{"id":1021,"date":"2026-01-30T16:47:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T16:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/?p=1021"},"modified":"2026-01-30T16:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T16:51:30","slug":"you-dont-have-to-be-a-dancer-to-start-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/?p=1021","title":{"rendered":"You Don\u2019t Have to Be a Dancer to Start Dancing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I turned 30, which feels both like yesterday and<\/em> a lifetime ago, I had one of those thoughts many people recognise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really should do some exercise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a lot of people, a milestone birthday made me think about my health and wellbeing. The trouble was, I\u2019d never found any kind of exercise I actually enjoyed. I didn\u2019t like sport \u2014 I never understood the rules, I wasn\u2019t competitive, and I definitely wasn\u2019t interested in exhausting myself just for the sake of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just to be clear \u2014 I didn\u2019t consider myself a dancer<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from a brief and fairly disappointing spell with ballet at the age of eight, dancing wasn\u2019t something I did. I certainly wasn\u2019t the person who got up and danced at parties. If there was dancing happening, I was usually quite happy watching from the sidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried the gym briefly in my late twenties, but it didn\u2019t stick. The repetition bored me and I felt disconnected from what I was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I did<\/em> know was that I loved music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I thought, why not try dancing?<\/em>
It felt like it might combine movement, music \u2014 and hopefully meeting people too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovering Lindy Hop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I started by going along to Dance City in Newcastle, where you can try lots of different studio classes. I sampled a few styles, then discovered partner dancing \u2014 first modern jive, and shortly after, Lindy Hop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long after that, a London group called the Jiving Lindy Hoppers came to County Durham to run a week-long workshop. That week changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I completely fell in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindy Hop felt joyful and free. It didn\u2019t feel formal or intimidating. It wasn\u2019t about perfect lines or being watched. It was social, playful, and rooted in music. You danced with lots of different people, and it felt like a genuinely useful life skill \u2014 something you could do at parties, weddings, or whenever there was live music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of all, it didn\u2019t feel<\/em> like exercise at all.
Which meant my motivation skyrocketed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When There Was Nowhere Local to Dance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At the time, there wasn\u2019t much Lindy Hop happening locally. Once that week-long workshop ended, I couldn\u2019t find anywhere nearby to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a schoolteacher then, and while I enjoyed studio classes, nothing matched the spark I\u2019d felt through Lindy Hop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I started travelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to Edinburgh and London \u2014 two or three hours away \u2014 just to dance. Along the way, I made friends who shared the same love of music and movement, and many of those friendships have lasted to this day. I still travel to Edinburgh now to dance with people I first met all those years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, in 2007, Andy and I decided to create the thing we wished had existed locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite simply, we wanted the chance to dance with others in our own community and share this joyful dance in the North East. Andy also wanted the chance to DJ the swing music he loved \u2014 music that seems to lift you onto the dance floor before you\u2019ve even thought about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What began as a single class of around 40 people grew over time into a thriving community, including the DJam Swing Dance Festival, which welcomed around 400 dancers each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Dancing Changed Me (More Than I Expected)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, I don\u2019t think I realised how sociable I actually was until I started Lindy Hop. People who knew me earlier might even say I was quite shy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning this dance quietly but completely changed my social life \u2014 in the best possible way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindy Hop only works if you dance with other people, so confidence grows naturally. You\u2019re not put on the spot. You\u2019re not performing. You\u2019re simply sharing a few minutes of movement and music with someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You meet kind, friendly people who love the same things you do, and over time, that changes how you see yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still wouldn\u2019t describe myself as someone who loves exercise.
But I do<\/em> love dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why I Still Believe Lindy Hop Is Worth Trying<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I still believe so strongly in Lindy Hop \u2014 and why we run Lindy Jazz the way we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t need rhythm.
You don\u2019t need a partner.
You don\u2019t need to be \u201ca dancer\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t even need to feel confident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You just need a little curiosity and a willingness to give it a go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever thought \u201cI should do some exercise\u201d<\/em> but nothing has ever quite felt right\u2026
If you love music but don\u2019t see yourself as a dancer\u2026
If you\u2019d like something sociable, joyful, and gently confidence-building\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t have to be a dancer to start dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the next Lindy Jazz course here<\/a>.
If you\u2019re curious, you\u2019d be very welcome to join us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I turned 30, which feels both like yesterday and a lifetime ago, I had one of those thoughts many people recognise. I really should do some exercise. Like a lot of people, a milestone birthday made me think about my health and wellbeing. The trouble was, I\u2019d never found any kind of exercise I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_2949-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lindy-jazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}