If the title didn’t make it obvious, a few weekends ago I attended Sundance Swingout 2017 (and loved every minute of it.) It took a while to get here, but I’ve finally written out a review for you all – now you can get all the details you ever wanted about this event.

Sundance takes place in Fort Worth, TX every year sometime in the middle of October, and I spend all year looking forward to it. It’s a nice not too big, not too small, regional event that draws in people from all over Texas and the surrounding states. I haven’t done an event recap before so I’m just gonna wing it and hit the high points and hopefully it’ll all work out.

The Structure

Sundance Swing Out is set up like most events (at least that I’ve been to.) Friday night is a dance with a late night. Saturday has classes during the day, competition prelims afterwards, and a dance and late night in the evening. Sunday is more classes and a farewell dance Sunday night. I attended the full weekend except for the Sunday night dance, and I felt like my weekend was packed full of things to do but not so busy that I was overwhelmed. There was ample time for lunch between classes on Saturday and there’s a snack break (food provided) on Sunday that comes between the slightly shorter class blocks.

The Venues

The Friday night dance and all of the classes were held at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. This is one pretty venue. There’s artwork on basically every wall in the building which is nice to look at when you’re not dancing, and there are enough separate rooms/galleries for all of the classes. My one small issue with this venue is that the floor in the main gallery (where the Friday night dance, some classes, and competition prelims were held) is kind of sticky. It’s patterned like wood but after some discussion with others, I think it might actually be concrete? It’s pretty confusing, and while it’s still danceable, it’s not my favorite floor ever. There were a couple of little baby powder stations that people set up to give their shoes a nice dusting, if that’s any indicator. It should be noted that my personal preference is for pretty smooth floors, so I’m a little biased. Either way, it’s a pretty building, and there was never a time in any of the spaces where I felt like “aw man, this floor is totally undanceable” or “this space is just too crowded.” They held the late night on the porch of the Arts Center and had a corn hole competition and breakfast tacos (and dancing, but I left before it started.) Breakfast tacos past midnight are beautiful, and should be a staple at all events, just saying. (Especially when you can get them for only $3.)

The Saturday night dance was held at the National Hall of Fort Worth, which, when I looked it up online prior to the event, looked a bit like a country western dance hall, and upon arrival was a little more like some kind of German-dance-hall-esque deal. It was a little southern, and I overheard someone saying they had been to a polka event there before. Do with that what you will. All that to say, it was nice and it had one of the fanciest bathroom/powder areas I have ever seen. The dance floor was wood but had some kind of finish on it that I didn’t know what to make of. It was about a medium-slide floor, I would say. Like, if I had put on sueded shoes I maybe could have done some slides on it, but I was wearing some stickier shoes and couldn’t slide. Free water had to go away at 10 pm which was sad but I believe that had to do with the venue’s rules so that’s not on the organizers. There were some swanky red and blue lights built in, a lot of tables for sitting at or dumping dance bags at, and (most importantly) a very large disco ball. Unfortunately the disco ball did not make an appearance, but I so wanted it to. There was also plenty of space for dancing – the Friday dance wasn’t uncomfortably crowded but was definitely full, while the Saturday dance left enough room to play around without worrying about stepping on someone.

The Saturday Late Night was held at DanceMakers of Texas. There were shoes on display at the front and I couldn’t really tell if this was a place that sold dance shoes and had some dance floors, if it was a dance venue that also advertised shoes, or if it was just a venue in an outlet mall that put some shoes at the front for funsies. Whatever it was, it had two sizeable dance floors, both with mirrors, and a lot of chairs. The back room that was used for the dance also had disco balls, and they WERE put into use. Hooray! It was actually a little bit disorienting, but can you really complain? Disco balls! Besides, the disorientation may have come from the fact that I really just wanted to fall asleep immediately after a long day. There was also food at the Saturday Late Night – sandwich things and sides – which was tasty enough.

The Classes

Classes at Sundance are always wonderful. This is an event where you’re given a level after level-testing (more on that later), and then you stick with your level for your classes, save for one elective class on Saturday and one on Sunday. The instructors rotated class levels so that everyone got to take a class with each pair of instructors on the first day, and then had one couple a second time for the last level-based class on Sunday. I felt like I learned something in all of my classes, which is, you know, always a good thing.

