Given a two beat increment of: boom & tick &, the basic rhythms in WCS are tap step, walk walk, kick ball change, triple step.

I sometimes see followers in particular stepping on the second &, after the tick.

In what circumstances will followers do this?

I know that there is a quad rhythm (quick quick quick quick), and when the music calls for this, a quad is sensible.

But I feel like I specifically see followers do a weight change on the second & in order to get back on the correct foot. I cannot exactly state why I think this way, it is just a gut feeling I have. Moreover it seems to me that this action is correcting a mistake that was made.

I would like to stop renting and move into a home. I would prefer a cheap home with a decent amount of land, which I suppose means a rural-ish area.

However the immediate problem with this plan is that I'm going to be much further away from my local WCS clubs. Currently I live within 15 minutes of two great clubs.

I would need to find some city that A) has ideally two or more WCS clubs that are relatively young and play modern music, and B) has a rural-ish area within 30 minutes of the city.

Does anyone here know of such a city, or is this a pipe dream?

Any recommendations for a WCS dance school for a beginner in Portland?

This question may sound stupid, please let me provide some context.

I used to be a professional ballet dancer but was forced to quit as my health couldn't sustain that level of activity. Recently I found out there's this type of dance and it seems like relatively chill, as there are no huge leaps and jumps compared to other types of dancing. I watched a lot of YouTube and googled the steps and tried it out myself and it seems doable. But I'm not sure whether to commit and sign up for classes.

I was told to NOT DO high caliber activities, but I really love to dance. Sorry if this is a very stupid question. I hope someone here can give me some insight.

Hello WCS DJs, what's your general take on changing song tempos?

How often do you do it, and by what percentage do you typically adust BPM?

For what circumstances would you be more inclined to adjust the tempo?

And for those who don't DJ, what's your opinion on dancing to songs with altered tempos?

What’s that song where the whole crowd, about 3/4 through the track, responds “Echo?”

Heard it at AWCSO last weekend and I think it was in French.

I did dance as a kid but didn’t keep up with it, but I’ve been interested in picking up dance as a way to meet people in the town I moved to and there is a big swing scene here. I don’t have any experience with partner dancing and they offer a beginner class, but my question is how much of a learning curve is it for new dancers?

I've started a beginner class again after a 2 year break . I close my eyes 90% of the time when doing sequences with a partner. At this stage I can concentrate more. I get distracted and lose the beat or the step sequence , if I look at my partner. Does anyone else do this ? I do solo practice at home between class. The class is one hour . A 90 minute class, at this point , would be too much . I get brain fog the last 10 minutes. I'd prefer a daytime class ; none that I know of in the Toronto area. TIA

What music makes you want to get up and dance at a social? I am not looking for "this song is technically appropriate to the history or structure of swing dancing blah blah blah" suggestions but rather "Oh hell yeah I love dancing to this" type of suggestions.

Please note the song title, artist, and version (if it is a remix or whatnot).

Thanks y'all

What West Coast Swing song has a woman saying “Yeah!” surprisingly randomly a lot during the song? I’ve been searching for it for a while, but I can’t find it.

Hello! I’ve been trying to figure out a good shoe for me and I’m losing my mind. I’m looking for model and size recommendations from others who have a similar foot size.

Notes below on what I’ve tried. Thank you!! EDIT: I believe I am a EU 35.5, and I think this is my issue since most shoe brands are 35 or 36, so 36 is too big for a dance shoe and 35 hurts my feet b/c it's too short, length-wise.

For DIY-suede shoes:

• Toms in 5.5 and 5 - biggest problem here was that the construction of Tom’s irritates my foot all over - back of heel, sides, and also the mid-top. Fit was good for both, with 5.5 feeling comfy and 5 being snug without pain.

• Keds in 5.5 - this was the perfect snug fit + comfy construction but there was too much heel support

• Allbirds in 6 - LOVE them but don’t want to suede them because I like wearing them as normal shoes.

For dance shoes:

• Taygras in 5.5 - AMAZING - they were the most comfy shoes I’ve worn in my life and I’d wear them as everyday sneakers - but they were a little too big all around even with socks.

• Taygras in 4.5/5 - extremely tight. Standing is fine but walking hurts a little.

So I really started with bad posture a few months ago and i worked a lot toward improving it.
I did a varient of different youtube videos and got some drills from private teacher, and my back and core really improved. But I didn't manage to improve is to take and keep the shoulders back.

So I wonder what helped you to get ride of it? prefer things that doesn't require gym or special equipments.
I actually don't know if it that bad, but one follower told me she really feel the difference, but she is also ask for stronger tension and compression than the most followers in the class.

Thanks :-)

Leaders - Do you stick on basic moves in competitions?

So I will be on my first event in a few months, and I will have like 7 months experience dancing. And people told me that in beginner and newcomer I should stick with only the basics, and won't do things like slingshot because they afraid that the other person won't know these moves.

