When I came back from Argentina in 2012, I had the strong desire to see people enjoying this wonderful Lindy Hop dance in Medellín. After almost 4 years of trying, this desire has become a reality; today we have two important locations in the city where we teach Lindy Hop dance lessons weekly, Pablo Tobón Uribe Theatre and Ciudad del Rio Park. In both places we get around 20 to 35 attenders and our goal is to make the community grow and expand to universities and other nearby cities.
Our team is made up by Luz Restrepo and Juan Diego Alzate as directors and teachers. Also, Joanna Agudelo and Fabia Abela as teachers.
Since September 2016 we have been working together with the Lindy Hop Bogotá community and as a result of this join we did the first International Workshop in both cities with Tim Collins y Andrea Avilés as special guests. 43 people attended the workshop in Medellín, some of them were our regular students and others took Lindy Hop lessons for the first time.
We consider Tim Collins and Andrea Avilés’s visit crucial for the development of the Lindy Hop community in both cities. In Medellín we saw everybody engaged in the event with a big sense of belonging and friendship. We all were expectant and excited.
Receiving lessons from professionals as well as seeing them dancing gave us a more personal approach to the Lindy Hop essence; It improved our understanding of very important aspects such as the couple connection and the creative possibilities we have across the rhythms and dance patterns exploration. Besides, the workshop experience tested our logistic and management capacities; in this sense after a self-evaluation, we got a positive result. We thank Frankie Manning Foundation for its economic support, it gave us the possibility to make the travel allowances for Timm and Ruchi from Mexico City to Bogotá affordable. Also, the Foundation support was fundamental to legitimize the Lindy Hop community consolidation in Colombia.
We are aware we are in an initial learning stage. Therefore, the contact with professional dancers and continuous training are needed to teach the Lindy Hop bases by respecting its essence as dance style.
We hope to continue having support, advice and accompaniment from Frankie Manning Foundation and Swing Mexico. Warm hugs from Medellin.
Att. Luz Restrepo Márquez.
