In the early 1990s, we'd been trying our hand at different activities in the hope of finding some "non-seasonal" interest that we could share as a couple for 12-months-a-year -- ideally, both at home and on our travels (ie. mountain biking in Canada really isn't a whole lot of fun in February!).    Then, on a cruise in 1994, we met a couple from NJ who'd been taking dance lessons in NYC.    They encouraged us to give it a try when we got home ('twist of fate' #1)

So, after years of just bouncing around on dancefloors (like so many others), we took our first dance lessons in the Fall of 1994... at age 50 (ie. there's hope for everyone!!).    The only local courses we could find were in social ballroom and C&W, so our intro to Swing was via the bouncy London versions of Jive and ECS.    But at least it got us started and, for a while, we had fun.    But we soon got bored and wanted more.    Unfortunately (or happily, given the results), these local sources couldn't deliver and we started looking for a solution.    Indeed, we're grateful to those local instructors not for what they taught us, but for what they couldn't teach us... it got us looking.    ('twist of fate' #2)

Luckily, in the Spring of 1995, our relatively 'early' use of the Internet lead us to a "chance" discovery ('twist of fate' #3).    We were delighted (and, being from London, quite shocked) to learn that tens of thousands of people all over North America were actively enjoying several different forms of Swing -- styles we'd never even heard of before.    Frustrated by local instructors who couldn't even shed light on them (let alone teach them!), we opted to use our summer vacation to go see for ourselves.    The result?    We were TOTALLY AMAZED not only by how many people of all ages elsewhere were having fun dancing together on a regular (often weekly) basis -- in stark contrast to London -- but also by the kinds of dancing we saw them doing!    Frankly, it "blew us away"!!