Welcome to SwingStep GmbH (“SwingStep,” “we,” “our” or “us”) and/or any of our affiliate websites that feature other products and services by SwingStep GmbH. 

Please read this document carefully. We offer a range of services that can enhance your experience as a dancer. When you use our services (for example: join our subscriptions, classes, parties, events, engage with the community on our platforms, purchase gift certificates, online videos, or any other products) you will be subject to the guidelines, terms and agreements applicable to our services.  

These terms and conditions apply to all our websites, studios, events (collectively, “services”) and they apply to all visitors, users and others (“you”) who access or use the services.

By using any of the products or services owned and operated by SwingStep GmbH, you are confirming that you have read and accepted these terms and conditions. 

By engaging with our services, you confirm that you are of legal age to form a binding contract or that you have parental consent to receive our services. You also agree that you are providing true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the registration or purchase process for the service you engage with. You agree that you will maintain and update your registration data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete in case of changes. We do reserve the right to suspend or terminate access to our service at any time if we suspect that you have not provided us with true, accurate, current and complete information, or if you break our Code of Conduct. 

Current Products:

• www.swingstep.com – where you can find all our dance services 
• www.swingstep.tv – our online learning platform
• www.chasefestival.com – a dance festival in Heidelberg, Germany
• www.swingsummit.com – a dance festival in Ardèche, France
• www.cirque-du-solo.com – a dance festival in Berlin, Germany
• www.lindyhopmoves.com – an online curation of swing dance instruction videos
• www.casuallyfancy.com – clothing with vintage feel designed for dancers

Privacy Policy

For your convenience we have added information to our privacy policy that helps you understand what your rights are and what you can demand, not only from us, but any service providers you encounter. We highly recommend you to read our privacy policy where we clearly explain how we use and store your data.

Our Services

SwingStep GmbH offers both open-to-all videos and activities as well as videos and activities for those who sign up for a subscription. 

OPEN-TO-ALL SERVICES

As we are part of a bigger community, it is important that there are opportunities for people to meet and interact independent of where they take classes. 

In Berlin and Heidelberg we offer weekly free-practice sessions that anyone can join independently of any subscription with us. Occasionally we also have social dancing events that are for free and open to all. 

We also have prepared videos, for example history lessons, that are available on our website for anyone who wishes to deepen their knowledge about this dance. 

SINGLE TICKET PURCHASES

We offer services not included in our subscriptions, for example occasional workshops. In those cases, we clearly indicate which aspects of the service are included in a subscription and which require a single ticket purchase.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

We currently offer the following subscriptions:

• Free Pass Subscription
• OnlinePass Subscription
• CityPass Subscription (Heidelberg Pass, Berlin Pass etc.) 
• Teachers Pass Subscription

Having an ongoing subscription is necessary in order to have access to these services. 

The subscriptions that come with a monthly payment are set to automatically be paid to SwingStep GmbH via stripe or paypal services. If you need another way to set up your subscription please contact us. If a payment is not completed, you will automatically lose access to your subscription and be moved to the Free Pass Subscription. Payments are made after an existing payment period of 30 days and on the first day of the new 30 day period.

Please note that all our charges include 19% VAT as well as fees for music licensing (GEMA). Our events with live acts include the contributions to the artists’ health and social care authority (Künstlersozialkasse).

How to Pause or Cancel a Subscription

You will have access to a personal account page from which you can pause or cancel your subscription on a 30-day basis. 

When you pause your subscription: 

• You will continue to have access to online content and in-person classes until the end of the remaining 30-day period.
• After this period ends, you will no longer have access, and you will no longer be charged for the subscription; you can always come back to your account and reactivate your subscription to regain access.
• If your 30-day period runs out before your ongoing courses do, please communicate with us and we can work out an arrangement together. 
• The benefit of pausing your subscription is that you do not have to enter your payment details again when you restart, which makes the process much easier for you. 
• There are no charges for pausing subscriptions.

When you cancel your subscription: 

• you will continue to have access to the online content and classes until the end of the remaining 30-day period. 
• After this period ends, you will no longer have access, and you will no longer be charged for the subscription; you can always come back to your account and reactivate your subscription to regain access.
• If your 30-day period runs out before your ongoing courses do, please communicate with us and we can work out an arrangement together. 
• If you cancel your subscription, you will have to re-enter your payment details in case you choose to re-subscribe. 
• There are no charges for canceling subscriptions.

With each subscription or service you will receive regular email containing information connected to your subscription and payment.

Money-back guarantee on your first 30 days

All our subscriptions come with a first 30 day money back guarantee. If you sign up for a subscription, and after the first 30 days you feel it was not what you expected and you are not satisfied with the experience, you can ask for part or all of your money back. We believe our services will bring you a lot of value so we are confident that we can provide you this guarantee.

However, please note that this policy only applies to the services directly provided to you by SwingStep GmbH, and does not include any costs for traveling, accommodation, catering or any other services or costs not directly paid to SwingStep GmbH. 

The Online Pass & Teachers Pass Subscription

For how long do I have access to the content?

With these subscriptions you have access to all their courses and live sessions throughout your subscription period. When you pause or cancel your subscription, you’ll stop having access to the online classes included in the subscription, and we ask that you no longer join our live sessions.

Do my partner and I need separate accounts?

Yes. We are counting on one account per person. However, if the subscriptions fees are not working for you, please look at our pay-it-forward-fund and decide if that is a good solution for you.

