Edinburgh Queer Lindy Mini-Festival

Welcome to the first ever Edinburgh Queer Lindy Mini-Festival! Join us on Saturday 9th March for a day of workshops, discussions and social dancing We've just opened our beginners track! Register here: https://goo.gl/forms/ilENQbnwqpJMzs4C3 -------------------------------------------------------------------- *What makes this a queer dance event?* We - Lise, Marlies and Rob - have danced in lots of different cities and at lots of different events across Europe, and we’ve consistently found that we enjoy ourselves the most when we don’t feel any pressure to conform to any one dance role or social identity. The times we’ve felt the most ourselves have been when we were surrounded by queer dancers, in an environment where everyone was allowed and encouraged to take part in this dance in a way that fits who they really are - no judgement of one another, simply being able to express yourself and appreciate others. The joy and positive energy we’ve experienced in these places has been exceptionally freeing, and in running this event we want to share that feeling of freedom and expression with you. *How are we working to achieve this?* We want to challenge the implicit idea that dancers are either men or women, and that there is a single role that best fits that identity. We are happy to see that in many communities it is becoming more common for women to lead and men to follow, and for non-heteronormative couples to be seen dancing together. However, we all too often see that the binary is still upheld – both in terms of gender as well as dance roles. To us, Queer Lindy means to not be limited in your choice of role, style of dancing, and who you dance with. After attending the second edition of Gothenburg Queer Lindy Festival we were inspired to create a space in Edinburgh where anyone can explore different roles and switch dancing, regardless of their gender, presentation, size and shape, amount of experience, etc. Taking further cues from the wonderful folk at Gothenburg (who very generously gave us their blessing to name our event in a similar way to theirs), we also want to provide a platform the LBGTQ+ community to be more visible within the Scottish swing dance scene, and to create an opportunity to work on your lindy hop for anyone who doesn’t feel entirely comfortable in heteronormative dancing environments. In terms of classes, this means we will spend some time thinking about what it means to lead and follow and how these roles react to each other, as well as the challenges you might run into when learning a new role. We will also focus on integrating switching into your social dancing. We have two tracks to choose from: Track 1: Beginners - You're new to dancing, so either you've started in the last few months or you've never set foot on a dancefloor before! - You'll start out by working on the foundations of both leader and follower roles in the dance, and work up to being able to have a full dance in either role Track 2: Improvers and above - You've been dancing Lindy Hop for at least 6 months and you're comfortable social dancing in at least one role - You will spend more time during the classes dancing in your non-dominant role Want to know a bit more about why the term queer is being used? Gothenburg Queer Lindy Festival have put together a handy explanation: https://www.gothenburgqueerlindyfestival.com/queer-lindy -------------------------------------------------------------------- *Panel/Discussion* We think it’s important to have an ongoing conversation about the swing dance community and how we can make it more open and welcoming to as many people as possible. That’s why this event will also feature a panel/discussion/Q&A session where we will invite your thoughts and questions on this. If you have any ideas on how we and the wider scene can make further progress we’d love for you to share them with us! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Of course we’ll have a fabulous social dance too! Take to the floor with the openness of being able to genuinely dance with every person in the room. Lead, follow or switch, it’s entirely your choice. We have some great local DJs lined up to play some classic swing floorfillers throughout the night, although what we *really* want to do is book a band and bring the music to life. This depends entirely on our budget… the more people register the more budget we’ll have to work with, so if you know for certain that you’ll be joining us then signing up early will help us make this happen! We’d love to support local artists and continue the collaborations between dancers and musicians! -------------------------------------------------------------------- *Provisional Schedule* Here's how the day is going to run: 10:30-12:30 Class 1 12:30-13:00 Lunch 13:00-14:30 Panel/Discussion (you can finish your lunch during this) 14:45-16:45 Class 2 19:30-23:30 Social dance The times of the classes and panel could shift a few minutes either way but we'll be keeping to this plan as close to as possible. We're discussing with the venue to finish later on - we'll keep you posted! We're also going to have an informal brunch late on Sunday morning to continue the conversation, for those who'd like to join us. We'll send information out about that with other details of the event closer to the time. -------------------------------------------------------------------- *Passes* Full day pass - including 4 hours of workshops, the panel, and the Saturday night social dance £30 Standard £25 Concessions Social pass - including the Saturday night social dance and the panel £7 Standard £5 Concessions* *If you are a concession and would like to take part in the panel then please select the £7 Standard option to contribute to the cost of the running the daytime portion of the event. Thank you! Register here: https://goo.gl/forms/ilENQbnwqpJMzs4C3 For updates, keep an eye on the event and like our page: https://www.facebook.com/EdinburghQueerLindy/