Audition to be a part of one of our 3 performance teams for the 2025-2026 season!—sign up below!

Over the course of a 5 month period, learn original choreography to compete at the Dayton Swing Smackdown event in Dayton, OH (Feb 27–Mar 1, 2026) and perform around Chicago in the month of February.

Performance teams are geared towards dancers who are comfortable with swingouts, Charleston, and basic solo jazz movements at a minimum. The more advanced the team level, the more knowledge and experience expected. Dancers on all teams can expect to work on technique and gain choreography experience in a structured environment.

This year, we have 3 teams to accommodate a wider range of dancers!

• Int/Adv: “Rush Hour Rhythm” choreographed by Kathleen Mueller and John Holmstrom

• Adv: “Second City Swingouts” choreographed by Kerry Kapaku and Mike “Falty” Faltesek

• Adv+ and above: “Traffic Jam Swing” choreographed by Abbie Reeves and Cole Crutcher 

Rehearsals will be held once a week on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday evenings (each team will have their own rehearsal time slot) for 75 minutes from October through February, with the exception of a few dates where we will take a break for holidays. 

To be considered for a spot on a performance team, dancers must attend an audition. Audition dates and times are listed below. Dancers only need to attend 1 audition slot to be considered for a team.

Interested? Excited? Ready to sign up?

Join us for one of our upcoming Auditions: 

• Sunday, September 14 from 4–5 PM

• Sunday, September 21 from 10:30–11:30 AM

• Monday, September 15 from 6–6:50 PM (Backup audition time if you can’t make either Sunday)

Results will be emailed to dancers individually by 10pm on September 24th at the latest. Dancers will have until 10pm on September 26th to accept or decline their position on a performance team, should they be cast. Please note that while we will try to accommodate as many dancers as possible on the teams, we may not have space for every dancer who auditions. Each team will only have 5-7 couples in the competition cast, plus alternates. 

For more details about what it’s like to be on a team and what is expected of each team member, check out our 2025-2026 Performance Team Dancer Agreement.

Interested? Sign up!