Swing-dancing! (The Fun Pit)

Strictly speaking, my very first swing lesson was on Wednesday night when my brother verbally taught me the steps to the 8-step Charleton via an engaging conversation. His description was so good that I pretty much picked it up from his words, and we actually got up a few times in Koko Black to clarify some of the steps. I’ve always loved dancing, but have never done any kind of structured formal dancing before, but it was heaps of fun just working through those basic steps. We were practicing it all the way back to the car, and he gave me a further practical lesson back at his place when we arrived.

Tonight was my first real lesson with The Swing Patrol, a national Swing-dancing community that teaches everything from beginner classes, to arial work. The beginner classes are taught with the assumption that every member is there for the first time, and in each class, a single basic phrase is taught in whole. Effectively, they teach basic individual building-blocks that make up the simplest Swing-dances, which should one pursue it, will make good preparation for the more complicated and intricate moves and stops.
Of-course tonight myself, my brother, his wife and our friends all attended the beginner’s class as we’re all new at it, but Friday nights include a social dance after the lesson for the advanced dancers to mingle and slide on the dance-floor, and to teach the newer members should they be brave enough to try a few new things.

I had an absolute blast!
The great thing is, I started enjoying the idea of Swing long before I’d learnt any steps, simply because of the enthusiasm that my brother had about it having had four previous lessons before getting me into it. The beginner steps are really easy to learn, and with practice it’s easy to see how having those moves firmly established in your memory can lead on to developing advanced skills in improvisation and really getting into the movements.
Tonight for us newbies, we learnt the 8-step Charleton from scratch (second time for me though), then we learnt it in tandem; The lead (guy) behind with arms forward, palms up, and the follow (girl) in-front, hands on lead’s palms at her sides. We progressed to the 5-step move and full reverses where we’d end-up facing in the other direction with the guy now in front, and the girl behind. We all stuffed up a bit and laughed often, but almost everyone eventually got it down and pretty much everyone fully enjoyed themselves. The two instructors (a guy and a girl for lead and follow) explained everything clearly and piecemeal, guiding us through brief, simple excercises that would eventually lead into the action, with much repetition until it became almost second nature. After repeating the newly learnt phrase, they’d put on some music and we’d practice it in time, switching partners often so that we’d all get to dance with everyone present.
Absolutely awesome fun!

After our lesson the regular members, advanced dancers all, took the floor for the social-dance, and watching them move was amazing. Some of the partners tonight really were spectacular, knowing their movements and partners well, and really flowing with the groove.

Between watching the cool cats dance their feet away on the floor, our crew got into practicing what we’d learnt that night, and going over things they’d learnt in previous lessons (which they began teaching myself and the others who hadn’t been present for those lessons), so after a while we ended up going back to Zoe’s parent’s place to keep practicing to our own music and away from the slightly intimidating groovers. After about an hour of dancing, we called it a night.

I really have always loved dancing, and a while ago I was considering taking up Latin, but truth be told I’ve always loved Swing, and one of the big draw-backs of trying to learn something like dance is that it can be harder to get into if no-one you know comes with you. I’ve always danced freestyle to jazz/funk-fusion and progressive trance and breaks (I know, opposite ends of the spectrum), but none of my friends get into the jazzy stuff anywhere near as much as I do, and as for really good trance and breaks, well, it simply isn’t played anywhere, let alone a decent club (of which none exist anyway, no matter what music is played). It’s great that all of these guys are into Swing, and they’re all really enthusiastic about it; even if they were to stop now, I’m seriously thinking I could do this long-term, it really is just so much fun!