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Swing dance in penrith and Carlisle. Learn to lindy hop! We run classes, workshops and events in lindy, balboa and charleston. Swing dance Cumbria.
East Coast Swing (ECS) is a form of socialpartner dance. It belongs to the group of swing dances. It is danced under fast swing music, including rock and roll and boogie-woogie.
Yerrington and Outland equated East Coast Swing to the New Yorker in 1961. Originally known as 'Eastern Swing' by Arthur Murray Studios, the name East Coast Swing became more common between 1975 and 1980.[1]
History[edit]
The dance was created by dance studios including the Arthur Murray dance studios in the 1940s, based on the Lindy Hop. Lindy Hop was felt by dance studios to be both too difficult and too unstructured to teach to beginning dancers, but there was market demand for training in Swing Dance. The dance studios had initially dismissed Lindy Hop in particular as a fad.[2] East Coast Swing can be referred to by many different names in different regions of the United States and the World. It has alternatively been called Eastern Swing, Jitterbug, American Swing, East Coast Lindy, Lindy (not to be confused with Lindy Hop), and Triple Swing.[3] Other variants of East Coast Swing that use altered footwork forms are known as Single Swing or 'Single-step Swing' (where the triple step is replaced by a single step forming a slow, slow, quick, quick rhythm common to Foxtrot), and Double Swing (using a tap-step footwork pattern).
East Coast Swing is a Rhythm Dance that has both 6 and 8 beat patterns.[4]The name East Coast Swing was coined initially to distinguish the dance from the street form and the new variant used in the competitive ballroom arena (as well as separating the dance from West Coast Swing, which was developed in California). While based on Lindy Hop, it does have clear distinctions. East Coast Swing is a standardized form of dance developed first for instructional purposes in the Arthur Murray studios, and then later codified to allow for a medium of comparison for competitive ballroom dancers. It can be said that there is no right or wrong way to dance it; however, certain styles of the dance are considered correct 'form' within the technical elements documented and governed by the National Dance Council of America. The N.D.C.A. oversees all the standards of American Style Ballroom and Latin dances. Lindy Hop was never standardized and later became the inspiration for several other dance forms such as: (European) Boogie Woogie, Jive, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing and Rock and Roll.
In practice on the social dance floor, the six count steps of the East Coast Swing are often mixed with the eight count steps of Lindy Hop, Charleston, and less frequently, Balboa.
Basic technique[edit]
Single-step Swing
East Coast Swing has a 6 count basic step. This is in contrast to the meter of most swing music, which has a 4 count basic rhythm. In practice, however, the 6-count moves of the east coast swing are often combined with 8-count moves from the Lindy hop, Charleston, and Balboa.
Depending on the region and instructor, the basic step of single-step East Coast Swing is either 'rock step, step, step' or 'step, step, rock step'. In both cases, the rock step always starts on the downbeat.
For 'rock step, step, step' the beats, or counts, are the following:
Steps for the 'lead' (traditionally, the man's part)
Rock | Beat 1 - STEP back with your LEFT foot |
Step | Beat 2 - STEP forward with your RIGHT foot (to where you first started) |
Step | Beat 3 - STEP to the left with your LEFT foot |
Beat 4 - Begin to shift your weight back to your right foot | |
Step | Beat 5 - STEP to the right with your RIGHT foot |
Beat 6 - Begin to shift your weight to the left and back |
Steps for the 'follow' (traditionally, the woman's part which mirrors the lead's part)
Rock | Beat 1 - STEP back with your RIGHT foot |
Step | Beat 2 - STEP forward with your LEFT foot (to where you first started) |
Step | Beat 3 - STEP to the right with your RIGHT foot |
Beat 4 - Begin to shift your weight back to your left foot | |
Step | Beat 5 - STEP to the left with your LEFT foot |
Beat 6 - Begin to shift your weight to the right and back |
For 'step, step, rock step,' the rock step occurs on beats 5 and 6, but the overall progression remains the same.
The normal steps can be substituted with a triple step or double step 'step-tap' or 'kick-step' instead of a single step. This is commonly used during songs when a slower tempo makes the single step difficult (an example progression would be 'rock step, triple step, triple step').
Timing[edit]
Because East Coast uses a six step pattern with music employing 4 beats per measure, three measures of music are required to complete two sets of steps, as shown in the following table.
Music beats (in fours): | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||
Music beat incremental: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||||
East Coast Triple Step Timing: (1 and 2, 3 and 4, rock step) | R | S | 3 | a | 4 | 5 | a | 6 | R | S | 3 | a | 4 | 5 | a | 6 |
East Coast Single Step: (1 2 rock step) | R | S | 3 | 5 | R | S | 3 | 5 |
The rock step starts on 1, 2 the first triple step starts 3a4 and the second on 5a6.
![Lessons Lessons](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126252489/847125326.jpg)
In single time style (used with faster music) the triple steps are replaced by single steps, so two beats of music are used for each single step while each step in the rock (R) step (S) is still completed in one beat, finishing the cycle in six musical beats. Some instructors will teach vocalizing the single time style as' 'Quick. Quick. Slow. Slow. ' or 'Back Step. Slow. Slow.'
