s Hot Club de France, and Hugo Jonker’s brushwork behind the drums is every bit as skilled as that of Jo Jones. We play monthly under the name Contrafacts at Murphy’s jazz café in The Hague, and part of the band can be admired every two weeks at the Molenpad café in Amsterdam.
ALL CLASSES AND PARTIES
WILL BE AT DE KOMPASZAAL
ACCOMODATION
Amsterdam is a very popular city, so reserving a hotel should be done well in advance. Prices are much cheaper outside the city center.
We recommend staying at StayOkay OOST Hostel (20 min walk from our venue, 10 bike ride), use our DISCOUNT code “KZHOUSING” on their website and get 10% off the price!
If you already booked the accommodation, you can still re-book and use the code! Also lots of places available through AirBnB.
Our venue is easily accessible!
– Public transportation: the venue is reachable by public transportation, check 9292.nl and Google Maps for details.
– Car: parking in Amsterdam City Center is all awfully expensive, prices differ per neighbourhood and time, check parkeren in Amsterdam. Parking in the neighbourhood of the venue costs EUR 4.50 an hour, but you can also buy a day ticket, so please check the options.
– Bicycle: rental bikes are everywhere in the city, see for example A-bike, Donkey Republic.
