Swing

For people who don’t know, ‘Swing dance’ is actually a form of dance style that is directly associated with Jazz’s swing music in the 1920’s to 1940’s. Swing Jazz actually refers to the type of music that uses a blend crotchets and quavers, mostly from West African and African American music and dance. These syncopated timing, which are generally quarter and eighth notes, are regarded by most dancers as ‘steps’ and ‘triple steps’.

There are actually a lot of different swing dance styles that have developed from the original ‘Swing’ dance. Each locality actually has a different definition for their ‘swing dance’ and uses their own version of what ‘appropriate’ music they should use to accompany it.

History

The origin of swing dance actually dates back to the 1920’s when the black community discovered Lindy Hop and Charleston as they were dancing to the smooth music of Jazz. Jazz clubs gave an opportunity for dancers to explore swing dance, and pretty soon, different styles of swing dance were created. One of the more popular dance styles is the Lindy Hop, which was one of the very first swing dance styles discovered. Now, you have a myriad of different swing dance styles.

Styles Of Swing

The evolution of swing dance and swing dance music has opened new doors for new dance style to be developed. One of the earlier dance styles of swing is the Savoy Swing, which is a casual-looking style of swing dance that employs a fast and jumpy action. The Lindy Hop, which is another, more popular form of swing dance style, is a much smoother dance style as compared to Savoy Swing.

East Coast Swing is a 6 count version of the Lindy Hop, and is popular among dance schools. Whip is a form of swing dance that involves the leader spinning the follower to move him or her to another dance position. A swing dance style that is used for competitions in the United States is referred to as the Jive. These are just some of the different styles of swing dance. There are actually a whole lot more.

Swing Music

Most of the development in different swing dance styles can be attributed to the different trends and influences in popular music. There are actually a lot of different music that influenced the different styles, such as traditional jazz music for Charleston, swing music for the Lindy Hop, and Pop, R&B, Funk or Blues are used for West Coast Swing.

Swing Competition

There are basically four formats for swing competitions. With the classic format of competition, a couple would dance for a previously choreographed song, but with restrictions and limitations to their drops, lifts and moves. A showcase is the same with the classical format, but they are not subject to much restriction. A strictly format employs a no pre-choreographed steps rule, wherein the competing couple dance to randomly selected music at various heats. Jack and jill is the last format, and it randomly matches partners with each other.

Criteria For Judging

There are basically three criteria for judging, and those are the timing of the dancers in terms of rhythm and tempo of the music, teamwork in terms of how the lead and the follower dance together, and technique in terms of the precision of the dance moves.