A headline published in the New York Times in August 1936 said: “DANCE INSTRUCTORS SEE DOOM OF ‘SWING’.” Philip S. Nutt, the president of the American Society of Teachers of Dancing who was quoted in that article did not believe that swing dancing would last beyond winter. “It’s like the other dances,” he said, “there for a month or so and then gone.” Well, the craze is still here and getting stronger on the campuses of Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota State University-Mankato, and Bethany Lutheran College.
But what is swing dancing? “Swing dancing is hard to explain,” junior Emily Heintz, a founder of Bethany Lutheran College’s swing dance club said. “You can give the dictionary definition of two people dancing, and doing fancy moves on the dance floor, but to me it’s just a great way to meet people.”
The craze began at Gustavus Adolphus College. “Chris Rupp started Gustavus’ swing club roughly 15 or 16 years ago,” senior Sara Van Vreede, Gustavus’ current secretary of swing dance club, said.
Gustavus’ swing dance club is still going strong. The club’s members meet every Wednesday from 9-11 p.m. in Alumni Hall or at The Dive, which is a lounge area in the Johnson Student Union. Lessons go from 9-9:30 p.m. and open dancing goes until the end of the night. “Or until they kick us out,” Van Vreede said with a smile.
Rupp later teamed up with Nick Burt and started The MSU Swing Dance Club at Minnesota State University, Mankato during spring semester of 2004. Club members meet up Monday nights in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom at 9:30 p.m. and dance until around 11:30 p.m.
Heintz and her friends decided to start a swing dance club at Bethany Lutheran College after they hosted a swing dance there on Thurs. Sept. 30, 2010 and had a great turnout.
Sophomore Jill Bartels, a member of MSU Swing Club’s leadership, mentioned that on one night in September the students from Bethany brought 30 people to MSU Swing Club’s open dance. “There are a lot of them,” said MSU Swing Dance Club president Wesley Anderson.
Everyone is welcome to come to the club meetings, though the main attendants are students. The members stretch across all majors, alumni come, and sometimes faculty members stop by. Students come to the club meetings from Bethany Lutheran College, Gustavus, MNSU-Mankato, and South Central College. Larger events, such as Gustavus’ fall dance, may even draw people from St. Olaf, Carleton and the Twin Cities area.
The layout of the night at Gustavus and Mankato start with lessons. There are three styles of swing dancing that are well-known: East Coast; Charleston; and Lindy-hop. The most basic is East Coast which is a six-step count involving two side-steps and a rock-step.
The Charleston can be done solo or as a pair, and involves an eight-step count where you kick out your left foot, set it near your right foot, step back on your right foot, forward on your right foot and repeat it all again.
Lindy is a more complicated eight-step count which involves triple steps. According to Bartels, it’s hard for some people to get the hang of, though Anderson, Van Vreede and Bartels said that it was one of their favorite styles.
“[At Gustavus] what will be taught that night is determined by leadership,” Van Vreede said, “The people that show up are split into skill levels of less-experienced people and more-experienced people. At our meetings a couple of couples volunteer to teach the levels and they decide what moves they will teach that night about 15 to 20 minutes before lessons.”
The same approach is taken at MSU’s swing dance club. “Beginners are always welcome,” said Anderson. “It’s really easy, though it kind of depends on gender. If you’re a girl it’s pretty easy: you just follow along. If you’re a guy we’ll help you out.”
After the lessons portion of the evening is finished everyone swarms the dance floor and dances the night away to music ranging from big band to jazz to pop. Couples pull out their favorite moves that include the boom-boom-boom, come-and-go, titanic, skin-the-cat, multiple spins in a row, and many more.
“I like switching partners when we have lessons, because I get to meet more people,” said Heintz. “I like open dancing of course, but that seems to be everyone’s favorite part.”
Once at MSU’s Swing Dance Club this academic year the number of people in the CSU ballroom topped out at 180. “We counted,” said Bartels. “This was a month into the year too. It’s been growing and we like that…the more people the better.”
A common problem for MSU’s Swing Dance Club is a lack of guys. Bethany doesn’t seem to have this problem though: “We wanted to start a swing dance club because we have a lot of guys interested this year,” said Heintz.
Whether there are enough guys or not, the smiles on the faces of the members tell you enough to know that no matter the crowd it’s always fun, and there’s always someone to talk to.
“The social aspect is huge,” said Van Vreede, “but dance is a way to relax, to meditate, to remember, to forget; a way to learn new things and make new connections with people.”
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