FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #137 Swing Dancing In Fredericksburg
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A swing dance studio over a guitar shop in downtown Fredericksburg sounds like a rumor until you walk in through the back entrance and hear the music. We’re joined by Joel Webber of DanceFXBG to talk about how East Coast swing turns an ordinary Saturday night into a room full of laughter, movement, and people who actually want to meet each other.
Joel shares what DanceFXBG is, how the weekly Saturday dances work, and why total beginners are not just welcome, they’re the point. We get into the most common misconceptions he hears (“I have two left feet,” “I’m too old,” “I need a partner”) and why he believes dancing is one of the best mental and physical workouts you can do. Along the way, he traces the roots of swing from the 1930s, touches on how styles like West Coast swing evolved, and explains what makes East Coast swing feel fast, loose, and fun.
We also talk honestly about COVID and why it hit partner dancing so hard, plus the scrappy ways a local dance business gets the word out with a small budget using Facebook, Instagram, and community connections. If you’ve been looking for swing dance lessons in Fredericksburg VA, a low-pressure date night idea, or a new way to build community, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who “can’t dance,” and leave a review with your favorite song to swing to.
Joel Webber
DanceFXBG
olddominionhis@yahoo.com
+1 540-847-4581
902 Caroline St, Fredericksburg, VA, United States, 22401
Welcome To FXBG Neighbors
SpeakerThis is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 1Welcome back to the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. We've got Joel Webber with Dance FXBG. Joel, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2Good morning. How are you doing, Dori?
What DanceFXBG Offers
Speaker 1I am doing fantastic because I get to learn all about you and all about Dance FXBG today. I'm so excited. So let's start there. Tell us what is Dance FXBG?
Speaker 2Well, Dance FXBG is a swing dance, East Coast swing dance organization in Fredericksburg. We are located in Old Town Fredericksburg, downtown on Caroline Street. We actually have a studio above Picker Supply, which is a guitar store right there on 902 Caroline Street. And they have a dance studio up there. You actually have to use the back alley to get into the back door, which I call the speakeasy entrance. So you walk up these stairs, you walk into the studio. There's an old stone wall on one side and brick wall on the other side. And it just looks like it's just an eclectic place. And it's just a really neat studio. And of course, got the ball and all lit up and everything. But it's a great Saturday night date night. And so we have dances every Saturday night. And I teach swing dancing every Sunday night at the studio, which we do on a seven-week series of lessons, which we're in our third week now. But yes, it's it's just awesome.
Speaker 1Amazing. Amazing. Do you uh need to have any experience to come to your lessons?
Speaker 2Absolutely not. You don't need experience, you do not need a partner. All you just need to do is bring yourself and have fun.
Speaker 1I love it.
Speaker 2Yeah, learn how to dance. Yes.
East Coast Swing Origins
Speaker 1So fun. So you said East Coast swing. Is there a West Coast swing?
Speaker 2Yes, there is.
Speaker 1Ah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2East Coast swing was basically the beginning of the swing dancing, and which started in the 1930s, and then you had all these other types of dance evolve off of it: West Coast and Quick Step and Balboa, and so many others that that are part of the all the whole picture. But East Coast is the main swing dance. So and there's actually um a really cool uh movie called Hells of Poppin. And you don't need to try to figure out how to spell it, just start start talk typing hells a P or whatever, and this will pop up. And it's the coolest video. There's a video on there of the original dancers who started this, and a whole group of them, and they're doing aerials and flipping their partners and throwing them over the back, and it's really fast motion and just crazy stuff going on. So it's uh and I have that on my um Facebook dance page, a video of it. It's really cool to see.
How Joel Started Teaching
Speaker 1I love it. Well, I've seen some of your videos, and it just looks like such a great time. And so I want to learn more about you. How what what led you to open dance fxpg?
