Balboa Swing Dancing in Brisbane! Learn this fun & exciting partner dance style to incredible big band swing music! Whether you are an existing connoisseur of vintage dancing, such as Lindy Hop, or just keen to dip your toe in the ocean for the first time, begin your journey here and find out why people all over the world love Balboa!
You don’t need to bring a partner! Balboa is a social dance. You will meet new people and make new friends. When learning Balboa (and any type of swing dance), classes will work on a rotation system, so you get to dance with many people!
Thanks to the care of many passionate teachers, the Brisbane swing scene has been fortunate to have had weekly Balboa classes for over two decades! In the early days of Brisbane’s budding Bal scene Mark Paroz and Vicky Lawrence championed the dance and spread the joy for 10 years, they were keenly aided by Joel Gilmore, Jenny Reisz, Kelly Hazard, Wes Barris, Tia Baker, and Shaun Strong. Robert Edwards and Emma Hadfield picked up the torch in 2013 and were a dedicated driving force until their semi-retirement at the end of 2024. Weekly Bal classes are now being run by the new owner of Corner Pocket Swing, Elley King and her band of brilliant Balboa boffins, including multi-winners of Australia’s highest level of Bal competition, David Roebuck and Rachel Hoey!
A Brief Introduction to Balboa
Pure Balboa:
Balboa is a close-connected partner dance with lead and follow roles. The leader initiates the movements through the connection between the couple and the follower responds in a way that matches or accentuates the leader’s ideas. Pure Balboa involves dancing in the closed position the whole time. Pure Balboa consists of weight shifts and shuffle steps so the couple create an image as if they are ‘floating’ across the floor. There is room for improvisation and styling from the follower with footwork variations. A few of the steps you can do are Ad-libs, Paddles, Crab-walks, Flea-hops, Pivots, and Hangman, not to mention the kaleidoscope of variations and fancy footwork you can do within the Basic pattern.
Bal-Swing:
Bal-Swing is a combination of Pure Balboa and another dance invented in 1930s Southern California called “Swing.” In its original form, “Swing” was a melting pot of many different steps, turns, and kicks – it was danced before Lindy Hop was brought to the West Coast of the U.S. From the late 1930s onwards, the dance evolved into the modern dance Bal-Swing when it adopted Pure Balboa as its basic steps. Bal-Swing steps such as the Come-around, Crossovers, Lolly kicks, and Throw-outs (aka Toss-outs) are also common moves in modern Bal-Swing.
Please explore this site through the top menu to learn more about this amazing dance. Balboa is alive in Brisbane!
