AIN’T GOT THAT SWING?

Swing dancing evolved in the 1920’s along with the development of a swing style beat of jazz music. One of the earliest forms of swing, Lindy Hop, began in Harlem. A key component of swing dancing is the syncopated timing in swing music that lends itself to a triple rhythm, three steps done in two beats of music, referred to as triple steps. The Lindy Hop branched out and evolved into new forms of swing like Charleston, Shag, Balboa, West Coast Swing, East Coast Swing, Hand Dancing, Jive and Jitterbug as it spread around the country. The names still used today like West Coast Swing referred to the region of the country where the dance was more prevalent. Today these regional distinctions are not as relevant since both Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing have spread around the globe. For instance, there is a thriving Lindy Hop scene in Sweden. More Swing dance information

East Coast Swing evolved as a 6-count form of Lindy Hop with the advent of Big Band music in the 1940’s. Arthur Murray and dance studios across the U.S. further developed and promoted the various forms of swing dance and developed teaching methods and syllabi for educating dancers. East Coast swing works for many genres of music including jazz, blues, pop, rockabilly, big band and 90’s neo swing. It is generally danced in a circular motion and patterns often end with a breaking action rock step. The term Jitterbug is often used to mean a single rhythm form of East Coast Swing although some use it solely to mean a person who dances the swing. The East Coast Swing uses three different rhythm units: singles, delayed singles and triples depending on the tempo of music.


West Coast Swing evolved from Lindy Hop in the 50’s with a distinctive style of its own. It is danced in a slot, the distance between partners holding hands with arms relaxed where the follow moves back and forth in the slot and the lead steps off the slot as the follow passes. West Coast Swing is danced to a variety of medium tempo music like Jazz, Blues, R&B, Honky Tonk, Country Western style swing, Funk, Pop, Rock, Ballads and Hip Hop. It has had an incredible resurgence in recent years and has spread to places like France, Australia and Russia. Most U.S. major cities have their own West Coast Swing Clubs and there are West Coast Swing competitions almost every weekend somewhere in the world. West Coast Swing morphed into a very distinctive form in the last five years or so. Some people refer to Lyrical Swing as a subset of West Coast swing that is danced to contemporary pop, rock, ballads or hip-hop music where the sound and content of the lyrics are expressed in the dancing. In competition, routines are often built around musical phrasing in eights, triples are diminished when the dancers are dancing to a pulsing non-triple rhythm.

I find it appealing that I can dance West Coast Swing to blues, soul, hip hop or rock with or without triples in eights or sixes. In the incredible non-verbal dialogue that is partner dancing we can respond to the words, the voice or any of the other instruments in the music! It allows for a wonderful spontaneity in the creative process that is dance.


Oh, one last thing before I sign off. The word “Westie” refers to a person who dances West Coast Swing. I will be posting additional articles on West Coast Swing on the Dancetime website in the near future, as well as developing a page for resources like music, venues, etc.


Thanks for checking out my blog article, Ain’t Got That Swing!

More dance info at: http://www.dancetime.com

About the Author

Pattie Wells hails from San Diego, California where she writes article and video blogs for her world dance resource website at DanceTime.com. Also, Pattie is working on several writing projects including her new website at PattieWells.com, a novel in linked stories and a poetry manuscript titled Fire In Rain.  In addition, she continues to teach a limited number of private dance lessons in San Diego including dance lessons for weddings.