Fundamental Teaching Components
Each class is structured around three fundamental teaching components, which act like building blocks, and vary in emphasis depending on the class objectives:
- Concepts
- Contrasts
- Themes
Every class draws on all three, but the balance shifts depending on the objectives; one class might be heavily concept-driven with a light thematic thread, while another might centre on contrast with concepts playing a supporting role. The proportion varies, but all three components are always present.
When we present teacher training, we also use these components to help our own teachers understand the material they are delivering, ensuring that their classes offer a more complete, holistic approach.
We also encourage a heuristic style of learning, where students discover and internalise the dance through exploration rather than simply copying steps. As part of this approach, our teachers may simplify a step, a movement, or a partnered figure to focus primarily on the underlying principles. This is deliberate and rooted in our teaching policy.
Interested in receiving teacher training in your own scene? Feel free to get in touch.
Vocabulary
To ensure clear and effective communication with students, we also rely on five core vocabulary elements:
- Posture & Stance
- Tension & Compression
- Body Tone
- Energy
- Direction
Using these terms, we are able to explain more complex topics such as stretch, balance, bounce/pulse and more. These components and vocabulary elements will be further unpacked during the school’s opening days and explored in depth throughout the classes.
- Our use of partner connection vocabulary is inspired by the Frame Matching theory, originally developed by Joseph Daniel DeMers (Science and Educational Psychology, Overstreet Dance Gallery, Denver, CO, USA), which we have adapted and extended for our own teaching practice.
- Joseph Daniel DeMers is a world champion Lindy Hop and Blues dance instructor, and the originator of Frame Matching — the first academically published framework for teaching partner connection in Swing and Blues dance. His theory, ΔPTED (Posture, Tone, Tension, Energy, Direction), gives dancers and teachers a shared language for understanding and communicating how leads and follows physically connect. A recipient of the Spirit of Lindy Hop award and a two-time International Blues Dance Champion, DeMers has taught on almost every continent and is one of the most cited voices in swing dance pedagogy. His Frame Matching paper 🔗 | Watch his TEDx Talk 🔗
- His Credentials & Achievements
- Awarded the Spirit of Lindy Hop award in 2008
- International Blues Dance Champion in 2013 and 2014
- Named National Dance Teacher of the Year in 2015/2016
- Has taught swing and blues dance on almost every continent — Korea, France, Australia, Canada, Israel, and across the US
- Gave a TEDx Talk titled “The Power of Partner Dance” at TEDxYouth@MileHigh
- His Key Contribution — Frame Matching & ΔPTED
Summary
A dancer who understands the nuances of a dance partnership, who can evaluate their own body tone, maintain their own balance, and can feel where the energy is going in order to respond, will always develop faster than one who has learned the steps but not the conversation between them. Our classes are built with this in mind, and it is why we will sometimes slow things down, strip things back, or let you sit with something simple and explore with your dance partners until it clicks.
If a class feels simple, that’s by design. We deliberately strip movements back so you can focus on what matters most: how your body moves and how it communicates with your partner’s. The steps are the easy part; they’ll come with time. The connection, the feel, the awareness of your own body and your partner’s, that’s the real work, and it’s where the joy and the groove live.