The City Pass Subscription

The City Pass Subscription gives you access to all of our courses, whenever there is space available. Our goal is for each subscriber to get at least one, ideally more, class per week. However, we cannot guarantee that there will be something for you every week. If we fail to give you a drop-in or fixed course for a week, we ask you to be understanding of the situation. However, if we fail to give you either drop-in or fixed courses for multiple weeks in a row, please contact us so that we can find a solution for you. The solution could be a refund in the form of credit or other solutions.

We reserve the right to adjust the offer as we gain more experience with this model.

PARTICIPATING IN CLASSES

An in-class experience is any service in which you visit one of our event locations, such as our dance studios, and participate in a class – typically with instructors and other participants.

Cancelling a course

If you have to cancel your registration and participation in a course, please email us at [email protected]

Information on classes

We try to keep all of our posted information as up to date as possible, but we cannot guarantee that information on courses (e.g. dates, fees) is always accurate on every online and in-studio posting.

If you are registered in any courses, you’ll also receive a weekly email containing your recap video as well as relevant information about the swing dance community. This service is part of the course booking and is covered by our privacy policy.

Follower-to-leader ratio

When processing registrations for fixed courses, workshops, etc., we do our best to ensure a good follower-to-leader ratio so that we do not contribute to an experience where a lot of dancers don’t have a partner in the class. However, we cannot guarantee nor be held accountable for cases where participants do not show up due to illness or other factors beyond our control resulting in suboptimal follower-to-leader balance.

For classes indicated as “drop-in”, we will exert little to no control over the leader-follower ratio.

If you register to an event together with a partner, we will check for sufficient space, but not for an appropriate leader-follower ratio, since signing up with a partner does not influence this ratio. However, in case either of you cancel your participation, we reserve the right to also cancel the participation of the other person in order to maintain proper balance of roles at the event.

Prerequisite

Sometimes we also advise registrants to sign up to a more appropriate course in case we recognize that the group of their choice will not be suitable to provide the best experience for all involved. Although it occurs rarely, we do reserve the right to refuse participation or ask a person to change groups if their ability to keep up with the group has a negative impact on the experience of the group as a whole.

Please do not expect a perfectly homogeneous “level” in classes, and be prepared and welcoming of training with other students even if they have a different background or amount of experience.

Missing classes & how to catch up

We understand that it can happen that you are unable to attend one or multiple classes for individual or personal reasons. We do not refund any portion of your subscription fee due to missed classes.

We have options for you to catch up with the missed content (through online courses, recap videos, practice times). However these options are not part of our contractual agreement; we offer them as a gesture, but cannot guarantee they will always be available.

EVENTS NOT INCLUDED IN OUR SUBSCRIPTIONS

Confirmation & Payment Process for events not included in the subscription payment

Once we can confirm your registration, you will receive an email in which we state your confirmation and how you can complete the contract: by paying within 14 days – unless we clearly state otherwise in the confirmation email sent to you. 

Please note that all our charges include 19% VAT as well as fees for music licensing (GEMA). Our events with live acts include the contributions to the artists’ health and social care authority (Künstlersozialkasse).

If we do not receive your payment within the stated time period, we may send a reminder email as a courtesy to remind you of your payment obligation. However, we also reserve the right to cancel your participation, for example to give the spot to another participant. 

100% Money back guarantee

The portion of the services that comes directly from SwingStep GmbH always comes with a 100% money back guarantee! If you attended an event and feel it was not what you expected and you are not satisfied with the experience, you can ask for a part or all of your money back. We believe our services will bring you a lot of value so we are confident that we can provide you this guarantee. 

However, please note that this policy only applies to the services directly provided to you by SwingStep GmbH and does not include any costs for traveling, accommodation, catering or any other services or costs not directly paid to SwingStep GmbH. Also, the 100% money back guarantee is only applicable when you attended the event or class. If you cancel the event for any reason and do not attend, our cancellation and refund policy applies instead.

Cancelling your participation for an event not included in our subscriptions

If you have to cancel your registration, please email us at [email protected]

A cancellation is defined as you not being able to attend the event or class you registered for, independent of the reason. 

The following cancellation terms apply to all workshops (e.g, Chase Festival, SwingSummit, Cirque du Solo).

Refund policy

Beyond your right of withdrawal within 14 days of online purchase (see section Right of Withdrawal),the following refund policy applies:

• If you cancel up to 3 months before the event, 100% of your payment will be converted into credit for our services.
• If you cancel up to 1 month before the event, 50% of your payment will be converted into credit for our services.
• If you cancel up to when the event starts, 25% of your payment will be converted into credit for our services.

You can use your credit for any of our offers, including subscriptions and workshops. You also have the option of getting your credit in the form of a voucher that you can use, give away or sell. Credits are valid indefinitely: even if you take a longer break, we will always be happy to welcome you back. 

Please note that SwingSummit comes with a 120€ non-refundable deposit which is not subject to the above timeline. However, the deposit can be transferred to another participant if you find a person who is not signed up to the event yet and who will replace you.

It is possible to transfer your participation in any in-class experience to someone else and thus, depending on the arrangement you make with the other person, recuperate all or some of your payment. However, we do not promise to accept your replacement choice as it will depend very much on the follower-to-leader ratio as well as the level of the replacement participant.

If you change your registration to a smaller package we can apply the cancellation policy on the difference (for example: changing from full pass to parties only).