Speaker 2Well, around 2005, a friend of mine said, Hey, let's go down to to um up to Maryland. They have a uh a park up there, it's called Glen Echo. Let's go up there and they have a big dance tonight, East Coast Swing Dance. I said, Okay, so I went up there, took a lesson, and I danced. Well, I I danced one or two songs. I'm like, oh, I can't dance yet. I'll come back and do another lesson another week. So I did. The second time I came back, I went up to the instructor, said, What is that thing you're doing, this Charleston thing? He got down and started doing this Charleston. I said, Oh my gosh, I want to I want to learn how to do it. When do you when do you teach it? He said, Well, we actually have a class starting Monday and Tuesday. I said, I'm signing up for both, which I did. I signed up for two classes, and I took two classes for the next six years. So I'm driving back and forth, two different locations to up to Northern Virginia from Fredericksburg. Well, I actually live in Stafford, but I was driving up from this area, and and I'm I'm taking lessons two nights a week, and then I'm dancing about three nights a week. So I'm driving up to like five nights a week. And then one time, then I after like six years, I'm like, I'm tired of it. And my wife and I, we were like, okay, you know, we can't keep driving up there this many times. We need to find something local in the Fredericksburg area. So we started going around different places. There was no place to dance in Fredericksburg. I mean, no place. We need to start our own place. So I said, you know, above pickers, I heard they were trying to do some kind of swing dancing thing. So I went to talk to the owner. He says, Yeah, we sure are. In fact, this Saturday night, we're we're we, and I mean Sunday afternoon, we have uh some dancers coming in from Charlottesville, Virginia to to do a dance. He said, Um, so why don't you come check it out and I'll introduce you? So we came in and they were they were doing a dance, and so he introduced us, so we went up there and we started doing some aerials. I started flipping her because we would we did aerials ourselves, so and people like, oh my gosh, what is this? So we said uh introduced that we're going to start teaching January of 2012. So we started a class, our first class 2012 up there at the studio um up above Picker Supply. We were there for a couple years, and and then after after like two months, we started a dance every other week, and then that evolved into every week, which we still do 14 years later, going into 15. Um, but yes, I'm I'm actually single now, so but I I teach with other people, and I have, I mean, it is it's evolved into like a family, it's it's so great because you know I have all these people you either paid or volunteers that help me, and there's never a shortage of people helping to make it the most friendly atmosphere, fun atmosphere you can ever have up there.
Myths And Real Benefits
Speaker 1That's amazing. That's amazing. I love that. So, do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions about swing dance or about your business?
Speaker 2Yes. It always asked people, how come you don't come dance? How come you don't come take the lessons? This oh, I have two left feet. Oh no, I I couldn't never ever dance. No, oh, I'm I'm too old or or whatever. Well, guess what? I said, I took those, take those two left feet and I turn them into a left and right foot. And guess what else? Dancing is the best mental and physical exercise on this earth. I mean, there is nothing healthier, both mental mentally and physically, than dancing, especially East Coast swing dancing, which is a more of a little more faster paced and looser, I guess. I talk to ballroom dancers, they're like, oh, you're too loose. I was like, Well, you're too stiff, yeah. We joke with each other, but no, it's uh it east coast swing dancing is very it's physical, but it's fun too. I mean, it's you you make it as physical as you want, really. I mean, you can take it a slow pace or fast pace, but yes.
COVID And The Comeback
Speaker 1Yeah, I love it. I love it. So, what has been something that has been a challenge with the business or personally that you feel like now you're on the other side of it, you're better for it.
Speaker 2Just one word, COVID.
Speaker 1Oh goodness, yeah. You it's hard to to swing dance uh from home virtually.
Speaker 2Oh man, I tell you, you know, when COVID started, my business was just at the height of I mean, it was at the height. I had like 50 students, and and it was really going great. Then COVID came and shut us down, stopped it. Now, you know, I was like, I felt like it was the worst thing it could ever done to swing dancers because we were healthy. That's what kept us, you know, in good shape and healthy. But anyway, it's over, it's gone. See ya!
