Nope. With good instruction, West Coast Swing (WCS) is a dance you can learn and use immediately in a social or club scene. It’s cheap fun, too – $12 average per lesson or per cover charge for most dances.

Nope. You don’t need a partner to take classes with: 60-80% of dancers are single. Classes rotate partners – you’ll meet lots of fun people there! You’re actually expected to show up single. But feel free to learn with a friend.

Nope. Wear what you would wear if you were going to a pub or club. Dressy-casual (jeans or dress pants and a nice top) will do just fine. Don’t bother with skirts. Shoes: try to choose ones that aren’t too clunky or grippy. Ladies, no backless shoes – make sure your shoes will stay on.

A Swing Dance Club is like a dance studio but is a non-profit organization that usually offers social dances on a weekly or monthly basis. It is not associated with any particular studio or school, and therefore tries to promote the dance itself, not the business of lessons. Some Swing Clubs invite local or international instructors in to guest teach workshops, and some even co-sponsor dance conventions.

Here’s a great resource outlining the Pros and Cons of each.

No problem! That’s what lessons are for! NO ONE EXPECTS YOU TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING WHEN YOU START. Of all the partner dances, West Coast is a very non-strict dance where creativity and freedom are encouraged! A sports or music background are assets, but not necessary.

Ah, yes, that is an unfortunate stereotype. He is probably concerned that he is going to feel self conscious about not being good at it right away. Settle his concerns by mentioning that everyone has to start somewhere, and that all the dancers in the class are newbies too. You can challenge him by asking, “How do you know you’re not going to like it until you’ve tried it?” It might help to suggest that you take private lessons together first before going out in public.

If your guy friends can’t handle the idea of you learning to make women swoon and line up for a 3 minute chance to be in your arms…who’s the real wimp?

This is a common misconception. The WCS techniques are different from other partner dances, but not harder. All of the techniques are based in sound biomechanical principles so the dance is meant to feel natural and ergonomic. This should make it easy right from day one. If it’s a struggle for you, adopt a growth mindset: like learning a new language, embrace the challenge. If you are still struggling after a few months, don’t quit:  switch instructors.

Your valid concern comes from the old fashioned tradition that men always do the asking. This no longer exists in the social dance world. Everyone asks everyone, so feel free to invite partners to dance regardless of your role or gender.

If you want to learn with your partner for couple time or to prepare for a special occasion, sign up for private lessons! Here’s why: West Coast Swing is a social dance, intended to be improvised with a variety of partners, like mingling at a party. Most group classes are designed to support this, so rotating partners is required. Dancing with the same partner all class long actually makes you progress slower. Much slower. Because you learn to compensate for the other person’s errors, then you both never learn to do anything properly, but rather just fake it together. Rotating partners allows you to learn the DANCE, not the FAKE.

Social dancing is like going to a dinner party: you’re going to have conversations with lots of different people. The difference is, they last about 3 minutes and involve consensual, respectful, yet meaningless physical contact. Social dancing is not flirting behavior as it is in a nightclub atmosphere. There are no expectations. Most people shake this concern off after the first month or so. If you can’t, maybe this isn’t the right social activity for you.

More liberal than most. Of course, this depends on your region, and there will always be a few haters, as in any community, but you will find several out and proud dancers in every dance scene. The attitude of the general WCS population is mostly strongly inclusive and encouraging of dancers choosing either role in both social dancing and competitions. 

Hellz yeah! Dance it to anything, anywhere, except hard-core Rap or Metal. Unless you really want to…:

YES! Yay! We are all very grateful for the exposure of dance in the media these days. However, the Hollywood influence has been affecting the examples of WCS. Some of the primetime reality shows have tried to include West Coast Swing in their repertoire, but we have yet to see an authentic representation of the dance that is relatable and viral. The best models of our dance, however, are too busy working around the world to be tied down to Hollywood – look for them on You Tube.

Well, there are two possible reasons for that. West Coast Swing is a constantly evolving dance that is always getting more diverse, more ergonomic, and more fun. Unfortunately, this makes it hard for most local dance teachers to keep current, so their material and teaching methods get outdated quickly, which means their students do too. You may have learned WCS from an outdated source and the dancers you observed were current, or vice versa. The other possibility is that you may have been watching dancers from another area of the continent dancing a regional style of WCS.

I would love to say yes, but the answer is no. After one snowboarding lesson, did you feel ready to ride every run on the mountain? No, you probably learned enough to successfully ski one run. One. You can’t just click download and expect your body to perform the dance at a reasonable level. Your one class served as an introduction to the basics, not the complete basics. Like any physical skill, it takes a continuous cycle of lesson-practice-feedback in order to improve. Neglecting to learn your foundation skills, like on the mountain, is likely to result in injury and frustration.

