Swing Dynamite Blog
Thoughts and news about swing dancing in Ottawa
Dance outside your city!
[ No Comments ] Posted by Mercedes on Jul 19, 2011 in Getting Good at Swing Dancing, Musicality, Swing Dancing
Jason & Crystal
This past Sunday, Scott and I went dancing in Abbotsford (a suburb, 1h outside of Vancouver). Suburban Swing is run by Jason Warner every Sunday evening throughout the year – no breaks! We then thought it was a fantastic idea to check out the dancing and try to make new connections, seeing as Vancouver dancing dies down during the summer time.
The dance was in a seniors’ centre, with a dance hall, a stage and a sitting area – Jason was DJing. After a few priviledged conversations with Jason, I found out more about the scene; its needs and its dancers. One of the things we noticed is that there was a lot more asking on the girls end (we ask the guys!) otherwise, there’s little chance for you to dance. The reality is, there are – big surprise! – too many girls to the number of guys dancing. Another thing we noticed is that, while playing mainly swing music, a lot of neo-swing and other fusion styles were played to suit different styles of dancers. Namely, a few rockabilly options were heard. Come to think of it, there was an overall fashion statement of either casual or rockabilly dress code.
An area that was surprising to me, was how “East Coast Swing“-influenced the dancing was. Very few of my partners swung out or busted out triples. I distinctly remember a lot of reverse swing outs, actually. A lot of the connection was happening in the arms and less in the body. I managed to follow most moves, but it happened frequently that I found myself wondering what I was doing and where my partner was going. I became ultra-sensitive: I was using my regular connection through my left arm and side (and sort of imposing it on my partner in a way – making it available for him to use) while being receptive to other leads. The upside is that many of these East Coast (or 6 count Lindy) dancers are very musical, as they are use to using “moves” or arms to express themselves.
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