The Dance Primer

Sorry for the lack of posts. I’m busy having a Merry Christmas with the family. More regular posting will resume in the new year. I hope you can go out and support a local Holiday Ball, especially one featuring live music. Live music events are always very risky financially for the organizers, but always make […]

[Read more →]

I knew I had to share this as soon as I saw it. Yet another inspiration that you’re never too [fill in the blank] to start dancing.
“With a troupe of fellow senior citizens, Wu Ying is a proud member of the Hip-Hop Grannies, a dance group that travels around China, performing for young and old […]

[Read more →]

I was having a conversation the other night with a new dancer who will not go social dancing. He seems to understand the import of social dancing, but his fear of messing up - and having a partner there with him to suffer his mistakes - petrifies him. Someone else mentioned that girls would rather […]

[Read more →]

Welcome readers of Swing Dancer Magazine! I invite you to browse around, and please leave your input. If you’re brand new to dancing, or have been around a long time, we’d love to hear your thoughts. And thank you, SDM, for your kind words about The Dance Primer.

[Read more →]

Not many states out there have an official State Dance, but in the Caronlina’s, Shag is it. I really regret not learning it when I lived in Raleigh. I was too busy salsa dancing, I guess. I love how smooth the movement is in this dance.
This video features Doug Silton and Ginger Pickeral.

[Read more →]

“You got to know when to hold ‘em…” Floor craft: knowing where you and others are on the dance floor so you and your partner don’t hit others. It’s like seeing where you fit in a moving puzzle.
I was at a dance pratica a while back, dancing with a lead who is pretty new to […]

[Read more →]

I need your help. Even though nothing beats live dance instruction, my sister suggested this site should have a list of great instructional videos, and I agree. Not everyone can line up regular babysitters, or lives in a city with quality instruction - I used to have to drive five hours to get to the […]

[Read more →]

While we’re on the subject of technique, I know of no dance genre with more refined technique than ballet. What skill! Here is a commercial for the Anaheim Ballet spotlighting their dancers’ fantastic technique.

[Read more →]

Technique can be a really easy thing to obsess about as a beginner. It is something concrete to concentrate on. However, it can be confusing when different instructors have different techniques to accomplish the same thing. (I can’t even count the many different ways I’ve been taught to do the basic lindy hop swing out.)
It’s […]

[Read more →]

Do you know the difference between a Romantic and a Classicist? When I was a music major in college, I got in trouble for interpreting a Mozart piece Romantically. I had done so intentionally, and had my justifications, but it didn’t fly with the department head.
In music, and in dance, I am most definitely a […]

[Read more →]