The Swing Literacy Intensive

Our signature Intensive, this is a powerful learning experience for both dancers and teachers.

This 3 hour paradigm-shifting, progressive workshop focuses on the core fundamental skills that are holding most dancers back. Myles & Tessa deliver key techniques in a unique entertaining and accessible way, leaving students better able to connect and apply material they have collected from other dance training. Permanent improvement guaranteed.

Students enrolled in the SLDM programs can earn credit for participation.
SLDM graduates enrolled in the Teaching Practicum attend for free and can earn credit for acting as teaching assistants.

Pre-requisites:
Basic WCS understanding. Partner not required.

Recommendations:

Time: 3 hours in one block is preferable, but negotiable.

Price: approx. $100

Promotion:

• Ask us for the recommended Email Marketing doc.
• Use link to Swing Literacy Intensive page
• Bio & Photos
• Create a designated Facebook event page and make Tessa a co-host/admin

Requirements:

• 2 microphones
• Shared registration list to track credits

LiftCraft

Wanna get high? Now’s your chance! Spend 3 glorious hours with top Showcase Champions who can not only show you how to get airborne and explore elevation changes, but literally wrote the book on teaching these skills progressively and safely.

DipMe DropMe SlideMe RideMe

Showcase Pros Myles & Tessa teach how to safely and consistently handle weight support moves for lead/follow dancing and competition. Material will get increasingly more complex, and cover popular must-have moves like dip-slides, monkey bars, carousels, and more! You will leave this intensive with new technical tools and toys you can use immediately, with confidence!

Pre-requisites: 

• Please register with an opposite role buddy to keep the role balance. Class will rotate.
• Flexible pants

Recommendations:

Schedule:

3 hours, split in to 1 free hour and 2 paid hours later in the weekend.

Friday evening:
Part 1: Intro: FREE Weight Support Foundations Class
Saturday* or Sunday midday:
Part 2: 3-6 Drops, Slides, Rides
Part 3: 3-6 More complex fun!
*not before Showcase

Promotion:

• Create a designated Facebook event where interested dancers can opt-in and find partners. Make Tessa a co-host/admin
• Shared registration email list
• Bio & Photos

Testimonial: “This is a class everyone needs to take! It will take you to that next level of being able to safely dip, drop, and slide. But more importantly they will teach you how to safely stabilize or abort any of these moves with a dancer you do not feel comfortable engaging with in those moves. Not to mention, their humor is always amusing!!” Jacque Snellenberger

Price: approx $100

Requirements:

• 2 microphones
• Workshop room with proper dance floor (not hotel floor) in order to accommodate sliding.

Masculine vs Feminine Styling

Myles works in one room exclusively with those who want to work on masculine, powerful, confident and cool movement, while Tessa offers her signature Diva training in a separate room, focusing on feminine, strong, sexy movement. Both classes will be focused on practice skills and drills, not choreography. Then, both class will join together to put the new skills into practice in WCS. This Intensive is open to any gender.

Pre-requisites: none

Recommendations:

Avoid conflicting with other solo movement classes.

Promotion:

• Bio & Photos
• Create a designated Facebook event page and make Tessa a co-host/admin
• Shared registration list to track credits

Requirements:

• 2 hours minimum.
• 2 rooms for the separate hour(s)
• Microphone for each teacher

Competitors’ Intensive

This is not your typical competitors’ intensive!

Competing in any division takes focus. It’s so common for all your focus to go out the window as soon as you rotate to your first J&J partner. All that technique you’ve been practicing? Poof – gone –  and you resort to your lowest common denominator of default skills.

So in this one-of-a-kind Competitors’ Intensive, we will teach you ways to control the skills you already have (or fill in your knowledge gaps) and use them under pressure. We will use team-based challenges designed to intentionally disturb your focus, challenge your memory, and desensitize you to distractions. By the end you should be way more confident rotating to any partner, any song, any circumstances, and still be able to feel expressed and on your game.

Pre-requisites: Basic knowledge of WCS. All levels welcome, because levels are irrelevant for this topic.

Recommendations:

Time: 3 hours, not during contests for that style!

Promotion:

Bio & Photos

Testimonial: “This Intensive was super valuable! I was able to implement tons of stuff into my competitions right away, which helped a lot. I loved the analysis of partner profiling to incrementally build trust with your partner at the beginning of the dance to create a secure connection in competition. I think every competitor at every level can benefit from learning these survival skills for dancing with variable levels of partner, weird habits, difficult songs, and feeling overwhelmed. Highly recommended!” – Brendan Mitchell Souvenir

Requirements:

2 microphones

Social Dancers: Adapt and Attract

As a social dancer, two things at the top of your wish list are:

1. Desirability: You want to be a more sought-after dance partner. To make your partners happy so they seek you out to dance with more often.
2. Adaptability: You want to know how to survive dance partners who have challenging habits. You need compensation skills so you can adapt to any level/type of dancer and still have a great dance.

In this Intensive just for social dancers, we will focus on upgrading your partnership skills so you know and can feel exactly what will make you irresistible to dance partners, and stocking your pantry of adaptation tools so you can have amazing dances with any partner, on demand. Oh and we’ll throw in a few essential safe social tricks for dessert.

Pre-requisites: Basic knowledge of WCS

Recommendations:

Time: 2-3 hours

Promotion:

Bio & Photos

Requirements:

2 microphones

Crossover Clinic

Myles and Tessa are known for their dance diversity, and are experts in translating skills between West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop, Balboa, Salsa, Ballroom, and Modern Jive. This clinic can be custom-tailored to your market.

Pre-requisites: Basic knowledge of any partner dance

Recommendations:

Time: 1-2 hours, not during contests for that style!

Promotion:

Bio & Photos

Requirements:

2 microphones

The Strongest Start Newcomer Intensive

Trust seasoned master teacher trainers with your most sensitive and vulnerable group: newcomers. Myles & Tessa literally wrote the book on how to teach newbies from scratch the most effective way to get them moving, having fun, and being successful enough to feel competent social dancing – right from their first class! No more starting at the floor, frustrated over footwork. Students learn progressive skills using the Swing Literacy Development Method.

Recommendations:

• Integrate with an AllStar incentive program
• Increase retention after the event by sponsoring local teachers to the SLDM so they can complete their certification and continue these students on a healthy learning path

Promotion:

• Bio & Photos
• Shared registration list to track credits

Requirements:

• 2 microphones

Testimonials:

I have been asking around, and every person who I spoke with that attended your newcomer session LOVED it. Nothing but very positive feedback on it. You exceeded my expectations. In fact, I’ve already met a few newbies who are coming out social dancing locally after doing the newcomer event at ES. This is good. This is very good. – Allen Ulbricht, Event Director, Easter Swing

Thank you both for the wonderful experience you created in the Newcomers session at the Easter Swing this last weekend! I really enjoyed the way you communicated the technical fundamentals of swing in such an easy to understand format. Really got me excited to continue to learn. Thank You!

Read a longer report from a teacher trainee here

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