By Margaret Batiuchok

The 1st annual American Swing Dance Association dance competition will be held at the Ramada Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC from Friday, March 26, through Sunday, March 28. The best swing dancers from around the country will be in NYC competing. Both the idea of the competition and the viewing of so many champion dancers are new to NY area dancers.

Until recently, most New Yorkers danced the Lindy (or a close facsimile). Although the Lindy has been danced the longest and is the father to all other swing styles, dancers on the East Coast have 2 disadvantages in terms of competition and technical development: 1) People in NY dance socially and have not developed a competition structure, which encourages partners to work long hours on routines and to take more lessons. When Easterners achieve a comfortable social level, they usually discontinue classes; therefore technical development is slow. 2) The East coast has an older generation of dancers and a younger generation of dancers, but there is a gap in the middle age range. Whereas California has dancers in their late 40s, 50s and 60s who have continued their tradition of dancing and development, until the recent swing resurgence prompted by the New York Swing Dance Society, the East Coast has had many "dry years" of little dancing.

When New Yorkers attend competitions around the rest of the country, they tend to be very impressed by the technique and excellence of the West Coast swing dancers. West Coast swing dancers have been holding continuous competitions, about 20 per year, for many years and have developed a syllabus of style that is looked for and rewarded in the competitions. When viewers see an excellent champion dancer, they want to dance and look like the dancer, copy the moves, learn the style, even imitate the dress. It would be better to admire the dancer's excellence, personal expression, dedication and spirit, and from this create one's own style, rather than copy external effects of the admired dancer.

What I fear is that the whole country will be dancing the same style, which is great if you want to dance with people when you travel - so it does have its merits - a national swing style. The down side is that dances like the Carolina Shag, the Lindy, and the push will all be lost to a blended West Coast swing. It saddens me to see that Randy Clements no longer does those sexy pelvic rolls, indigenous to the Dallas Push, or to see Jackie McGee wear heels and dance a choreographed routine with Charlie Womble, uncharacteristic of their earlier shag dancing - to please the judges. It also upsets me to see New Yorkers abandoning the exciting, joyful traveling movement of the Lindy for the more stationary moves of West Coast swing. I'm in favor of learning all styles; in fact, I'm one of those most responsible for bringing West Coast swing to the East; I love it, and I've been teaching it for years, but it would be a shame to lose and not develop what we already have as ours, just because we may not be as advanced in our technique or presentation. Rather than trading in one for the other, we can take those wonderful qualities we like about each of the dances, respecting them all, and developing an individual way of incorporating them into our own dancing. It would also be nice to keep certain qualities indigenous to each dance alive, especially when its specific music is played, so that the dance style can arise from - and be inspired by - the music.

I'm opposed to formula dancing and standardization, I'm also opposed to doing a waltz to a foxtrot, or a West Coast swing to a Lindy. I'm for authenticity and development of individual creative styling within "musical feeling" limits.

© 1993 Margaret Batiuchok

Note:

From the Ballroom Review, February/March 1993

Later published in Dancing USA and The Ballroom Dancer's Rag