What if we cancel an event?

Courses / Teachers cancellation

• We cannot always guarantee that a course will take place — for example in the event of a teacher’s illness or loss of a room. Should this happen, we will inform you immediately. 
• We cannot always guarantee that you will have one or both of the official teachers of a course you booked as it is possible that something happens such that a teacher cannot make it to a class. 

What 2020 has reminded us of is that events outside of our control can and at some point will happen. That means we might be forced to cancel an event due to reasons beyond our control. However, we want to do our best to honour your commitment to us by making sure that you get full value for your payment.

When such events occur, we will send you an email or survey where we give you the following options:

You can transfer the full value of your credit to any other SwingStep GmbH service or product without any time-limit. It really helps if you can support us by either transferring your payment to one of our other events or even, if possible, consider treating a part of your payment as a contribution. Any contribution from you – direct or as credits – helps us to continue organizing events for you in the future.

Of course it may not be possible for you to afford the credit or contribution options, so the form also includes the option of a refund. In the case of a refund request, we communicate what the refund payment time-frame will be. Depending on the size of the event, we might not be in the position of making a prompt refund payment and need to distribute the refunds over a period of time. 

Please note that we cannot be responsible for other costs that occur due to the cancellation of the event – such as travel, hotel and food costs or any other costs you might have had in connection with our event. For this reason we highly recommend that you always book individual travel insurance.

General Policies

The following rules and policies apply to all our services, both subscription and non-subscription. 

Right of withdrawal 

When you order anything online, you are protected by the “right of withdrawal” for most types of products and services you buy; this regulation of course also applies to us. For any of our services, when you register and purchase our services, you have the right to cancel that service and get a full refund of your money within fourteen days without giving any reasons. The 14 days start from the conclusion of the contract. This is when the following happens: 

In the case of our online services and subscriptions, that means from the moment you have initiated your payment for our services. In the case of our events not included in the subscriptions, that is from the moment you accept your spot in the class. A detailed instruction comes with each confirmation email. 

Your happiness is important to us, which is why to exercise your right of withdrawal, you simply need to send us an email to [email protected] (SwingStep GmbH, Kurfürsten-Anlage 58, 69115 Heidelberg) and inform us that you want to withdraw from your contract. Although we appreciate your feedback, no reason is necessary from your side. 

Once you withdraw from your contract with us, we will reimburse all payments we’ve received from you in connection to that specific contract. 

In case there were costs associated with delivery of goods (e.g, Casually Fancy items),we will also reimburse you the cost of delivery (with the exception of supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us). Please send us back the purchased goods within 14 days for a return and damage inspection. We will return your payment within 14 days after that. The reimbursement will happen by the same means of the original payment, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of the refund. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.

Please note that when you order a personalized item, such as an item made to your individual measurements and specifications, personal wishes or in a specific color, the right to withdrawal does not apply.

Copyright

All content available through any of our services, such as text, graphics, logos, digital products, pdfs are subject to copyright and cannot be used without written permission from us. 

Trademarks

The words “SwingStep” as well as “Casually Fancy” are subject to trademarks and copyrights owned by SwingStep GmbH and are not permitted for use without explicit approval from SwingStep GmbH.

Trademarks on our websites and services not owned by SwingStep are the property of their respective owners.

Content

The content on any of our websites and services is provided to you in the intended format and for your personal use only and may not be downloaded, copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, broadcast, displayed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any other purposes whatsoever without the prior written consent of SwingStep GmbH. We reserve all rights, even if not expressly granted, in and to the service and its content. 

Please access and use our websites and their content for your personal use in their intended normal functionality. Accessing our services for any purpose or in any manner other than the intended use is expressly prohibited.

Health Disclaimer

Dancing, in particular swing dancing, can be a strenuous physical activity. This is why we urge you to seek the advice of a professional physician or listen to your own judgement before attempting any of the movements you learn from any of our videos or in-class instructions. Our instructors and staff are not professional medical experts and cannot give you medical advice or diagnoses. 

We urge you to prioritize your health and only elect to take part in any activity you deem appropriate for your health. By using our services you represent that you understand that you are responsible to judge your own physical and mental capabilities for the activities demonstrated in any of our services. Please listen to your body and do not exceed your limits while performing the activities demonstrated for you. Also, please make sure you have placed yourself in the appropriate class for your skill and physical fitness, because the movements might get more strenuous as the difficulty of the classes increase. Typically, you can either read about the expected difficulty level, or whether specific fitness requirements are needed, before registering and purchasing our services. If you are unsure, please ask us to clarify the content so that you can make a better decision for yourself.

From time to time our instructors may suggest physical adjustments or the use of equipment. It is your sole responsibility to determine if that information is appropriate for you. By joining our services you explicitly waive and release any claim that you may have at any time for injury of any kind against SwingStep GmbH, or any person or entity (instructors, employees, independent contractors and affiliates) involved with SwingStep GmbH.

Coronavirus and Other Special Circumstances

The Coronavirus epidemic has presented new challenges for dancers. We do our best to make all services as safe as possible, keeping up to date on the current local situation and getting advice from government authorities when possible, and will do this whenever a similar situation might present itself.

Please see our relevant City or event page for the most up to date information for any service. We ask for your cooperation:

• Follow any stated or posted rules regarding masks, proof of vaccination, etc
• Do not attend class if you have any covid-like symptoms, or have been in contact with someone who has covid.
• Follow our hygiene rules, to protect yourself and others.

