Prekshaa Pahuja and Samuel Ribeiro didn’t meet on the dance floor; that’s a different story. But they found a partner in each other, for dance and for life. Learning and experimenting with different dance styles like jive and salsa, they came across Lindy Hop — from the family of swing dances — and something felt right. “The style has space for expression and improvisation, it’s not too rigid or contained within the steps. I can bring much of my personality into the dance,” Pahuja tells us. The husband-wife duo started Slingshot Swing in the city in 2019 with workshops, regular batches and socials — a night of spontaneous and improvised partnered dancing.

While the instructors have attended international dance camps and learned other styles to sharpen techniques, Ribeiro tells us that their focus is not just on technicality, but to ensure that people understand the style and find the rhythm first to get comfortable with social dancing. He suggests taking a workshop and then heading for a social dance night. “It’s not just about the steps; it’s important to dance well to the music. People would see us dance and approach us casually asking us to teach them. We started with private lessons and now we’re sharing the form and helping build a community,” he adds.