Our next Hot Ginger Radio Show  is a Balboa dance special, so we’re giving you a crash course in this beautiful swing dance.

You might have seen lots of couples dancing ‘Bal’ at Hot Ginger, usually to the faster numbers, and it’s definitely growing in popularity. We can’t believe there are no Balboa dance classes available in Birmingham right now, so we’re looking to provide a taster class before our Hot Ginger nights in the near future. We think Lindy Hop, Charleston and Balboa are definitely the three major styles every swing dancer should know a bit of.

Here are a few Bal-Swing videos we really love…

Bobby White and Kate Hedin’s fantastic routine as seen around the world!

Nick Williams and Laura Keat winning the ACBC finals at the All Balboa Weekend in 2010

Instructors at the London Balboa Festival show off some of their moves…

You can read more about Balboa on Dan Guest’s site and on Wikipedia.  Dan is also featured in the Instructor Jam video above (the guy in the snazzy white Oxford bags), as he’s the man behind the London Balboa Festival, which we’re desperately hoping will make full-scale a return some time.

Once you’ve mastered the basic steps, you can use our Non-Stop Balboa Dance Special to practice your moves.