In Praise of West Coast Swing

In Praise of West Coast SwingI admit to more than little trepidation about learning the WCS. I knew it was a slowed down version of the lindy hop, and so I thought that meant, well, boring. Kellys like fast, hoppy, springy dances like the lindy hop and ECS and the salsa. Saying that, you'd think by now I'd understand that sometimes I am actually wrong about things. After all, I was wrong about my now favorite pastime, dancing. But no, I had a bias towards WCS. That's a dance for other people, I thought. You know, those people who don't mind going slow.

I'm happy to say I was wrong. About everything. The WCS can be slow and sexy, but it can also be fast and funky. And it is certainly not boring. In some ways it is more complex than ECS, because the man and the women's parts are different, and...there is more room for improvisation. That means I can add extra flourishes whenever I want, which is really fun. And this dance lends itself to the creation of new steps , which Gary and I love to do. We are both artists, and making up steps is another pallet.

The other thing about WCS is the body control it takes. This dance is all about slinky hips and rippling torsos. It is a dance where the man is the man and the woman is the woman. It is, dare I say, harder to do than hoppy. The WCS is at its heart a drop dead sexy dance. And as much as I love ECS, lindy hop, and rockabilly swing, those are not sexy.

Finally, as I looked into wcs I discovered it too has many, many varieties. There is the slow, slinky kind that we are learning in our dance class. There is a hip hop/WCS fusion that incorporates lots of hip hop jumps and spins. There is a dark swing which is done to goth music...kinda looks like vampires doing the swing. There is swango, a mixture of tango and WCS. Also a kind that blends hustle with it. Some couples even dance WCS to very fast rock and roll that most people would do the ECS to.

So...Gary and I have decided to craft two distinct kinds of WCS; one slow and slinky, the other faster and more hip hop. WCS has become equal in my liking to ECS. Amazing. Maybe next time I balk at a dance I will remember this.

Nah.