We are celebrating the first year of Toe Tappin’ Swing in Calgary! This is going to be an exciting night! It has been a great first year and we want to give back to the community, same regular price but a lot of cool stuff! What will be happening?

- Cooking session at 7:30pm until 8:30 (Free)
- Door prizes
- Raffle draws for free private lessons
- Paid bar run by SDC
- and much more!

What are First Fridays? Every First Friday of each month we will be running a different theme with special happenings and events. If you can only make it out occasionally then this is the week that you want to come out dancing!

For more info check out The ‘A’ Train Event on Facebook.

Hello Swing Dancing Enthusiasts!

We have a lot of great events coming up, but first I will start with a recap of RCMA 2010 in Vancouver that happened the other weekend. In one word, AWESOME! Another great event put on by Lucy Falkner and Rhythm City Productions, congrats on such a success. All the classes were top notch and I know the Calgary crew learned a lot from Daniel, Asa, Michael and Casey. I thoroughly enjoyed learning from the Swedes and I am even considering heading to Sweden during the summer for the 5 week long Herrang Dance Camp. The competitions were very well done and the competitors gave it their all! It was great to get to hang out with old friends and make new ones, don’t worry if you missed this one, as Lucy will be putting on RCMA 2010.2 in September. There will be 6 instructors, two of which have been confirmed, the amazing Skye Humphries and Frida Segerdahl!

Tonight The ‘A’ Train will be raising funds for the Haiti Relief Fund by donating a portion of each door sale to the Canadian Red Cross. I encourage you to bring out your friends and family, as the more people we have, the greater our donation will be. There will also be a donation jar that will go directly to the Fund. If you have any questions please talk to me at the dance tonight. We are aiming to raise $500, which will be matched by the Canadian Government, dollar for dollar!

Lastly, I have finally struggled and fought with getting registration up and running for the Mini Workshop with Rachael Ries that is coming up on February 20th! There will be more details about the classes and levels on the main page of the site, but you can Book Now!

Cheers,
Matthew Isenor

Hello Swing Dancing Enthusiasts,

Hope everybody had a great holiday and is nice and refreshed for a brand new year of dancing! We have some great things in store for you this year so please stay tuned to the website!

Starting this Friday January 8th, The ‘A’ Train has pulled into Calgary. The ‘A’ Train is Calgary’s newest weekly Swing Dance event. Put on by Toe Tappin’ Swing in association with Swing Dance Calgary, this event happens every Friday Night at the Mount Pleasant Community Hall (602 – 22nd Avenue NW). The beginner drop-in lesson starts at 8:30pm and music by Calgary DJs follows at 9:15 until 12:30am! Bring your friends, no experience or partner necessary. We are also on Facebook, so come join us on The ‘A’ Train! We are also looking for volunteers to help with setup and door shifts, you get in free for the night, Contact Us if you are interested in helping out with this great event.

Toe Tappin’ Swing now has a brand new Mailing list setup and ready to dispense wonderful news about dance events happening in Calgary. There will also be updates and suggestions on awesome out of town events to go to. If you would like to receive these wonderful pieces of news, head over to Our Main page and click on the link in the top right hand of the screen. You will be sent a confirmation email after you have submitted your information.

Rhythm City Mess Around, also referred to as RCMA is happening again this year! It is a really great way to jump start your dancing in 2010. Put on by Lucy Falkner and her company Rhythm City Productions in Vancouver, it happens in three weeks on January 22-24. Instructors include Daniel Heedman and Åsa Palm from Sweden, they are by far two of the top Lindy Hop instructors in the world! Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from them. There will be a large group of people heading over from Alberta so you won’t be alone. You can register for the classes Here. There are also competitions and dances the whole weekend! If you have some spare time and want even more dancing, head over early as the instructors will be teaching classes the week before the event! Looking forward to seeing you there.

That is all for this update, thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Matthew Isenor

Hey Swing Dancing Enthusiasts!

I hope everybody is enjoying the Holiday season so far. It has been a great beginning to my time in Calgary and I have enjoyed meeting so many great people. I am looking forward to what the New Year holds! Namely more classes and a new venue for our weekly Friday dances.

Starting January 8th, 2010 the weekly friday dances will be held at the Mount Pleasant Community Hall. Toe Tappin’ Swing and Swing Dance Calgary are really looking forward to this move and we hope you are too! I will be posting more information in the next week about the specifics of the new dance.

I have been getting many requests for classes to be posted for January, so without further ado, here they are. Swing 1 and Swing 2 will be starting up on Wednesday January 20th, please register ahead of time as space is limited in each class. I am looking at starting a Balboa class in Febuary, but I am also open to suggestions.

One last thing to note, there is a link in the top right hand corner of the main page that will allow you to sign up for the Toe Tappin’ Swing mailing list. I highly recommend that you sign up, as I will be sending out updates on the dances and classes through this mailing list.

Happy Holidays,
Matthew Isenor

Hey Swing Enthusiasts!

Here is another update coming straight at ya! The 10th Street Stomp is back this week for a Friday the 13th Bash, come out and get your dance on. Same place and time as usual, 7:45pm beginner lesson and dancing starting at 9:30pm. Bring some friends and have a great night of social dancing fun.

I have been working in conjunction with Dance Energy to find a great place to hold private lessons for those of you that are interested. They have an amazing floor and multiple dance spaces, plus there is a great community of dancers and instructors working out of the building. If you are interested in a private lesson, please Contact Us. Prices are:

$50/hour for one instructor
$90/hour for two instructors
$12/hour for floor space

The Toe Tappin’ Performance Team is in full holiday swing! We, with the help of some friends attended the Fall Into Swing event with the Prime Time Big Band on Halloween night. We all had a great time and taught a bunch of eager dancers the Shim Sham! The next event we are going to be at is the Hope Gala for Sonshine Community Services on November 12th at the Coast Plaza Hotel. Also, auditions for the Performance Team are coming up on November 16th, 7pm at the Mt. Pleasant Community Hall. Please bring $5 for hall rental, see you there!

Cheers,
Matthew Isenor

Swing Dance Calgary and Toe Tappin’ Swing are coming together to bring you a night of pre-Halloween dancing! The beginner lesson, taught by Ashley and Heather, will follow the tradition of teaching Michael Jackson’s dance ‘Triller’! There will be prizes for Best Costume, so make sure you dress up and don’t get left out! You really don’t want to miss this, so bring out all your friends and family to a great night of dancing and entertainment.

(Deets: The same as your usual 10th Street Stomp. Drop In Lesson at 8:45, dance at 9:30. Carpenters’ Union Hall, Kensington)

See you there,
Matthew Isenor

UPDATE: Ashley and Heather will be continuing the tradition of teaching Michael Jackson’s ‘Triller’ to everybody during the beginner lesson starting at 8:45pm!