It sounds a bit boring, do leaders really do it? How basic is beginner level? Because I heard you can stay there for quite a time..

Thanks🙃

Hello! Kind of a two part post: part 1 a question on classes, part two a (maybe soap box) commentary on competing.

Part 1: Recently just did my first competition (yay!) but competed in Novice as I showed up too late the first night to complete in Newcomer. At future events, since I accrued no points and have never competed in either Newcomer or Novice, an I able to compete in Newcomer? While novice was fun, it was clear I was vastly outclassed even after dancing WCS for ~2 years. Granted even with 2 years, practicing had been difficult as my nearest place for lessons is 2 hours away, and only offered Mon or Weds... While I have no problem getting absolutely wrecked, I felt like I was a hindrance to my partners, which I would prefer to avoid. One of my follows made the finals alternate list, but I can't help but think she would have made the finals of she hadn't been stuck dancing with me.

Part 2: Let me frame this initially by saying this isn't a pitty party, and I'm no stranger to steep learning curves from other competitive ventures, to include skydiving and shooting. I do have an observation about classing that seemed concerning. If it's just "the way it is" and I need to just "git gud, scrub" that's cool, but maybe other people have the same thoughts and the WSDC may be open to thoughts. When dancing in the Novice category, it seemed quite obvious that many of the Novice competitors were clearly dancing at a level closer to Intermediate/Advanced but maybe didn't/don't do enough events to accrue the points required to class up. I didn't think they are sandbagging so to speak, as the points system pretty well prevents that, but just don't compete enough to class up. For example, at least two competitors in the Novice category competed in a 3-way competition the first evening, and proceeded to win against other teams of Advanced/Intermediate teams (and one team with at least one All Star). It seems there isn't a forcing function to class people up to a level commensurate with their actual abilities, at least to the Advanced level. All Stars, realistically, staying points based wouldn't make a difference as those that want to compete at that level are dedicated to traveling to get the points. Why isn't there an sorry of auto-classing that occurs? I.e. get 1st in your class 3 times in a 5 year period and you're bumped automatically to the next class. While getting beat in a class is part of, well, competing, it certainly disincentives people from doing so if they know people in their class would be competitive in higher classes but don't have the points to do so. I wouldn't spend money to pay in intramural sports if I knew some of the other teams in the same league were D college or semi-pro teams, why would I do so with dancing?

There are ways to implement a forced class-up that are objective (again, 1st place 3 times in a 5 year period, auto bump. Or top 3 three times in a row. Or... You get the idea.)

Will I continue to learn? Yep!

Will I still complete, even though I still suck? Also yep. Again, personally not concerned with getting skull-drug because I suck, most shooting disciplines I complete in don't even have classes, talk about getting wrecked by the top... Imagine being a Newcomer competing with Champions... Rough 😅

Do I think it's reasonable to up-class people that are clearly above the expected level, since WCS does have levels? Still yep.

Maybe someone exists to do that already and I just don't know about it, but being in a Novice class and dancing with not-novices doesn't exactly help grow the competitive aspect of WCS.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, look forward to your responses (even if they are "tough, git gud scrub."

I just started getting into west coast and I love it. I want to get a pair of dance shoes because my sneakers way to grippy. Problem is when I look online I only find heels and jazz shoes. When I’m at socials I see everyone wearing these nice simple black almost “barefoot” shoes, but I can’t find them anywhere online! Does anybody have some shoe recommendations that I could check out? Thank you!

Looks like our subreddit sidebar has some outdated information on it, I think it would be helpful to update it to make it more useful for the community.

For calendars I'd like to suggest the following:

https://www.worldsdc.com/events/ for official events

https://weekenders.dance/ great resource that includes non-WSDC events

Updating the Bay Area calendar link which is no longer working.

The link to the WSDC rules page is also outdated: https://www.worldsdc.com/rules/

If anyone else has additional recommendations, please share!

Long shot I know, but is there WCS social dancing Almelo, NL, or an easy Uber away? I’m going to be in the area a full week for work, and I’d love to dance a bit to de-stress/meet some new people. Thanks in advance!

I’m from America and will be visiting these three cities end of June. I’d love to do some dancing while I’m there! Does anyone know of good social dance nights in any of these cities?

One of my friends said that there’s WCS social dancing in the street every night in Paris… anyone know what he’s taking sbout?

Hello! I've been doing WCS consistently for 9 months now and I've finally decided to invest in shoes!

I am thinking of getting the casual sneakers from SwayD or Corrida from Taygras. I've done research, but I'm wondering if you have recommendations between these two specifically, as well as advice for taking a risk on size. I don't have a convenient way of trying them before buying online (and I know I can always return them) but I'd prefer not to return them due to sizing issues.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! I am newer to West Coast Swing and have been learning line dances as a way to grow my confidence and practice moving. What are your favorite line dances that might show up at events? Or are promoted by wcs pros?

