Hello! We're UoY Swing dance society. we need your help to raise funds for our annual weekender Whip-ma Whop-ma Hop...
Whip-Ma is an amazing opportunity to bring together the swing dance community for a weekend of lessons, tasters and socials. We're raising £700 to hire international teachers and make the event the best it can possibly be.
Who are we?
This year at Swing Dance Society, we're celebrating our 10th anniversary! Every week we offer fun lessons and social dances in various swing dance styles: lindy hop, charleston, collegiate shag (not that kind!). We also host events, like our ever-popular Clips 'N' Dips social, and two weekenders, Jorvik and Whip-Ma.
Why WHip-ma?
Whip-Ma is the epitome of what UoY Swing Dance Society wants to achieve. It's our biggest event and always brings in a crowd of attendees from all over the country. It's a great way for us to contribute to the university's public image as a centre for community and connection.
We're looking for donations to support our event. We're flying in a pair of incredible international teachers from Portugal, as well as transporting teachers from all over the UK, to give our attendees two days of unforgettable lessons, three awesome social dances and a chance to talk about swing dance's past and future in our discussion group. It's a brilliant opportunity for everyone to get involved, make friends from around the country and put their new skills to the test on the dance floor.
We would love your help to make our event the pizzazz-iest and jazz-iest it can be.
Where will the money go?
Unfortunately running a national event like this doesn't come cheap, especially when we already hire two teachers every week for our usual lessons. We need your support!
Our biggest expense is teaching costs at almost £2000 plus food, accommodation and transport for our lovely teachers. We plan to cover this by selling tickets, so if you'd like to attend please consider purchasing a ticket here: https://uoy.dancecloud.com/dance/36954
We need to raise £500 to hire a band for our Saturday social dance! It's truly the centre of the weekend, a time for everyone to get together and have fun, and nothing makes dancers happier than a live band.
We're aiming to raise an extra £200 to cover a blues afterparty! This will be a new addition to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We'll hire a local blues performer, dim the lights and continue dancing into the night...
Any further donations will go towards our Cutural Talk and/or Discussion Group! The roots of swing dance lie in African American communities of the 1930s-40s and beyond, who developed these styles as a mode of self-expression and often used them as a tool to counter oppression. We try to pay homage to these roots as much as possible, and we're always open to discussing current and future issues that swing dance communities face. For our successful weekender Jorvik in October, we introduced a Historical Talk and Discussion Group to encourage these conversations about swing dance's past and future, and we'd love to bring this back for Whip-Ma.
Your Support
We're extremely grateful for any support you can give! Please...
- donate if you can! (you'll be in with a chance of winning some rewards...)
- share our fundraiser with your friends! (spread the word of jazz)
- get your Whip-Ma tickets! (https://uoy.dancecloud.com/dance/36954)
- come along to our weekly lessons! (Wednesday evenings in Hendrix Hall and always beginner-friendly)
- consider getting a membership! (for only £7 you can get discounts on all our lessons and paid events)
Find us here
We'd love to hear from you! Feel free to contact us with any questions or for further information:
Instagram - @uoyswingstagram and @uoyswingdance_events
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SwingDanceUoY and Whip-Ma Events Page (https://fb.me/e/GkrEGeDNF)
Email - swingdance@yorksu.org
