Social Dance Q&A

Questions about Classes

• Question: I haven’t attended any of your prior classes. Can I drop in? Do I need to pre-register?
  Answer: Our social dance classes are mostly not progressive classes, so you should be able to drop in… no need to pre-register or sign up; just come and join us.
   
• Question: Do you really require class members to change partners in your Social Dance classes? If so, Why?
  Answer: Absolutely, yes. Learning to adjust to your partner is a critical element of social dancing, and it is virtually impossible to learn to adjust correctly without dancing with multiple partners. If you are married and only want to dance with your spouse, you will both become much better partners for one another if you change partners while learning. Also, when we have extra men or ladies in the class, they need people to dance with.
   
• Question: Can I come without a partner?
  Answer: Yes. This class is geared towards individuals, and we will change partners during class.
   
• Question: Do you have age limits on your classes?
  Answer: Our classes are for adults, or those who have an adult attention span, so students at our Community Center classes should be age 16 and older. For classes held at Cheers & Beers Bar, there is a minimum age limit of 21 to enter the establishment.
   
• Question: Is this a Ballroom Dance class?
  Answer: The term “Ballroom Dance” means different things to different people. If “Ballroom Dance”, to you, means big costumes, dance routines, stiff posture, or performing/competing, then No, we aren’t teaching “Ballroom Dance” here. However, if “Ballroom Dance”, to you, means lead-follow dancing which is suitable to use at a nightclub or nice restaurant, in a dance hall, or on a cruise, then Yes, that is what we teach. To try to clear that up, sometimes I use the term “Classic American Ballroom” dancing, as that is what “Ballroom Dance” used to mean in the U.S. up until about the 1960s or 1970s.
   
• Question: I am an absolute beginner. Will this be too complicated for me?
  Answer: On the classes page, try to look and see if the dance being taught is listed as a “Level 1” dance or a “Level 2” dance. Level 1 dances should be simple enough for most beginners to pick up quickly. Level 2 dances are usually a bit more complicated and/or require a bit more body control, but some of them may not be too bad for most beginners.
   
• Question: Wait, are you teaching West Coast Swing or other dances? Your organization has “West Coast Swing” in the title so I’m confused.
  Answer: Most of our Social Dance classes focus on easier dances than West Coast Swing to help our dancers branch out and learn other dances or to get a foundation to prepare better for our annual 8-week West Coast Swing class. Authentic Swing dances are some of the more complicated social dances, so we try to offer students an opportunity to start small.
   
• Question: Most of your dance classes seem to be for beginners. Will you offer more advanced classes too?
  Answer: We hope to, but we currently see a need to build the social dance community here from the ground up. Once we believe we have a strong enough local student base for more advanced classes, we will be happy to offer them.
   
• Question: I don’t see Country Swing on your dance list. Do you teach Country Swing?
  Answer: In some regions, Country Swing is danced as a complex and nuanced American social dance. However, in this region, the local Country Swing is basically an abstract Hustle-like dance with no apparent connection to the music, and it’s kind of an English/American hybrid folk dance that doesn’t fit our genre or teaching methods. Also, other local teachers have allowed bad habits in local Country Swing to get so out-of-hand (leaving the essential footwork out of the dance and using abrupt or crude connection techniques), that I’m hesitant to get involved at this time.
   
• Question: Do you teach regular private lessons?
  Answer: Not at this time. Dance teaching isn’t our primary business, and we have day jobs; it’s a side-hobby for now, so we have limited time for teaching.
   

Questions about Payment

• Question: How much are classes?
  Answer: If we are teaching in a formal setting like a community center or dance studio, we will charge $5 per person per class. If we’re in an informal setting, like a bar or nightclub, donations are optional.
   
• Question: Which payment methods do you accept?
  Answer: If the class is at a community center or dance studio, we will take Venmo, cash, credit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, or personal checks. If the class is informal and by donation, we’ll only accept cash or Venmo.
    

Questions about our Teachers

• Question: What is your teaching/dance background?
  Answer: Jeremy and Sydnie come from differing dance backgrounds. Jeremy originally learned dancing at Ricks College and BYU Provo, and he completed the requirements for a Ballroom Dance minor prior to transferring to a different college. His teaching training includes BYU teaching and theory classes and is supplemented with many intensive teacher training sessions through the Golden State Dance Teachers Association (GSDTA). Sydnie originally learned dancing at BYU Idaho and taught at, and was a supervisor at, an Arthur Murray dance studio in California for several years. She has also attended a few intensive teacher training sessions through the GSDTA. Both Sydnie and Jeremy have actively danced Social, Swing, Country, Nightclub, and Ballroom dances in a variety of settings.
   
