Youth Lindy Hop & Jazz Dance Culture Labs – Al Minns Next Generation Project

Youth Lindy Hop & Jazz Dance Culture Labs

Al Minns Next Generation Project

Building confidence, community, and cultural connection through the legacy of Jazz Dance.

The Al Minns Next Generation Project’s youth after-school program introduces young people to the joy, history, and cultural richness of Lindy Hop and Vernacular Jazz Dance in a supportive, community-centered environment.

Designed for youth at all experience levels, the program provides consistent opportunities to learn, practice, perform, and grow alongside experienced dancers and mentors. Through regular after-school sessions, participants develop dance technique, musicality, creativity, physical confidence, and teamwork while learning about the Black American communities and cultural traditions that created these powerful art forms.

At the center of the program is belonging. Lindy Hop is inherently social—it teaches young people how to listen, communicate, collaborate, respond to one another, and contribute to something larger than themselves. Participants learn not only how to dance, but how to become supportive partners, confident leaders, thoughtful community members, and responsible stewards of cultural tradition.

Mentorship & Cultural Preservation

The program creates meaningful intergenerational connections between young dancers and experienced Lindy Hop and Jazz Dance practitioners. Mentors share movement alongside the history, stories, music, and values that give the dances their meaning.

This approach ensures that young people encounter Lindy Hop and Vernacular Jazz as living Black cultural traditions, rather than simply as a collection of steps or historical artifacts. They learn where the dances came from, whose creativity shaped them, and why preserving their integrity matters.

A Pathway for Young Dancers

The after-school program serves as an entry point into a larger community and provides a pathway for youth who want to pursue dance more deeply. As participants develop, they can access additional workshops, performances, mentorship opportunities, community events, and advanced training through the Al Minns Next Generation Project.

advanced training through the Al Minns Next Generation Project. The goal is not simply to produce better dancers. It is to nurture young people who feel connected—to their bodies, to music, to history, to one another, and to a cultural legacy worth carrying forward.

By creating a consistent youth community around Lindy Hop and Jazz Dance, the program helps ensure that these traditions have a strong and culturally grounded future. It gives young people a place to move, create, belong, and discover that they, too, can become part of the legacy.