I arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday, and to the Herräng Dance Camp on Saturday. Herräng Dance Camp is the most famous and, I think, longest running dance camp in the world of Swing Dance. It’s been held every year in the tiny village of Herräng, Sweden, since 1982 – 33 years! It started off as a small one-week dance camp for Swedes looking to grow their Jitterbug skills, but became an international attraction in 1989 when they brought Frankie Manning over to teach. The camp is now 5 weeks long – 5 consecutive week-long camps, though many people come for multiple weeks to take different tracks of classes, volunteer, and just hang out. I’m guessing there are around 600 students, plus dozens of volunteers, teachers, DJs, and who knows who else.
Herräng only has fewer that 500 permanent inhabitants, so you can imagine the impact nearly 1000 additional people each week has on this little town! The camp takes place at a little school here and at what I imagine must be a local community center – it’s called the “Folkets Hus,” which literally means “people’s house,” so that’s a community center, right? They put temporary bunk beds in the schoolhouses and gymnasium, they have a few private accommodation areas, and everyone else either camps (in campers or tents) or rents a place somewhere nearby. I have to say I’m really impressed by the logistical organization of the entire thing. I guess they’ve had a few decades to get it right, but still – housing this many people, feeding this many people, keeping bathrooms properly stocked and the place clean is really quite a feat.
Services here are almost non-existent. There’s a little grocery and a few small eating establishments, and that’s about it. They don’t even have an ATM – if you need money (or just about anything, really), you have to take a bus to the nearest town of Hallstavik, about 15 minutes away. The camp does have it’s own eating establishments, which are incredibly efficient at feeding so many people. Fortunately, the camp also has a laundry on-site. I’m not sure whether they take credit cards though (I doubt it), so I’m going to need to get to Hallstavik quickly!
There are classes every day from 10am-7pm (not straight through – each track has 3-4 classes per day, but they can take place any time between 10-7) and social dancing every night. It’s hard to describe a “typical” day at Herräng since everyone here is doing their own thing, but for me a typical day means waking up whenever that happens (with jet lag, it might be 5am or 10am), getting breakfast before the dinning hall closes, taking classes and blogging during the breaks, a shower and sauna once classes are over for the day, and dinner at some point. Whether or not I go social dancing depends on how I’m feeling that night. The dance floors are really crowded and hot, and since they’re temporary, it’s not exactly like dancing at the Casino on Catalina Island.
Nightly social dances are held at the Folkets Hus, where they have an indoor dance floor with live music and a temporary outdoor dance floor with dj’ed music. Classes are held there and at at least 5 other temporary outdoor dance floors that have been set up just for the camp. This week, there are 13 different dance tracks – several different levels of Lindy Hop, as well as tap and solo jazz. Other weeks have included tracks in Balboa, “Slow Dance” (this is Blues, right?), Harlem Roots, and Boogie Woogie. I can see why people would choose to stay for several weeks – you can take different tracks as either a lead or follow and step up your dance so much.
It’s impossible to overstate how much Frankie Manning continues to be the heart and soul of this dance camp. That’s his face on the camp logo in the image above. They even have a street here called “Frankie Mannings Väg.” When counting in his students to begin a dance, Frankie would count “1, 2, you know what to do,” and you hear this all over the place whenever the instructors here count in their classes. The references to Frankie, and the reverence given him, are never ending. I see it more here than I saw in my classes in the States, even. It’s really something.
I can’t begin to explain what it’s like to be living here with only other dancers. Whether I’m eating, sleeping, showering, walking around, whatever, everyone around me is a dancer. Everyone. Swing music can be heard playing all day long in the camp because there are classes going on all day long. It’s a magical place. If you’ve never spent an extended period of time at a camp surrounded by people who share the same passion you do, who are there to work on and practice and enjoy the hobby that you love, I highly recommend it. There’s nothing like it. I suppose going to Brazil last year for the World Cup was a little bit like that, because everywhere you go you’re surrounded by people who are there for the same reason you are. But it’s different when you’re there to work on your skills together, not just be entertained by talented others.
P.S. Had my first unisex nude sauna experience… It was pleasantly unexciting 🙂
TL;DR: Living it up at Lindy Hop Mecca.
