Step back in time to the roaring 1920s and master the fun, upbeat moves of the Charleston with our Solo Beginner Charleston Course! Starting Sunday 17th November at 6pm, this exciting course will have you tapping your feet and swinging your arms to the infectious rhythms of jazz. No partner needed—just bring your enthusiasm and get ready to dance!

Solo Beginner Charleston Course Details:

• Start Date: Sunday 17th November
• Time: 6 PM
• Duration: 4 Weeks
• Location: Learn To Dance, Cherry Orchard Pavilion, Britwell Road, Burnham, SL1 8DL
• Cost: £35 per person

The Charleston is a lively and energetic solo dance that will get your heart pumping and your feet moving! Perfect for beginners, this four-week course is designed to teach you the iconic steps and techniques of the Charleston. Whether you’re looking to improve your dance skills or just want to have some fun, this course is a fantastic way to experience the joy of dance.

Why Learn the Charleston?

The Charleston is not only a great way to have fun, but it’s also a fantastic workout. It improves coordination, balance, and stamina, while the upbeat tempo keeps your energy levels high. You’ll be grooving to the sounds of swing music and having a blast in every class.

Get a Cheeky Headstart!

Check out some of our online Charleston lessons in the below playlist, plus a playlist to practice some of your dance moves to.

Book Your Spot Today!

Our Solo Beginner Charleston course is a great way to learn a unique and entertaining dance style in a welcoming and supportive environment. Spaces are limited, so be sure to secure your spot by booking below, visiting our studio or contact us. To book a space for another person please visit our full booking system.

Come and learn this dynamic dance, full of character and charm, at Learn To Dance.

Join us at Learn To Dance and step into the world of Charleston, where you’ll learn the steps and create lasting memories. We can’t wait to see you there!

The post Solo Beginner Charleston Course appeared first on Learn To Dance.

News and Notices

Instagram…birthday Charleston

Friday night saw Antony heading over to Camberley Cricket Club to provide a Charleston workshop at someone’s The Great Gatsby-themed 50th birthday party.

The couple had also been secretly visiting Antony to learn a Charleston routine to perform for all their friends and family too.

It was great to see so many people dressing for the occasion too.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Learn To Dance (@learndance)

Tango Serida Workshop & Social

Our next sequence dance workshop and social will be the Tango Serida on Sunday 25th June.

These workshops teach the sequence dance, normally between 30-45 minutes (unless it’s Argentine Stroll!), and then are followed up by social ballroom, Latin and sequence dancing.

The session lasts for 2 hours and includes free tea & coffee.

June Social Dance

Looking for a chance to practice what you’ve been learning in classes? Our next social dance is on Friday 30th June.

The social runs from 7.30pm-10pm and costs £8 per person.

You are welcome to bring your own drinks and nibbles.

Upcoming

Dance Workshops

• Sun 25th June – Tango Serida Sequence & Social

Social Events

• Every Monday – Weekly Tea Dance
• Fri 30th June – Social Night

The post Weekly Update Sunday 28th May appeared first on Learn To Dance.

Given that this was raising money for a children’s charity we felt one of Antony & Imogen’s lessons for kids would make the perfect addition.

The NSPCC looked through our catalog of videos and loved our Learn To Charleston – Kid’s Edition video. We also arranged for a local juvenile dance partnership to provide a dance demo too.

The NSPCC Surprise Ball

The Ball was compered by magician Michael King and also included an appearance from Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen.

There were exclusive performances from Brit Award winner Beth Orton and Platinum selling artist Andrea Corr, plus an appearance from Childline Counsellor Suzie Daubeney.

Featuring a variety of magic tricks throughout, plus the dance demonstration and Charleston lesson, it’s an hour well spent if you’re looking for some entertainment.

You can catch up with the full Ball video below. Please consider donating to the NSPCC Surprise Ball by visiting their JustGiving page.

Childline Purpose and Total Raised

The NSPCC Surprise Ball was launched to directly raise funds towards Childline, after a significant increase in calls during the first lockdown.

Between 23 March and 10 May 2020, the NSPCC Childline Service delivered more than 30,000 counselling sessions that helped to deal with the top FIVE main concerns of young people:

• Mental / emotional health
• Suicidal thoughts and feelings
• Family relationships
• Self-harm
• Sex / relationships / puberty

So far the NSPCC Surprise Ball video has raised £17,000 for Childline!  

Below is a breakdown as how this money could be spent:

• £16,000 will pay to recruit & train & support 10 New Childline Volunteers
• £900 will pay for 5 days of helping children get back on track following abuse 
• £100 pays for a trained volunteer counsellor to answer 20+ calls

I’m sure you’ll agree that is a fantastic result and we’re so honoured to have been involved in such a worthwhile cause. We’d really love to help them break the £20,000 barrier so please help us by donating today.

