Canberra has its own Savoy, and it's turning 10 this weekend (with a party)

Swing dancing might have originated largely from African-American communities in the 1920s, but it turns out it’s big here, too.

“There’d be hundreds and hundreds of swing dancers in Canberra,” Cathie Gough says.

“But it’s one of those things you don’t know it’s there until you see someone do it, so at various nightspots like Hippo Co and Molly that play jazz once or twice a week, often dancers will socially go out and enjoy the music and get up and dance.”

Cathie and her husband Michael are the founders of Savoy Dance, a Canberra swing-dancing club that also offers regular classes at venues across the city.

And it’s turning 10 this year in the best way they know how – with lots of dancing.

“Separate to ballroom dancing, where you stay with one partner and the aim is more to compete, swing dancing is designed to be very social, with this lead-follow arrangement where the leader is instigating the moves and direction and you just follow,” Cathie says.

“It’s really fun.”

Seasoned swing dancers will know the moves for the ‘Lindy Hop’, ‘Charleston’, ‘Balboa’ and ‘Shag’, as among the earliest forms of it.

“It dropped off in the 1940s and pretty much disappeared entirely for about 50 years as rock and roll took over, but then it enjoyed a big resurgence in the 1990s when a handful of instrumental dancers were travelling the world, teaching it.”

Cathie first came across it when she was taking rock-and-roll dance classes here in the early 2000s.

“I thought it looked really amazing, so when I moved to Melbourne for a job – Melbourne has the biggest swing dancing scene in Australia – I checked it out and was hooked.

“I’d done jazz, tap, ballet and gymnastics, so I had the coordination, but I’d never done partner dancing. But the social element makes it. It’s a very joyful, upbeat dance.”

Cathie has since forged quite the career for herself, teaching dancing all over Australia, as well as being named among the top 100 in the first series of So You Think You Can Dance and making appearances on Dancing with the Stars and Underbelly Razor.

Savoy Dance seeks to build on the “inclusivity” of its namesake, the Savoy Ballroom in New York, which became famous at the time for its “no-discrimination policy” when it came to allowing blacks and whites to mingle.

“But it was also during the Great Depression, so you could leave your worries at the door and just come in and have an uplifting experience.”

Savoy Dance started with about eight people (80 per cent of them “close friends coming to support us”) at the opening night, but nowadays, more than 50 people are enrolled in the beginner classes, and about 60 attend the monthly social nights.

“For Canberra, that’s a lot of people doing a very niche thing.”

She says they’re all there because “they like the music, and they want a social activity, and with exercise too”.

While a lot of dance studios closed over COVID, Savoy pressed on with one-on-one lessons until halfway through 2021, when they reintroduced partner classes and were inundated with the number of people “missing the social connection”.

“They were the biggest those classes have ever been.”

Now as it celebrates 10 years, Savoy Dance is “throwing a big party” with a whole string of classes and performances from Friday to Sunday.

These start with a “taster class for people who maybe haven’t done it before and just want to come and see it in action” at the Ainslie Arts Centre on Friday, from 7:30 to 11 pm.

Saturday night’s party will be held on the wooden floors of Louie Louie, in Verity Lane, from 7:30 pm, while the “after-party” at Latin Dance Canberra will run from 11:30 pm to around 2:30 am.

The “wind-down” comes on Sunday, above the Duxton Pub in O’Connor from 7:30 pm to 11 pm.

Visit SavoyDance10.com for more information.