On Sunday morning, “Sundance Sessions” started at noon. The Sundance Sessions were basically 8-minute-long private lessons that you could sign up for with the instructors hired for the event, or with some other high-level dancers that had been selected to help out. It’s a short amount of time to get some personal feedback, but if you come in knowing what you want to ask, it’s a great way to get some helpful and personalized tips. Plus, a lot of people skip the sessions (because for some reason they want to sleep more than they want to dance), so it’s pretty typical to be able to sign up for at least two sessions.

Level Testing

Level testing is the only thing I had any problems with during the event, and it was just one small thing: there wasn’t a warm up prior to the testing actually starting. I’ve been to Sundance two years previously and there was a group solo jazz warm up both of those times, but this time there wasn’t one. I personally felt very stressed out when I realized I had to immediately dance with someone with exactly zero warm up time. It all worked out, but it was unnecessarily stressful.

That said, I really like how Sundance runs level testing. They have a number of “coaches” that they have auditioners dance with for two songs (a difference partner each song.) These coaches are experienced dancers from the area (the same people who offered Sundance Sessions on Sunday morning), and there are about four “coaches” per role at level tests. I like this because on one hand, you don’t have to be stressed out about a dancer in your test “messing you up”, and also, if someone doesn’t place how they wanted, they can’t complain about their partner “messing them up.” Win win. The process does take a little bit longer because only eight couples can dance at a time, but I think it’s worth it, honestly.

The Instructors

There were four sets of instructors at this event: Anthony Chen and Stacia Martin, Javier Johnson and Heather Ballew, Ryan Calloway and Irina Amzashvili, and Kasey Davis and Laurel Ryan. Kasey and Laurel taught the beginner intensive on Saturday, and the rest of the instructors taught the leveled classes throughout the entire weekend.

Stacia & Anthony

Stacia and Anthony teach at Sundance every year, and they’re buckets of fun. They’re very comfortable working together and they really know how to put on a creative and engaging class. I feel like they were probably the best at getting everyone in the room really engaged during classes in terms of sharing ideas and asking questions, etc.





Javier & Heather

I only took one class with Javier and Heather, but I really enjoyed it. They dropped some nuggets of wisdom that I think took everybody in the class by surprise (this being an advanced class with some people who have been dancing for quite a while.) Casual. They also made a very comfortable environment for experimenting with new ideas during class.

Ryan & Irina

Ryan and Irina could possibly be described as the biggest goofballs of the bunch. Both had a lot of ideas and wanted to see their students come up with their own ideas too. I took two classes with these two, and one of those involved some rolling on the floor and face dancing (if that gives you a clue to the kind of energy in the room.) They also had some really good exercises to go along with their lessons that I hadn’t encountered before. Always refreshing to get some new things to practice.

I didn’t take any classes with Kasey and Laurel since they taught the beginner intensive on Saturday.

The Competitions

There were four competitions at Sundance Swing Out: The Mix & Match, the Sundance Shootout, a cornhole competition, and the Gold Star competition.

Mix & Match

The M&M was what you would expect from a typical M&M: prelims consisted of two heats of three songs, finals were a jam format to the live band at the Saturday night dance. Entry was only $10, and the prizes were a selection of event passes. Everything ran smoothly and both prelims and finals were a bundle of fun.

Sundance Shootout

The Sundance Shootout is the holy grail of hilarity at Sundance Swing Out. To get the full effect, you’ll have to watch the video, but suffice it to say that this free-to-enter competition is one of the highlights of the event. Winners received a choice of free event passes.

Cornhole Competition

I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t participate in this competition – I’m not a cornhole person. That being said, the winners of the cornhole tournament received free event passes just like all of the other winners, so it seems like a pretty low-stakes way to come away with a great prize.

The Gold Star Competition

The Gold Star Competition involved completing various social media challenges in order to earn gold stars throughout the course of the event. It was free to enter and the winner received a pass to Sundance Swing Out 2018, so again, a low-stakes way to get a great prize. (Plus a great way for the organizers to get a social media boost for the event.)

In Summary

So what do I think about Sundance Swing Out? It’s a truly wonderful event, it’s loads of fun, and if you don’t go you’re really missing out. The organizers who put on this event are energetic and inspiring and Sundance is clearly a passion project for them. If you’re looking for a new event to go to, I recommend putting Sundance Swing Out 2018 on your calendar.

That about wraps it up! Is there anything I’ve forgotten? Anything you’d like to know in addition to what I’ve already written out? Let me know!