When you sign up and participate in our courses, you do this at your own risk. We’ll do all we can to make it as safe as possible, but of course we cannot make any guarantee. By participating, you acknowledge that you’re aware of the risk and that SwingStep GmbH can’t be held responsible for possible infections.

Lost or Stolen Items

While we do our best to make our facilities secure, by the nature of the services we offer and facilities we use, we cannot guarantee that your property will always be safe. In the event that any of your items are lost or stolen, SwingStep GmbH will do our best to help, but cannot be held liable.

Minors

Although we currently do not offer any services directly designed for minors, we do welcome minors to our in-class lessons as well as learning from the online videos. We believe that the dance is for all ages. 

However, some of our locations serve alcohol during the evening social dances. Minors are still welcome to those events, but only with the accompaniment of a parent or legal guardian. We also ask minors to wear a badge or indication of age so that it’s clear for others that no alcohol or cigarette should be offered to them. 

Events where minors can join:

• Our weekly local classes are open to minors. We endeavor to offer a safe space for everybody to have a good learning experience.
• Our festivals (e.g, ChaseFestival, SwingSummit, Cirque du Solo etc.) are not designed with minors in mind. Therefore, minors can only attend when accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

User Account

Some of our websites offer subscription services where you can create an account to get access to the respective services. Currently, this applies to www.swingstep.com and  www.swingstep.tv, where you can purchase our online courses and subscriptions.

Upon creating an account, you will be required to choose a password and username. Please note that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account information, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur with your password or account. Please inform us immediately if you notice that your account has been compromised and you notice activities not initiated by yourself. Please do not use another user’s account, nor offer yours to another person, as it is against our terms and conditions. In case you forgot your password, or wish to change it, click on the “Forgot password?” link on the sign-in prompt page and follow the instructions. 

In-class rules 

Be your best self in class. Please be respectful and welcoming to others. Also, if at any point you feel or notice something inappropriate, please contact us. We highly recommend you read our Safer Space and Code of Conduct page in full.

Please attend regularly and on time! This will improve not only your experience but also that for everyone else.

When you are sick or feel that you are getting sick, in order not to infect the teachers or the other participants, do not participate in the class.

Smoking is strictly prohibited indoors at all our studios, events and facilities. To ensure everybody’s health and comfort, if you wish to smoke please ask our staff where the designated smoking areas are.

To ensure we can continue offering you our services at our studios, events and other facilities, it is very important that we all respect our neighbourhoods, for example by keeping a low voice while outside of event locations.

Partner rotation

• Swing dancing is not just partnered but also social, which means that a swing dance event includes frequent partner changes. We feel this value is a big part of our swing culture, so it’s important to us that it’s fundamental to our classes. We regularly change partners in class, so that you have the opportunity to experience the dance with many people and train your ability to dance with many partners. (In general, we do not want anyone to exclude themselves from this partner rotation, but we can make exceptions if it’s necessary (e.g. if one of you has an injury or other condition that makes it unsafe and you feel you need to stay with your partner who knows your situation) – please contact us before the course so that we can inform you about the process.) 
• In special circumstances we might offer limited or no partner rotation – for example during certain phases of coronavirus restrictions, or when class material (such as aerials) is safest with a single partner.

Commercial use of class material

• If you intend to participate in our classes with the intention to use the content for teaching or other commercial usage, please inform us. 

Taking videos / photos

• It is absolutely not allowed to take photos or film during a class unless explicitly permitted by the teacher. 

Prohibited Conduct

Please be mindful about the consequences of harmful actions. We do what we can to provide the best possible experience for you and to be able to keep doing so, we ask you to adhere to the following rules: 

• Only use our services exactly as they were intended and do not extract or transmit information such as our music, photographs, videos, bits of sound, graphics, messages (collectively, “content”) without our explicit consent. You may think that it’s ok to download an image or copy-paste another business’ texts… but actually, it’s not.
• Follow our Code of Conduct [LINK].
• Do not give out personal information of anyone other than yourself unless you have explicit permission.
• Do not spread false or misleading information. 
• Do not conduct any illegal activities, including unauthorized copying of another person’s copyrighted work. 
• Do not collect information about other visitors, users, customers, guests and individuals with any role within our events for the purpose of unwanted sharing of information. 
• Do not intentionally harm our business by spreading misinformation, poaching our customers or doing unauthorized promotion for services. 

Please understand that if you fail to follow our terms and conditions, we reserve the right to block you from participation in any of our events, including cancelling your accounts.

Be aware that you might come into communication with people of different worldviews and mindsets when you engage with our community. Upon your request, we can help you with any communication challenges you may have in order to provide you with the safety you need. However, we cannot be held responsible for the interactions you have with any other subscriber, student, or community member, and our assistance is out of goodwill and not due to legal responsibilities. Please take a moment to also read our Safer Space page.

If we suspect you of violating our terms and conditions, we (including the instructors you have in class) reserve the right to and are authorized to give you instructions, ask you to follow the rules, and, if necessary, demand that you leave – including forcibly escorting you off our premises if need be.

