Get Hep Swing

Valerie Salstrom’s Get Hep Swing dance lessons and dances are a blast from the past!
Fun, easy and varied dance lessons and workshops.
Wonderful dances and many social dance opportunities. Great live music. All at a reasonable price.
Friendly and fun dancers of various ages.
Been a Get Hep Swing fan since 2003!

Get Hep Swing offers a great dance experience! I have been attending GHS events and lessons for a year and they continue to impress. I support the monthly dances (with lesson prior) in Lakewood on the 2^nd Friday as well as in Collinwood/​Cleveland on the last Saturday of each month. The lesson is great for saying Hi to everyone since we rotate often, and is basic enough for new and beginner dancers as well as interesting for seasoned dancers.
Everyone is friendly and it is common to dance with MANY different people during the evening. Guys AND Girls, don’t hesitate to ask others to dance! Most people are ready to hop on the floor with new and old friends alike!
I like continually taking the 5 week lesson sessions at Brecksville Center for the Arts. It’s a great way to practice your dancing, learn new moves, and get to know others that attend the monthly dances. The sessions always offer something new and different.
The dance and lesson schedules and band info can be found on the GetHepSwing website.

Highly recommended. If you’re in the Cleveland area and want to learn how to dance, getting involved in the Get Hep Swing dances is the best to learn that I can recommended. Check out both their lessons and their social dances.
The skills that you learn will apply far beyond swing dancing alone. You can dance at a wedding and impress people with just some basic moves, for example. Having a little bit of swing experience also means that you can dance at a party without looking or feeling awkward. Seriously, you should give this a try.

AWESOME organization. Excellent classes. Fun dances. Wonderful people. Come to anything organized by Valerie/​Get Hep Swing and you will walk away with at least one new friend and some sweet new dance moves. Details…
I was surprised to see that there aren’t more reviews for Get Hep Swing (Valerie Salstrom) on Unilocal.Everything that was said in the 2010 review by Jennifer R. still holds true. Get Hep Swing has dances on the 2^nd Fridays (Lakewood) and last Saturdays (Collinwood) of each month, with a 1 hour beginner-​oriented lesson at the start and dancing to a live band that follows. Valerie regularly holds 5-​week classes in East Coast Swing/​Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, Balboa throughout the year at Brecksville Center for the Arts, with the addition of miscellaneous special workshops on other dances, such as Charleston, Shim Sham or other dances by request. Class language and approach are very gender neutral, and it is not uncommon to see men learning following roles, and women learning leading roles on occasion. Partners are never required and there are discounts for retaking a 5-​week session, which many people take advantage of.
Other noteworthy events/​programs through Get Hep Swing: Valerie organizes and promotes, All Balboa Weekend, which is a world-​class weekend event here in Cleveland that draws international attendance. In addition, she runs a free after-​school swing dance program in Brooklyn Centre for elementary school students. If that doesn’t excite you, Valerie also brings in nationally and internationally known professional dancers/​instructors to teach or assist with her workshops and regular classes, which brings new ideas and approaches to the scene.
My experience: I have been attending Get Hep Swing’s monthly dances sporadically for about a year and a half and took my first 5-​week class in Fall 2013, so I am still relatively new to the Get Hep Swing scene. However, I have to say that Valerie and the community of dancers she has built here in Cleveland is one of a kind. Valerie is enthusiastic, energetic, funny and makes dancing fun and easy to learn. She makes an effort to get to know every dancer at her events and classes. Not only is she an amazing instructor and dancer, but she has fostered a community of dancers that are inclusive, friendly and welcoming of new people. The advanced dancers make an effort to reach out to new people and dance with beginners. As a follower, I can attest that the more experienced leaders are all very patient and willing to give gentle feedback if you are open to it. Although Valerie and her Get Hep Swing classes/​events hooked me, she and the awesome people in the dance community, along with the innovative workshops, are what will keep me around for a long time.

I have been taking dance lessons with Valerie Salstrom and Get Hep Swing for many years. Valerie is a champion swing dancer and an excellent instructor. Her classes are always fun and reasonably priced! Get Hep Swing offers 5-​week sessions at the Brecksville Center for the Arts and private instruction. Whether you’re working with Valerie in a group setting or one-​on-​one, she is always professional, encouraging and enthusiastic. The Get Hep Swing staff who help teach classes and lessons at the monthly dances are also extremely talented and friendly to work with. The monthly dances draw a friendly crowd of people with varying skill levels who all love to dance. Get Hep Swing is the only dance studio in Cleveland where you can learn to dance swing (Charleston, Balboa, Lindy Hop and East Coast Swing) the way they were originally danced it in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.