Swing: A dance that fits anywhere

The swing dance emerged from an Afro-American community during the 1920s. It first started as a revolution of jazz music and then kept people dancing it throughout the whole decade. The swing dance became very popular on the streets, clubs, and dance contest venues. With the evolution of music between the 1920s and the 1990s, swing dance evolved across the United States to suit many musical genres like jazz, pop, blues, rock & roll, country, and disco.

 

Soon, the dancing evolved to fit the music and vice-versa, turning into some variations of many styles including the balboa, lindy hop, lindy Charleston, and jitterbug. The lindy hop is considered the most famous of the swing dances today, it is an 8-count dance characterized by fast music, a lot of physical vigor, and tap steps.

 

With time, ballroom dance studio teachers started to extract the most important aspects of the lindy hop and swing to reduce the difficulties of their dance lessons offered; which turned out to the creation of two swing dance styles: a ballroom east coast swing and a ballroom west coast swing. The differences between these two dances are that the East Coast Swing, also known as “Jitterbug”, evolved from Lindy Hop during the 1940s, and has a circular pattern, where dancers move around over and over again, using a lot of space on the dance floor since they include lots of energetic turns, twists and tunnels; generally, it fits with any kind of music, from rock and roll to boogie-woogie. On the other hand, West Coast Swing is perceived as a slower dance, more formal than the East Coast, however, they are both fun dances. Unlike the circular patterns of East Coast Swing, West Coast dancers are often staying within a specific rectangular space on the dance floor, moving in an up and down section. While East Coast is spirited and wild, West Coast Swing is more sensual. Like the East Coast Swing, West Coast can be also performed to other kinds of music, including pop, country, and blues music. If you would like to learn the fundamentals of Swing dance you can take this StepFlix class, in which our instructor shows you the basics and proper technique of this beautiful dance.

 

Swing dance, level 1, lesson 1: Swing basics

 

 

 

Swing has not only left a big legacy to the dance community but also has made a mark in our society, contributing in many aspects such as:

 

  • Helping alleviate the pain of the great depression, a period of time where the United States got financially affected from 1929-1939. Money was limited, tensions were high and many people were living in poverty. Swing dance appeared to connect people of all races and backgrounds, bringing back hope and making them understand each other’s struggles. People were suddenly feeling cheerful again.
  • Promoting racial equality, the African-American society used swing music as a way to express their desires of racial equality. Swing worked as a factor of mitigating black and white tension. African-Americans were making the music, and white Americans were loving it. The melodies were catchy and people could not resist to dance it, since it uses the usual jazz instruments: piano, double bass and drums, trumpets and trombones, saxophones and clarinets, and, very occasionally, stringed instruments, such as the violin or guitar. This rhythms seemed to take the place of hate, banishing the oppression African-Americans faced for many years. Where there was swing music involved, there was note space for racism anymore.

 

Also read about the origin of blues, immerse in racial segregation, as other way to express their racial equality desires in the United States

 

Later on, this dance spread to Europe, until the point where even young Germans were dancing it as a manifestation against the nazis, who had prohibited it because of its American origins.

 

This dance is full of history and culture and is highly appreciated among the masses. Many of the most famous dances originated from the swing music era, like the Charleston, the tango, the trot, the shimmy, among others. Swing represents so much for dancers, actually

 

”Swing is much more than a dance, it is a way of life. The music gets stuck in your mind and the dance is in your heart and the whole scene is engraved on your soul, You can fly”

Nicholas Hope