WEST COAST SWING
Intensive Classes & Workshops
New York City
"The best instructor I've ever had in ANYTHING!" — Harvard Univ. students' comments 6 years in a row, for Ken's on-campus dance classes (while working on a PhD there). Scroll down for bio & videos.
Join us Thursday nights! Scroll down for full details & registration
Mar 3, 2022: Fundamentals of High Quality WCS (Level 101 in One Night!)
Mar 10-Apr 7: Super WCS - Level 101+201 (5 weeks)
Mar 10-Apr 7: WCS Brilliantly Onward! - Level 201+301 (5 wks)
Or swing yourself directly to our REGISTRATION page!
Mar 3, 2022: Fundamentals of High Quality WCS (Level 101 in One Night!)
Mar 10-Apr 7: Super WCS - Level 101+201 (5 weeks)
Mar 10-Apr 7: WCS Brilliantly Onward! - Level 201+301 (5 wks)
Or swing yourself directly to our REGISTRATION page!
INTENSIVE WORKSHOP!
FUNDAMENTALS of HIGH QUALITY WCS
Level 101 in just One Night!
Thur, Mar 3 • 6:30-9:30 pm
2 hrs Intensive Workshop & 1 hr Guided Practice (Dancing! And more learning!)
For Absolute Beginners thru WSDC-Intermediate+
Become really good really fast! WCS is really simple and easy when approached the modern way, so that is our way of teaching! Ignore people who tell you WCS is difficult! (And send them to us!)
In this one intensive lesson, you will learn to dance well with anyone with confidence and joy, by mastering WCS's 5 main “partnered movement“ building blocks that we mix-and-match and embellish into nearly everything that happens in WCS! By the end of the workshop, you will be dancing truly good WCS. Plus you'll be solidly prepared to continue with mastering all the rest of WCS 5X faster. (Hint, hint: see WCS Level 201+301 below!)
With these simple building blocks, we will focus on connection skills, leader & follower flow, creative teamwork, and all the things that GOOD wcs dancers do all the time. Amazingly, these esoteric sounding things are dead simple, and yet that's how we create and dance and learn all WCS moves (patterns), and even the footwork, in a natural easy way! This stuff really should be learned first as a foundation for everything else. But no matter we learn it, it helps wonderfully. We think you'll be amazed at how quickly and hugely this approach improves all your social dancing, and how ridiculously easy it is to understand — while remaining really fun and challenging to master.
If you are just starting WCS, this is the perfect beginning. If you are already on your journey — even up through WSDC Intermediate competition ranking — you will find this workshop to be supremely helpful in boosting your mastery. And integrating everything you know into a much more coherent and successful whole. Plus the workshop is itself will be just plain fun. We hope to see you!
Already WCS experienced? At some point in our learning journey, all of us notice that the “step-step-triple-step” + patterns classes don’t actually prepare us very well for real-world WCS social dancing. Not well enough, anyway. If you've noticed this — and maybe even blamed yourself — then THIS is the workshop you are looking for. You'll learn WCS's "master recipe" and discover how all the separate things you already know fall into place but becomes much more coherent, sensible, and comfortable … which opens the door to vast & fast improvement and creativity. Come try it!
[Hot tip: If you are a Lindy Hop dancer, this workshop will also radically improve your understanding and smoothness for Swingouts, Pass-by's, Turns, and Sugar Pushes.]
Prerequisite: Ability to count to 8. No prior dance experience or partner needed. If you have prior experience, we will use it to maximize your learning.
Location: Near Times Square (see your emailed Registration receipt for exact address)
Price: $40 (includes Guided Practice / Dancing). Age 21 and under: $30
Alumni price: $30 for Ken's (or Ken & Paula's) alumni
Class size strictly limited. Pre-registration required.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE: scroll down
COVID: Maximum protection will be required – TBD as situation evolves. Get your booster and N95 masks now!
NOTE: Full refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of anything — cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
2 hrs Intensive Workshop & 1 hr Guided Practice (Dancing! And more learning!)
For Absolute Beginners thru WSDC-Intermediate+
Become really good really fast! WCS is really simple and easy when approached the modern way, so that is our way of teaching! Ignore people who tell you WCS is difficult! (And send them to us!)
