Hepcat Swing

Weekly Monday Night Dances
2025-08-04 19:30 - 22:00, 2025-07-28 19:30 - 22:00, 2025-07-21 19:30 - 22:00, 2025-07-14 19:30 - 22:00, 2025-07-07 19:30 - 22:00, 2025-06-30 19:30 - 22:00, 2025-06-23 19:30 - 22:00, 2025-06-16 19:30 - 22:00 (America/Toronto) | Hepcat Swing Studio, 42 Erb St. E., Waterloo, Ontario, N2J 1L6, Canada
Like many new skills, dancing is best learned by doing! We are doing our best to provide you with opportunities to come out and dance, socialize, and listen to great music.
Almost every Monday night at Hepcat Swing, we feature great swing music to keep you dancing all night! We are a friendly bunch of people who love to see new faces out on a Monday night! The dancing starts at 8:00, with an introductory lesson at 7:30 included in the admission price to get you started (no partner or experience required). Dancing ends around 10:00, depending on how much fun we are having!
Important note: Please use our Facebook or Instagram pages to confirm whether the dance is happening for a given week (it’s faster for us to update our social media than this website, so we often make announcements there first).
Admission
General Admission: $10
Members and Students: $8
*Admission payments will be taken at the door.

3rd Annual Swingin' Summer of Dance
2025-07-30 19:00 - 21:30, 2025-07-23 19:00 - 21:30, 2025-07-16 19:00 - 21:30, 2025-07-09 19:00 - 21:30, 2025-07-02 19:00 - 21:30
We are so happy to invite you to the 3rd Annual Swingin’ Summer of Dance! We hope you can join us to receive unique, high-quality lessons to build your skills and enjoyment of dance during the summer.

Lesson Logistics:
– Day = Wednesday nights
– Time = 7:00-8:00pm Lindy-Centric
= 8:00-9:00pm Not So Lindy
= 9:00-9:30pm Practice
– Dates = July 2 – Aug 27
(this is 9 weeks and up to 18 classes)

Lesson Content:
– Stand alone classes and not progressive from week to week (students can miss classes and be fine to attend next class without falling behind)
– Teachers have been offered an opportunity to develop & teach their own unique classes so expect a variety of voices to learn from

Lindy-Centric will be all lindy hop all classes all summer
>Continue building on the most popular and most danced style within our community

Not So Lindy will be any swing dance style other than lindy hop
>Not sure if you want to sign up for a full 6 week class of a style that you don’t know? This summer could be a sample of these other styles so you can try them about!
>Builds into our fall classes session
>Each class for the style will start with basic figures and then finish with different figures

Lesson Attendance & Costs:

– Can drop in each week or pre-purchase a block of classes (you will receive a ticket(s) to present at each class attended)
– For members or students…
>18 classes = $200
>15 classes = $190
>12 classes = $170
> 9 classes = $150
> 6 classes = $110
> 3 classes = $55
>Drop-in = $20
– For non-members…

>18 classes = $220
>15 classes = $210
>12 classes = $190
> 9 classes = $170
> 6 classes = $130
> 3 classes = $70
>Drop-in = $25

Hepcat’s Membership:
– Makes you a formal member of this non-for-profit group at Hepcat Swing Dance Studio
– Gives you the power to vote and elect board members at the annual general meeting (end of September)
– Your Discount Savings = $10 for class series, $2 for weekly intro lessons & dances, and additional saving on unique events (special dances, workshops, live bands, etc.) & class retakes
– Cost = $50 (valid for 1 year from purchase)

For more information or advance tickets, see Jeff or email us at info@hepcatswing.com

Dance It Off Tuesdays!
2025-07-29 19:00 - 22:00
This summer we are participating in an exciting program with The City of Waterloo. We will be dancing three times to the amazing music of the KW Kool Swing Band from 7-10pm in Waterloo Town Square. This evening program will include a free half-hour lesson with Jeff Benoit. Please mark your calendars and come out to support the KW Kool Swing Band and to promote swing dancing and building community in Waterloo 🙂 I encourage you to come out to support our West Coast Swing friends at Remix Swing on their nights too.

