Swing Dance Styles
Lindy Hop • Balboa & Slow Balboa • Collegiate Shag • Tap
“Peter is an exceptional swing dance instructor. With a passion for history and years of experience in teaching and performing, he brings a deep knowledge to every class. He excels at making students feel comfortable and challenged, whether they are a complete beginner or an advanced dancer.”
— Susan Manke, Balboa Mentor (Nashville)
It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got that Swing
Learning to dance Lindy Hop, Balboa, Collegiate Shag, or Tap is like opening a doorway to a world full of rhythm, energy, and history. Each style has its own flavor: Lindy Hop swings with joyful freedom, Balboa delights with close-contact elegance and dazzling footwork, Collegiate Shag zips along with playful, upbeat energy, and Tap lets you express the music through percussive storytelling with your feet! Together, they teach musicality, coordination, and connection—both with the music and with your dance partners—making every step a mix of technique, creativity, and pure fun.
Peter Flahiff & Lauren Smith in Edmonton
Lindy Hop
Lindy Hop came from the African-American experience of the early 20th Century and grew out of the Charleston craze of the 1920s. It took shape in the ballrooms of Harlem — particularly the legendary Savoy Ballroom. Blending 6-count and 8-count rhythms, it’s danced to everything from slow, bluesy tunes to fast, high-energy swing. Bursting with creativity and joy, Lindy Hop spread worldwide in the 1930s and ’40s and appeared in classic films like Hellzapoppin’ and A Day at the Races.
Although its popularity dipped after WWII, original dancers like Frankie Manning, Al Minns, Norma Miller, and Mama Lu Parks kept dancing and sparked a huge revival in the 1980s. Today, Lindy Hop is thriving in cities around the globe, with socials, workshops, and major events happening every single weekend.
Peter Flahiff & Lorraine O’Neal
Balboa
Balboa is a smooth, subtle swing dance that developed in the crowded ballrooms of Orange County, California in the 1920s and ’30s. Many of the venues required dancers to keep a close embrace, so a compact & elegant style evolved — now called Pure Balboa — built from Foxtrot and Charleston rhythms.
In the late ’30s, Balboa dancers from Orange County began mixing their dance with a Los Angeles County-based swing dance known simply as “Swing,” creating what became known as “Bal-Swing”, which added turns, more open movements, and more variations. Today, both Pure Balboa and Bal-Swing make up what we call Balboa.
Because of its smooth and subtle footwork and strong partner connection, Balboa works beautifully at a wide range of tempos (especially fast ones!) letting dancers glide across the floor with ease and musicality.
Slow Balboa
Slow Balboa (or Slow Bal) is a close-embrace swing dance designed for slower tempos. It’s celebrated for its smooth, flowing movements, subtle footwork, and deep partner connection—offering a relaxed, “hug dance” alternative to faster Balboa styles. Influenced by original dancers like Dean Raftery and shaped by modern instructors, Slow Bal incorporates fluid motion and a multitude of influences, making it approachable, expressive, and enjoyable for dancers of all skill levels.
Peter Flahiff & Jennifer Barnett
Collegiate Shag
In the original Swing Era, the most widespread and popular swing dance in the United States was Shag! Nearly every region of the country had its own variation and style, but over time, Collegiate Shag became the most widely-known form. Its hugely popular again, and now enjoys a huge community around the world!
Collegiate Shag in its original form is smoother and more relaxed than many people believe! (It was meant to be danced all night long) With a buoyant and elegant bounce, Shag meshes perfectly with the wonderful energy of swing music and rhythm. While highly-energetic, performance-oriented styles of Shag are wonderful, Peter emphasizes the universal appeal of this classic swing dance for anyone, anywhere!
“Not only is Peter a great advocate for the power of good social dancing, his eye for technique is superb as well. It was his teachings that smoothed out my shag dancing, which enabled me to dance shag all night without tiring. I still reference him in any workshops I teach today."
— Niall Bruce, Collegiate Shag Champion (Australia)
Tap
Tap dancing is a vibrant and rhythmic dance form that turns the floor itself into a percussive instrument. Tap dancers create intricate patterns, syncopated rhythms, and lively beats that combine music and movement into one dynamic performance. Peter’s experience with tap dancing began with a five-year partnership with tap dance preservationist and historian Rusty Frank. He studied form and technique with one of Ginger Rogers’s last dance partners, Jim Taylor. Peter has also been extraordinarily blessed to spend time dancing with, learning from, and in conversations with many legendary masters of the form, including: Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, Leonard Reed (creator of the Shim Sham dance routine), Jimmy Slyde, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Robert Reed, Miriam Nelson, and many more. Peter delights in teaching not just the steps and routines of the classic era of Tap, but also in sharing dozens of stories and anecdotes that make the art form immediate and vital!