I last blogged about my swing dancing passion about four months ago. Since then, I’ve gotten into it more than ever. Especially this month, I think my dancing prowess has improved phenomenally. While I have been taking more lessons and workshops, it’s mostly because I’ve been going out dancing two or three times a week recently. After dancing enough to become comfortable leading all the different moves that I’ve learned in classes for the past year, I’m gradually discovering an ability to go far beyond the simplicity of just stringing together the class moves in random order.
Apparently, dancing is better when done to the music — who knew? Okay, everyone knows that, but to a beginning dancer it’s really hard to actually listen to the music while at the same time thinking about all the other things you need to do to make the dance work. More than anything else, the ability to listen to and interpret the music in my dancing has made me feel like I’ve moved beyond being a beginner. While it helps that I’ve heard the more popular songs in the genre a few times now, some predictable patterns can even be pulled out of an unfamiliar song by an attentive listener. (My musical experience and music theory education from high school helps a little too.) It can be as simple as doing some slower slinky moves during the more mellow parts of a song, and throwing out big flashy moves for the crescendo. And while I can’t get it right every time, it feels really great to hit a big accent or "break" in the song with a corresponding dance move — and to lead my partner to do it with me!
Recently, I’m also starting to experiment with interesting footwork and other variations that fit in between or in the middle of other moves. Lindy hop as a dance style is very influenced by the improvisational spirit of the jazz music it is danced to. (Swing music is related to or a sub-genre of jazz.) So playful variations and improvisations around the basic structure and style are highly valued. Maybe this is somewhat true for other dance styles, but I think even more so for lindy hop. Anyway, some of my experimental moves work and I remember them for later, and some of them don’t and I just keep on dancing. I think certain patterns and preferences I use now are starting to give me my own distinctive style which, I hope, will help me stand out in small ways from the other leads. I know there are still a lot of things I can improve on though.
I’ve never been a socially precocious individual, so you may find it a bit strange that I would choose to go hang out with a bunch of strangers all the time. Maybe that aspect was a bit uncomfortable to me at first, but it mostly doesn’t feel like that anymore. Because when you see, and dance with, the same strangers every week, they’re no longer strangers. While I can’t say I’ve made any close friends yet, I have gotten to know several people reasonably well (mostly women, for obvious reasons). When I walk into, for instance, the Century Ballroom on a social dance night, I feel right at home and it’s great to see and be greeted by all the familiar faces of the other regulars. The whole swing dance community is very friendly and welcoming. I didn’t have that experience at all when I used to go salsa dancing in previous years.
It’s very nice that a there are a lot of swing dancers around my age. This is true not only in the Seattle scene but across the country, and it’s partially due to the great swing revival of the late 90′s, which was right around our college years. (If nothing else, you may remember the famous Gap ‘Khakis swing’ commercials, or the movie Swingers, from that era.) Back then, neo-swing bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and The Brian Setzer Orchestra became phenomenally popular, and lots of college kids took up swing dancing. I remember when Rich, a college friend/roommate, got into swing dancing in Saint Louis during that time, and he’s still at it. Sadly, I wasn’t convinced to join him at the time, but now I know what I was missing. Anyway, while swing today is not nearly as big as it was a decade ago, there is a good-sized community of dedicated people who mostly started in college back then and have continued to bring in others around their age, as well as introduce the dance to a slightly younger crowd.
So there are a lot of college-age dancers too, at least at the weekly Century all-ages dances on Sunday nights. Some of them can dance pretty well, though it seems like there’s a constant cycle of young newbies who try it briefly and don’t stick with it. Once I got beyond the point where I felt like a newbie myself, I used to not enjoy dancing with follows who didn’t really know what they were doing. However, as my skills and experience improved further, my attitude on that has changed. I’ve found that as long as my partner knows the absolute basics, I can lead a variety of simpler moves well enough to really show her a good time. On the slower songs, I might even be able to throw in enough slinky musicality in there to make her nearly swoon! :) Yeah it’s a bit of an ego boost, but also if that helps to convince more follows to stick with swing dancing, I am doing my part to bolster the community — and I’m tipping the lead/follow ratio just a little bit in my favor. Sure it still feels great to dance with the good dancers (although it can be intimidating if she’s a local superstar), but variety is also good so there’s no reason for dance snobbery.
I’m afraid I have to admit that if I was talking about dating, college girls might be getting a bit too young for me. With the reality of me being in my late-late twenties now, they might be a full decade younger than me! Wow, I don’t feel that old. And actually, they probably don’t think I am either. I’ve been told before that I look a few years younger than I am, and several times this year I’ve been asked if I go to college around here. What do you think — am I that young-looking? While it might have been annoying when I was 21 and looked 17, I don’t think I’ll mind any more.
Dancing is not dating though — I can have fun with a broad age-range of partners. While the prospect of finding a date with someone who shares a common interest is a nice side-benefit of the activity, it’s not at all what keeps me coming back for more. There have just been so many nights when after several hours of dancing (and a bit of socializing mixed in), the music stops and the lights come up, and I think, wow, I had such an awesome time tonight, and it ended too soon, and when can I come back and do it again?!
