A fragrance-reduced environment helps create a safe and healthy social dance environment for everyone! We respectfully request that all patrons at Boston Swing Central refrain from using fragranced products before entering and while in the building as some of these products can cause adverse health effects for our dancers with fragrance sensitivities and allergies. While we recommend good hygiene and deodorant use, please take care to avoid highly fragranced personal care products such as cologne, perfume, aftershave lotions, scented lotions, and/or scented hair products. Our chemically-sensitive dancers thank you!

For those with peanut allergies, we do not regularly serve food except for our complimentary mints. We provide an assortment of candy during our Halloween and Valentine’s dances – some candy might have peanuts in them. We also might have peanut butter as a snack option at a late night exchange dance (Dirty Water, which is once a year).  Some patrons may bring a granola bar that has peanuts in it, and this could be in their bag.  If you are highly sensitive to peanuts please let us know and use caution.

For the rest of us, please be considerate of your fellow dancers and do not bring peanuts or peanut products for a snack.

No, we do NOT serve alcohol and most dancers prefer to drink water to avoid dehydration.

You should be 18 years of age or older to attend Boston Swing Central.

Our Friday night dance includes a lesson in the price of admission from 8 to 9pm.  Prices are as follows:

– On DJ nights, our dance is $11 for General Admission.

– On Band nights, our dance is $18 to $30 for General Admission. The admission rate depends upon the band size and where the band is from.  Bands that are more expensive are usually bigger like a 14-piece big band or from further away like the Gordon Webster who is from New York State.

– We have a mix of 70/30 band and DJ nights.

– We offer a discount to students and seniors with a valid ID.

Attending a Boston Swing Central dance you might often hear us champion Frankie Manning or invoke his name in some context. You might also here the names of Norma Miller and Dawn Hampton. These three are all dancers from the original swing era. And in the case of Norma & Frankie, they are both original Lindy Hoppers from the 1930s Harlem Ballrooms.

Frankie Manning was was a dancer, choreographer, performer and innovator of the Lindy Hop. He was a member of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers a perfomance troupe which appeared in several movies and in Life Magazine. After his storied career as a professional swing dancer, Frankie disappeared from the public eye and went to work at the Post Office where he worked for years. Very few if any of his co-workers knew he was a dancer, let alone an amazing one who had invented airsteps (or aerials).

In 1986, Steven Mitchell & Erin Stevens found Frankie, brought him out of retirement to teach them the Lindy Hop. Since his discovery, Frankie spent the remainder of his life teaching, performing and promoting the Lindy Hop becoming the dance’s Grand Ambassador, and it’s spiritual leader. Frankie died in 2009 right before his 95th birthday. Many of us learned from him or were inspired by his talks. We keep his memory alive by spreading the joy of swing dancing and in particular the Lindy Hop, the Shim Sham and his favorite music, Count Basie’s “Shiny Stockings”.

If Frankie was the King, Norma Miller is the definitely the Queen. She too was one of the Founding Lindy Hoppers who has spent a great deal of her time inspiring, teaching our current generation of swing dancers.

Dawn Hampton is a little younger and was from the next generation of swing dancers. She was also a jazz musician and a cousin of famous xylophone player, Lionel Hampton. She often appeared at dance camps where she performed and spoke eloquently about the love of the dance.  If you have some time, find her on YouTube and listen to her words or watch her dance, she will lift you up with her presence, truly an inspiration to us all!

Boston Swing Central is now offering Swing Boot Camp, twice a month during the Fall/Winter months and once a month during the Summer.  See our lessons page for the next opportunity.  We also have our Kind of a Big Deal workshop weekend.

In addition to local studios such as Boston Lindy Hop and Hop to the Beat, there are many dance camps (that’s right, this one time, at dance camp….) and workshops available.  We recommend you check out: Beantown Dance Camp for a camp that is great experience and not too far from Boston.  Going to a camp or a workshop is a fun and intensified way to learn a lot of material in a very concentrated amount of time.

An Exchange is a dance weekend, that gives the host city a chance to show off as many of their best venues, bands, dj’s, and fun parts of what there is to do. The host city opens it’s doors for the Exchange weekend and invites dancers to come visit. Normally the visiting dancers are housed with other local dancers, so you have a friendly face to welcome you & ease your stay.   Boston has an exchange of our own called Dirty Water Lindy & Blues which is being run by Boston Swing Central (check out this awesome event by following the link).

