What: 4 hour beginner swing dance workshop
When: Sunday January 18th, 2026
Where: RVA Swing Dance Studio, 6114 Lakeside Ave, Suite C
Instructors: Kate Hedin & David Rehm
Cost: Sliding Scale of $40 - $85 per student (choose your own price at registration)
IMPORTANT: Class size is limited and classes often sell out ahead of time We strongly encourage you to register online in advance to ensure that you get a spot! Once all the spaces in the workshop have been sold, there will be no more at-the-door registration available.
What is Balboa? What is Bal-Swing?
Balboa is a general term for a style of swing dancing that evolved in Southern California in response to the tightly packed dance floors and up-tempo music. While typically associated with fast tempos, this dance can be danced at any speed (and requires less energy than its athletic cousin, Lindy Hop).
This dance consists of two main types of moves. The first, original form of the dance is referred to as Pure Bal and is danced in a close embrace. It features small, intricate footwork that is a shared conversation between lead & follow. The second type, referred to as Bal-Swing, came a bit later and is a mix of open-position moves adapted from other swing-era dances. Bal-Swing features the flashier turns and kicks that you often see in competition footage. Balboa, as danced today, flows constantly between Pure Bal & Bal-Swing.
About the workshop:
New to swing dancing in general? This workshop is for you!
Done other forms of swing dance, but are new to Balboa? This workshop is for you!
Current Balboa student looking to brush up on your fundamentals or learn the other role? Hey, this workshop is for you too!
Looking for a chill way to dance easily to fast music without breaking a sweat? Oh, friend, this workshop is totally for you!
No partner or previous experience required.
In this 4 hour workshop, David & Kate will introduce you to the fundamentals of Balboa, both in close embrace (aka Pure Balboa) and open position (aka Bal-Swing). In addition to learning footwork and moves, you'll learn about partner connection/communication, and why this dance is hella fun!
Looking for a chill way to dance easily to fast music without breaking a sweat? Oh, friend, this workshop is totally for you!
No partner or previous experience required.
In this 4 hour workshop, David & Kate will introduce you to the fundamentals of Balboa, both in close embrace (aka Pure Balboa) and open position (aka Bal-Swing). In addition to learning footwork and moves, you'll learn about partner connection/communication, and why this dance is hella fun!
This special beginners workshop will start from zero and build from there: registration is for the entire 4hr workshop only and you must arrive at the start of the workshops (12pm) to participate.
This is a standard rotating-partner group class and we will change partners throughout class (even if you come with a partner). This means no one is without a partner AND you learn the skills to dance with anyone on the social floor.
BONUS! You can also join us on Saturday Jan 17th for our monthly social dance and drop-in beginner swing lesson. This is included in your registration as a fun bonus, but is totally optional.
Weekend Schedule:
Saturday Jan 17th
6:30pm - doors open for our monthly social dance
7pm: Beginner Swing Lesson w/RVA Swing staff
(included with your workshop registration)
8pm: Social Dancing to DJ'd music
(included with your workshop registration)
Sunday Jan 18th
11:30am - doors open
12pm - Beginners Workshop Part 1
2pm - 15 minute rest break
2:15pm - Beginners Workshop Part 2
4:15pm - workshops end
Your Instructors
David Rehm is a geek-turned-professional-dancer specializing exclusively in the partnered swing dances, Lindy and Balboa, and widely considered one of the top Balboa dancers and instructors in the world. He is regularly featured teaching and judging at the most prestigious events dedicated to those dances throughout North America, Europe and Asia. In addition to numerous awards, in 2006 David captured both the American and European Balboa titles (with different partners) by winning the American Classic Balboa Championship and the Euro Bal Cup. He is also the creator of The Experiment, "the world's most intimate and intensive Balboa workshop", as well as the founder of the Northeast Balboa Corridor (NEBC) project. David is best known for his ability to capture both broad thematic abstractions and technical details all in the form of conceptual principles.
