Our story
Told in clubs, flyersand very worn dance floors.
The Swing Time Dance Company was founded in 2005, but the story starts a little earlier. The clearest way to tell it is through the events we've danced at, the nights we've run, and the flyers we printed along the way.
Since 2005
Before The Swing Time Dance Company officially began, Paul Crook and Natasha Hall were already taking a small group of dancers to Goodwood Revival — just three couples, including themselves. It was a modest beginning, but the idea was already there: bring a group of good social dancers together and let the dance floor do the rest. Today, The Swing Time Dance Company can bring around forty dancers to Goodwood.
In 2005, Natasha and Paul appeared on BBC’s Strictly Dance Fever, hosted by Graham Norton with Zoe Ball. They auditioned with Lindy Hop — the dance they already knew and loved — before finding themselves learning and performing a completely different dance style each week. It was quite an adventure, and it gave the newly formed company a real boost.
The Swing Time Dance Company was founded that same year. Natasha had already been dancing since 1996 and began teaching soon afterwards, so there was plenty of experience behind it from the start.
Over the years, The Swing Time Dance Company became as much about the nights it created as the events it attended. The Home Front, The Quick Quick Club, Bop City, Swing at the Light, Rhythm Club, SWING at Hoxton Hall and, more recently, The Rockin’ Rendezvous at Saltdean Lido all became part of the story — along with an ever-growing collection of flyers and some very well-used dance floors.
Natasha & Paul with Graham Norton
Natasha & Paul with Anton Du Beke
The archive
Dance nights we'verun over the years.
Some ran for years, some for a season. All of them were built around social dancing rather than performance.
The Quick Quick Club
Balboa-focused, with Swing, Jazz and Django Reinhardt-influenced music — though Lindy Hop and social swing were always welcome on the floor.
The Home Front
Wartime-era styling, period music and a floor full of dancers in the spirit of the 1940s.
Swing At The Light
The Swing Time Dance Company's most successful regular night — Monday evenings of social swing dancing in London, with classes early and dancing late.
Swing At The Light
A later printing of the Monday-night flyer — same night, same floor, new artwork.
Bop City
A club night in The Swing Time Dance Company's lineage, built around dancing rather than spectating.
Rhythm Club
A DJ event — no live band, just carefully chosen records and a very good floor.
Rhythm Club
The second Rhythm Club printing — same records-and-dancing format, different artwork.
Summer Swing
One of the quarterly SWING nights at Hoxton Hall — a beautiful Victorian music hall.
A Shoreditch favourite
Swing at the LightOne of our most popular nightsThe Light Bar · Shoreditch, London
Swing at the Light was one of The Swing Time Dance Company's most popular regular dance nights. Held at The Light Bar in Shoreditch, it ran on Monday nights for several years, with classes early and dancing late. When The Light Bar closed for redevelopment, the night carried on, moving venue a couple of times rather than stopping — dancers simply followed it wherever it landed.
See what we run now →2022
A rather special year
Natasha and Jay married in a 1950s Hollywood-inspired wedding featured in Episode 5 of BBC Two's The Ultimate Wedding Planner, alongside Fred Sirieix, Sara Davies and Raj Somaiya. The programme followed couples planning their big day, with Natasha and Jay bringing plenty of mid-century glamour to the screen.
