Basic Patterns for West Coast Swing Dancing

Series Summary

The Swing or Jazz Era in the United States made the music culture between the 1920's and 1940's a remarkable time for musicians, artists and party-goers. Along with jazz itself, swing dancing has withstood the test of time, encompassing a wide variety of influences and styles to remain one of the most enjoyable forms of dance. The essence of swing dancing is the inclusion of various forms of dance styles and music. Popular swing dance moves take their cue from jazz, Latin and traditional African dances.

In this free video series, get an introduction to West Coast swing dancing from a renowned competitive dancer and instructor. Learn the basic swing steps and moves, including the sugar push, the left and right side pass, the locked and open whip, syncopation, and the ronde, with an added hip circle. Video clips include swing dance instruction for both the male and female partners, with the lead and follow parts for each step explained.

Video Transcript

" Hi this is Leslie Sack with expertvillage.com my website is lesliesack.com and this is west coast swing. It is the California state dance so it is very important to learn and it is a combination it is also some of sophisticated into a swing so there are different kinds of timing to it we have 6 count pattens and we have 8 counts patterns. So we are going to covering most of those. If you learn the first 3 patterns in west coast swing everything else is just a variation off those 3 patterns. So the other great thing about the west coast swing is that once you done those basic patterns we do what is called a syncopation off of those so you are not always doing the same rhythm we could always add and play and dance where both the man and the women can really interrupt the music and feel a little innervated with there style. It is a lot of fun and just kind of learn those basic. Here we go. "