Getting The Word Out
Speaker 1It's gone, it's gone. What are how are you attracting more people to your business to Dance FXBG?
Speaker 2I I uh I advertise as of course, you know, uh the business doesn't have a huge budget, so I try to find the easiest ways I can I can. I advertise on Facebook page, my dance page, Facebook page, my uh Instagram page, and guess what else? I found Fredericksburg neighbors. Hi Dori.
Speaker 1I I featured you in one of our newsletters a few weeks ago.
Speaker 2Oh, you're you're so sweet. It's no, it you know, I try to get the word out. I every single week we have new people come to the dance, and like, I've lived here for 15 years or 20 years, never even heard about this place. I said, I try to get the word out as best I can. It's hard to get the word out, you know, and just you know, put posters up or whatever. And um, I'm I'm right on Caroline Street, so I have this big, big sort of board up on the wall.
Speaker 1So nice.
Speaker 2Yeah, anyway.
Speaker 1What is something that you wish the listeners knew about Dance FXBG?
Speaker 2Well, it's fun, it's exciting, it's I call it a I call us a family, okay? When people start coming to our studio, they just become a family. They come back and and every single week, I guess someone come up to me at the dances and say, I've had so much fun. Thank you for hosting this. Thank you for bringing having a place for us to come and let our hair down to to socialize, to meet people. And it's like it's it's I said that's why I keep this going, you know, because it's just hearing these stories and and seeing the seeing the camaraderie. And we don't only do that, you know, I I we'll host karaoke parties at several houses, you know, during the month, or we'll go to other dances together and we'll just do different things. And it's it's more than just swing dancing, it's it's a family uh event. I mean, no matter who you are, where where you are, you know, if if you're out there, come down and be part of our family.
Speaker 1I love it. I love it. You're building a community, it's so rewarding, I imagine.
Speaker 2It is, it is. Uh uh it's exciting, yeah.
Speaker 1So if the listeners want to learn more, if they want to check you out, if they want to connect with you, where can they find you?
Speaker 2dancefxpg.com. Um also Facebook, DanceFXBG, colon, Lindy in the Burg, because Lindy in the Burg was the original name of my business. But when I had to move it, I moved my business to another location over at Eagle Village Shopping Center, it became a storefront. And they said, You need these letters on the outside. So I had to change my business name. So I said, Lindy and the Berg's too long, so let me change it to another name, of course, Dance FXBG. And of course, can I can I tell that story real quick?
Speaker 1Please do. I love it.
Speaker 2Okay, so Dance, um, I had to have a name for the front, and so I thought I said, Dance FX was sort of like a popular thing in 2016. So I said, let me name it Dance FX. So I went to register it, and someone came back and said, Hey, we own the FXBG FX name, but we'll sell it to you. I said, nah, nah, let me sleep on it. I thought about it and thought about said, Well, you know, I think I'll just add a BG at the end of it, FXBG. So uh short for Fredericksburg. So I registered that name in 2016, Dance FXBG. So I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1The first uh business in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area to use FXBG. I love it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2Yes, I uh you know it's it's a joy to see so many businesses use the FXBG now. I mean, even the parking lot on George Street is George Street FXBG.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, it's a lot easier to write FXBG than to spell out Fredericksburg.
Speaker 2Absolutely, it is.
Speaker 1Well, thank you for doing that.
Speaker 2Texas has picked that up yet.
Speaker 1Right, right.
Speaker 2I'll go down there and sell them the name.
Thanks And Local Nominations
Speaker 1There you go. There you go. Well, Joel, I thank you so much for joining me on the FXBG Neighbors Podcast. I've enjoyed it, it's been a lot of fun, and thank you for sharing Dance FXBG with us.
Speaker 2Thank you so much, Dori, for having me on this on your site, and thank you so much for doing the great job you do.
Speaker 1Ah, thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2Uh-huh.
SpeakerThank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.