Absolutely! WCS is the most flexible partner dance. It welcomes the introduction of ideas from other dance styles. They can’t always be used verbatim, but there are lots of ways to convert your favourite moves, and a good instructor can show you how.

There are competitions in improvised dancing available for every level of dancer – newcomer to pro. You only have to know your basics, which means you could compete after 6 weeks of training or 6 years! You are only ever competing against people of your same level. As you get more advanced, there are competitions for choreography, but it’s all optional. Competition is only a secondary activity. The main activity is improvised social dancing.

This is an advantage. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t have the training to communicate to you exactly HOW. It is a common misconception that ballet and jazz will “taint” or “ruin” your ability to learn Swing. That’s a load of crap. Just like university teaches you how to use your brain (regardless of the subject area), dance training teaches you how to manipulate your body (regardless of the dance style). In short, dance training will make you a quicker learner. Yes you will have some habits to change, but that is the case for all dancers, trained or not.

This may seem like a logical question if you are coming from other sports that segregate participants in different levels. This is not the case for the WCS scene. Everyone integrates, both on and off the floor. Everyone dances with all levels. There is no such thing as “being good enough” to dance with someone.

Change instructors. WCS can be taught in a way that is easy, ergonomic and instantly fun. If you aren’t “getting it” after few months or so of classes, and you’ve tried a private lesson, don’t quit – try a new instructor.

If it’s your significant other, try taking a private lesson together, so the instructor can see who is making the mistake and correct it. Try to avoid “I told you so”. If it’s just a classmate, smile and say “I’m just doing the best I can”, then ask the instructor to help you both out.

Fabulous! Be sure to be very supportive and enthusiastic of their decision! Depending on your level, you may be able to take a beginner group class together – the review will be good for you. But if there is a drastic level difference, your best bet is private lessons – your partner can catch up to you quicker.

Not really. The dance has changed so much in the past 10 years that it is a completely different animal now. It will do you the most good to go back to square one. The good news is, you will find it MUCH more ergonomic and efficient and fun to learn now!

It’s like that game of telephone – by the time the messages gets to the end of the chain, it’s distorted. On a very basic level, there are different levels of instructor just as there are different levels of dancer. Teaching is a skill, and the more training and experience one has, the better they are at that skill. Some instructors are just dancers who decided to turn their passion into a business. Some instructors are trained professionals who decided to apply their teaching skills to dancing. Some instructors are just talented top dancers thrust into a teaching role. The end result is a whole lot of very different perspectives on teaching a skill set that was vague to begin with! The best thing you can do is look at everything you learn like groceries on the shelf. Just because it’s out there doesn’t mean you have to buy it, and it doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. Think critically about what you are told: ask yourself if the movement makes sense in your body, in science. If the science or logic of it can’t be confidently explained, don’t buy it. Keep shopping. Keep in mind that there are 2 layers of the material you learn: the base layer of non-negotiable mechanical principles and ergonomics, and a superficial layer of style, preferences, and opinions which will fluctuate between artists. You can expect different teachers to have different preferences, but no one can dispute basic science!

Physics and comfort. The best dancers have found the most efficient way of moving their bodies. It’s all about body mechanics. Because they are moving more efficiently, their movement is more ergonomic, more natural, easier to do, and they feel more comfortable. How do they get that? Great instruction, feedback, and practice…and in rare cases, natural talent. Be cautious with your admiration: some dancers look great to the untrained eye, but are an eyesore to trained dancers, or a sore shoulder to their partners.

10% of the time it will be because the follower’s frame is really that bad (or she has not been taught frame yet). The other 90% of the time, it’s because of you. Advanced followers are not only advanced at following a true lead, they’re also experts at following poor leads, because they can tell what you meant to lead. So they’re expert fakers: they can cover for your mistakes. So the dance runs smoother because they appear to follow you better. Beginner followers haven’t tuned this skill yet, so a poor lead fails on them more frequently.

Nope. You can’t get away without it. It is the characteristic of WCS – the essence of the dance. Without it you are just walking around holding hands to music. If you think you like WCS now, and you aren’t doing stretch yet, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet, baby! You absolutely can not learn this accurately through a screen – you need to feel it to learn it, which requires you taking live lessons.

Most instructors teach patterns in order to give people some structure, or to “get people moving” or because that’s how they learned, so that’s how they teach. WCS is a dance that is becoming less and less reliant on set patterns, and more reliant on technique in order to create patterns on the fly. The latter allows you to improvise according to how the music inspires you. So, when you learn patterns in classes, learn the skills, but pay more attention to how movements fit the music. Adopt a growth mindset: pay attention to all the technique tips you can get your hands on, and crave more!

West Coast Swing encourages musical interpretation and expression, which sometimes means that there is a more appropriate movement than a triple step for a certain part of the music. Or sometimes, they do a triple rhythm, just not in the traditional 3rd position, or with a different part of their body. Either way, triple steps are a default movement, but not mandatory on every pattern. On the second triple step there is an anchor at the end, but as long as the dancer still does an anchor at the end, before stretching and beginning the next pattern, he or she does not need to do a triple to create it.

