We teach West Coast Swing at any level from complete basics to very advanced.
You could also schedule a private or a semi-private class at any point in time throughout the week.
What do our levels mean: if you are not certain which level of dance classes you should attend, you’ll find an explanation of different levels HERE
Joining: Before showing up for the first time be sure to contact us. We wouldn’t want you traveling all the way down for nothing just in case there is an unscheduled cancellation.
All other classes: providing your level of dancing is compatible with the level of a class you are interested in, you can join at any time. Please note: if you would like to attend without a partner there might be a delay in getting you enrolled: we are trying to have an equal number of women and men in each class and typically there is a shortage of man.
For prices please click on the “Pricing” link in the main menu or click HERE
Where did West Coast Swing come from?
Evolution of Swing From Tango, Foxtrot and Charleston, through Lindy Hop, Jitterbug and Rock’n’Roll, to West Coast Swing:
It’s hard to imagine, it all started at the beginning of previous century with Tango in Argentina.
North America has always been torn between two opposing poles. On one side the bohemian’s seeking of freedom of expression, and on the other the puritans’ attempts to stifle what was “morally reprehensible”.
Hence the Americans fascination with Argentine Tango, that couldn’t be manifested directly. Ever since Rudolph Valentinos famous scene from “The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse” Americans danced their “Not – Tango”, meaning Tango styled moves – to big-band music. At first local variations of a new style of dancing were being named after cities they were being danced at.
Here we have: The Baltimore.
There has been many local variations called after their origins, some had more esoteric playful dance names like Turkey Trot. But there was something missing in this newly emerging popular culture phenomenon.
And then, Harry Fox just nailed it when he came up with his Vaudeville stage passing move.
He combined set of forward and back walks, interlocked them with a waltz like side together, chose to do it to an unusual 6 bits to regular 4/4 timing, rather then regular 4, and the rest is history…. The new move has become “the thing”.
The new pattern spread all over as “The Basic Step”, and the term “Fox Trot” has been created. Once that took place, other pattern and rhythmic variations got internalized as particular moves within a greater whole.
Some simple moves done on the spot just to mark the rhythm, while you were being held in place by a crowd that didn’t move to eagerly around the dance floor, started to live a life of their own…. Here’s Charleston in an organized, evolved to fit a well off crowd, couple ready format.
And another version, with more flashy creative footwork that strongly influenced couple dancing. This has became a precursor to Lindy Hop Charleston.
Lindy Hop in its hay days influenced decades of dancing. In this footage we can see the original founders of the style from Savoy Ballroom including Frankie Manning. “Hellzapopping” is the celebrated iconic film scene form a Hollywood production, attributed with marking the era of Lindy Hop dominance in pop culture.
Lindy Hop was “the starting point” for the whole Swinging dances family.
When in the 50’s dance teachers had to explain the basic triple step of the currently popular swinging moves, they most likely had to explain things in the following way…
“First you Rock– put your weight partially onto a foot then retreat back, then you Roll the weight all the way over. Once done you repeat in the other direction….”
“First rock then roll the weight over, first rock then roll, and speed up….”
“Rock then roll, rock then roll…” It was just a matter of time before the new name was coined…
The Rock’n’Roll.
So the Rock’n’Roll era started, and it was fun while it lasted…
Then in the late 50’s, and 60’s the puritan streak in society won for a decade or two, ironically strongly instigated by Elvis’s gyrating hips…
WASP older gentlemen deemed America’s teenagers dancing to Big Beat to be a threat to good morals.
There even were movies made about those times. One was called “Footloose”, you might remember that one…
So in the 60’s suddenly couple dancing was no longer as present in pop media…
We could see much more solo and line dancing rather then couples holding hands.
Couple Dancing took refuge in esoteric fringe upper societal spheres of competitive Ballroom Style, far off the beaten path of commercial TV and radio stations.
When the 50’s and 60’s youth become 60’s and 70’s parents, having no role models to emulate, the 70’s parents didn’t impart couple dancing to their kids. Kids from the late 60’s and early 70’s did not have anything to copy, they did not experience watching their parents couple dancing when they were growing up.
With the onset of mass media grabbing hold of the society, with new sounds and more powerful versions of the old sounds flooding the mass psyche with color and light, new trends emerged, but not in the direction of couples holding hands. 70’s popular dancing started to look like that….
Some Swing dancing survived as International Latin Jive – the ballroom version of a fast Swing dance quite close to Rock’n’Roll, some made it through the 70’s to the 80’s by hiding through the “thin decades” in Country Western style, in the Two-Step and Country Western Shuffle, some in a wide family of locally danced “Shags”, like a Carolina Shag, or a later version, a Collegiate Shag.
And it was in the early 80’s that swing dancing started to come back and go through the real Renaissance.
New era of pop music with “Wake me up before you GoGo” by Wham, or “timeless” classics of Shaken Stevens, brought back just the “Right Rhythms”.
It’s the music of the happy 80’s that helped bring Swing dancing back to mainstream. The happiest and the most crowd catching form of Swing dancing is the acrobatic Rock’and’Roll.
And here we have the “Old Timer” the King himself Frankie Manning strutting it, almost 55 years after the famous “Hellzapoppin” scene was filmed…
So we made it to the 90’s and to the truly modern times. The Rock’n’Roll made it’s comeback, the Big Bands made it back to pop culture, the Motown sound found it’s new home in new age R’n’B, the “Ratpack” scene got their new fresh crooning voices of Michael Bubble and Robbie Williams, the Elvis’s and Billy Haley’s tunes got resampled and reinterpreted, the next new coming back of Swing era arrived.
Different though, less uniform, more multi faceted, laid back and for sure much less strung up on things that were considered taboo in the previous decades.
And more at peace with the other styles present around, as the fabric of society grew more and more multi-directional with it’s new and emerging, and the old and coming back styles, trends and genres, becoming ever more simultaneously ever-present across the new global internet driven world.
Here we have some Jack and Jill competition in mixed Lindy and West Coast Swing.
Grandpa Manning would be proud 🙂
The evolution does not stop. The process of Swing Dancing integrating various influences continues to take place. The new century brought us West Coast Swing getting influenced by new wave of creative fresh musical genres and dance styles, with Latin dances family playing the leading role, with Kizomba, Semba, Bachata and even good old Argentine Tango reinvigorating the Swing Dance scene afresh. This is where new distinct styles of dancing emerge right now. One of them is Swango.
What is SWANGO?
When Argentine Tango crossed it’s path with Waltz many decades ago, the marriage created a new dance – a Tango Vals – that become a staple of Argentine Tango family on par with “the regular Argentine Tango”, the Tango de Salon and the Milonga.
If only historically Argentine Tango had more time to interact with Swing, especially in the Europe of “The Cabaret” era, the 30’s and then the 40’s, especially with its moody French Gypsy Swing cousin, the Swango would have been another of the staples we usually dance to.
As such historical encounter never came to bare fruit some 70/80 years ago – the WWII managing to firmly get in a way – we are observing the process in front of us, as if Swing dancing was trying to make up for the lost time, bringing SWANGO to it’s proper place.
SWANGO fits squarely between Argentine Tango, Tango Nuevo and Milonga on one, Lindy Hop and all of Retro Swing family including Foxtrot and Balboa on second, and Latin Fusion with Salsa, Cumbia, Kizomba Semba and Samba on the third side.
Have fun and join our West Coast Swing classes in Toronto!
