Club Culture
House Dance
House dance classes in London are few and mostly community-led. In our directory, East London Dance runs a weekly Monday class in Stratford and Freedom Fighters Arts hosts a Thursday house dance jam in Shoreditch.
House dance classes in London are few and mostly community-led. In our directory, East London Dance runs a weekly Monday class in Stratford and Freedom Fighters Arts hosts a Thursday house dance jam in Shoreditch.
House dance is a freestyle club dance that grew up with house music in the Black, Latino and queer nightclubs of Chicago and New York in the 1980s. It is danced to a steady four-on-the-floor beat, and the dancer answers the music in real time instead of following set choreography.
Most teachers break the style into three parts. Footwork is fast, light, intricate stepping that covers the floor. Jacking is the rolling, bouncing movement of the torso that gives house its pulse. Lofting is the work of the legs and upper body in the air or close to the ground, with floor work and spins. Dancers combine the three in their own way, which is why two people can dance the same track and look nothing alike.
House is a social dance first. You will often meet it at jams and in cyphers, where people take turns in the middle of a circle and share what they are practising, rather than in a performance.
House and hip hop share studios, teachers and many of the same students, but they start from different music and different ideas of movement.
Use the map below to find studios near you, or filter by area and audience to jump straight to our curated list of the best-rated House Dance studios in London further down the page.
House Dance, Street Dance, Hip Hop & 1 more style
Trial Available
House Dance, Commercial, Contemporary & 9 more styles
Quick, layered footwork trains the feet, ankles and brain to work together, and the patterns you drill in class carry over to hip hop, breaking and commercial.
A continuous bounce and constant stepping keep your heart rate up for the whole class, and it feels like dancing, not a workout.
Because house is improvised, you learn to hear the kick, the hi-hat and the build of a track and to place your steps on them.
Taking a turn in a circle teaches you to dance without a routine, which is a skill most choreography-based classes never ask of you.
Freedom Fighters Arts lists its jams and sessions at £4, and East London Dance charges £11 for a drop-in class (both checked October 2026).
House culture grew out of dancefloors where people of different backgrounds danced together, and the London classes and jams listed here are open to mixed levels.
East London Dance lists its Monday house class as beginner to advanced, and Freedom Fighters Arts lists its Thursday house dance jam as open to all levels.
East London Dance gives the age group for its Monday house class as 18+, and the Freedom Fighters Arts jam appears in its adult timetable.
Dancers who already practise hip hop, breaking or commercial use house to add fluid footwork and a lighter groove to their movement.
People who go out to house and garage nights often take a class to feel confident on the floor.
Freedom Fighters Arts describes its jam as space for the house dance scene to experiment with their practice, sometimes with a live DJ.
Ballet, contemporary and jazz dancers take house to learn improvisation and to loosen up the torso and hips.
House dance in London is small but alive, and both venues in our directory are in the east. East London Dance teaches a Monday house class at the Talent House, 3 Sugar House Lane, Stratford, near Pudding Mill Lane station. Freedom Fighters Arts is on Redvers Street in Shoreditch, near Hoxton, and runs its house dance jam on Thursday evenings.
Beyond these two, big drop-in venues such as Pineapple Dance Studios publish their weekly timetable on an app, so check it for house sessions before you travel. See the East London and Central London guides for more street and club-style studios, and our hip hop and street dance pages for classes that sit close to house.
There are two formats in London: a taught weekly class and a jam. East London Dance runs its house class on Mondays at 7pm, for ages 18+ and from beginner to advanced, at £11 per class, £44 for five or £82.50 for ten (checked October 2026); its autumn term began on 28 September 2026. Freedom Fighters Arts runs its House Dance Jam on Thursdays from 7pm to 9pm for all levels, and lists jams and sessions at £4 and standard classes at £13 (checked October 2026).
Start with the taught class if you have never done house, because the teacher breaks down footwork step by step, and move to a jam once you have a few steps to try out. Schedules change by term, so confirm times with the studio before your first visit. For one-to-one coaching ask about private dance lessons.
Wear loose, stretchy clothes that you can bounce and drop in, and bring water, because the bounce is constant. House is danced on smooth studio floors, so choose clean, flat trainers with a sole that grips a little but still slides. Avoid chunky trainers and socks without grip.
You do not need special shoes or kit. Keep your first class simple and add a better pair of trainers once you know how much you will practise.
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