Every year, there’s one weekend Cape Town Swing dancers look forward to more than any other, and this past November, Swing Camp once again proved why it’s the highlight of the CTS calendar. From 20th–23rd November 2025, we returned to the Fynbos Estate, where the olive groves, big skies, and warm community spirit set the perfect backdrop for a wonderful weekend of dancing, learning, and connecting.
Swing Camp 2025 brought together dancers of all levels for a long weekend of workshops, social dancing, live music, shared meals, and the small magical moments that make our community what it is. When I arrived at the Farmhouse on Thursday evening, I felt reassured by its familiarity, this being my fourth Swing Camp. However, familiarity doesn’t mean “the same”, and each camp has been a different experience, always with new people and new things to learn and discover.
This year, we began with some after-dinner community-building activities, facilitated by Safer Spaces team member Selina, to foster empathy, inclusivity and connection. It was nice to get to know each other a little better, right from the start. It really set the tone for the weekend.
On the drive home, exhausted but elated, we asked each other our highlight, lowlight, and something we were grateful for. I wanted to extend this question to the community, and the responses made me want to relive it all over again.
Simoné
Highlight: Dancing with so many different dancers and picking up new things from each other.
Lowlight: Having to leave?? Wish it was a week long, it felt like I had just really gotten into the swing camp mode and then we had to leave 🥹.
Something I’m grateful for: Being able to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Quiet, calm blues dances after swinging the f*ck out.
Ruby
Highlight: The Cabaret, the band, seeing and spending time with the community, the food, and the pool.
Lowlight: The heat and throwing my back out with decorating 🥲.
Something I’m grateful for: The community, the jazz cats making sh*t happen, seeing and reconnecting with friends, connecting with myself in the dance and music.
Wendy
Highlights from a first timer:
• Being immersed in dance for three days- it was just wonderful.
• Watching the teachers out of their teaching roles, doing what they do best at the Cabaret-WOW!
• Rozanne’s routine and Ruby singing were standout moments.
• The Balboa class!
• So many opportunities for improving my dancing.
• The late-night blues sessions.
• The feedback sessions, especially the interactive class with the band.
• The band! Incredible. And dancing to the live music was magical.
• The community feel around food prep, meals, and clean-ups.
• The delicious food!
• Loved the venue/s.
• Being amongst people who love dance.
• Getting to know people better.
• My CTS keyring and stickers!
• ALL the dancing made me so happy.
Lowlight: having to choose which parallel classes to go to, knowing I wanted to do them all.
So Grateful for:
• Being asked to dance 😉
• The huge amount of behind-the-scenes work and effort to make this beautiful camp happen in such a seamless way.
• The kindness and friendliness shown to me.
• Being able to ask for help and getting feedback.
• The smaller, quieter moments of connection, just chatting to people 1 on 1.
• For patience from more experienced dancers.
• Pushing out my comfort zone to attend the camp ended up being the highlight of my year.
Amber
I always like to seek out the local dance communities when I’m abroad, and the camp just happened to coincide with a two-week trip to South Africa. A lovely way to conclude a great vacation.
Highlight: There were a few highlights for me, but the main thing was just how warm, friendly and inviting everyone was. This was something I noticed throughout the trip – all the South Africans we met were just so nice! And swing camp was no different. Even though I was a new face in a group that seemed pretty tight-knit, I never felt out of place.
More specifically, I liked lounging in the sunshine while Tyler was drawing caricatures by the pool, finally getting the Balboa basic down, and taking a moment to sneak off and stargaze.
Lowlight: Leaving in the middle of the night to drive to the airport after a mere two hours of sleep
Something I’m grateful for: Getting to share the joy of dancing with people on the other side of the world
Megan
As a first timer, I had no idea what to expect – I was anxiously excited. The swing camp far exceeded any expectation! It was so lovely to see a community of people share their knowledge about Swing dance with each other. A highlight for me was when, after each class, my dance ability and confidence grew a bit – it was so practical!
I felt a bit awkward in the beginning to dance with some of the more experienced dancers, but I can totally say that my lowlight was that the camp ended!
I’m really grateful that the sun didn’t blast me out of my tent at 6 am, as I assumed. (It was 7:15, though)
Thank you for the wonderful time together!
Tyler
I have such fond memories full of connection and wiggling on the dance floor with other wiggling folk. I learnt so much and felt my self-esteem as a swing dancing lead grow just a tiny bit more.
Learning to make various moves more accessible to me has been so rewarding, and thanks to the wonderful teachers for being so accommodating and helpful in that regard. Swing dancing should be for every body out there, and as a disabled person, I like Cape Town Swing’s inclusive approach.
I’ve been learning to improve communication with my dance partner before the dance, so it makes dancing even more fun.
A big highlight was the Groovology session, where we got to talk to the jazz band that strutted their stuff that same night. Brathew and the rest of the band inspired me to listen to more kinds of jazz and learn about the culture. Also, how they broke down what gives a song that swing! More highlights were meeting new people and connecting, initiating the doodle table at the last party of Swing camp, the Cabaret, and having delicious food cooked by Lisa Marie and the team.
