Scott Cupit is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Swing Patrol, a swing class in London Bridge, who’s pretty much been all around the world thanks to his love for swing dance.
Swing Patrol was first set up in Melbourne, Australia in 1998 and six years ago Scott landed his dream job of sharing the dance he loved in London with 40 other teachers.
37 classes are taught weekly at Swing Patrol, with around 1500 people signing up each year. There are also workshops available. Cupit explained “Our ‘Dance In A Day’ workshops are very popular for beginners – whether absolute novices who have never danced a step in their lives or people who have been to a few weeks of classes. They cover the fundamentals of a particular dance style – such as solo Charleston or Lindy hop.”
Swing Patrol also holds different types of workshops along with ‘Dance In A Day’. “Our aerials workshops are really fun too. They’re for people who have been dancing for a while, and sign up with a partner they trust. During that workshop the follower –traditionally a female in the dancing partnership – is thrown in the air in different moves. We do more though, whether it’s balboa, West Coast swing and LA style swing. There’s lot of variety.”
Swing Patrol has attended many different events from The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee to Glastonbury. He says, “One of the most recent ones was a flash mob for the new Cahoots bar in London. Swing Patrol performs regularly at different music festivals such as Wilderness, Lovebox, Secret Garden party, Boomtown, Love Supreme, Isle of White Festival and Bestival.
Cupit wanted to start these classes to share his passion after he came across dance whilst backpacking across the USA in 1997. “Almost no one was dancing the Lindy Hop in Melbourne back in 1998. People really caught the bug in Australia. My brother lives in London and many people had encouraged me to start something new and exciting in London. Teaching and encouraging new people to dance changes their lives as it fills them with utter joy. It so often becomes a major part of man people’s social lives. They make new friends, become happier and healthier – some people (like me) even fall in love and get married to people they’ve met through dancing. I never take it for granted as six years ago I couldn’t pay my rent and it was tough.”
“Swing Patrol’s enabled me to dance at Buckingham Palace, Blue peter, BBC breakfast and more. I’ve even taught dancers on Strictly Come Dancing.” As well as dancing and teaching in different places across the country, Scott has travelled to different countries and continents. “I’ve been to Fiji, Japan, Finland, New Zealand, all over the world, thanks to swing dancing. I get to run a whole community and I genuinely love the art form.”
When it came to listing any negative sides of working for Swing Patrol, Cupit couldn’t think of any apart from the stress after appearing on Dragon’s Den for him and the team after gaining huge attention from the public.“Dragon’s Den was amazing, of course, however, it felt hard to breathe. It’s not quite negative, but it’s important to take downtime. It’s so easy to be immersed 24-7 with a business like mine. I also have a rule that I can’t talk work after 9pm.”
Cupit and his Swing Patrol team have so much more to look forward to as they have many more events coming in the future. “We have the London Swing Festival and the London Jitterbug Championships coming up on the 29th to 31st May, which will be amazing. Over 150 of the UK and the world’s best swing dancers will be coming to London to compete. Approximately 1500 people will participate in the London Swing Festival and will be learning moves from incredible international teachers. It’s going to be three days of an absolute blast.”