Disclaimer

Thank you for understanding that you use our websites and participate in any of our services at your own risk. We, SwingStep GmbH and its employees, or hired consultants and teachers or others affiliated with us:

• do not provide any warranties of any kind to our services 
• are not liable for any errors, mistakes or inaccuracies of content
• are not liable for any personal injury or property damage resulting from your access to and use of our websites and services
• are not liable for any unauthorised access to our services and events
• are not liable for any interruption of your access to our services
• are not liable for any bugs, viruses, trojan horses or anything else that might be transmitted to or through the websites by any third party
• are not liable for any loss you may have due to fake services impersonating our services and thus extracting valuable information or money from you
• cannot take any responsibility for products and services advertised at any of our events and services that are made by third parties

Changes to the terms and conditions

We are entitled to change or supplement the content of our terms and conditions to reflect changes or additions to our services or if it is necessary for legal reasons. In cases where we make changes and adjustments to services with existing customers, we need to change or make additions only to the extent where it is reasonable for you as the customer and SwingStep GmbH. We will inform you by email in case of changes four weeks before their enactment via a “notification of change” email.

Final provision

If any of the parts of our terms and conditions are or become ineffective, this does not affect the validity of the other provisions of the terms and conditions. In the case of ineffective provisions, we will replace them with legally permissible provisions that come as close as possible to what was originally intended. This also applies in the event of an unintentional loophole.

Introduction

SwingStep GmbH’s (“SwingStep,” “we,” “our” or “us”) highest ambition and goal as a company is to provide you with the best learning environment for your swing dance journey. We want to provide a dance environment for you that is fun, relaxed and secure. As part of this goal we place great value on your data protection rights and take any measures we can to help protect your data. 

Just to mention a few security measures we have taken to ensure the security of your data with us: 

• We have achieved the highest level of trust in our DMARC email sender policy which is at 100% rejection rate if an email sender pretends to be us trying to get your data. 
• Our emails are end-to-end encrypted, and we automatically move emails older than 18 months to Google Vault for enhanced security.
• All our websites run with SSL/TLS certificate protocols to protect our website visitors by encrypting communications to and from our servers.
• Facebook is very intrusive when it comes to the user data they collect. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue any apps and codes that allow Facebook to put cookies on your browser. Note that we might still link to a facebook page, but these links are regular links that were placed by us and do not have any cookies or information connected to them that would give Facebook your personal information.  
• Some Services need IP addresses for security functions (e.g, Cloudflare, PayPal and Stripe). We only store anonymized IP addresses. 
• When using Google Analytics, we’ve restricted the amount of personally identifiable information transferred by masking your IP address as well as switching off any special insights about you. We focus the analytics on how the website is used rather than who is using the website. 
• We use Google’s paid G Suite Services rather than the free one. G Suite offers companies a very secure infrastructure that is protected by the strictest measures. 

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, process and handle your personal information when you interact with us online or offline for the use of any of our websites, studios, events (collectively “services”) or during other interactions such as through telephone, email, social media or any other mode of communication (collectively “communications”). 

This Privacy Policy encompasses all SwingStep GmbH services

Including the websites and the therein represented services: 

• www.swingstep.com – main website where you can find all our services
• www.swingstep.tv – an online video learning platform for swing dancing
• www.chasefestival.com – an dance festival in Heidelberg, Germany
• www.swingsummit.com – a dance festival in Ardeche, France
• www.cirque-du-solo.com – a dance festival in Berlin, Germany
• www.lindyhopmoves.com – an online curation of youtube swing dance instruction videos
• www.casuallyfancy.com – clothing with vintage look designed for dancing

The following studios (locations):

• SwingStation – Kurfürsten-Anlage 58, 69115 Heidelberg
• Studio im Wedding – Prinzenallee 33, 13359 Berlin
• As well as locations we rent for some of our external events

Who is responsible for the websites and services?

All websites mentioned above are owned by 

SwingStep GmbH
CEO Ali Taghavi
Kurfürsten-Anlage 58
69115 Heidelberg
Baden-Württemberg
HRB 722396
St.Nr. 32498/79449

[email protected]

If you have any questions or complaints, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. 

We strongly encourage you to always pay attention to who the people behind a service and website are before engaging with them. It is mandatory information according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws and you should consider not trusting any website that does not provide transparency. 

When do we collect and process personal data about you?

We collect information from you in 3 different ways: 

• Information you provide to us voluntarily during communication, registration, and any purchase process, or when you sign up to our newsletter.
• Information on website usage based on how you use our websites via cookies. For details see our Cookies’ page. 
• Information based on the usage of our online (e.g, which courses you watch) or in-class experiences (e.g, which courses you have booked and how often you attend).

In this Privacy Policy, we are describing in full detail why we collect what data and how we store that data, for how long we store the data and who has access to the data. 

Webform data collection

What data do we collect via our web-forms? 

We require some personal information in order for us to provide you with our services. 

These include: 

• Any information that you provide via our web-forms when registering to one of our events (weekly courses or weekend festivals etc.) 
• Purchasing any of our online services such as Online Videos and e-Books 
• Purchasing Casually Fancy clothing
• Hiring us for teaching and performance services

These include any information you provide us when: 

• registering to one of our events (weekly courses or weekend festivals etc.) 
• purchasing any of our online services such as Online Videos and e-Books 
• purchasing Casually Fancy clothing
• hiring us for teaching and performance services

On each occasion, before submitting your order request our webform clearly indicates the information we deem necessary, and the information that is optional. Depending on the exact service this can vary. 