In any partner dance, as in life, there are those who lead and those who follow.   The leader starts the conversation, the follower responds.  Anyone can learn to lead and anyone can learn to follow.   It’s fun to do both, eventually, we recommend starting with one role, learn that and when you feel like you’ve got a good solid command, then branch out.  There are varying theories on learning, so feel free to pursue whatever your heart and passions desire.

Nope!  Only if you want to.  Style of dress varies a lot.  We would discourage you from wearing sweats, if only because that projects a bit of a slovenly image.  Generally, though, going retro isn’t the approach most people take with their dance apparel.  You often see guys in nice t-shirts or dress shirts and either jeans or dress pants; women often wear a dressy blouse and pants, or even go for a nice dress! It’s fairly low key, though, unless it happens to be advertised as a more formal event. Pointy toed shoes or high heels are discouraged.  Wear what you feel comfortable in.  Enjoy the dance!

West Coast swing is a modern evolution of East Coast swing that is danced to more contemporary music.  The footwork is based on a 6-count basic, but has evolved in a stylized way to fit more modern music.  As it evolved, it became its own dance.  However, it is still a distant cousin, or perhaps a different dialect of the same language.  It’s similar to the differences between British English and American English.  The conversation can still be had between dancers from the various communities, but each side might think the other “talks funny”.

Lindy Hop is a dance based around an 8-count basic, and incorporates all of the elements of East Coast Swing 6-count basic), as well as some Charleston, Fox Trot and other authentic jazz movement.   It is a traditional African-American dance, and a wholly American invention; its vernacular is dictated by the dances and music of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.  And just as jazz music was a fusion of Western symphonic music and African rhythms.  And so too is the Lindy Hop: a synthesis of Western partnered ballroom and African-American pattin’ juba, tap, cakewalk, Charleston and other early dances.  We recommend further research for all dancers, starting with looking at the wikipedia page on Lindy Hop and perhaps checking out some videos on YouTube.  Especially the clip from the 1941 movie Hellzapoppin.

In general, we teach East Coast Swing (ECS) or otherwise known as 6-count swing beginning basics in our lesson.  Occasionally our teachers will teach the 8-count basic, or Charleston basics.

ECS, or 6-count swing, is a subset of the Lindy Hop codified and proliferated by Arthur Murray dance studios.  Think of Arthur Murray as the McDonald’s of dancing…and East Coast swing as its hamburger.  Lindy Hop, the predominant form of swing dancing back in the ballrooms of Harlem in the 1930s was too complicated to learn in a simple lesson.  Arthur Murray recognized that the 6-count steps were an easier subset that could be taught easily in a hour or two, so he separated those steps out of Lindy Hop and tadaa!  East Coast Swing was born.

East Coast Swing, or 6-count swing basics can be learned in a couple of hours.  But, like playing an instrument such as piano, the sky’s the limit!  Few people have sat down at a piano for the first time and started playing Mozart.  Same holds true for swing dancing.  Learning the Lindy Hop can take time and patience.  Don’t be discouraged; take as many lessons as you can from a wide variety of teachers.  Be patient with yourself, enjoy the journey, social dance alot and voila!

You can park anywhere that is blue or green marked by the colored images on this map.
If it’s yellow, you can park there if it’s not snowing. If it’s red, don’t park there ever, you might be towed or parked in.
(Don’t park along the building, where it says Enterprise-Only)
Best: park near the movie theater and walk over. It’s a 3-4 minute walk.
You can zoom in on this map for more detailed info.

Nope, just show up.  New dancers get a warm welcome by the dance community!  There will be plenty of helpful folks who are ready and willing to dance with new people.  And most dances have a lesson at the beginning too- a great way to meet newer dancers.

For most of our dances you do not need Advance Tickets or reservations.  If you’d like to take the lesson, then please show up by 8:00pm as jumping in the lesson after it’s started can be challenging to catch up.  A few times during the year we will have a special event where we sell advance tickets.  We’ll have Paypal links, or registration pages for these events and we’ll probably have some text like, “Get your tickets today, as this is going to SELL OUT!” accompanying the event.  But other than those few nights a year, most Fridays, all you have to do is show up and enjoy the dance…

Yes! Boston Swing Central just implemented a new Code of Conduct that all dancers must follow. Boston Swing Central strives to provide an actively all-inclusive, supportive environment for everyone, and these rules will help make sure we do that! 

We have also created a set of guidelines that will help you become the best dancer you can be! Check out how to be a Swingsation here!