In this one intensive lesson, you will learn to dance well with anyone with confidence and joy, by mastering WCS's 5 main “partnered movement“ building blocks that we mix-and-match and embellish into nearly everything that happens in WCS! By the end of the workshop, you will be dancing truly good WCS. Plus you'll be solidly prepared to continue with mastering all the rest of WCS 5X faster. (Hint, hint: see WCS Level 201+301 below!)
With these simple building blocks, we will focus on connection skills, leader & follower flow, creative teamwork, and all the things that GOOD wcs dancers do all the time. Amazingly, these esoteric sounding things are dead simple, and yet that's how we create and dance and learn all WCS moves (patterns), and even the footwork, in a natural easy way! This stuff really should be learned first as a foundation for everything else. But no matter we learn it, it helps wonderfully. We think you'll be amazed at how quickly and hugely this approach improves all your social dancing, and how ridiculously easy it is to understand — while remaining really fun and challenging to master.
If you are just starting WCS, this is the perfect beginning. If you are already on your journey — even up through WSDC Intermediate competition ranking — you will find this workshop to be supremely helpful in boosting your mastery. And integrating everything you know into a much more coherent and successful whole. Plus the workshop is itself will be just plain fun. We hope to see you!
Already WCS experienced? At some point in our learning journey, all of us notice that the “step-step-triple-step” + patterns classes don’t actually prepare us very well for real-world WCS social dancing. Not well enough, anyway. If you've noticed this — and maybe even blamed yourself — then THIS is the workshop you are looking for. You'll learn WCS's "master recipe" and discover how all the separate things you already know fall into place but becomes much more coherent, sensible, and comfortable … which opens the door to vast & fast improvement and creativity. Come try it!
[Hot tip: If you are a Lindy Hop dancer, this workshop will also radically improve your understanding and smoothness for Swingouts, Pass-by's, Turns, and Sugar Pushes.]
Prerequisite: Ability to count to 8. No prior dance experience or partner needed. If you have prior experience, we will use it to maximize your learning.
Location: Near Times Square (see your emailed Registration receipt for exact address)
Price: $40 (includes Guided Practice / Dancing). Age 21 and under: $30
Alumni price: $30 for Ken's (or Ken & Paula's) alumni
Class size strictly limited. Pre-registration required.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE: scroll down
COVID: Maximum protection will be required – TBD as situation evolves. Get your booster and N95 masks now!
NOTE: Full refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of anything — cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
Super WCS - Level 101+201
5 weeks
Thur, Mar 10 thru April 7, 2022 • 5 weeks • 8:00-9:20 pm
An accelerated class for Beginners thru Intermediate+
This 5-week class is our FUNDAMENTALS Intensive (see description above!) PLUS a lot more, at a slightly slower pace across 5 weeks.
Become really good really fast! WCS is really simple and easy when approached the modern way, so that is our way of teaching! Ignore anyone who tells you WCS is difficult! (And send them to us!)
All the most important and useful WCS connection skills & fundamentals & moves in 5 gently intensive weeks. You will be ready to go social dancing with confidence and skill, feeling comfortable and feeling that you fit in, even the first time you go WCS social dancing! And solidly ready to learn all the rest of WCS 5X faster. We will learn 10 to 20 standard WCS moves ("patterns"), but in a great way that makes you an adaptive master of improvising, embellishing, styling, and being supremely musical.
All our workshops and classes are geared toward getting you to go dancing absolutely as soon as possible! Each week we add more layers of skill, so you just keep getting better and better!
The class is intensively progressive and cumulative, to let us become really good really fast! Every lesson builds on the prior lessons. Therefore, no drop-ins, sorry.
[Hot tip: If you are a Lindy Hop dancer, this will also radically improve your understanding and smoothness for Swingouts, Pass-by's, Turns, and Sugar Pushes.]
Prerequisite: Ability to count to 8. No prior dance experience or partner needed. If you have prior experience, we will use it to maximize your learning.
Location: Near Times Square (see your emailed Registration receipt for exact address)
Price: $120 for 5 weeks - 1.33hrs/week - 6.66hrs total. (Age 21 and under: $80)
Class size strictly limited. Pre-registration required.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE: scroll down
COVID: Maximum protection will be required – TBD as situation evolves. Get your booster and N95 masks now!
NOTE: Prorata refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
SATISFACTION GUARANTEE for Level 101+201 class: We want you to be sure our teaching style suits your learning style! Full refund available any time before midnight Sunday, March 13. (That gives you 3 days after Lesson #1 to think, and gives us enough time to adjust!)