For our online services such as our newsletter or when opening an account we collect: 

• First Name
• Email address

For any of our in-class experiences such as courses, classes, workshops, festivals etc. we collect: 

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email address
• ZIP code, city
• Country
• Street and house number (optional)
• Telephone/mobile number (optional)
• Information about sign-up/dance partner if applicable
• Which services you wish to purchase
• Sometimes we ask for past dance experience to help you find the right class level
• Sometimes we ask about how you found us in order for us to know where to focus our marketing efforts

When you request an invoice from us, we are required by law to ask the following information from you: 

• First name
• Last name 
• Company name (if applicable)
• Full address (Street & No., Zip, City, Country)
• VAT-ID (if applicable)

We need this data to fulfill our contractual obligation towards you as our customer as well as towards tax and other governmental authorities. Your data will be retained either until SwingStep GmbH Services cease to exist, or when statutory retention periods have expired.

The legal basis for the processing of this data is Art. 6 GDPR.

What tools do we use for our webforms?

Internal IT-system

The primary method SwingStep GmbH uses to process your purchase requests is through an IT-system we developed in-house. The information you enter into a webform on our websites when you purchase an in-class experience (course, classes, workshops, events etc.) will be transferred to and stored in our in-house IT-system. 

Information storage 

In addition to our internal IT-system, we use Google Sheet, Google Docs and Google Forms to collect information in regards to our activities, services and your preferences. These forms and sheets are always clearly indicated and have distinctive design differences to enhance the clarity that they do not belong to our in-house IT-system. 

Communication

Email communication

Direct communication

Any email you send directly to us will be used only for the intended communication initiated by you. We initiate contact with you via email only if you have given us permission, for example through a request for or purchase of any of our services. We do not transfer your email to our newsletter nor share it with any third party. 

Many of our customers stay with us for many years. It is important for our business to be able to recognize customers who have been with us for several years as it is a significant part of assigning them to the right groups. This is why we keep emails for up to 18 months in our email accounts in accordance with Art. 6 GDPR. 

To comply with Art. 32 GDPR we have implemented the following security procedure for handling your emails communication with us: 

• After 18 months, the emails get transferred into our Google Vault where they are archived for legal purposes indefinitely. 
• Our policy is to delete emails that contain sensitive personal data, such as your phone number or bank account information, immediately after it served its purpose.
• We have set up end-to-end encryption for our emails so that our messages cannot be intercepted by third parties.
• We have two-factor authentication set up on our email accounts for enhanced login security.

We use G Suite’s Gmail service to send and receive emails. Google Gmail is a service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). 

When registering our account with G Suite, we also concluded a “Data Processing Agreement“ with G suite that ensures us to use their Euro-zone based data centers when processing and storing out data. This is an agreement in which G Suite is obligated to protect the data of our users, to process it in accordance with its Privacy Policy on our behalf and to not forward this information to third parties.

Included in G Suites’ services are Gmail, Drive, Sheets, Docs and Forms.  

We use Google’s G suite Services in accordance with. Art. 28 GDPR compliances.

Service notification emails

You will receive email notifications as part of the service we provide when you purchase one of our products. These notifications vary depending on the service you purchase, but typically they include: 

• Content information
• Supporting information of the service. E.g, video summary of classes you’ve attended
• Information about the next suitable products for your journey
• Information about your account, registration, payment or participation
• Reminder notifications

Please note that we do make a difference between our newsletter services and the email notifications you receive. The email notifications you receive are directly related to specific services you have signed up for (e.g, online videos, an in-class experience etc). If you also want to stay up to date with our overall events and services, please also sign up to our newsletter here.

The legal basis for the processing of this data is Art. 6 GDPR.

At any point, you may revoke your consent to receive email notifications according to Art. 7 Para. 3 GDPR. 

However, if you discontinue our email notification emails, you also discontinue the services you have booked as these messages are directly related to the product and we need to be able to contact you in regards to those services. In order to discontinue notification emails, please write to [email protected] or simply reply to the email in question. 

Besides Gmail, we also use SparkPost for service email notifications. This service is provided by SparkPost Inc. (dba SparkPost),9160 Guilford Rd., Columbia, Maryland 21046, USA, using their US and EU-hosted email delivery services. For their US-hosted email delivery service we have signed a data privacy contract to ensure your security. The SparkPost EU services are hosted in EU and follow all the EU’s data protection regulations. For more information please visit www.sparkpost.com/policies/privacy

Newsletters

Each time we send you a newsletter, it is dispatched by “MailChimp”. That is a newsletter distribution platform of the US provider Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #5000, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA. 

MailChimp can by its own admission also use the newsletters we send to enhance or improve its own services, e.g. to technically enhance the dispatch procedure and display of the newsletter or for commercial purposes to be able to determine which countries the recipients are from. However, MailChimp will not use your data to contact you on their own behalf, nor forward your data to third parties. 

We believe MailChimp has demonstrated both trustworthiness and reliability with their IT security and data security.When registering our account with MailChimp, we also concluded a “Data Processing Agreement“ with MailChimp. This is an agreement in which MailChimp is obligated to protect the data of our users, to process it in accordance with its Privacy Policy on our behalf and that they must not forward this information to third parties. You can view the MailChimp Privacy Policy here.

Content of our newsletters

We want to make sure you get only the information you are interested in. This is why, both during your sign up process, but also at any later point in time, you can select exactly the information you are interested in by opting in to any of these topics: 

•  Amazing stuff for free
•  International events/workshops
•  Online courses
•  Events/resources for teachers
•  Heidelberg – events/courses
•  Berlin – events/courses
•  Learn dancing in the leader role
•  Learn dancing in the follower role
•  Berlin – beginner classes
•  Heidelberg – beginner classes
•  SwingStep.TV – Video Content

You can make adjustments to this list directly from each newsletter email or from your account on swingstep.tv. After you’ve logged into your swingstep.tv account, you can adjust your newsletter subscription by clicking on the newsletter menu option. 

