Topic of the Quarter
Little Rock’s Dance Lessons
by Jim Laux, Little Rock Bop Club
The Little Rock Bop Club dances every Wednesday night from 7 - 10 pm, with a dance lesson every week, unless it is a special dance that requires using the whole room for set-up. When we have lessons, we are able to screen off the back of our large dance room with a folding partition and we hold a lesson there from 7 - 7:45 pm while open dancing goes on in the front half of the room. At the end of the lesson, we open the partitions and the whole room to dancing.
We have set up a program where every 1st and 2nd Wednesday of each month we repeat our Basic I and Basic II swing dance lessons. We let people take these as often as they wish and a number take them over and over. Perhaps it is to improve their basic technique, or perhaps because they get to meet a lot of people as we make them change partners repeatedly throughout the lesson.
On the other Wednesdays, we teach an intermediate pattern or move or give lessons on timing, leading, and other helpful pointers. On these additional Wednesdays, we also throw in line dances, cha-cha, stationary cha-cha, or waltz instruction because our DJ plays some of that at each weekly dance.
Our lessons are usually taught by a very limited number of club members. We don’t pay our instructors, nor do we charge anyone for the lessons. Attendee door admissions ($2 for members, $4 for non-members) also entitle them to take the lesson, if they wish.
We haven’t had to limit the number of people taking the lessons yet, but that could happen as we occasionally have some pretty large crowds.
We believe that a structured dance lesson program is essential for the health and growth of our club. It provides a steady stream of new members to make up for the normal attrition you see in any club. Also, it is our great pleasure to help people improve their dancing skills and techniques and to introduce so many new people to the joys of swing dancing.