2 reasons: 1. This is a dance with a history and a culture. You need to be able to understand the historical references: HOW the moves you enjoy today came to be. You also need to be fluent in the vintage songs and style when they are played in competition.  2. Part of learning any art form is learning the styles of the masters before developing your own. Learning by retracing the steps of your elders will make you a wiser artist.

You are not alone. Blues music is usually synchopated, which makes the tempo feel slower and more predictable. Contemporary music is faster and more driving. It just takes practice – try tuning into the Pop/Top40 radio station every time you are in your car. If you are searching for the shuffle rhythm in pop songs, this can get frustrating, as it does not exist in 90% of them. Stop listening for a shuffle rhythm and just listen for the downbeat/upbeat – the vast majority of contemporary songs are in straight time.

It’s hard to hit a break you can’t hear coming. If you have a quick reaction time, you can “freeze” on the beat or shortly after to acknowledge the break, wait 4 counts or until the music starts up again, then continue on. It’s worth it to learn a little music theory in order to hear those breaks coming. It’s not difficult if you find the right source, and you don’t need to be a musician. There are a few great out there that explain Musicology. But ultimately, hitting breaks is like the sprinkles on the icing on the cake. Prioritize more fundamental skills like staying on time and body pulsing.

When you get to a point where you don’t have to count in your head, you can concentrate more on listening to the music. Advanced dancers have either taken the initiative to study music interpretaion in workshops, or they are used to hearing the song, so they know each break and accent. There is a formula to music that is easy to learn for dancers. The instructional video, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Swing Dancers includes a chapter on Musical Interpretation.

Look for songs that are in 4/4 time, between 90 and 120 bpm. After that, the genre, era, and artist is up to you! Many Westies have posted their playlists on Spotify and YouTube. Just search "West Coast Swing music"

Lindy to WCS is not hard at all. It’s mostly the same connection, no bounce, no swivels, a little more upright, and alot more linear stretch. Converting from Ballroom WCS to authentic WCS isn’t too hard, there’s just alot of habits to change: eliminate all hip swiveling, hook steps, and tap steps, and add foot rolling, stretch, frame, and forward pitch.

Now that WCS is exploding all over the world, dancers from other continents are so curious and committed that they are looking to travel to North America to train in WCS and experience the truest forms of the dance.  Good events are held at a large convention hotel, offer a strong balance of top professional instructors, current music, late-night social dancing, high-level competitions, and positive social atmosphere. NASDE events also offer routine competition divisions. You can ask around on the various social media sites to find out what people are saying.

Yep – depending on the type of venue you visited, it’s most likely you encountered a regional variation. Embrace it and enjoy it – diversity is fun. You can learn some new moves and challenge your brain a little. It’s also possible you are from a relatively small dance community and you visited a larger, more established community where the dancers are at a higher level and are dancing more current techniques and style.

YouTube may seem like an obvious answer, but it is not a good tool for learning, only for inspiration. Several instructors have awesome instructional videos available in digital download format. Check out ours here. But the gold standard is our online multi-media digital course, the Swing Literacy Dancer Development Program. This comprehensive training is appropriate for all levels of dancer, and is self-paced with options to join in live online group coaching sessions.

No! But you do have to have a certain level of skills before you can start. You have to know your basics, both patterns and techniques. You have to be able to count consistently and stay on time with the music. If you’ve got that much, you can hire a choreographer to prepare a routine for you at your level, not their level.

1. You learn the art and science of musical timing, because the whole point is to illustrate the music with your body.
2. You are forced (positively) to improve skills like footwork speed, reaction time, and balance, in order to execute each move.
3. You learn alot about your partner’s role, what he/she needs from you, which makes you a more empathetic partner.
4. The constant repetition gives you a new set of moves you become an expert at and can execute consistently.
5. The constant practice gives you a new sense of discipline and focus.
6. As a competitor, it will get you recognition from the judges and help you estabilsh a “name” for yourself.

Absolutely. There is a division where you can dance a routine with your teacher, called “ProAm”, and a division for amateur routines, called “Rising Star”. You can compete against other dedicated amateurs like yourself, rather than against your teachers and heros. But aside from competition, many people prepare routines for performance only – studio shows, dance demos, etc.

Not generally. WCS is a social dance, meaning the common emphasis is on improvisation and dancing with many different partners, like mingling at a party. “Scripted” dancing is highly frowned upon, as it does not allow for an authentic lead and follow conversation. In class, you will learn a variety of techniques and leadable patterns that you can apply in an order, with any partner from anywhere. Occasionally a “choreography class” is offered, which is specifically designed to introduce and sell the idea of performance, but this is rare.