My Swing Dance Journey, and Where You Can Start Yours

I never, ever, thought I would get into partnered dancing, or any formal dancing for that matter. But sometimes hobbies sneak up on you. After returning from a freshman year abroad, I was at a loss as to how to make new friends at my home school, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. One day, my roommate and I came across the swing dance club, and the members were twirling and jumping all over the floor in front of the booth, with big  smiles and jazz in their bones. 

I was awestruck.

Although I knew absolutely nothing about dancing, and the thought of it terrified me, I took a flyer for one of their beginner lessons. You did not need to come with a partner or have any experience, so I began taking lessons. I was excited to learn how to dance to the big band music that I had long enjoyed, as well as the Electroswing music I had only recently discovered. Luckily for me, swing dancing didn’t actually die in the 1950s. It sure fell out of favor for a while, due to changing music styles, new fad dances and a general rejection that young people have of things enjoyed by previous generations. But a resurgence in Europe in the 1990s made it possible for a whole new generation to discover swing.

Surprisingly, the basic Lindy Hop footwork was the trickiest dance move for me. It took weeks of lessons to get the “rock step, triple step, step, step, triple step” into my brain. I practiced the pattern while washing dishes and taking showers, knowing that everything else would be harder until I could naturally keep my feet in the right place. At this point, though, I’ve danced for four years, and the footwork is so automatic that it’s much harder not to complete it, which is a challenge when I try the lead role in the dance rather than that of the follow, or a different form of swing. At this point I know: 1920s and ’30s style Charleston, East Coast and West Coast swing, blues, and a touch of Balboa. These are constantly evolving dances with new moves and styles created all the time. As opposed to formal ballroom style dances, swing is very free: the dancers bend their knees and often make up their own moves during a song in the tradition of the dance. Knowing multiple forms of swing dance makes it possible to master various speeds and styles of music, and makes it far more possible to dance with the song, a skill called musicality. 

Looking back, I didn’t start to see much improvement in my dancing until I started going to the social dances that were held after the lessons. Dancing with all kinds of people, to all kinds of music, tested my skills much more than only repeating the patterns I learned in lessons. I have now competed in Jack and Jill’s, where follows and leads are matched randomly, and I have performed in front of a crowd and judges to only a few counts of a song. I have also been in several choreographed performances, one for the Queen’s University Dance Battle, which was a completely frightening and yet amazing experience, learned in only a few weeks, and performed with incredible dance groups. 

But all of this has just been about the moves of the dance, and I think one of the keys to swing and its renaissance has been its community of respectful, kind and ridiculous people. I have made so many close friends in the dance community, and in every city I have danced (the count now is five and building) this culture has been consistent. Swing dancers are quirky, and many of the ones I know happen to be scientists and engineers. Some that I have talked to say that dance is a creative outlet for their otherwise methodical jobs. And other people I know use it mostly for exercise. Swing can be as athletic and rigorous a dance as the lead and the song call for, which allows many people to feel comfortable in it. Swing dancers cover a wide age span, I know some who started when they were in middle school, and others who started when they were 60. For many young people it can be an amazing opportunity to get to dance outside a club setting, and thus outside any romantic expectations. In swing, you ask other people to dance, and you always say thank you at the end of the dance. 

What opportunities are there here to try out swing? There are groups in Albany, NY, and in Northampton, MA, but even closer to home, roughly once a month, the Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, MA, hosts a swing night. Visitors can attend the Stagecoach Tavern for a prefixed dinner menu and then the dance for $35, or just the dance with the live band, cash bar, and often a beginner lesson for $10.  According to Amillie Coster, the event organizer for Race Brook, the dances have been very popular so far, bringing in new people of varying ages and skill levels. The dances were the idea of Berkshire native Elizabeth Orenstein, who, Coster says, “was inspired by social dances in Ireland, and felt that with the deep tradition of gypsy folk and jazz already in the area the musical talent to start up some dances was here.” 

Even with no swing already in your step, I encourage you to check out these events! If there is a lesson, you can learn then. If there isn’t, ask someone who looks like they know what they’re doing to teach you some basic moves. They’ll do it, because swing dancers are amazing people who can’t help but share their passion for it. 

And if you don’t have the courage to try yet and you just want to watch and take it all in? Well, that’s okay too, but you’ll find yourself twitching and itching to dance soon enough. 

The next swing dance hosted by Race Brook Lodge will be April 8 at 8 p.m. with One Straw Revolution, and then on April 30 at 8 p.m. with Hot Club of Saratoga. For information, go to  www.rblodge.com or call: 413-229-8585.