#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!!

[fidjiefidjie]

Quelques pas de danse ... 👌

Awesome impro dance 🕺💃 to Macarena

👋 Bel après-midi

[revenge-of-the-assbutt]

@elias-doucheard hehe :>

[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

[danceisforhumans]

Source

[leslie057]

ohh oh iiiiiiiii have had tHE best weekend everrrrrr

[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

[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

[loftwingsuarus]

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

[laomelettedufromage]

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

[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...

[revenge-of-the-assbutt]

Songs and west coast swing examples below cut

The songs:

Some examples of west coast swing:

[ladytemeraire]

Still obsessed with watching WCS videos to try and pick up stylization things I want to try, so have another improv dance set. (Slow dance starts at 0:33, fast dance starts at 2:25.)

Favorite parts of this one:

The absolutely fantastic start precisely on the beat for the fast song

The repeated Superman poses on the "you know how to save me" lines, A+ stylization with the lyrics

HOLY SHIT THAT DROP IN TIME WITH THE BEAT ON THE CHORUS???

This is just a really fast song in general for WCS and the combination of precision and footwork and musicality is genuinely impressive

Bonus points for the kid randomly flossing in the background of the chorus, I missed that until like my third re-watch and busted up laughing

[schaettchen]

It’s so gender affirming to be visibly trans. At a dance convention this weekend, I had pronoun pins and varied my clothing according to how I felt and people didn’t always assume I was a follow. I did so much leading and it was really fun to switch between roles without having to clarify that I dance both roles. And it was great to delight people by offering them the choice instead of assuming. Also very fun to jump in the hot tub with my scars super visible and no one blinked. I felt very comfortable in my body with gender and feeling like a good dancer.