About Us

The Lindy Project

The Lindy Project has been teaching swing dancing in Austin as a company since 1996.  We have taught all over Austin - from classes at studios to bars to churches, and from workshops for senior citizens to after school programs with kids... but our main focus is on our weekly classes on Wednesday nights at Tapestry Dance Company.

We were recently listed as one of the top 30 cool things to do in Austin, according to Austin Monthly magazine.  You can also check out our reviews on Yelp, Citysearch, and Google Maps - feel free to write one!

 

Our instructors regularly travel around the country to teach and are champion level dancers having won some of the highest levels of competition in the world.  We do our best to bring back to Austin the latest in what is happening in this global community.  A few awards our teachers have received are: Scott received the Lifetime Syndie Award from the Austin Swing Syndicate for his work growing the Austin dance community.  Laura received an award for the Most Accessible Instructor at Lindy Focus, one of the largest dance camps in the country.

Our Goal

Our goal is to give people the joy of Lindy Hop by providing quality instruction and a fun environment.  We build communities within our classes and within the dance scenes we touch.  By 2016, we will have 1% of Austin aware of all the gifts Lindy Hop has to offer through taking part in a class, social dance or viewing performances or competitions. That's about 7,000 people. If we accomplish this, we believe that Austin will be the healthiest, happiest, (and continue to be the friendliest) community in the United States.

Swing dancing, Lindy Hop, & Charleston

We specialize in Swing dancing, Lindy Hop, and Charleston... which we generally refer to as "Lindy Hop", or "Lindy" for short.  These dances are high energy and fun!  They are constantly evolving and will give back as much as you put in.

Lindy evolved in New York City in the 1920s and '30s, based on jazz, tap, breakaway and Charleston.  There is a lot of history in this American dance form - Lindy Hop was named for Charles Lindbergh's "hop" across the Atlantic in 1927.  And the Savoy Ballroom, which was a huge ballroom in Harlem and one of the founding places of Lindy Hop, was one of the first integrated ballroom.

Here is perhaps the most famous clip of lindy hop, from the 1941 movie, "Hellzapoppin":

(we promise not to start this fast!)

Learn more about the history of this dance!