About Learn To Dance

Learn To Dance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School based in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Offering regular live-stream classes, as well as useful dance uploads, subcribe on YouTube to be kept informed when new videos are going live. Send us your suggestions of what you’d like to see us release and we’ll do our best!

Looking for more personal tuition? We provide both in-person and streamed lessons and classes. Check out learndance.co.uk/online for more information.

You can check out our website, or follow us online, at:

Website: learndance.co.uk
Youtube: youtube.com/learndance
Facebook: facebook.com/learndance
Instagram: instagram.com/learndance
Twitter: twitter.com/learndance

The post NSPCC Surprise Ball fundraising total appeared first on Learn To Dance.

How long should our Beginner Basic Charleston lesson be?

We’re in the process of planning the Beginner Basic Charleston class for Sunday. If you want to have your say on the potential lesson length vote now on the community page of our Channel.

What are we going to cover?

Depending on how the voting on lesson length goes will dictate how much we get to cover.

We will however be starting with the Charleston Basic step before looking at a couple of variations.

There’ll be some time spent discussing and explaining the twist action, but beginners may wish to come back to that when they’re more confident.

After that we’ll show you how to have fun with a selection of beginner Charleston steps. Including the Twists, Mess Around and Peckin’.

Finally we’ll teach you a simple routine to be able to practice what we’ve covered.

Where can I watch the Basic Charleston video?

The class will be live on our YouTube Channel at 11.30am on Sunday 28th February 2021. You can also watch it below, as well as on-demand 24hrs after it has been broadcast.

What shall I do whilst I’m waiting?

If you can’t wait until Sunday for your Basic Charleston fix check out our Solo Charleston video from lockdown 1.0:

We hope you enjoy our Charleston videos and do let us know what you’d like to see us cover next.

About Learn To Dance

Learn To Dance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School based in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Whilst our studio may be closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we’re still trying to help people to keep dancing!

You can check out our website, or follow us online, at:

Website: learndance.co.uk
Youtube: youtube.com/learndance
Facebook: facebook.com/learndance
Instagram: instagram.com/learndance
Twitter: twitter.com/learndance

The post Basic Charleston Dance Lesson for Beginners appeared first on Learn To Dance.

We’ll ease you in slowly before building up to fast dances like the Jive, and then coming back down to end with a nice slow Rumba.

Apart from a few quick hints and tips we’re not really going to be teaching the routines, so if you want to brush up on the individual routines you can find links to their lessons below:

The Dances – Brush Up On The Routines

• Salsa
  • including Cucaracha, Back Basics, a Chassé, Cross Basic, Basic with Turns, and a Pata Mala
• Samba
  • including Reverse Basics, Whisks, Bota Fogos, Solo Spot Voltas
• Cha Cha
  • including Alternative Basics, Open Basics, Cuban breaks (including split Cuban breaks), New Yorks, Spot Turns and then a Zig-Zag grapevine with a spring and flick
• Quickstep
  • including Quarter Turns to the Right and Progressive Chassés, Charleston, Tipsies to the Right and Left and Lock Steps
• Viennese Waltz
  • including Pendulum Swings/Hesitation Changes, Natural and Reverse Turns, and a spin (Canter Pivot)
• Jive
  • including Swivels, Fallaway Rocks, Mooch, Toe-Heel Swivels, Flick Ball-Changes, ‘Flicks and Kicks’, Chicken Walks and Stalking Walks, Flick and Break
• Charleston
  • including Scissor Kicks, Suzy Q’s, Tick Tocks, Cross Points, The Lock Turn, Charleston Basics with kicks, Flying Charleston, and Spank The Baby.
• Tango
  • including Walks and Progressive Side Steps, Contra Checks and Promenade, Reverse Turn with some Rocks and Swivels, Oversway, the Chase, and a Point-cross-slip, Basic Reverse Turn
• Rumba
  • including Alternative Basics, Open Basics, Rumba Walks, Cuban Rocks, Cucarachas, Open Outs/Hand-To-Hands, Solo Spirals, Grapevines and Advanced Leg Turns

See our Solo Ballroom Dance Fitness Class video

Once you’ve brushed up on the routines you can try our solo dance fitness class video below:

Don’t forget, if you enjoyed our online Dance Fitness Class video please send it to your family and friends. Why not also check out our online dance lessons.

About Learn To Dance

Learn To Dance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School based in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Whilst our studio may be closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we’re still trying to help all our students to keep dancing!

We hope you enjoyed our Solo Ballroom Dance Fitness Class.

You can check out our website, or follow us online, at:

Website: learndance.co.uk
Youtube: youtube.com/learndance
Facebook: facebook.com/learndance
Instagram: instagram.com/learndance
Twitter: twitter.com/learndance

The post Dance Fitness Class – Solo Ballroom appeared first on Learn To Dance.

