Charleston Hen Party Dance Class SwanseaKnees in, hands out, absolutely no dignity.
The twenties handed us the only dance where looking slightly out of control is the correct technique. Feet swivel, hands cross the knees, everyone doubles the speed at the wrong moment, and somehow a room of people who have never done it before look like they have been at it since 1926. Your teacher composes the number on the day for your particular party, in the room we hire on Oystermouth Road or in the house you have booked for the weekend. £185 covers the ninety for the whole group and £160 the hour, with just the venue’s hire cost alongside it. No experience needed, and cheerfully no elegance either.
Tell us when, and we’ll do the rest.
We need the date, an approximate headcount and a rough start time — nothing else at this stage. What comes back is whether we are free, which room suits your numbers, and the two costs set out separately so you can see exactly what belongs to us and what belongs to the venue.
a hundred years on, the diary is still the part that fills up first
Chaos, but choreographed.
The Charleston has a rare quality among hen party ideas: it looks impressive on video and takes about eleven minutes to become passable at. The basic step is a swivel almost anybody can do, the arms are pure showing off, and the faster you go the better the whole thing reads. That combination makes it the easiest hen party dance class to sell to a group with three sceptics in it.
It suits any age range too, because everyone can pick their own gear. Some hens attack it at full speed; others do a stately version at half pace and look, frankly, more authentic. As hen party activities go it is unusually democratic — and a dance hen party built on 1920s nonsense gives the photographs a look that no other theme on the list produces.
Fast to learn. The hen do dance class where results arrive in the first quarter of an hour.
Fringe is your business. Headbands, beads and anything that swings come from your own wardrobes — we neither lend nor sell them.
One-off routine. Composed live, matched to your group’s speed, and never taught the same way twice.
Because the energy is so high, most groups run this one earlier than they would other themes — late morning or the very start of the afternoon, before a long lunch rather than after it. Class near the bay, a wander up past Swansea Market, dinner, then Wind Street with a routine everybody keeps demonstrating in queues. Parties staying out on Gower or in Mumbles have us come to the house, where the kitchen floor turns out to be ideal for swivelling.
Get the class in before the long lunch. Everyone dances better and remembers more of it.
Four stages, one routine.
a sketch — the teacher writes the real thing in the roomIn and warm
Bags down, ankles woken up, and a quick explanation of why the knees matter so much.
The swivel
Ten minutes on the one step everything else is built from. This is where the laughing starts.
Hands, kicks, speed
The showy parts stacked on top, then the tempo lifted until it feels genuinely reckless.
The full run
Filmed once properly and once badly, and the bad one is always the better watch.
your routine is written for the feet in the room and leaves the building with you
Long enough to add the kicks, the partner bits and a filmed finish.
The swivel, the arms and a short routine. Plenty for a packed day.
Gower farmhouses, Llanelli lounges, a Mumbles kitchen with the table pushed back. Class fee only.
the whole party for one figure ✦ nobody here is charged by the head, ever, for anything
A floor that can cope survive.
This theme needs a surface that lets shoes turn, which rules out thick carpet and rules in the room we hire on Oystermouth Road — sprung wooden floor, mirrors along one wall, and space for a line of sixteen kicking in the same direction. What the room costs to hire is set out in writing the moment we confirm the day.
Reported back the day after.
Nobody could do it at ten past two and everybody could do it by three. Genuinely baffling.
The video looks like we rehearsed for weeks. We had met the teacher ninety minutes earlier.
Six quick answers.
what organisers check before they book this one ↓
Is the Charleston too fast for beginners?+
It is taught at half speed for as long as the room needs, and the tempo only rises when everybody is ready. The basic swivel is one movement repeated, so beginners get there quickly — and the version at three-quarter speed looks every bit as good on camera as the frantic one.
Should we wear fringe and beads to dance in?+
Only if you want them in the photographs, and they would be entirely your own — nothing is handed out at the door by us. Fringe does look magnificent when you swivel, but leggings and a T-shirt teach exactly the same routine. Flat shoes beat heels here every time.
What do the ninety minutes and the hour cost?+
The ninety-minute class is £185 and the hour is £160, each covering everyone in your party, with the venue’s hire cost quoted separately and in advance. Hold it at your own hen house and that second figure never appears. Nothing gets divided up per person at any stage.
Will it hurt knees, ankles or backs?+
The style is springy rather than jumpy, and your teacher scales it as soon as she knows who needs it — mention any dodgy joints in the enquiry. Anyone who wants a lower-impact version gets one that still fits the routine, and sitting a section out is never a problem.
Does this suit a very mixed-age hen party?+
Better than almost anything. Grandmothers tend to know the shapes already, teenagers treat it as a challenge, and everybody chooses their own speed within the same choreography. It is one of the few themes where the age gap makes the video funnier rather than more awkward.
Can we still switch the theme nearer the time?+
Yes. Around a week’s notice is plenty, and the booking simply changes over — the date and the teacher are what we set aside for you. Themes stay in pencil here until somebody in the group finally makes a decision.
