Reyhan

Beginner’s Guide to Swing Dancing

So not too long ago I met my incredibly awesome girlfriend, Sarah, who is an avid dancer. She practices all kinds of styles of dance, but there is one particular style that presented itself to me, swing dancing. Swing stood out to me because of the Swing Club at our school, where Sarah is the vice president and I regularly visit. She has wanted me to participate in the club and learn swing so I can dance with her, but I had a small secret that really wasn’t a secret at all. I can’t dance. Not at all. I have absolutely zero dancing skills. But about a month ago, with the Swing Club’s Sock Hop Dance around the corner, I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a shot. Surprisingly, I actually learned a bit. So, here’s my Beginner’s Guide to Swing Dancing, told by a beginner.

So the basic step of swing dancing is called, well, a “basic”. Not very creative but I went with it. The best way I can describe it is you stomp each foot and then lean backwards in a rocking motion with what’s called a “rock-step”, also not a very creative name. It sounds simple enough, and actually probably is, but I had incredible trouble with it. It was and still is pretty tough for me to lean backwards and then jump forward again quickly to do the stomp things, especially during faster songs. This basic is the step in between all the fancy stuff. You want to do a cool spin? Well first you do a basic, then spin the girl while doing a basic, and then continue into more basics. So basically, these basics are a very basic part of swing dancing.

So after the basics, we have the fun stuff. There are all sorts of moves such as the outside and inside turns, the pretzel, the barrel roll, and sweetheart hold that make swing dancing actually a lot of fun. The problem I encountered here was that, as the male, it is my job to lead the female into doing these moves. To lead, you have to be able to clearly indicate with various subtle gestures the move you want to attempt next. Personally, I suck at this as they’re a bit too complicated for my simplistic male brain to comprehend. These gestures include giving a slight push away to the left with your right hand on their left hand to indicate an outside turn, or a slight pull backwards and to the right with your right hand on their left hand for a sweetheart hold. Conceivably, I usually don’t lead when dancing with Sarah.

So I leave you guys with my take on the two key components of swing, the basic and indications. I know my comments on how terrible I am at these moves might make them seem a bit daunting, but it all stems from the fact that I am just a terrible dancer. It really is an easy to pick up and fun style of dancing that I recommend to all, even those who can’t dance. Cause heck, if I could do it and have fun, any one of you can.