With every newsletter also comes the option to completely remove yourself from our newsletter. We really appreciate it when you sign up to our newsletter if you are interested in it’s content. However, if you are not interested in receiving our newsletters, please consider unsubscribing rather than setting up a filter in your email account … this actually helps us because we pay per email address stored. 

There is a common misconception that if you’ve purchased one of our services you are automatically also subscribed to our newsletter. This is not the case. We’ve had customers complaining that they did not get the latest newsletters although they’ve been taking classes with us for a while. 

Unless we provide an opt-in option during the purchase process, your purchase does not automatically subscribe you to our newsletter. Nor will we add your email to our newsletter if you send us an email or other form of communication. Only via the active registration to our newsletter, following a double opt-in process will your email enter our newsletter system. 

Double opt-in process

Registering to our newsletter is completed as part of a double opt-in process. This means that after you have registered to our newsletter, you will receive an email asking you to confirm. This confirmation is required so that nobody can register with email addresses that do not belong to them.

We keep track and record each registration in order to be able to verify that your registration was processed according to legal requirements. This includes storing the time of your registration, confirming and your anonymized IP address in line with  Art. 7 Para. 1 GDPR.

During the sign-up process, you need to register with your first name, email address and select the type of information you wish to receive. This is what it looks like: https://swingstep.tv/newsletter/ 

Statistical survey and analyses

Our newsletter contains tracking systems provided by MailChimp, eg. a “web beacon”, i.e. a pixel sized file that tells us which emails are being opened and which links are being clicked. This allows us to get some insight into what is valuable to you and what is not, and thus we can improve our services accordingly. 

Online access and data management

At the bottom of each newsletter you find this text: “You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list”. These links will lead you to one of MailChimp’s web pages that can process your information. Please be aware that cookies are used on the MailChimp web pages for the purpose of processing your data by MailChimp or possibly its partners and the service providers it uses (e.g. Google Analytics). We have no influence on this data collection. You can find more information in the privacy statement of MailChimp. 

The legal basis for the processing of our newsletter is Art. 6 GDPR. 

We reserve the right to delete any user from our newsletter list who seems to not open the newsletters. This is because Mailchimp charges per email address stored. Beyond this, we keep your email address in our newsletter list for as long as they seem to be of value to you. 

We also reserve the right to delete email addresses from our newsletter list from users who breach our code of conduct or display other harmful behaviours.

At any point, you may revoke your consent to receive our newsletter according to Art. 7 Para. 3 GDPR and object to future processing of your data according to Art. 21 GDPR. If you at any point wish to exercise your right to be forgotten, just email us to [email protected] and we will erase your data from our email database and archives. It helps us if you can be specific if you want us to remove you from all forms of communication, e.g, including our newsletter and all our other services or if you wish us to remove you from a specific service only. 

Payment Processing Services

Booking in-class experiences

Whenever you make a booking to join one of our events, such as a weekly class, a weekend workshop or a full week holiday experience, we will send you a payment request via email that reads like this: 

Dear -First Name-,

Great news! We have confirmed or updated your participation at – Event -,

Please click on this link to see the details of your registration status as well as payment information: Click here to get to your personal overview page [private link]*

*Please note that this link can be viewed by anyone having this personalized link. However, we only have your participation information without any personal information.

Please note that your registration is only 100% completed once you have transferred your registration fee in full within the payment due date mentioned in the link above.

See you on the dance floor

Your SwingStep team

The link that you’ll open will have the following information in it: 

ID: [your id]

This page is only accessible through a personalized link sent to you via email. Still, for security reasons, no personal data is shared on this page. To verify if this is your page, please use the ID that you can also find in the email.

Here is an overview of your bookings for [event]:

Remaining Total: [total price]

Please transfer the remaining total amount within the due date mentioned in the table above with one of the following payment methods:

Bank transfer

Account holder: SwingStep GmbH

IBAN: DE73 6724 **** **** **** ** 

BIC: C**********

Bank: Commerzbank Heidelberg, Rohrbacher Straße 5, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany

Reference: [Event name ](If you don’t pay for yourself: Add name of person the payment is intended for)

Note: Payment confirmation may take some days. If you are close to your payment due date, send us an email additionally to avoid further payment reminders / cancellation.

Once your payment has arrived on our accounts and has been processed by us, your status will be updated. 

The transaction information we use in this process is kept confidential and kept in our bookkeeping in order to fulfil our legal requirements. 

Other payment methods: 

If requested, we also accept other forms of money transfer (e.g. PayPal, Transferwise, etc.).

For our online services (swingstep.tv) we also use special service providers to allow credit card payments. All of the above payment options follow the legal process according to Art. 6 (1) point b GDPR.

When using third-party services for payment processing, we have no access to your account or credit card details. The third-party services have a highly sophisticated and trustworthy security process in place following the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of payment information.

Please note that when we request a payment to be processed we need to send the necessary information to these services. From our side it’s the product you are interested in purchasing, the amount to be paid as well as information about whether the payment is a one-time event or a recurring payment. 

