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The class is the brainchild of Seneca Valley’s choir director and music teacher Michelle Searle, who has been swing dancing for six years.

Demonstrating the hip action and footwork of the dance Thursday night, Searle prompted her students: ‘‘Swivel and swivel, swivel, turn, right, left, right.”

She said learning the dance takes a lot of work and encouraged the dads, moms, teachers and teens to practice any chance they get.

‘‘My teacher always told me, while you’re at the gas station – dee-dee da dee-dee,” she said, dancing. ‘‘Ladies, you’re swiveling all over the house.”

The idea for the class came when enthusiasm for learning the dance rose earlier this year after the school’s new Swing Club performed at several different assemblies and events.

‘‘It’s something that’s unique, it’s not that common,” said senior Randi Bass, 17, of Germantown, a member of the club. ‘‘Most dance today is sexual, but this has been around for generations and it’s really fun.”

Bass’ mother, Brenda Bass, didn’t hesitate to sign up for Searle’s evening class when her daughter told her about it.

‘‘I’m definitely wearing my T-strap pumps next week,” Brenda Bass quipped, noting the soles of her sneakers stuck to the floor.

‘‘I love dancing, but I’ve never been good at it, so I figured this would be a good way to hone up on my skills,” she said.

Searle, 32, of Gaithersburg learned Savoy-style swing in 2001, after a friend encouraged her to try it one night. After she saw the dance duo ‘‘Psycho Boy” John McCalla and ‘‘Heather the Feather” Heather Vandereau she was hooked.

‘‘I thought, ‘Oh, my God. I was born to do this,’” she recalled. ‘‘It’s very energetic; it’s very fun. When you hear the music, it gets your blood going.”

She went dancing five nights a week, taking beginner and intermediate lessons.

Searle and her partner – Peter Rogers of Baltimore – won several awards, including first place, in dance competitions in 2001 and 2002. Since then, she’s been teaching workshops and private lessons.

In 2004, they performed during the opening of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Searle is teaching Savoy-style — the original form of swing that began in the 1920s at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City — in her new class.

‘‘It seems like Savoy-style is really dying out in this area and I wanted to bring [it] back,” said Searle, who has been teaching at Seneca Valley for seven years.

Searle describes Savoy-style as ‘‘controlled chaos” — the dance is lower and ‘‘a bit crazier than Hollywood style,” which is often called ‘‘Smooth Lindy,” she said.

Searle’s friend Jason Cusik, of Baltimore will teach four classes at Seneca Valley with Searle.

She said she was ‘‘pleasantly surprised” by the number of men and women of all ages who came to the first lesson.

‘‘Everyone seemed to be having a ball,” she said. ‘‘My goal is to get people confident enough to go to a dance with a live band.”

Many of the people in class said they planned to come back for more.

‘‘I guess now they have to come back, we signed them up,” Barbara Weiner of Germantown said of her husband Ted and the husband of another friend at the class.

As class ended, one woman asked her husband why he was so quick to catch on.

‘‘How come you know my steps and I don’t know my steps,” she asked him with a smile.

Take a swing

Lessons are $10 each at 7 p.m. every Thursday through May 31 at Seneca Valley High School, 19401 Crystal Rock Drive, Germantown. There is no class on May 17.

Thursday’s class will review basic steps learned at the first class. For more information, contact Michelle Searle at 301-353-8019 or Michelle_A_Searle@mcpsmd.org.