• Question: Do you compete or perform?
  Answer: No, we are just well-taught and experienced dancers who have been trained in dance teaching, theory, and competition judging. We are both skilled and competent social dancers, but we aren’t big competitors or performers. In fact, Jeremy gets a pretty nasty case of stage fright on the competition floor.
   
• Question: If you know and teach so many different dances, why call the site West Coast Swing Blackfoot?
  Answer: One of the reasons is to honor the memory of a recently departed teacher of ours, Skippy Blair, who is credited for popularizing the name “West Coast Swing” from the late 1950’s until about 2015. She passed away shortly before we launched this website. This teacher was possibly the greatest influencer of West Coast Swing for those 5+ decades, so the site name is a small shout-out to her hard work and influence. Rest in peace, Skippy.
   

Questions about different social dances

• Question: Which Swing is “Country Swing” — East Coast or West Coast?
  Answer: Neither. Country Swing is NOT a swing dance at all. The local dance that people call “Country Swing”, also known as Rodeo Swing or Cowboy Swing, is actually in the same dance family as Hustle and Melange, whereas the swing dances we teach are in the classic Swing Dance family. This classic Swing Dance family includes many dances with very similar patterns such as West Coast Swing, Texas Whip, East Coast Swing, Imperial Swing, Carolina Shag, Lindy Hop, Southern Jitterbug, and DC Hand Dancing.
   
• Question: Do you have lists of social dances you teach?
  Answer: We do have some lists with descriptions of Level 1 and Level 2 dances we teach (click on the links for those lists). We don’t anticipate having a class with level 3 dances any time soon, but our Level 3 dances would include: Continuity Waltz, Cha Cha, Country 2-Step, Country Polka, American Samba, and Jump Swing (which was once called Double-Rhythm East Coast Swing).
   
• Question: Wait, you listed Cha Cha as a Level 3 dance above. I learned Cha Cha, and it’s easy; why is it in the Level 3 list?
  Answer: There was a brief period when Cha Cha was popularly danced the way many people dance it here, as a Level 2 dance with a double-triple-double-triple rhythm, but Classic American Cha Cha has a totally different rhythm and step pattern than that version. We also like to teach dances in a sustainable way where students will not easily lose the rhythm when dancing to music, and our teaching method, when applied to Cha Cha, makes it more difficult to learn (or re-learn).
   
• Question: I see lots of Country dances in your list; where is Nightclub 2-Step?
  Answer: There are really 2 different dances that have this name. The common Country version of this dance is one we call “Nightclub Rumba” because all the techniques, rhythm patterns, and moves are really Rumba moves, and it is in our Level 1 dances list. The mainstream Niteclub Two Step (usually has that different spelling, also known as California Two Step) is a more difficult dance which requires a LOT of body control, and we list it as a Level 4 dance. Technically, it could be taught as a Level 3 dance with slightly reduced sense of technique.
   
• Question: How many moves would you teach for each dance each night?
  Answer: Some dances are easier than others, and we could get through more moves in easier dances. We typically shoot for 4-8 moves per dance per night. For dances which take a bit longer to start but have a LOT of easy moves like Rumba or East Coast Swing, we might teach one set of moves one night and a totally different set of moves another night.
   
• Question: There is a dance I learned in a social dance class in Utah that is just called “Swing”. Which Swing dance is that?
  Answer: That is a version of East Cost Swing. If you learned the really bouncy version, that is actually called Jive, but ballroom dancers call it East Coast Swing. In East Idaho, the name of that dance has been lost to many dancers, so some locals incorrectly refer to it as “The Triple Step” or “American Triple Swing”.
   
• Question: You taught East Coast Swing with triples, but I learned East Coast Swing with singles, not triples. Which one is the real/default East Coast Swing?
  Answer: In the 1960s, some popular television shows (American Bandstand) banned “jazz rhythms” (i.e. triples) from being shown on TV. Subsequently, some studios found it easier to start students with singles and introduce the triples later (and the students didn’t stick around long enough to learn the real version). Today, most dancers refer to the two variations as “East Coast Swing” and “Single Rhythm East Coast Swing”.