Sequence dancing is where you repeat the same 16 or 32 bar routine throughout a song, dancing around the room, and in sync with everyone else.

Now that’s great when you have the space! What we’re going to show you today is how to practice the basic movements in your front room.

The Dance – Sindy (Cindy) Swing

The Sindy Swing features a mixture of Charleston, Cha Cha, Waltz and Quickstep steps.

To convert this into the full routine you would do your lock steps and solo spin down the room. Obviously if near a corner you would still curve round to avoid crashing into the wall!

The box step and shoulder-to-shoulder would be done with the leader facing their nearest wall.

The chassés at the end would be danced down the room, but still turning around your partner. You would still end up side-by-side ready to start again after opening out.

The Music

For this Sequence for Small Spaces lesson we have used These Words Don’t Lie by Mike Franklyn:

The Sindy Swing video

You can see our Sequence for Small Spaces online lesson below:

Don’t forget, if you enjoyed our online Sindy Swing sequence dance video please send it to your family and friends. Why not also check out our other online dance lessons.

About Learn To Dance

Learn To Dance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School based in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Whilst our studio may be closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we’re still trying to help all our students to keep dancing!

We hope you enjoyed our Sindy Swing sequence dance lesson.

You can check out our website, or follow us online, at:

Website: learndance.co.uk
Youtube: youtube.com/learndance
Facebook: facebook.com/learndance
Instagram: instagram.com/learndance
Twitter: twitter.com/learndance

The post Sindy Swing – Sequence for Small Spaces appeared first on Learn To Dance.

Our classes are broken down into easy to follow sections that build up to a small routine for the kids to practice.

The focus is on the kids having fun whilst learning to dance.

The Dance – Charleston

For this lesson Antony & Imogen show you some basic Charleston steps adapted for kids.

The Charleston is a fun and energetic dance that originally developed in the 1920s. We’re going to show you a few solo steps that the kids can practice on their own (although parents you’re welcome to join in).

We start off with some twists, complete with optional “jazz hands”. Then we’ll have some Peckin’ (complete with Immi’s interpretation of a chicken); before looking at our Charleston Basic.

The Basic Charleston For Kids Music

For this Basic Charleston for Kids dance lesson we have used On The Bike by Golden Age Radio for a traditional Charleston feel:

Our Basic Charleston for Kids online video

We hope your kids enjoy our Basic Charleston lesson. The important thing to remember with Charleston is that it’s supposed to be a fun and energetic dance where anything goes.

Don’t forget, if you enjoyed our online Basic Charleston for Kids, ballroom dance video please send it to your family and friends. Why not also check out our other online dance lessons.

About Learn To Dance

Learn To Dance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School based in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Whilst our studio may be closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we’re still trying to help all our students to keep dancing!

You can check out our website, or follow us online, at:

Website: learndance.co.uk
Youtube: youtube.com/learndance
Facebook: facebook.com/learndance
Instagram: instagram.com/learndance
Twitter: twitter.com/learndance

The post Basic Charleston for Kids appeared first on Learn To Dance.

The routine is taught in easy to follow stages that build you up to a full choreographed routine. There’s plenty of opportunities to practice the routine throughout the video.

Solo Charleston – The Dance

Charleston first became popular in the 1920s but actually continued well into the 40s, albeit as more of a partner dance by this point.

The music is generally fast paced and frenetic and rumour has it this was fueled by the legally obtainable cocaine, where alchohol was prohibited at the time.

Whilst we may have chosen a more contemporary (and slower!) piece of music for this routine, the steps are all based on actual Solo Charleston steps.

Featuring:

• Scissor Kicks,
• Suzy Q’s,
• Tick Tocks,
• Cross Points,
• The Lock Turn,
• Charleston Basics with kicks,
• Flying Charleston, and
• Spank The Baby.

So just a few steps then!

Whilst we start you off slowly, you’ll definitely build up a sweat! We hope you enjoy the routine.

The Music

The music we’ve chosen for this Solo Charleston routine is a contemporary option – Part Of The Game by Velveteen:

See the Solo Charleston lesson video

You can see the video of our lesson below.

Don’t forget, if you enjoyed our online Solo Charleston dance video please send it to your family and friends. Why not also check out our other online dance lessons.

About Learn To Dance

Learn To Dance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School based in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Whilst our studio may be closed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we’re still trying to help all our students to keep dancing with this Solo Charleston routine!

You can check out our website, or follow us online, at:

Website: learndance.co.uk
Youtube: youtube.com/learndance
Facebook: facebook.com/learndance
Instagram: instagram.com/learndance
Twitter: twitter.com/learndance

The post Solo Charleston Dance Routine appeared first on Learn To Dance.

