History

The Beginning

Founded in 1998 by a group of devoted swing dancers, the Swinging Air Force began as an amateur entertainment group offering entertainment in the form of improvised swing dancing. As the group became more established, the SAF introduced its first choreographies, and the troupe began to teach workshops in cities outside of Montreal.

In 2001 the Swinging Air Force decided to shift focus to begin training for competition as a team. After achieving 3rd place at the American Lindy Hop Championships with its first competition choreography, the troupe began to take increasingly bold steps, training regularly for competitions and opening up a swing dance school, Studio 88 Swing. Since then the team and its members have not only captured too many titles to mention in many international competitions (including the Canadian Championships Team Division in 2003), but have also been invited for workshops, demos and shows all over the world (France, England, Russia, Finland, Sweden and all over Canada and the United States).

Our Teachers

Our development into professional swing dancers is due in large part to the dedication of our teachers and mentors in the dance. As a group, SAF members have studied with many dozens of top swing instructors from around the world, but certain teachers have offered particular mentorship that we would like to acknowledge.

• Nathalie Gomez and Yuval Hod, directors of the New York city dance troupe Hop, Swing and a Jump. Nathalie and Yuval have achieved great heights in swing - literally! The duo has won countless swing championships in both team and couple divisions. Nat and Yuval's mentoring and encouragement helped the SAF to aim for increasingly higher objectives.
• Steven Mitchell and Virginie Jensen. Steven and Virginie have been a long time inspiration and favourite instructors of the SAF members. Their emphasis on connection and partnership has been been a major influence, as well as Virginie's movement classes and Steven's insistence on finding the soul of the dance.
• Bill Borgida. SAF members have benefited greatly from Bill's dance technique and connection classes, and his ability to break down movements. The troupe has been especially inspired by his teaching methods.

Social Dancing

Social dancing continues to be the greatest inspiration for the Swinging Air Force. Most of the steps that have made their way into our choreographies began as moves and styling developed on the dance floor. In fact, when we're putting together a new routine, often the choreographers rely on the tried-and-true method of putting on the song and just dancing to it.

If you wonder why the moves we teach in our classes work so well on the dance floor, or why we can dance the same moves socially that we do in performance, it's because we all started out as social dancers and it's still the driving force behind most of what we do as teachers and performers.