#west coast swing

[ladytemeraire]

This is still one of my favorite ever West Coast Swing improv dances and the tags up there NAILED IT. WCS isn't a strictly pattern-based dance like a lot of ballroom dances are, it's primarily a communication-based dance that relies on the partners listening to each other AND feeding off of each other. Like yes, there are patterns - I could go through and tell you where in that dance they're doing sugar tucks, whips, reverse whips, etc - but if you don't have that connection, the patterns don't work, ESPECIALLY to this level of fluidity. And because they HAVE that connection, even though the leader in glasses isn't as extroverted in his dance, they're still able to mesh and feed off each other!

Also it's just fuckin' fun to watch, the call-and-response in the middle of the bridge is one of my favorite things, and I aspire to that overall level of confidence and musicality.

Oh, this is incredible.

Improv swing dance to a Todrick Hall song?

And they killed it!

*thanks to the people who pointed out my oops

[laomelettedufromage]

One of my pet peeves after having gotten very into swing dance as an aroace is seeing videos of people swing dancing or really doing any type of partner dance and over half the comments just being stuff like “how are they not in love😳” or “friends🤨” like please free yourselves, you can have a lot of chemistry and fun dancing with someone and it doesn’t have to be anything more than that!! Just fun!!! I’m not saying a little bit of lighthearted friendly love can’t be involved but it’s not always that deep, it’s just having fun!!

[fidjiefidjie]

Quelques pas de danse ... 👌

Awesome impro dance 🕺💃 to Macarena

��� Bel après-midi

[revenge-of-the-assbutt]

@elias-doucheard hehe :>

[danceisforhumans]

Source

[learningtogirl]

Things I have learned from a month of dancing:

* having a regularly scheduled physical/social activity is more important to my mental well being than I had realized

* everyone is extremely supportive of me as both a beginner and just an awkward queer girl (and I am blessedly not alone on either front)

* physical touch is definitely something that I was lacking in my life, but apparently it was the emotional connection that is often tied to it just as much

* you can surprisingly quickly get used to holding hands and similar with relative strangers. Even when they are hot as hell and talking to them is intimidating

* being a follow is an absolute blast! I get to do all the fun twirlies and there's really something special about giving up some control and trusting the person you're dancing with to show you what to do

* height dysphoria is a bitch. I have had very few problems with it before now, but it plays a big role here and I kinda hate being quite this tall now

* lesbians are the best leads

[ladytemeraire]

One of my favorite traditions in my local West Coast Swing community is birthday steal dances. Every month, anyone who has a birthday gets to be the "stationary" partner in a steal dance, while the other dancers steal in and out to dance with them. It's both incredibly fun and an extremely special way to celebrate someone by giving them the chance to be the focus and dance with everyone in their community.

I mentioned steal dances to some friends online tonight and had to go looking for a video example to explain what I meant. This is probably the biggest one I've ever seen, both in terms of participants and how long they kept it going! (It may actually be country/western dance instead of West Coast Swing, but it's close enough to look familiar, have quite a few similar patterns, and get the concept across.) This one has both followers and leads stealing in; see if you can spot who is who!

(There are several things I love about this example; chief among them is how respectful and careful everyone is when it comes to swapping in and out and protecting everyone involved, but I'm also besotted with the sequence about a third of the way in, where there's a chain of girls dancing with girls followed by a chain of guys dancing with guys. West Coast Swing is degendered, so anyone can lead and anyone can follow!)

[deaddeerdonoteat]

This is my little post to get you hooked on watching West Coast Swing videos on YouTube. The dances in this post are all improvised (and the dancers are mega-pros, award winners, just amazing). There will be a second post with routines, because there’s so much that’s good and tumblr is being very irritating about the YouTube videos.

This is also a reference for anyone who is reading Take it Again From the Top and would like an idea of what this kind of dancing looks like. If you’re not reading, please ignore my nerd stuff, thank you.

I’ll start with a dance to “Smack That” because that’s awesome.

I love the unusual movements in this one to fit the beat. It’s so smooth!

This is two men and they do a very good job for, presumably, being a little out of their comfort zones. Stick around for the second song, as it is Rihanna’s S&M

[karmaalwayswins]

Bryn Anderson, Emily Huang, and Kenneth Rutland dance at Swingtacular 2023.

Video Credit: Jerome Subey WCS Videography

[leslie057]

ohh oh iiiiiiiii have had tHE best weekend everrrrrr

[rubyredbonnetblue]

the way i wanna learn how to dance soooo badly but i would feel SO awkward going to classes without a partner as a built-in friend/moral support

[absolutebloodychaos]

That feeling when you start really researching the most random topic in great detail just cause you wanna write an AU

[laomelettedufromage]

RAAAAAHH I LOVE PARTNER DANCING RAAAAAHHH I LOVE SWING DANCING SO MUCH RAAAHH

[loftwingsuarus]

@turtle-ly Ignore the fact that I Suck at dancing LOL

[revenge-of-the-assbutt]

Songs and west coast swing examples below cut

The songs:

Some examples of west coast swing:

[goldounet]

I really like this dance despite all it's imperfections, and I want everybody to see it, but I'm not in the mood to be sharing it to proper social media, so tumblr it is ! Ah, how I love switching...