Lindy Hop

2015

  • May 2015 – An American girl in my French class (in Montpellier) invites us to hear her jazz group perform at a bar. That’s when I see lindy hop for the first time (I’d never even heard of the dance before), and I am captivated! The next day I YouTube people dancing lindy hop—it’s so fun to watch.
  • August/September 2015 – While back in Madison, WI applying for a yearlong French visa, I take two months of beginner lindy hop classes for $25/month via Jumptown Swing!

2016

  • July 2016 – On a Friday evening in Montpellier, there’s a little lindy workshop outside, so I join in. It’s been so long, and it’s still so fun!

2017

  • Winter/Spring 2017 – While slow traveling in Europe, I look up a bunch of various lindy hop festivals to see if I can coincide with any. It would be a great “leap” for the year, as the thought is intimidating. There’s one in Barcelona at the start of April but registration isn’t open yet. I watch and watch it, then email the organizers at one point because registration still isn’t open on the site. I never hear back and weeks before the site still isn’t updated, so I ditch the plan.
  • July 26, 2017 – I’m visiting my brother in La Crosse and he mentions that his friend—a math professor at the university—is super into lindy hop. A little texting through my brother, and he offers to give me a free 90-minute starter lesson in the afternoon! We dance and sweat and it’s really fun to learn some subtleties from an advanced lindy hopper.
  • I want to be learning lindy hop the next place I live!