My heart is full, I feel so grateful for the Cape Town Swing experience.
Jazz
My Highlight was a secret jam session I had with the band and a few lucky stragglers at midnight on Saturday. I kept DJing after the blues train left the station and somehow seduced the band back onto stage to jam!! Absolute heaven for me. They swapped instruments and played along to my last few songs and even had a boogie with us! That lil’ moment will probably keep me going for the next year or so! 😆
My only lowlight was realising that what I’d planned to be my Balboa heels are way too tall! But luckily I didn’t break any shoes this time, unlike last year… mid-performance! Grateful toes!
I’m grateful for my second family. I couldn’t be more delighted to serve and be served by this community. I’m also so lucky to have people who support my passions and creativity. It was such a joy to illustrate merch for camp this year, and see the exact same joy on their faces as I felt when drawing them. What an absolutely beautiful reset of a weekend, with my swing siblings ❤️
Penelope
Apart from just having an amazing first Swing Camp, just an incredible time together with everyone, I think the best thing for me was the freedom that you feel to try new things, and the space that the teachers create in the class to be like, “now see if you can make a six-count move into an eight-count”, and try something new, and nobody’s critical at all. If it doesn’t go well, you just laugh it off and rotate and try again. I really appreciate having the freedom to be creative.
The lowlight, I would say, was having to choose between classes. Often I wanted to do both of the classes, so that was a bit difficult. And I would have liked more of a description of the class to make a better choice, but you can’t do it all, I get it.
I’m grateful for all the beautiful people, and for everyone who put it all together; it was just fantastic. Thanks so much.
Shahid
My highlight was all the first-time conversations I had with people (who are now new friends). There’s just something so magical about connecting with new folks and clicking right away. Everyone at the camp had such warm energy, and I left thinking that the world is actually a really beautiful place.
Also, special shoutout to my man Tyler Pike, who drew a hilarious caricature of me (which I plan to frame and hang in my office!). Definitely one of the highlights of both the camp and my year overall!
My lowlight is that I didn’t leave the camp as good a dancer as I’d hoped I’d become. For some reason, I thought four days of intensive dancing would turn me into Fred Astaire 😂 and obviously that was never going to happen. But that’s okay! It’s not so much of a lowlight as it is a shift in perspective. And I grew so much in the process that I found it equally rewarding anyway.
I also find it so exciting that I have so much room to grow, because it gives me a journey to look forward to.
Something I’m grateful for: Something I was thinking about on the drive home was that all the hard work I’ve put into my self-development this year was tested during the camp. Specifically surrounding my self-esteem and being the most authentic version of myself. At no time during the camp did I feel like I had to portray myself in a specific way in order to fit in, or that I needed to prove myself to anyone, even though I arrived at the camp not knowing anyone, nor having any friends there.
Yet I felt secure in telling my stories, sharing my sense of humour, and falling in love at the breakfast table with a bowl of overnight oats.
And I feel overwhelmed with gratitude that I’ve reached a stage in my life where that’s the case, because it wasn’t always.
Swing Camp 2025 is a memory I’ll cherish for the rest of my life (and I’ll definitely be back!).
Nishaat
Highlight: The feedback session with the band.
Lowlight: Missing the first feedback session because I was exhausted and needed a nap.
I’m grateful for this very special and awesome group of people (community) and, of course, the delicious, healthy food.
Cheyenne
Highlights
• I think it’s safe to say that a universal highlight for everyone is this incredibly welcoming and bubbly community we are a part of. The connections I made with those around me are what filled me up most. I loved waking up and eating together. Learning and growing in dance together, and of course, sharing many laughs and giggles together.
• The class content was brilliantly suited to meet everyone’s level while equally challenging growth.
• The balance of each day was intricately thought through, and I really felt like there was a perfect amount of space for rest and play!
• If inclusion were a place, it would be Swing Camp. Everyone is invited to a judgment-free, open space. You may even surprise yourself and win the Jazzicat Competition 🤪
Lowlights
• Waking up on Monday morning without the distant chatter of others in the background created a little emptiness I needed to recalibrate to.
Gratitude
• I am infinitely grateful for each moment of this experience. For each person I shared a dance with, thank you for sharing your energy with me.
• For each person who smiled and waved as we passed by on our merry way to things – thank you for including me.
Mary-Anne
As for me, the highlight was laughing so much that it actually hurt. And of course, the lovely dances I had with advanced dancers and total beginners alike. I felt proud that newcomers felt safe enough to get on the dancefloor and ask people to dance. My lowlight was standing on a bee halfway through Ruby and James’s Herräng class on Friday morning (why did I take my shoes off to leave the pavilion???). But I’m grateful for Muriel’s lightning-speed response to get me ice and antihistamines so that it didn’t become the showstopper I feared it would. As usual, I’m so grateful to be part of this community and for the amazing friendships it’s given me.
See you next time!
Gallery photos by James Hagen @james1wastaken
