#west coast swing

[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!!

[lily-claw]

Hear me out, bkdk in a west coast swing competition-

(Im not sure when i will do it but i will draw some other ships in there too🤭 if anyone wants to give any ship ideas give them to me hihihihi🤭🤭🤭)

[fidjiefidjie]

Quelques pas de danse ... 👌

Awesome impro dance 🕺💃 to Macarena

👋 Bel après-midi

[it-happened-one-fic]

Dancing With Visions - The Clouds Were Dancing - Alhaitham - West Coast Swing

Author Notes:  So this one ties in with Kaveh's, just because I thought it would be fun to do that. The performance in this fic was inspired by Maxence Martin and Emeline Rochefeuille’s West Coast Swing performance to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” by Whitney Houston at Budafest 2024 which can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6d8do0MvDk. Just like the rest of this series, reader is female. I hope you enjoy.

If you would like to read more of this series, the fics can be found here: Dancing with Visions Masterlist

Type: Female reader/ fluff/ sfw/

Word count: 1779

I applauded Kaveh’s performance from where I sat next to Alhaitham, glancing over slightly at the man next to me to see if he’d reacted at all.

In true Alhaitham form, though, he simply stood, with me following his lead and standing as well, as Kaveh and his partner came over and took their seats just next to where we’d been.

“Good job, looks like you practiced hard,” Kaveh grinned proudly at Alhaitham’s words, but he had every right to be proud. He’d just pulled off a wonderful samba with his partner.

“Naturally. I’m not just going to let you win.” Kaveh paused, glancing my way with a smile, “No hard feelings, Y/n.”

I smiled, shaking my head slightly, “It’s no problem. I am Alhaitham’s partner for your little competition, after all.”

Alhaitham watched us in silence before turning to head towards the stage Nilou had lent us, “Come on, it’s our turn.”

I blinked slightly but trotted after him, catching up to him as he reached the steps that led up onto the platform.

I really didn’t know how this competition had gotten started between Kaveh and Alhaitham or what the prize for the winner was. All I really did know was that they’d gotten to choose the other one’s dance style and that whoever did the best job won.

I also didn’t know why Alhaitham had chosen me for his partner, though I’d agreed since learning to dance actually sounded like a fair bit of fun. I hadn’t expected for west coast swing, of all things, to be quite so difficult to learn, though. Evidence of how little I’d truly known about dancing to start with, I supposed.

I didn’t know if it had been intentional, though I did have my suspicions, but Kaveh had chosen an incredibly difficult style that was grounded in improvisation for Alhaitham. And honestly speaking, I actually didn’t know if we would win this contest or not. 

I glanced over at Cyno, who sat next to the record player, bobbing my head before turning to face Alhaitham. 

It was hard to say how he felt about this entire endeavor. He’d agreed to the competition, obviously, and he’d shown up for every practice, putting the necessary effort in to learn the dance, but he really didn’t seem terribly enthused.

Even now, he was utterly relaxed and almost nonchalant as he took my hand and wrapped his arm around me without even the slightest show of discomfort as his gaze met mine easily.

But perhaps his nonchalance was why it was almost amusing that we were going to be dancing to such an upbeat song.

We began shifting to the beat. One of my hands in his while the other rested against his shoulder as we let our feet slide across the polished stage to the beat.

He shifted me from one side to the other, our rhythm already falling into that odd slinky style that was found in west coast swing and that Nilou had so grilled us into learning.

He spun me across the floor, and I felt myself smiling slightly as I danced across from Alhaitham. Not mirroring one another, since that never seemed to happen in this style, but still matching his beat and complementing it despite our mismatched motions.

We glided along the line of our dance, remaining on it and not truly rotating even as he guided me around him. His arm stretching over his head as he led me to dance around him in circle after circle.

I slid to the side, briefly pausing to twist and look back at him before he pulled me towards him, his arm wrapping smoothly around my waist so we could rotate together.

I spun, putting my back to him and looking over my shoulder at him as a grin flashed its way across my face before I spun back under his raised arm.

We grasped each other’s arms, carefully shifting with one another and reading the other’s cues. 

Already, I was marveling at how lucky it was that Alhaitham was my lead and not someone else. With him, I could follow his silent directions and even trust him to be able to read any cues I might give him. It made improvising, which was all but required for this style, far easier, and even Nilou had told me I was lucky to be dancing with him and not someone else.

But it never failed. Even in dance, Alhaitham was reliable and would get his work done while expending as little effort as possible. And not being able to properly lead or read my cues would just make his job harder.

And, in his own odd way, Alhaitham had always been pretty good at reading cues. Even so, Kaveh might argue otherwise when it came to the matter of empathy.

Alhaitham spun me out, bending at the knees as I stopped, and we both paused for effect. Facing one another and connected only by our outstretched arms and joined pair of hands.

And then he tugged me towards him as I straightened. Letting him twirl me around him in a little circle. Letting go with one hand to wrap his arm around my waist and continue to guide me around to his front before sliding around me in an easy, free-flowing circuit of his own.

