About West Coast Swing

What is West Coast Swing?

Some Background (the short version):

Swing dancing first became popular in various areas around the East Coast of the United States in the 1920’s, most notably, in the New York city area. It started with “Breakaway” (later re-named to “Lindy Hop”) and later took on the name “Jitterbug” in the 30’s and 40’s. It was originally called “Swing” dancing because it was originally danced to “Swing” music.

In the late 1930’s, a new style of Swing dancing was starting to take shape in California, but it was still all called “Jitterbug”, and at that time, the style was clearly different than “Eastern” Swing dancing, but it wasn’t different enough to take on a new name — it was still all the same dance. As the music changed, new names came out for Swing dancing like “Rock and Roll”, but by the 50’s and 60’s, it was clear that there was a difference between “Eastern Swing” and “Western Swing” dancing.

Eventually, Eastern Swing became East Coast Swing and Western Swing became West Coast Swing, and in the late 60’s and 70’s, partner dancing began to fade from popularity in the United States. Many dance communities dried up during those decades, but there were still enough devoted top West Coast Swing dancers that the West Coast Swing community stayed alive and well, kept some of its original essence, and evolved with the times. While the mainstream community for East Coast Swing dancing stayed alive-ish, it didn’t stay together very well, and a lot of the original essence had to be re-discovered from old film footage and from elderly teachers that came out of retirement decades after their communities had faltered. Some smaller East Coast Swing communities (such as Carolina Shag, Imperial Swing, and D.C. Hand Dancing), however, did stay alive and adapted much like West Coast Swing did.

Today, West Coast Swing is danced to mostly slower modern, non-swing music that has a stronger beat than older swing songs have. It can be danced to a huge variety of 4/4 time music, and some of the best West Coast Swing music includes blues, pop/rock, funk, R&B, jazz, Latin, easy listening, classic rock, and even some rap. Today’s West Coast Swing community has mixed with, and adopted moves and techniques from, a variety of other partner dances including: Hustle, Country, Carolina Shag, and Zouk.

See the below video to see some recent West Coast Swing dancing performed by some very advanced dancers:

While the West Coast Swing community is very young here in East Idaho, there are some nearby regions that have excellent weekly or monthly West Coast Swing dances. Here are some websites operated by some of our friends and colleagues in the Salt Lake City area:

Kim Leung’s West Coast Swing site : https://www.westiekim.com/

Good Vibes Dance Studio (West Coast Swing dances on Fridays) : https://webedance.com/

World Wide West Coast Swing Dance Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/World-Wide-West-Coast-Swing-Dance-135701069851185/

You can also see hundreds of great West Coast Swing performances by searching on YouTube.