A Description of the West Coast Swing Dance

Series Summary

Swing dance originated with the rise of Dixieland jazz in the 1920's and 30's among African American dancers and musicians in New Orleans. As jazz music evolved to swinging jazz, ragtime, hip hop and blues, the swing dances themselves, including the Lindy hop, Boogie-woogie, and the St. Louis Shag, became more popular throughout the country. Swing dancing has remained popular in its various forms since its' birth and continues to be a sought after dance lesson for many wishing to learn the fun and energetic dance steps of swing dancing.

In this free video dancing lesson, our expert dance instructors will demonstrate how to do the West Coast Swing Dance, which is a variation of the traditional Lindy Hop swing dance. They will give a step-by-step lesson on the footwork, passes and body movements for West Coast Swing Dancing, as well as a demonstration of the dance being performed. Looking to get started on the swing dance scene, but don't want to spend the money on professional lessons? This is the video dance lesson for you, so grab your gal and let's start dancing!

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village my name is Eric Jacobson and I'm Donna Roesel and we're here at Dance Manhattan Studios in New York City to show you and teach you West Coast Swing. Hi, we're here go present West Coast Swing to you. West Coast Swing is a popular swing form that has grown out of the other swing form and is characteristically different from the other swing forms in that it is danced up and down in a line or a slot. And, we're going to be presenting to you some six count patterns and some variations. The dance is danced all around the country, it's very sexy, very smooth. We dance to jazz and blues but we also dance to rhythm and blues, more and contemporary R&B, soul, pop, funk, hip-hop, pretty much anything you'd like. This dance incorporates a lot of elements from other dances like Lindy Hop and other swing forms. It has a lot of similar figures, it also has a lot of baskets, a lot of hammerlocks folds, exciting turns, very fun, very improvisational, very creative."