Im learning west coast swing dance. How is it different from easr coast?

Answer 1

I sometimes laugh at this because it depends who you ask. I jokingly say that if you ask a lindyhopper or east coast swinger how west coast swing looks, they say WCS people look like they have a stick up their ***. If you ask a WCS what lindy or ECS is, and they will say it's limbs flying all over and always looks on the verge of crashing. Honestly, I have done all three dances as well as Balboa (which is really fun if you can ever find someone who can teach it properly), and they all have their good and bad points.

The basic pattern for ECS for the lead is two counts left, two counts right, and then a rock step. The two counts can be done in single time, double time, or triple time. The rock-step is what reestablishes the connection and prepares for the next move. The basic pattern is circular in nature and usually done to faster music at 120 BPM or higher. It is the easiest of the swing dances to pick up and master, but most people find it limiting because it is so simple. Almost all of the swing dancers I know started with ECS then moved up to lindyhop or WCS.

West coast swing is derived from lindyhop and is sometimes called "Hollywood Swing" because of its origins. The story goes that many film directors and producers wanted swing dance sequences in their movies but lindyhop requires a great deal of room to dance because it has the same circular pattern as ECS. They solved this by introducing the idea of a "slot" or "track" in which the follow moves up and down instead of moving in a circle. This makes it so more couples can be on the dance floor at one time. Originally, it was also danced to music that was just as fast as ECS and lindyhop, but over the decades, it has evolved into more of a ballroom-esque dance by using slower music and smoothing out the "jumpiness" of ECS and lindy.

The basic footwork of WCS can all change based on the person dancing and the move being done, but the basic is 6 counts. It starts with a step, step, triple step, triple step. The last triple is called the "anchor step" that serves the same purpose as the rock-step in ECS to reestablish the connection and prepare for the next set of moves. However, there are also 8-count moves called whips that go step, step, triple step, step, step, triple step with the last triple being an anchor step. That is the basic idea, but many people don't dance that way after doing it for awhile which has helped make it what it is today.

Today, most people dance WCS to slower music in the range of 80-100 BPM. Instead of the bouncing that is traditional in ECS and lindy, WCS is very smooth now with as little vertical motion as possible. The dance does not have to be 6-count or 8count moves either. A dancer can easily do 12-count, 16-count, etc moves. The timing can also vary depending on how one feels the music. Any combination of single, double, and triple time can be done. This opens it to be very interpretative, and it has started incorporating every other form of dance possible. For instance, many dancers add bits of modern, jazz, ballet, and Latin to what they do. You can add Cuban motion to the anchor step or have these sweeping arm movements like in modern dance. This also makes it one of the most dynamics dances because pretty much anything can be incorporated as long as the slot and occasional anchor step is retained (you can probably tell I am more of a WCS person from that). This has also led to criticism from ballroom dancers and swing dancers alike with the most compelling argument being "West Coast Swing is Dead
There is no such thing as West Coast Swing" by John Festa (the article is printed on page 5 of this newsletter: http://www.tsdc.net/news/2006%20October.pdf ).

Answer 2

a person who knows nothing about dance might not be able to tell the difference, but a dancer who does both told me they are "completely different". the only thing i remember is that east coast is faster. west coast also has many different styles or types. once you get the basic swing step and learn the follow/lead system you can switch to east coast easily. i do west coast and have seen east coast done.
it's not that hard to find online videos of both so you can compare for yourself. dance sites often offer short videos to lookat.

Answer 3

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