We all have taken Ballroom classes for this and that. But, at a house party, a wedding, or just any place where folks are having a great time and the music comes on the song playing is any danceable tune from back in the day… possibly Bill Doggett’s original Honky Tonk to any updated Motown Hit like Michael Jackson’s…Billie Jean to the Temptations’…My Girl. What kind of dancing would you do?

Swing MAYBE!

So, here’s an idea…

Hand Dancing derived as a spin off from at least 3 other dance styles.

New York city, the city of everything happening there. That’s where it all began.  In the night clubs during the Roaring Twenties folks did the original Lindy Hop.  As the dance craze got everybody on their feet during the 1950’s Jitterbug was born. And from there Swing was just a few side steps to the right and to the left.

The Idea of the dance stylings seen in the Big Apple were carried back to local areas like D.C. People returning to their home town redevelop the dance to make it their original style. Depending on how much space the dancers had where they were partying the dance stylings were recreated over and over by different groups of folks.   In the early 90’s a gentleman named Lawrence Bradford a retired educator in The Washington, D.C. area pioneered to have this dance honored as an original folk dance with the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. Mr. Bradford’s death 2 years ago has prompted a movement to “keep Hand Dancing alive.”  So, we here in Columbia Md. were honored when during an investigation while looking for a dance instructor to have more dance lessons in this area led us to the Smooth & EZ Hand Dance Institute. We were fortunate to get the head choreographer to teach hand dancing classes here in Columbia, Md.

We just finished a successful year and these October classes make it one year sinc we started in October, 2024. Now our next session will begin October 14th, every Tuesday night from 7 pm to 9 pm. in October and picking up again on Tuesday, November 11th at Slayton House Activity Center in The Village of Wildelake.

10400 Cross Fox Lane Columbia, MD 21044

Please come join in the fun of continuingly making a history live on. The stylings of this social dance are done to a 6-count beat with a jazzy back and forth movement of the dance couple.