When you fill in the payment processors forms, be it a login page like PayPal or actually filling in your name and credit card information, these processors collect further information from you such as your IP address, browser and other information deemed necessary to confirm your legitimacy. Some of the payment options reserves the right to carry out credit checks on you for the payment to be processed. 

All payment transfers take place in accordance with Art. 6 (1) point b GDPR and only insofar as it is necessary for payment processing. If you want to find out more about how a specific payment processor handles your data you can click on any of the links below: 

PayPal (Europe) S.a.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg.

Stripe Payments Europe Ltd, Block 4, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Road, Dublin 2, Ireland

TransferWise Limited – Shoreditch High Street London E1 6JJ United Kingdom

Klarna AB, Sveavägen 46, 111 34 Stockholm, Sweden

SOFORT GmbH, Theresienhöhe 12, 80339 Munich, Germany

Other interactions

External Links

Our website contains links or references to other websites that we do not control and to which our Privacy Statement does not apply. Please make sure that the first thing you are met with on those sites is a cookie warning and a direct link to their Privacy Policy to understand how they manage your data. Please understand that you are solely responsible for your interactions with those websites.

Video Call Services

Our primary method of video conferencing is Google Meet. It is a very secure option that is available to us as G Suite users. Google Meet offers many more security advantages than other Services such as Jitsi or Zoom. However, sometimes we might use other Services as they offer some features that are better for larger gatherings. In these cases, please be extra careful about sharing any personal information during the conversations.

We use these services as means to:

• Offer feedback and advice on your dancing when you have questions
• Provide private lessons from distance
• Have community activities such as dancing together from distance
• Gathering digitally to celebrate together when we cannot meet in person 
• Video coaching of various forms
• Online teachers pedagogy training

Google Meet adheres to the same robust privacy commitments and data protections as the rest of Google Cloud’s enterprise services. You can read more about it here: https://cloud.google.com/security/privacy

When we have our events, we do not store any information about you or the video chats. We do not log, save/record any of the conversations unless specific permission is requested and the more secure options of the video streaming services are used. The providers of this Service collect information such as your IP address, your OS and device in order to be able to troubleshoot their software for best experience. 

To inform yourself more about the various video call services and what data they collect, please read the following links: 

Google Meet: https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9852160?hl=en

Jitsi Meet: https://jitsi.org/security/

Zoom: https://zoom.us/privacy

Interactions outside the boundaries of our websites

Phone conversations

Placetel

Although email is our preferred method of communication, you can also reach us by phone under +49 (0) 30 – 40 36 4 36 36. We use Placetel to provide you with the option of phone communication. Placetel is an online telephone service provided by BroadSoft Germany GmbH, Lothringer Straße 56, 50677 Cologne. 

The following data will be encoded by Placetel and stored according to the statutory deletion period: Telephone number.

These phone conversations are never being recorded. 

Further information can be found in the privacy policy of Placetel.

Often, the purpose of these conversations are regarding participating in our in-class experiences and note taking will be necessary in order to pass information on to the teachers of those classes. Any personal information is stored strictly within our IT-infrastructure and not passed on to anyone outside the organization. 

The legal basis for the processing of our phone service is Art. 6 GDPR. At any point, you may revoke your consent to receive phone calls according to Art. 7 Para. 3 GDPR and object to future processing of your data according to Art. 21 GDPR.

In-class conversations

It happens sometimes that students approach our teachers in order to communicate wishes about their participation and registrations. In these cases our teachers take notes inside the software we have developed in-house in order to keep track of your wishes. This information is stored for as long as we believe you will continue being a customer of ours or participate in any of our activities in any form. Sometimes our customers take sabbaticals from dancing, but return after some years. This is why we do not delete their information so that they can pick up where they left off. Unless of course they wish to have their data removed. 

The legal basis for processing this information is Art. 6 GDPR. At any point, you may revoke your consent for us to store your information Art. 7 Para. 3 GDPR and object to future processing of your data according to Art. 21 GDPR, and request the data to be deleted according to Art. 17 GDPR.

Internal communication

Internally, we use communication platforms such as Slack and other Google G Suite Services. In order to provide you with the best possible experience, we communicate your wishes via these platforms. However, the communication stays within the boundaries of SwingStep GmbH and is not communicated to Slack or G Suite. We do not directly share any Customer Data on Slack. 

If you want to know more about Slack’s Privacy Policy, please click here: https://slack.com/intl/en-de/privacy-policy

For G Suite Privacy Policy, click here: https://gsuite.google.com/security/?secure-by-design_activeEl=data-centers

Video surveillance

In the past, we unfortunately had issues with burglary and vandalism at our studios. As these incidents occurred multiple times, we are exercising our right as the householder, Chapter 2, Par 4 BDSG  to set up CCTV cameras to protect our guests, employees and our premises.

In this section we uphold our responsibility according to Art. 13 GDPR and provide you with the following information: 

We use video surveillance at the following locations: 

CCTV at Prinzenallee 33, 13359 Berlin

The responsible processors of the CCTV cameras at this location are Interkulturell Aktiv e.V.. When you enter this facility you can find a sign that describes exactly who processes data and how it is processed. For further questions you can contact [email protected]

CCTV at Kurfürsten-Anlage 58, 69115 Heidelberg

The responsible processors of the CCTV cameras at this location are Luxendo GmbH. When you enter this facility you can find a sign where they describe exactly who processes data and how it is processed. For further questions you can contact [email protected].