Ready or not, another year has come to an end. It is not possible for me (Aurelie) to reflect on it without the one overriding feature of losing my Dad in May. I and the rest of my family miss him very much. He was the focal point, so there is a big gap to fill. We are learning to find our way as we move forward. Thankfully I come from a large family and we have each other.

2011 did bring many wonderful moments and here are a few of our biggest highlights:

• Not only did we hold our 15^th Beantown Camp, we received many comments of “best ever” and we think we agree. A gathering of many wonderful people for a week full of joy, tons of positive energy and just so much fun!
• Hop to the Beat had its 16^th anniversary this September, something we find pretty amazing.
• Passing our 1 year mark in our Monday night Boston location. It is always a big challenge to start something new and we have really enjoyed our classes and the people we have gotten to know from them.
• A truly phenomenal Uptown Swing dance with Gordon Webster during the Skye and Naomi weekend. The house was absolutely packed, however, what made it exceptional was how the room was on fire! Gordon surpassed himself, Naomi was incredible, she and Skye entertained and inspired us, and everyone present contributed to such an awesome, happy night. We couldn’t have ended our HTTB year any better.
• A non-dance highlight was adopting our two rescue kitties, Izzy and Luna, in August. They have brought much cuteness to our home.

Something that continues to be a major force are all the fabulous people who have touched our lives through our classes, dances, camp and other activities. We are very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of your life and there is nothing that makes us happier than seeing new friendships made, smiling faces and everyone having a good time. We caught the Lindy Hop bug back in our early days and are thrilled if we can help pass that on to someone else. Neither of us could ever have imagined back when we each started dancing what it would become in our lives. It has brought us each other and so much more.

So here’s to a new year which we hope will give you all much joy, happiness and of course plenty of excellent moments dancing!

Our best to you,
Aurelie & Tony

There’s still time to get a gift of dance this holiday season! Here’s what you will find in the Hop to the Beat Shop:

• Ryan and Jenny’s series of teaching DVDs. Ryan and Jenny are two of the best Lindy Hop teachers and performers in the world. These DVDs are jam packed with information with very clear presentation and tons of demonstration.
• Beantown Camp DVDs, including the 3 DVD set for 2011 covering class recaps, competitions, evening and class performances and Beantown Bounce (the awesome show)!
• Beantown Camp and Hop to the Beat T-Shirts.
• Gift Certificates which are customized to any amount.

Purchase at the Hop to the Beat shop.

Our websites have a new IP address. The change appears to have propagated but if you are having difficulties accessing our sites please try flushing your browser’s cache and reloading the page. Thanks, -Tony

We often find ourselves reflecting on the past year as it draws to an end. This one has been kind of a rollercoaster for us with some big ups and downs along the way.

We had a truly amazing Beantown Camp this summer. It was more work than ever putting it together, which is really a reflection on the way of the dance world these days. Many events for people to attend and lots of attention needs to be devoted to marketing. Beantown has had many great years, and we always wonder how we can possibly top them, yet this year may have just been the best ever! There was a huge diversity of people attending from all over the country and beyond as well as an outstanding staff of instructors and musicians, and it all merged together into a week full of joy, laughter and a ton of fun! We owe so much to everyone who participated and contributed to making it such a positive, wonderful event.

Hop to the Beat hit an incredible milestone this year with our 15th anniversary. It is quite amazing when we think about that. It all started because we had seen this dance called the Lindy Hop and we just wanted everyone to do it! It seemed the only way to help make that happen was to teach, so we gave it a try. We added small practices which eventually led into what is now Uptown Swing. Along the way we brought in international instructors and eventually started Beantown Camp. It literally just evolved, we along with it, and it continues to be a full time endeavor.