I’m talkng about Benji’s sister and cousin. Obviously they’ve done routines but I don’t see many of any videos of theme competing JnJ.

Hi everybody! Last week I posted looking for some help as a new WCS follow - and you guys gave me some great advice!

Link to my original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/WestCoastSwing/s/YqQDm7hRqm

I have a couple updates for you!

• I reached out to a few leads from class and they've agreed to some extra practice and gave me some helpful info!
• I spoke with one of my instructors about private lessons and I am in the process of forming a private small group
• I don't think I remembered to mention this, but I usually stay for the beginner class after mine ends for extra basics practice. I still am, and now I am really focusing on a particular aspect each time (posture, staying on the slot, etc), in hopes that it'll translate past the basic steps into the more advanced patterns
• I "mouth count" to myself when I start to notice I'm making mistakes or losing the beat, instead of just trying to count in my head, and that seems to help me recover! I just had to get over feeling awkward about it

Things I still want to focus on for improvement:

Everything (lol), but really, any additional insight is always appreciated!

• Posture/Frame: I reset my shoulders/upper body prior to starting every dance, but I feel like I have a hard time maintaining it by about halfway through dancing with someone.
• Waiting: I've been mentally making a note to myself to "wait to be moved," as someone suggested, which is most successful at the beginning, but I still find myself rushing once I actually get going.
• "Catching on"/differentiating the cues for various patterns: I assume this is one of those "you'll get this with practice" things, but I'm struggling to differentiate cues quickly enough in time with music.
• Turns/Spins and Spotting: I don't have any dance history, so I've never done much spinning before. I've noticed with the whips especially that I'm very prone to dizziness. We briefly discussed spotting in class but I don't have much experience with it so I'm currently finding it to be quite difficult. I'm also struggling a bit on over-rotation/under-rotation with each step.
• Turns/Spins 2: How do you stay on the slot? I find that I tend to wobble and end up a ways off from where I started, which is fine in class but I could easily collide with someone while social dancing, and I definitely don't want that!

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Thank you all for your help!!!

Join us!

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https://discord.gg/svZ63SF7Gb

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Hi! Are there any west coast swing classes taught in dublin or occasional events?

Some history:

I danced twice a week almost every week for about 4 years before the pandemic. Then the pandemic hit and shut down my dance club. While that was the case, I moved away, and only last summer found a new club, which I attend with my fiancée.

My fiancée was new to dancing, and I was joining her for the beginner lessons for a while, in part to facilitate her comfort, and in part to refresh my fundamentals after years away. Once she was comfortable with the lessons and I was convinced I had remembered my basics, I started taking the intermediate lessons again.

I've been having a new experience in those intermediate lessons. When I try a new pattern or technique they've introduced, I feel completely lost. Nothing feels right, and I can't wrap my head around what I'm supposed to be doing. That's all normal and expected. It should feel that way, it's new stuff.

But then the instructor will watch me, or even do the pattern with me, and tell me, "that's great!" or, "you've got it!" or something along those lines. After tonight's lesson, someone who was watching came over and told me how fluid I looked and how much they enjoyed watching me dance. I spent that whole lesson feeling like I was tripping over my own feet.

So what's the disconnect I've got here? Is my body learning without my brain's involvement or something? I think this is the first time I've felt such a big disconnect between the quality of my dancing and my perception of my dancing. Is this a sign I'm getting good? Or is my brain just having a hard time consciously conceptualizing movements it's unconsciously communicating to my body?

I'm curious about the best time to learn both roles. Once you've gotten intermediate in one, should you switch to the other? After a few years?

Do any WCS DJs do mixed song transitions for west coast swing socials at all? Or is it pretty much only hard cuts between songs?

I am a follow and I have been taking private lessons. I started WCS a few months ago. I am trying really hard to nail the technique before learning fancy patterns.

My teacher keeps telling me that he can "feel my steps" and that I'm falling onto my foot too much. He also says I'm "reaching" too far with my steps. I've been trying really hard to make it feel smoother but I can't quite get the hang of it. I am confused about how to achieve a smooth weight transfer.

On the one hand, I've heard people say "foot follows form" in dance. For example in closed position, when my instructor applies pressure to move my torso in a certain direction, he tells me to let my centre of weight shift in that direction before moving my foot to fill the space.

On the other hand, I've been told to place the foot, and then gradually shift my weight over the foot. For example in the sugar push, I strike my foot on the 1, then move my body over my foot on the "and" and then strike my foot on the 2 and move my body over my foot on the "and".

Do you have any tips about how to make the weight transfer smoother? Am I missing something?

Ok so this is a weird one but I’d love to copy the side stripe bra look that Lauren Jones rocks.

Anyone know what brand/style this is?

I created a WCS discord server that's intended to be for dancers all around the world.

My hope is that it helps keep people connected to their local communities and also engage with folks in other communities that they might not regularly engage with.

This is the server for anyone who also thinks this is a good idea: https://discord.com/invite/QDUhAdPb