The world of swing dancing and lindy hop extends well beyond the borders of San Francisco. Many places have communities of friendly lindy hoppers, and they generally love dancing with visitors from out of town.
Plus, San Francisco being the international city and dance mecca that it is, we get our fair share of dance travelers stopping by. Dance with someone from out-of-town, and they might very well invite you to visit them and dance in their hometown!
Not to mention that travelling to dance helps improve your dancing. Every place has its own unique flavor and interpretation of the dance. You'll learn new moves and learn to adapt your technique and style while the dance world benefits from the cross-pollination of evolving dance ideas!
There are all varieties of out-of-town dance events that provide plenty of excuses to plan your next lindy getaway! A great place to find out about out-of-town events is on the SwingTalk Beyond the Bay forum.
Just like San Francisco, many dance communities hold special lindy hop dance workshops. National and international workshops which usually take place over a weekend are usually posted on SwingTalk and the Lindy Exchange calendar. For smaller workshops, you'll probably want to check out the local message board of the place you want to visit.
One dance camp that every Lindy Hopper should visit at least once in their lifetime is the Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden. This camp takes place for 4-weeks every July, draws a huge international crowd, and is a wildly surreal good time. Most US travellers attend 1-2 weeks.
The Lindy Exchange concept was born when a group of Chicago lindy hoppers all decided to travel and dance in San Francisco for a weekend. Local SF dancers put the visitors up in their homes, took them out to the local dance hot spots, and shared their local culture. Soon after, the San Francisco dancers paid a return visit to dance in Chicago.
Nowadays, many cities host official Lindy Exchanges. Most are advertised on the Lindy Exchange Homepage. There is usually a registration website where you can sign up to be hosted by a local dancer.
Unlike workshops which focus on instruction, Lindy Exchanges focus on social dancing. In addition to daytime social activities designed to help you meet people and explore the new place, there's dancing almost all weekend long, including the infamous late-night afterhours dance parties that can go until 6am!
If you're flying to a lindy hopping city for business, or have a spare weekend to travel, why not take a "me" exchange? As you build up your network of out-of-town lindy hoppers, you'll find opportunities to travel to their cities even when there isn't a major dance event going on, which is great since you'll get a more realistic experience of the local dance scene.
You can sometimes post on out-of-town message boards to find someone to host you.
Competition weekends are a great way to witness the state-of-the-art in Lindy Hop. While social dancing these days tends to be laid back, competitions often showcase athletic and acrobatic dancing that will amaze you, inspire you, and show you how much more there is to learn!
The world of Lindy Hop beckons!Made it this far and still need more information? We've got a few
more beginner resources for you.