Register Online:
click here to sign up
4:15pm - workshops end
Your Instructors
🎉We are incredibly honored to welcome internationally renowned instructors David Rehm & Kate Hedin to our studio for the weekend. You will typically find these two teaching at major national & international events, and winning competitions all over the world, so don't miss your chance to learn from them in your own home town! 🎉
For almost two decades Kate Hedin has taught Balboa and Lindy Hop around the world and holds almost every major championship title in the modern Balboa era. As a teacher, Kate is passionate about pedagogy, lead/follow mechanics as a way of expression, and follower voice as an integrated part of the dance. She is the creator of several groundbreaking DVDs on Balboa Followers Technique and Aesthetics, as well as other online lessons, which can be found at www.onlinebalboa.com, and is one of the scene's top Jewel McGowan experts. She is also a highly sought-after judge and DJ.
When she is not teaching dance, she leads a secret double life as a Twitch streamer, that focuses on video games as art, education, entertainment, and human connection. She is *always* ready to geek out about dance, classical music (she has a degree in viola), trapeze, and video games, so please don't be intimidated by her quiet
demeanor and asymmetrical hair and ask her anything!
Register Online:
click here to sign up
online registration will close at midnight on Jan 17th
any remaining spots will be available at the door starting at 11:30am on Sunday, provided space is still available.
Registered students: Our registration system sends out an almost instant confirmation email with all your information, including payment links. Didn't receive one? Please check your spam folder first, then contact us at RVAswing@gmail.com.
You'll also receive an email from us the week of the workshop with everything you need to know.
Shoe Policy
We spent over a month building our dance floor and we want it to stand the test of time! Help us keep it nice by following these basic guidelines:
--Please remove your street shoes in the hallway sitting area.
-- Please wear suede or leather-soled dance shoes for classes and dances if you have them.
-- If you don't own dance shoes, please bring any clean pair of shoes to change into for classes/dances. This will help us keep grit and dirt off the floor.
For Balboa, you want shoes that will allow you to slide & turn easily, so the less grip the better!
The following types of shoes are absolutely prohibited inside the RVA Swing studio:
- NO stilettos or other spiked heels. Not only are these inappropriate and dangerous footwear for swing dancing, they also tend to gouge and dent wood floors. Thick, sturdy dance heels are ok.
- No home-made duct tape soles. Yeah these might work great for a bit, but as you dance, you wear through the tape and leave sticky adhesive gunk for everyone else to dance on. No bueno!
- No tap shoes. These shred the floor. Any tap classes offered will be soft-shoe only. :)
We spent over a month building our dance floor and we want it to stand the test of time! Help us keep it nice by following these basic guidelines:
--Please remove your street shoes in the hallway sitting area.
-- Please wear suede or leather-soled dance shoes for classes and dances if you have them.
-- If you don't own dance shoes, please bring any clean pair of shoes to change into for classes/dances. This will help us keep grit and dirt off the floor.
For Balboa, you want shoes that will allow you to slide & turn easily, so the less grip the better!
The following types of shoes are absolutely prohibited inside the RVA Swing studio:
- NO stilettos or other spiked heels. Not only are these inappropriate and dangerous footwear for swing dancing, they also tend to gouge and dent wood floors. Thick, sturdy dance heels are ok.
- No home-made duct tape soles. Yeah these might work great for a bit, but as you dance, you wear through the tape and leave sticky adhesive gunk for everyone else to dance on. No bueno!
- No tap shoes. These shred the floor. Any tap classes offered will be soft-shoe only. :)
How to find us
The RVA Swing studio is located inside the Lakeside Towne Center, at 6114 Lakeside Ave. There is tons of free parking in the lot adjacent to the Farmer's Market pavilion, as well as behind the Towne Center building. Enter through the Towne Shops door under the RVA Swing sign and head down the hallway!
Please note that some GPS systems will send you about 2 blocks away. We recommend using our Google Maps listing for directions.