Nilou was watching us closely, swaying in her seat and nodding her approval every so often even as she clapped along to the song. Her smiling eyes bright with pride just as they had been while she’d watched Kaveh.

Alhaitham stopped as he made his way back around, his eyes meeting mine and his eyebrows arching ever so slightly before I danced forward. Doing as he silently directed and crossing the floor so that I was opposite him on his other side.

He spun me, reaching out and stopping me with his hand before spinning himself. Never letting go of my hand for an instant as I smiled, watching him.

But for a man who’d apparently never danced, Alhaitham moved well. Even if I wasn’t sure that I was doing well, I was confident that Alhaitham was excelling for his part of the performance.

He gave me a light tug before letting go of my hand, only to reach out with his other one to grip my previously free hand as I danced towards him.

I felt myself smile as he spun under my arm, using his own momentum to whip me into my own spin that had me gliding across the floor where he led me.

I paused, slowing only to feel him shift behind me and raise his hand that held mine into the air. A silent cue before he started twirling me in place as I lifted one leg and bent my knee to lower myself closer to the ground.

I swallowed, throwing my head back to look up at the sky that spun with my motions, making it look like the clouds were dancing overhead to accompany mine and Alhaitham’s motions.

His other hand gripped my bicep, slowing my motions as I kicked out to the beat of the song. Dropping to one knee before standing once more. His hand already at my back and propelling me forwards and into the faster section of the song.

A smile flickered across his face as I faced him once more, dancing carefully and sliding along the floor with him. Letting him spin me so that his arm wrapped around my shoulders briefly before he was loosening his hold on me once more.

He pulled me back towards him, though, his arms wrapping around my waist as he leaned me backwards. Tracing a curve in the floor with his foot in a motion that I mimicked as I held onto his shoulder with one hand for balance.

He stepped backward, still leaning me backward before he straightened with me, and we began to shift together. Briefly separating before being pulled back together so that we were pressed to one another as more people began to clap along.

He raised his hand, with mine pressed flat to his before our fingers curled together, and he pushed me out so that we could dance more freely without colliding with one another.

We continued to shift along the stage that way, occasionally trading out which of our hands were connected and which hung free. Elongating and stretching our motions to the music as we continued to dance.

I was smiling more now as I glided along, following Alhaitham’s silent instructions and even teasing him a bit with my own improvisations. Earning a few softly huffed chuckles as amusement flickered in his gaze.

The music seemed to start fading out all too quickly, and Alhaitham spun me across the stage, letting go of my hand at the very last second so that we could both face our audience separately.

I came to a stop, laughing slightly and bowing, half-embarrassed as I glanced over at Alhaitham, who was simply inclining his head to the crowd before looking over my way.

In all honesty, I still couldn’t say who’d won, but we’d done well enough that I was proud of both of us.

I exited the stage at Alhaitham’s side, nudging him lightly with my arm, “Do you think you’re going to win, or…?”

I trailed off, watching him closely as he glanced my way, “I think we did well enough to win, yes, but I can’t actually say. That’ll be up to Nilou as judge.”

I nodded, feeling a smile creep across my face at the way he’d subtly emphasized our joint effort even though this was his contest with Kaveh. But it was very like him to use others as a means of shielding his own efforts and successes from attention.

“Are you satisfied?” I paused at Alhaitham’s question, which I hadn’t been expecting, before I nodded. 

Smiling over at the man next to me, who held my gaze as I answered cheerily, “Yes, I am. But I would like to dance with you more sometime. Just for the fun of it though. Not for another competition.”

He hummed, looking away from me and heading off towards where Kaveh sat, looking towards us expectantly. And I honestly figured that was going to be that before he spoke, calling over his shoulder without ever raising his voice.

“We’ll see.”

I grinned, trotting after him and catching up quickly to hear him and Kaveh already starting to trade barbed remarks with one another even as I wondered when exactly I might have my next dance with the scribe of the Akademiya.

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[danceisforhumans]

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[spiritussancto1]

Oh the brain rot is strong. Tell me this isn't Prongsfoot

[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!)

[karmaalwayswins]

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

Video Credit: Jerome Subey WCS Videography

[revenge-of-the-assbutt]

@elias-doucheard hehe :>

[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

[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

[loftwingsuarus]

I’ve had dance shoes for a few months now (great purchase!!!! Should’ve gotten them sooner) and at the end of the night at my last dance I already changed out to my regular shoes but I decided to get in one more dance with my friend. And then the next day I was like “Huh my ankle/ leg aches, that hasn’t happened for months” and then I was like “Oh wait that’s probably a strain injury from dancing with bad shoes and that’s why they were constant a few months ago and I haven’t had any since like august”

[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

[mccoyquialisms]

I've become obsessed with west coast swing recently and this couple's routines are pure gold. the "twerk it like miley" section made me cry actual tears of laughter. absolutely wild to me this is improv

[laomelettedufromage]

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