Cue the music and strike up the band – it’s time to dance.
“Swingin’ Around Town” provided a vibrant and lively introduction to this Easter weekend.
A group of four University of Wyoming alumni swing into downtown Laramie on the third Friday of every month to host “Swingin’ Around Town,” a dancing event open for free to the community. Held at Blossom Yoga on 2nd street, the event provides a half hour 1920-1930’s dancing lesson, followed by a open dance floor featuring a live band performance.
Kevin Bretting, Tamara Bretting, Jennica Fournier, and Charles Fournier started the event last summer, when they offered an eight-week session with lessons every Friday.
Kevin is a personal trainer who also professionally teaches Lindy Hop classes.
“I wanted to highlight the community and local bands, and get people into the downtown area,” he said.
Tamara, an organizer as well and a high school science teacher said it was the promise of a place to shimmy and shake in her community that inspired her.
“I liked having a place to dance in Laramie,” she said.
The group had originally been going to Fort Collins to swing dance, and decided they wanted to bring swing dance to the Laramie community. Charles, a professional teacher and English Masters student at the University of Wyoming said the group had an uncanny way of finding each other after years apart.
“We all danced in college together,” he recalled. “Then we all got married. We all left and came back!”
The dance lesson started at seven, and was centered on a Lindy Hop footwork pattern. With a very personal interaction between teacher and community members, Kevin was on a first name basis with everyone taking lessons by the beginning of the lesson.
He began by explaining the importance of social events that involve movement, and from that point on, there were smiles all around.
The faces of both young and old who came pouring in over the course of the dance were lit up. When the band started playing, the energy level in the room was boosted, as the instructors and community members began to dance.
This week’s band was made up of a group of students and their teacher, all from the University of Wyoming.
“We are all in ‘American Popular Music’ together,” Jon Root, a band member with a self-designed major in Security Studies, said.
The class is an honors class at the university. All of the members in the band were honors students attending the class.
John Brouwer, another member of the band, said he was “excited to play his first non-school function performance.”
The crowd loved the band, increasing the newly learned dance moves on the floor.
The event operates off of donations, but is offered for free to get people in the door. The music, and the dancing, starts the four-day weekend off right.
