In our first class, we started by going over one of the basics of West Coast Swing: the Sugar Push. In doing this, though, we paid particular attention to our posture and how the lead’s and follow’s bodies are coming together and moving apart. To start thinking about our bodies as part of a singe moving unit, we spent some time working on how to stand, and finding our own center.

We also talked about the ribs, and how the motion is extending from the center of the body, and not from the feet. Likewise, the follow is simply continuing motion than the lead initiated. To this end, while follows were learning the generalities of a Sugar Push, the exact positioning and timing of it will always depend on what the lead leads. Moving out slightly from the center, we spent some time discussing frame. For both leads and follows, it is useful to think about the frame coming from the back (lats and triceps) and not from the front of the body (biceps and pecs). This will keep energy coming forward into your partner, but avoid the perils of ballroom wrestling!

In our second class, we started with some work on whips. The basic motion of a whip is that we’re entering on a straight line (tangent to the circle), being in a circle for the middle, and then exiting on a straight line (tangent). As we were doing this, we were also doing some work with posture and thinking about contracting the pelvic floor.

We concentrated on a leads hand change behind the follows back while leading out of the whip (Apache whip, Texas Tommy). We then worked on a little sequence: Hand-change whip, then 2 steps into a “cape hold”, body roll, and exit. We spent some time working on the finer points of a body roll, too: head, shoulders, back, hips, knees. It should feel like you’re laying on a massage table, and can feel the roller rolling down your body pushing up one “chunk” at a time.

Leads then did a little work on styling with their feet (ronde, press, replace). At the very end, we did a little experiment with changing the emotion of the dance (happy to intense to sad)….except we all seemed to catch the giggles! If you’re able to keep the emotion the same, though, getting a good feel for the flavor of each song that you’re dancing to can really spice up even a basic whip or sugar push!

We started off our third class by continuing the little sequence that we were working on last week: whip with a hand switch behind the follow’s back, “cape” hold, body roll. We did a little more work on how to do a body roll, really focusing on each body part and moving our “center” down towards the ground.

From there, by a happy accident, we worked on a slight modification of this sequence. Instead of getting into the whole body roll bit, we started with a cross-hand hold (R-R, which is how we would end from the previous whip), and then took the first two steps of a sugar push, at which point the lead would signal the follow to take the left hand (so we have a double cross hand hold, L over R). The lead would bring both sets of hands straight up and over the follow’s head in a smooth semi-circle (with the follow being careful not to elbow the lead in the jaw!). This would leave us in a rather close hold.

From here, we started playing with dips. We did a little drill with a “safety dip”, focusing on keeping our collective weight together, and not letting our centers fall away from each other. Follows always wait to feel a dip being led before entering the dip. It is also useful for follows to think about bringing their energy straight up into the dip, instead of down….like a high-jumper stretching up and over the high jump bar. At the end of class, I demonstrated the importance of the lead keeping a close connection with the follow by unwittingly sounding quite ridiculous. But really, dance is a pretty silly thing when you think about it!

We started off our fourth and final class with a little review of some of the concepts we’ve been working on–whips and catches. We then worked on some more dips–both the safety dip, and also a bigger swoopy dip. The trick for this one is keeping the centers of both partners close to each other, and having the lead and follow counterbalance each other in a semi-circular fashion.

After that, we started to delve into slot changes. This happens when we flip the slot that we’re dancing in by 90 degrees. REMEMBER: only attempt this if there is space on the dance floor!! DO NOT do this in the middle of a crowded floor or else both partners will be plowed over by all the other couples in the area! The best place to do this is on the edge of a dance floor, or on a relatively empty floor. We worked on getting into this from a simple underarm turn with a little guidance on the follow’s back. This wasn’t a push, but simply an added check of motion to hint to the follow where to do.

We capped it off with a dance circle, putting all our rockin’ moves to good use. Thanks for a great class everyone, and I hope to see you all again soon!