Balboa Swing Club the place for Balswing in Berlin.

We are professional jazz and contemporary dancers, Swing music Lovers and Party makers.
We share a passion for this special swing dance, the BALBOA or Balswing. We are guets of SWINGs Black Arts Forms.

Balboa was a pre-swing close embrace partner-dance from Southern California, chest-to-chest, hardly moving, the feet shuffling to the music like wire brushes across a drum head. With the arrival of Swing music in the 30’ on the dance floors of high school gyms and the local ballrooms, black, latinx, european and asian teens started to mix “Balboa” and “Swing” dancing to start what we call “Bal-swing” or simply “Balboa”, mixing dancing in close embrace and open frame. (more infos here)

The history of Swing is Political, Beautiful and a lot of it still needs to be deconstructed from its white perspective.

We recommend listening to integrated Rhythm, it allowed us to see our dances under a new light.

Giedre Paplaityte / Tycho \ Camille Chapon

Tycho founded the Balboa Swing Club. Taught his first classes in 2007 at Bar25, then the first real regular night started in the beginning of 2008 at champagneria.
The dance classes were always followed by a Party, giving the chance for newcomers to meet people and dance on the social dance-floor.

Nowadays Giedre and Camille are teaching and sharing their love of this close embrace dance.

Giedre's journey into the world of swing dance began with Lindy Hop back in early 2000. After traveling around the world learning and teaching swing dance Giedre established her base in Europe's party capital, Berlin, where she became an active member of a vibrant Balboa dance community. An educator by nature and a historian by the degree, Giedre is currently researching women’s role in early Jazz music and dance history. In her classes one should expect a fair amount of musicality, fun technical tips and lots of good ideas on improvisation for both leaders and followers. After many exciting years in the swing dance community the main goal of her teaching remains to share her love for dancing, and to inspire and encourage those who have just begun to explore jazz dance and its African American roots.

Camille is a contemporary dancer and choreographer. He teaches Balboa from his experience of body awareness, movement experimentation and improvisation. Expect a less conventional approach to learning couple dance, with balance and visualisation techniques, emphasising understanding your own body to open your connection to the ground, to your partner and to the music.