Tuesday, June 3 – KW Kool Swing Band and the Hepcats
Tuesday, July 15 – West Coast Swing with our friends from Remix
Tuesday, July 29 – KW Kool Swing Band and the Hepcats
Tuesday, August 12 – West Coast Swing with our friends from Remix
Tuesday, August 26 – KW Kool Swing Band and the Hepcats

Lindy Hop 2
2025-06-25 20:30 - 21:30, 2025-06-18 20:30 - 21:30, 2025-06-11 20:30 - 21:30
6 weeks of classes (Every Wednesday May 21 – June 25)
8:30-9:30pm

Prerequisite is Lindy Hop 1 or the ability to comfortably do a swing out from open and closed. No partner necessary.
This class will teach you several new variations on swing outs and fancy new moves. It will also continue to teach the history of Lindy Hop dancing, as well as musicality and connection techniques. This is a great class for experienced dancers who would like to refresh their dance vocabulary or brush up on their technique.

East Coast Mini Series
2025-06-25 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-18 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-11 20:00 - 21:00
3 Wednesdays (June 11, 18, 25) 8pm-9pm
This 3 week course will expand you’re East Coast Swing repertoire beyond the basic step. You’ll learn fancy turns and flashy moves so you can look cool and feel confident on any dance floor!

Lindy Hop 3
2025-06-25 19:30 - 20:30, 2025-06-18 19:30 - 20:30, 2025-06-11 19:30 - 20:30
6 weeks of classes (Every Wednesday May 20 – June 24)
7:30-8:30pm
Prerequisite is Lindy Hop 2 or the ability to comfortably dance several swing out variations. No partner necessary.
Lindy Hop 3 will pick up where level 2 left off. Are you looking for a challenge? A way to update your swing dancing with new moves? A way to dig deeper into your connection and musicality? Then this course is for you! This is a great class for experienced dancers as well as those continuing their Lindy Hop journey!

Teachers: Jeff and Julie-Anne

Choreography Class
2025-06-25 18:30 - 19:30, 2025-06-18 18:30 - 19:30
Prerequisites: None
Learn this original dance choreographed by the one and only Frankie Manning. In this class you will learn a specific set of steps and moves to the song “The Dipsy Doodle” by Ella Fitzgerald.
Teacher – Julie-Anne

Lindy Hop 5F - Make Your Partner Look Swell
2025-06-24 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-06-17 20:00 - 21:00
6 weeks of classes (Every Tuesday May 20 – June 24)
8:00-9:00pm
Prerequisite is Lindy Hop 4, or permission from the Teachers. Although this is a partner dance, you do not need to bring your own partner to class.
Each time this level of Lindy Hop is offered, it changes to meet the needs of the students. Some of the topics may include: rhythmic variations, connection, swivels, breaks, musicality, fancy footwork, 6/10/12/14 count moves, ochos, crossovers, grapevines, different connection points (wrist, shoulders, hips, ankles).
Teachers: Amy and Dylan

Lindy Hop 1
2025-06-24 19:00 - 20:00, 2025-06-17 19:00 - 20:00
6 weeks of classes (Every Tuesday May 20 – June 24)
7:00-8:00pm
No dance experience necessary! Although this is a partner dance, you do not need to bring your own partner.
This is a great class to get started with partnered swing dancing and social dancing in general! We will go from the very basics of Lindy Hop and work through enough material to get you dancing comfortably. We will also learn some history of the Lindy Hop and why we are still dancing it today. Taking this class would be a great opportunity for experienced dancers who’d like to refresh their basics or learn a new role.

Shim Sham Refresher
2025-06-16 18:30 - 19:30
Come Practice this mob dance!
The Shim Sham Shimmy, Shim Sham or just Sham originally is a particular tap dance routine and is regarded as tap dance’s national anthem. For today’s swing dancers, it is a line dance, or mob dance. There are many versions of this choreography out there but we teach the Frankie Manning version.
This song gets played around once a month at our studio, so you’ll be able to join in and practice 🙂
Join Connie on June 16th