An accelerated class for Beginners thru Intermediate+
This 5-week class is our FUNDAMENTALS Intensive (see description above!) PLUS a lot more, at a slightly slower pace across 5 weeks.
Become really good really fast! WCS is really simple and easy when approached the modern way, so that is our way of teaching! Ignore anyone who tells you WCS is difficult! (And send them to us!)
All the most important and useful WCS connection skills & fundamentals & moves in 5 gently intensive weeks. You will be ready to go social dancing with confidence and skill, feeling comfortable and feeling that you fit in, even the first time you go WCS social dancing! And solidly ready to learn all the rest of WCS 5X faster. We will learn 10 to 20 standard WCS moves ("patterns"), but in a great way that makes you an adaptive master of improvising, embellishing, styling, and being supremely musical.
All our workshops and classes are geared toward getting you to go dancing absolutely as soon as possible! Each week we add more layers of skill, so you just keep getting better and better!
The class is intensively progressive and cumulative, to let us become really good really fast! Every lesson builds on the prior lessons. Therefore, no drop-ins, sorry.
[Hot tip: If you are a Lindy Hop dancer, this will also radically improve your understanding and smoothness for Swingouts, Pass-by's, Turns, and Sugar Pushes.]
Prerequisite: Ability to count to 8. No prior dance experience or partner needed. If you have prior experience, we will use it to maximize your learning.
Location: Near Times Square (see your emailed Registration receipt for exact address)
Price: $120 for 5 weeks - 1.33hrs/week - 6.66hrs total. (Age 21 and under: $80)
Class size strictly limited. Pre-registration required.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE: scroll down
COVID: Maximum protection will be required – TBD as situation evolves. Get your booster and N95 masks now!
NOTE: Prorata refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
SATISFACTION GUARANTEE for Level 101+201 class: We want you to be sure our teaching style suits your learning style! Full refund available any time before midnight Sunday, March 13. (That gives you 3 days after Lesson #1 to think, and gives us enough time to adjust!)
Brilliantly Onward & Upward! - Level 201+301
5 weeks
Thur, Mar 10 thru April 7, 2022 • 5 weeks • 6:30-7:45 pm
We will continue directly from Ken's Fundamentals Intensive, after a brief review! Upward, onward, becoming even more brilliant!
The class is intensively progressive and cumulative, so we become really good really fast! Every lesson builds on the prior lessons. Therefore, no drop-ins, sorry.
NOTE: Folks in 201+301 are welcome to stay for 101+201 for free. (Space & balance permitting.)
Prerequisite: One of Ken's recent WCS FUNDAMENTALS INTENSIVE/WORKSHOPs. No exceptions, sorry.
Location: Near Times Square (see your emailed Registration receipt for exact address)
Price: $120 for 5 weeks - 1.25hrs/week - 6.25hrs total. (Age 21 and under: $80)
Class size strictly limited. Pre-registration required.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE: scroll down
COVID: Maximum protection will be required – TBD as situation evolves. Get your booster and N95 masks now!
NOTE: Prorata refund available if you show any symptoms before class – ANY symptoms of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
We will continue directly from Ken's Fundamentals Intensive, after a brief review! Upward, onward, becoming even more brilliant!
The class is intensively progressive and cumulative, so we become really good really fast! Every lesson builds on the prior lessons. Therefore, no drop-ins, sorry.
NOTE: Folks in 201+301 are welcome to stay for 101+201 for free. (Space & balance permitting.)
Prerequisite: One of Ken's recent WCS FUNDAMENTALS INTENSIVE/WORKSHOPs. No exceptions, sorry.
Location: Near Times Square (see your emailed Registration receipt for exact address)
Price: $120 for 5 weeks - 1.25hrs/week - 6.25hrs total. (Age 21 and under: $80)
Class size strictly limited. Pre-registration required.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE: scroll down
COVID: Maximum protection will be required – TBD as situation evolves. Get your booster and N95 masks now!
NOTE: Prorata refund available if you show any symptoms before class – ANY symptoms of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE
• Wear clothing. Preferably comfortable.
• Wear comfortable shoes that let you pivot. Suede or hard-leather soles are good. Most dance-sneaker or plastic soles are good. Grippy rubber soles like on running shoes are bad. High heels and Salsa shoes: not good for WCS; flats or low heels are much better. Character shoes: marginal; your feet will probably hurt after 30 minutes.