There is the choice to start with triples or with a rock step, however if you check the above chart where a triple step starts on a 1, 2 you can see that the pattern progresses and wraps back around. The choice of starting with a triple or a rock step does have musical consequences as music has phrasing with hits that often happen on 12, or 24 or 36... This means that dancers who choose to start with a rock step will probably find themselves on a rock step on every new phrase. Those who start with a triple will start with a triple on each new phrase. An advantage of starting with the triple step is that dancers can more easily change their foot work right at the start of the musical phrase.
See also[edit]
![Swing Swing](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126252489/292773821.jpg)
The Wikibook Swing Dancing has a page on the topic of: East Coast Swing |
References[edit]
- ^Dance Terminology Notebook. Skippy Blair. 1994. Altera. page 27. ISBN0-932980-11-2.
- ^'Swing History origins of Swing Dance'. 1996. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ^'East Coast Swing History'. n.d. Retrieved 2008-03-23.
- ^Dance Terminology Notebook 1995. Skippy Blair. 1995 p 27
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=East_Coast_Swing&oldid=888585275'
Are you a Lindy Hopper or Westie swing dancer? I found an old post in Yehoodi.com (national lindy hop swing website) with links to swing sites. I got in contact with someone from Spirit of Lindy.com.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet but you might be more fortunate! Regardless of your brand of swing any of these venues should be great for dancing.
Le Slow Club (1st arrondissement/district) on Wednesday night is a popular venue. Le Jazz Club Lionel Hampton at the Hotel on Mondays (by Palais de Congres - 17th district) has live bands and dancing (they set up a dance floor on Mondays only according to the Parisian swing lead who responded to my email to 'Spirit of Lindy'). There are other venues as well but these two come to mind. I wish I could go dance with the French too!Here are the links (Spirit of Lindy has a link for information in English):(site in English)(click on L'Atelier - Wednesday night dancing)Le Jazz Club bands schedule ('aout' is August in case you don't know)HAVE FUN! Why would you want entertainment/dancing when visiting? I know that if I am visiting Europe, I would want to experience something European and would not want to be reminded of America.
If that were the case, I would visit a great location in America and do the things that are distinctly American.The point of going to Europe is to experience Europe and the special things that are unique to Europe. Anyway, have a great time and I hope you enjoy your trip. I love swing dancing music and the style and I'm glad you enjoy it because even in America, it's not really that popular. As said in the thread on 'best and/or worst advice' about, we all have various interests and what we see/do will vary depending on our diverse interests/'passions'.
Follow them and don't let others shame you into not doing so IMO.Ok, only a swing dancer would understand:-).Willie, if you checked the links I posted in response to her question, you'd see that swing dancing is NOT about a bunch of Americans dancing overseas. It is international in scope danced by folks from other countries as well. Yehoodi.com is a good source to get information on events all over the country and the world. You can find swing dance communities/scenes in Paris, FR (bigger here than in (really BIG in!), etc. YES YES YES, there are plenty of things to do in Paris and I was mighty busy when I visited months back even though I didn't get to go swing dance. It still would have been nice to connect with the LOCALS through a common interest that can be shared even if you don't know their language! (customary in swing/lindy hop dance communities to welcome folks from other cities/countries).
Yes, people do travel to dance sometimes, believe it or not. Thank you, TXTravelBuff!! Your extensive info is greatly appreciated!! As an active member of the OC Swing Club I can't wait to find a place to go lindy hopping for a night or two in or.i'm so excited! Here in County, we just had our first Lindy Exchange in March and hosted people from all over the US and parts of. Next weekend is 'Camp Hollywood' -LA's BIG exchange and there will be people from all over the world (& ) as well.As for you Willie3, if you really knew me you'd laugh at giving me advice on seeing what is 'european' in europe as I am known as a 'When in, do as the Romans' kind of girl!
Swing-Lindy-Charleston-Balboa-etc Dancing is popular all over the world and it's embarrassing that you would say '.it's not really that popular in America.' As it's clear you have no idea how big the community of Swing Dancing is.and nonetheless, as TXTravelBuff said 'it's a great way to connect with the locals through a common interest.' -Don't speak out of ignorance. Girlwest, swing dancing is NOT popular in America. Take a survey and ask people at random walking down any street. You'll see the tepid responses. Swing Dancing is about as popular as jazz here in the U.S.
Which is not very high on people's list in their CD collection. How many swing dance clubs or establishments are in a typical U.S. Maybe in dance schools and colleges but they are not main stream. Swing dance is about as popular as soccor here in the U.S.Swing Dance may have a strong cult following in the U.S.
And other parts of the world but if you go to most clubs and start swing dancing, most people will look at you funny. It's the dance of elderly people basically.That said, I am glad that you enjoy swing dancing because I happen to like it and the music too. I happen to be a fan of big band music and I would like to see it become more popular.
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