Upcoming Classes
Expand Your Dance Skills!
These classes are intended to enhance your dance experience and focus on different, fun aspects and styles of classic swing and ballroom dancing.
BLUES DANCING
Don't just stand and sway to slow music! This popular form of socially inspired dancing is fun and easy to learn. It can be used when dancing to classic blues or contemporary slow music.
Linda & Chester perform the blues at Mac Fitness
Linda & Chester dance Balboa aboard the MS Explorer
BALBOA DANCING
Balboa is a style of swing dancing done to faster tempos involving quick footwork and movements. It is an integral part of a lindy hopper's repertoire and is especially good for fast songs and crowded dance floors.
PERFORMANCE CLASSES
In a class by itself! Chester's Cool Cats & Kittens. Take this opportunity to shine! Work with Artistic Director and Choreographer Chester Freeman and discover your inner performer! Instructor permission and previous dance experience required.
Chester's Cool Cats & Kittens Perform at the Spiegeltent
Linda & Chester dance Balboa aboard the MS Explorer
BALLROOM DANCE LESSONS
We Seriously Swing... but Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha Cha and Rumba too!
Swing and Foxtrot are both done to big band music and our swing dances traditionally end in a Waltz.
What our students say...
"I love having an artistic outlet in my life again. When I lived in NJ, it had been singing with my community choir, but since moving to the Hudson Valley, it's DANCE! Not only is it fun and great exercise, but the friends I've made through dancing have helped me feel more at home in a new community.
It's also intellectually stimulating to remember complex choreography and explore the rich history of the dance. Performing has always been fun for me, and for some reason getting up and dancing in front of people is not as anxiety-inducing for me as singing or performing a monologue.
Building confidence in my dance skills has also built confidence in my social interactions. Having a friendly, welcoming group of people to dance with is great, and has been very helpful in helping me manage my anxiety."
Mara - Kingston, NY
"I love being a part of Chester's Cool Cats and Kittens! The opportunity to perform is very rewarding and it's always a great group of individuals who--regardless of age or skill level--come together in their love of swing dancing.
Rehearsals are intense and develop our dancing skills while fostering meaningful friendships. Chester always choreographs new, interesting performances that are as challenging as they are fun. He puts a lot of care and thought into his performances to be audience-worthy and present a level of professionalism and style that one might not expect in a performance class!"
Kristin - Kingston, NY
"When you watch somebody dancing Balboa it looks really very cool and impossibly difficult. In fact I thought it would be impossible for me to learn it as I am not one who easily picks up moves. Linda and Chester pay a lot of attention to the little details that make your dance look sort of very cool and kind of professional.
Blues is a slow dance and the first steps are easy, but the major problem is to make it look cool and so smooth. There are many little professional tricks of how to make it look so, and this is what you cannot extract from the Youtube videos, and you really need to find teachers who actually teach you to look stunning on the dancing floor. Linda and Chester are such and they are the best I know."
Kate - New Paltz, NY
Check our class calendar online.