• NO BLACK SOLED SHOES! (Studio requirement — they leave streaks. If that's all you own, wear socks or nylon thingies OVER your shoes.
• RAIN & SNOW: Bring clean, dry shoes and change into them at the door, to protect the nice wood floors.
• Deodorant & fresh breath required. Bring a clean shirt and change into it as needed.
• Please do NOT wear perfume!
• Please do NOT use hand moisturizing lotion immediately before class (ick slippery).
COVID: Get your booster and N95 masks now! We will be requiring MAXIMUM precautions from everyone, consistent with whatever the COVID situation is in early March. We expect the following, but we will update: Full vax + Booster required — must upload photo proof ahead of time. Probably N95 or KN95 masks required. Maybe even same-day negative tests. We will update as we get closer, but please be fully prepared!
Genuine N95 masks — aka "respirators" — are available for free from the US Government or for reasonable cost at ProjectN95.org, a national 501(c)3 non-profit. That's where I get mine. As you've heard, over 60% of the alleged "N95" and "KN95" masks on Amazon are counterfeits and fakes.
NOTE: Prorata refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
• Wear comfortable shoes that let you pivot. Suede or hard-leather soles are good. Most dance-sneaker or plastic soles are good. Grippy rubber soles like on running shoes are bad. High heels and Salsa shoes: not good for WCS; flats or low heels are much better. Character shoes: marginal; your feet will probably hurt after 30 minutes.
• NO BLACK SOLED SHOES! (Studio requirement — they leave streaks. If that's all you own, wear socks or nylon thingies OVER your shoes.
• RAIN & SNOW: Bring clean, dry shoes and change into them at the door, to protect the nice wood floors.
• Deodorant & fresh breath required. Bring a clean shirt and change into it as needed.
• Please do NOT wear perfume!
• Please do NOT use hand moisturizing lotion immediately before class (ick slippery).
COVID: Get your booster and N95 masks now! We will be requiring MAXIMUM precautions from everyone, consistent with whatever the COVID situation is in early March. We expect the following, but we will update: Full vax + Booster required — must upload photo proof ahead of time. Probably N95 or KN95 masks required. Maybe even same-day negative tests. We will update as we get closer, but please be fully prepared!
Genuine N95 masks — aka "respirators" — are available for free from the US Government or for reasonable cost at ProjectN95.org, a national 501(c)3 non-profit. That's where I get mine. As you've heard, over 60% of the alleged "N95" and "KN95" masks on Amazon are counterfeits and fakes.
NOTE: Prorata refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
Every Month: Private Lessons
We are available for Private Lessons ($90/hr for one instructor + room rental fees, typically about $15-25/hr). We are also available for semi-private and small-group lessons, as well as corporate and private events. Contact us here.
YOUR TEACHERS
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Ken Kreshtool: Internationally ranked West Coast Swing competition dancer. "The best instructor I've ever had in ANYTHING!" — Harvard University students' comments, 6 years in a row, for his on-campus dance classes (while working on a PhD there). Also has advanced degrees in psychology, education policy, and law, and formerly taught ballroom, salsa, swing / lindy hop. Ken is compressing what he has learned from over 200 dance teachers into the best classes you'll find anywhere.
Paula Wilson [not teaching in March-April 2022 session]: Internationally ranked West Coast Swing competition dancer. Graduate of the Alvin Ailey School's Professional Division. Professional modern dancer and internationally traveling Argentine Tango teacher for 12 years. Award-winning former early childhood education teacher.
Some videos. These are pure lead-follow dancing — we are making it up as we go along. Not choreographed. Typically for a demo like this, we hand the DJ 5 or 6 songs and say "you pick - play any one of them."
Paula Wilson [not teaching in March-April 2022 session]: Internationally ranked West Coast Swing competition dancer. Graduate of the Alvin Ailey School's Professional Division. Professional modern dancer and internationally traveling Argentine Tango teacher for 12 years. Award-winning former early childhood education teacher.
Some videos. These are pure lead-follow dancing — we are making it up as we go along. Not choreographed. Typically for a demo like this, we hand the DJ 5 or 6 songs and say "you pick - play any one of them."
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WHAT IS WEST COAST SWING?
In very short: West Coast Swing (WCS) is Swing and Lindy Hop moves done to R&B and contemporary Pop music.
Here is a nice introductory video with various top Champions (apart from odd ideas in the subtitles about the names of music genres).