Enquiries with Burnham Parish Council revealed that the nearest AED (Automated External Defibrillator) would be at Burnham Park Hall, around a 5 minute drive from the studio.  Whilst AEDs have been shown to double the survival rate of someone suffering a sudden cardiac arrest, their effectiveness reduces by around 10% for every minute delay in their usage.

Given that our studio is based within football playing fields and is a hotspot for dog walkers and joggers, we felt the benefit of having an AED outside the studio could not be overlooked if it meant the difference between life or death for someone.

Burnham Parish Council offered to pay for the installation and hosting of the external cabinet if we were able to raise enough to cover the net cost of the equipment and cabinet of £1,366.25.

We looked at a variety of options for how we might raise the funds required, and eventually decided on a fun day of dance sessions on Monday 28th May.

Any excess funds raised would then be donated to the Check Heart Appeal, a fundraising page set up to raise money for C-R-Y (Cardiac Risk in the Young), a charity close to Antony & Emma’s heart.

In the morning we had an American Smooth workshop, a FitSteps taster and a lunchtime Tea Dance; whilst the afternoon saw ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, Bollywood and Charleston inspired workshops.

All of that did mean that Antony had to have at least 5 costume changes!

We received a number of donations, both before and after the day, from those that were unable to attend and we also held a raffle with a variety of prizes including a LearnToDance gift voucher and the top prize of a family photoshoot with Emma-Louise Walton Photography.

The raffle was closed and drawn a week later live on our Facebook Page, although we started to panic when a number of duplicate winners started being drawn (regardless of how much Antony shook and mixed up the tickets) but it evened out in the end!

https://www.facebook.com/learndance/videos/10160843462305221/

Between the fundraising day, raffle and donations LearnToDance raised a total of £1,855.63!

We instructed Burnham Parish Council to order the defibrillator and are pleased to announce that this has now been installed!

We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in the running/administration of the event, everyone that donated or attended the day, and Burnham Parish Council for their support.

Much appreciated,

Antony, Emma and the LearnToDance team

About LearnToDance

LearnToDance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School run by husband and wife team Antony & Emma-Louise Holeksa and has been running since 2006.  Classes for all levels and ages, and personal tuition, take place throughout the week, as well as dance breaks and private events.

In 2016 we moved into our own dedicated studio at the Cherry Orchard in Burnham and now offer sessions most days of the week.

About Check Heart Appeal

The post Defibrillator Fundraising Success! appeared first on Learn To Dance.

‘Strictly Come Dancing’ dance stars Natalie Lowe and Ian Waite have teamed up with six time world champion swimmer Mark Foster, a former Strictly contestant and an expert in fitness and conditioning, to produce a unique dance and fitness programme – ‘FitSteps’.

They have combined, for the first time, the best known and most popular Latin and Ballroom dances with proven fitness techniques, to develop a dance/fitness programme that is capable of delivering fast fitness results, with a heap of fun thrown in!

Just look at what some of the lucky people who’ve already had the chance to try FitSteps have been saying:

• ‘It was like a dream I really enjoyed it’
• ‘It was fab! Good and easy to follow’
• ‘YES! YES!’
• ‘Absolutely give it a go; you’ll love it!!’
• ‘You should go because it is amazing’
• Do it and you feel like you’re on STRICTLY!!
• It was brilliant! Fun and fitness combined.
• A workout that doesn’t feel like it, it’s so much fun!!
• Great fun, great music and a great workout, without even realising it.
• Great workout, fun, and makes you feel like a star!!!

And for anyone who’s thinking, ‘But I can’t dance’ or ‘I don’t have anyone to dance with’, there’s no excuse – you don’t have to able to dance and you don’t need a partner! You just have to want to get fit and have fun.

So, if you’re ready to take to the floor and FitSteps your way to a new you, all you need to do is be at the Eton Wick Village Hall on Tuesday 4^th February at 8.30pm or Wednesday 5^th February at 10am where Antony Holeksa (an accredited FitSteps Instructor) from LearnToDance, will be waiting to put you through your FitSteps paces! Get there early, there’s going to be a rush!

For more information you can contact Antony on 07736 272225, email us at info@want-to-dance.co.uk, or check out our website at www.want-to-dance.co.uk/fitsteps.

Classes are £5 per person or £45 for 10 sessions.

Tuesday 8.30pm-9.15pm
Wednesday 10am-10.45am

LearnToDance is a Ballroom and Latin American Dance School run by husband and wife team Antony & Emma-Louise Holeksa and has been running since 2006.  Classes for all levels and ages, and personal tuition, take place throughout the week, as well as dance breaks and private events.

The post Fitness that’s ‘Strictly’ fun comes to Eton Wick with Learn To Dance appeared first on Learn To Dance.