Charleston Dance & East Coast Swing

Series Summary

The Charleston originated in 1920s Charleston, South Carolina as one of the most popular dance rhythms of its time. Popular in speakeasies, flappers danced the Charleston alone and together mocking the prohibition supporters. The Charleston also aided in the development of the Lindy Hop, and was adapted to the swing music of the 1940s. Today, the Charleston is danced in many varieties and adapts well to solo dances, duets and group performances. In this free video series, learn some basic Charleston dance steps. Dance instructors, Tara Weinstein & Jason Arenburg, specialize in swing dancing. They demonstrate how to begin dancing the Charleston. Learn the side-by-step for the leader and follower. Then, find out how to put the steps together. When dancing with a partner, it's important to know how to connect in the Charleston. Let Weinstein and Arenburg explain how to connect to a partner. Curious about incorporating the Charleston into other dance styles? Find out how to transition from the East Coast Swing into the Charleston. So, take a moment, and learn to swing around the dance floor with the Charleston today!

Video Transcript

"Hi, we're Jason and Tara, and we're going to break down the Charleston for you. So we're going to start by just giving you a little history of the dance and show you how the Charleston fits into all the ranges of swing dances and vernacular jazz as part of a true American tradition, and we're going to show you the basic Charleston, we're going to go into our individual steps, work on some side by side Charleston, and then also talk about getting into Charleston from east coast swing, and getting out of Charleston back into east coast swing. If you don't know any east coast swing, that's OK, we'll still do Charleston on it's own and you can start in the song just by dancing Charleston. Absolutely it's the original swing dance so you're perfectly fine just staying in Charleston. But for those of you who know some east coast swing, we want to show you how to integrate it with the other kind of dance. One of the nice things about it is that it can be done to the same style of music so you can seamlessly move from east coast swing into Charleston back to east coast swing, and keep switching back and forth again. We are however going to be focusing on Charleston in this series, so if you don't know any east coast swing that's fine, and if you do, then you should be able to integrate it pretty nicely. We're going to work on the pulse and posture, as well as the basic steps, the connection points, and just show you some of the fun of the dance. And, hope you enjoy it."