west coast swing

West Coast Swing is a partner dance with roots in Lindy Hop. It is characterized by an elastic look that results from its extension-compression technique of partner connection and is danced primarily in a slotted area on the dance floor.

Modern West Coast Swing is not dependent on the music genre and can be danced to any music in 4/4 tempo. The basic music for West Coast Swing is generally the Blues, which offers a rhythm with swung eighth notes.

The West Coast Swing developed from the Lindy Hop and other genres of swing dance in the 1950s. This is a much smoother version of Lindy Hop and is the most sensual types of swing dance styles. Hollywood movies added to the dance's popularity.

between 112 and 128 beats per minute Tempo Information The West Coast Swing is generally danced to music in a 4/4 meter between 112 and 128 beats per minute (28 and 32 measures per minute).

In 1959, some of the California dance organizations, with Skippy Blair setting the pace, changed the name of Western Swing to West Coast Swing so it would not be confused with Country and Western dancing.

West Coast Swing It was also known as “Sophisticated Swing”, and even “California Swing” for some time. The name was probably changed to West Coast to distinguish it from Country Western dance, and is most often attributed to a very prominent dancer named Skippy Blair.

West Coast Swing is the product of the evolution of swing dancing, which started with the original 1927 Lindy Hop at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City.

It started with Lindy Hop This dance originated from the Charleston and was perfected by the black dancers in Harlem, New York, in the late 1920s. The dance grew as a response to the swing music of jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and later, Count Basie.

4/4 timing The West Coast Swing is danced in a 4/4 timing, counted as 1,2, 3a4, 5a6. Another optional timing includes dancing the West Coast Swing as quick, quick, (1, 2), quick a quick, quick a quick (3a4, 5a6).

One of the things that make West Coast Swing unique is that it isn't defined by a single music style it is danced to. People dance this style to most kinds of popular music. Specifically, it is mostly danced to the music that is most popular in contemporary times.

The West Coast Swing dance also involves many turns and spins, but the partner's movement is restricted to a straight line on the dance floor, rather than a circle. It's this linear movement that lends the dance one of its nicknames: “the slot”.

Walk the middle two beats in this case or a triple step three. And we walk four four four and the end of every West Coast Swing pattern is what we call an anchor step triple.