Here is a nice introductory video with various top Champions (apart from odd ideas in the subtitles about the names of music genres).
More thoroughly: West Coast Swing (WCS) is a partner dance, a smoother and highly sophisticated form of Jitterbug or Lindy Hop-style Swing dance. It kept evolving in California during the post-WW II decades when Lindy Hop itself went dead or dormant for 50 years. It has continued evolving dramatically even today, adapting to new music and new dancers. Over the years, it has "borrowed" (stolen and adapted) almost every cool move, turn, dip, and styling from Lindy Hop, Salsa, Hip Hop, Country, and booty-shakin', and even some Ballroom, Zouk, Tango and Blues. West Coast Swing has one of the biggest vocabularies of moves and combinations of any partner dance — and the widest range of music styles. At the same time, WCS Followers have more freedom for improvisation than in any other partner dance. WCS is the easiest of the Swing dances to learn (if you have the right teachers — that's us!), while remaining one of the most fun and challenging to fully master. Come get in on the fun!
FAQ: World's best WCS group classes? Drop-ins? Late registrations? Can I start in level 2?
ARE THESE NEW YORK CITY'S BEST WEST COAST SWING GROUP CLASSES?
Yes.
ARE THESE THE WORLD'S BEST WEST COAST SWING GROUP CLASSES?
Yes.
DROP-INS PERMITTED? Yes for our one-day workshops. But for our multi-week classes ... sorry, no. Our multi-week classes are cumulative — each lesson builds intensively on all previous lessons.
LATE REGISTRATIONS AFTER THE FIRST WEEK? (For multi-week classes.)
We are extremely reluctant. We have never had anyone catch up after missing the first week of our Level 1 classes. We want you (and all your partners in class) to be happy! Not frustrated! Our class is intensively cumulative. In our Level 101 classes, we lay all the groundwork and learn everything in the first class. And then we build on it over the remaining weeks. Please come to the first lesson! Thanks for understanding.
• If you absolutely cannot attend Level 101's first lesson, contact us to schedule a private lesson before the second lesson. Please note that — just like when going to the movies — there's no discount for starting late.
• Start at 2nd lesson? I have taken previous WCS classes, so I should be OK, right?
Sorry, but no. Our teaching method is completely different from the antiquated "steps & patterns" teaching method that you almost certainly experienced. That old teaching method from the 1890s was designed for a totally different kind of dancing, and does not work well for WCS. We have no idea why nearly all WCS teachers still use it. We use a completely different and better teaching method that reduces your WCS learning curve to weeks instead of years — with almost all of the important differences right at the beginning. Everything you already know will return in a much easier-to-use form later in our class — so don't discard your skills! — but it will not help you at all at the beginning of our class.
• Start at 3rd lesson? No, sorry. No exceptions. We cover so much ground in the first two lessons, that we have never had anyone successfully start during lesson 3. We ask you to wait until our next class series starts. Thanks!
CAN I START IN LEVEL 2 or 3 (aka 201 or 301)? I HAVE PRIOR (PARTNER) DANCE EXPERIENCE.
No, sorry. We ask everyone to start in our Level 101. Reasons:
• First, just like you, a majority who enroll in WCS classes have prior dance experience, so our Level 101+201 class already takes that into account! (But it's also perfect for folks with zero prior dance experience.)
• Second, our teaching approach is completely different, especially at the beginning, which is how our students become good in weeks while other teachers' students take years to reach the same level. There is not any satisfactory way to skip it.
• Anecdote: Some years ago, a woman had taken several Level 1 classes with other teachers, and wanted to visit our Level 2 class "to see if it would be good enough" for her. (That's literally how she phrased it.) Of course, we said yes. She came to visit during our 4th week, but accidentally arrived before our Level 1 class was finished, was welcomed in, and sat and watched. After 10 minutes, I announced, "OK! Level 1 class, we're done! Level 2 people, come on out and let's begin!" The woman rushed over and said, "Wait – I came to visit Level 2, not Level 1." I replied, "Yes, sorry, you caught the last 10 minutes of our Level 1 class. But Level 2 is about to begin, so please stay." She looked upset and replied almost angrily, "Are you sure? That was Level 1 I was watching? Not Level 2?" I assured it was Level 1, and apologized again. She said, "But … but … but they were so GOOD!"
She enrolled in our next Level 1 class.