West Coast Swing - Now I Understand...

[Spitfire]

Why it is that those of you who are into WCS appreciate it.

I've only learned a little so far and already I have such an appreciation of it. And just that little I've learned and been practicing is great; can't wait to learn more. :D

I know that there are elements of this dance which take a lot of time and practice to master, but basically I'm finding it not to be as difficult as many are making it out to be. :) 8)

[etchuck]

If you've had lindy before, it's not as hard except to figure out the subtle lead differences. (Of course, for me I'm learning lindy after having done WCS, and I subconsciously still do 6-count ECS to lindy music. Argh.) But especially once you know what you can get away with and HOW to improvise, you will really love doing WCS to just about anything... except perhaps waltz. :)

[dnquark]

Heh. MY biggest problem with WCS is that I for the life of me can't do *anything* 6-count in it. I'm used to listening closely to the music, which is an even 8-count, so anything that takes 6 counts *will* have an extra anchor step tacked onto the end of it :)

Then again, I've only danced WCS sporadically... Maybe one of these days I'll learn to improvise; that seems to be the cool part of WCS :)

[Spitfire]

At first I found myself switching inadvertantly to ECS.

I tried two moves that I saw on a video which didn't seem to work at first so when I watched it again I realized they were 8 count and when I tried them again they worked almost flawlessly. These being man around the woman and woman around the man.

[TemptressToo]

Which video did you watch? I watched the Cal Pozo Swing DVD and it entailed the basics of West Coast Swing. Oddly, what was on the DVD seems entirely different from what I learned in an actual lesson.

Personally, I hated the Cal Pozo video. I had purchased it, was bored, and just donated the DVD to my local public library. I bought it because the cover seemed to promise some advanced skills. Not to be...everything they taught in East Coast I already had learned...and West Coast just isn't my cup of tea...yet. ;)

[Spitfire]

Which video did you watch? I watched the Cal Pozo Swing DVD and it entailed the basics of West Coast Swing. Oddly, what was on the DVD seems entirely different from what I learned in an actual lesson.

Personally, I hated the Cal Pozo video. I had purchased it, was bored, and just donated the DVD to my local public library. I bought it because the cover seemed to promise some advanced skills. Not to be...everything they taught in East Coast I already had learned...and West Coast just isn't my cup of tea...yet. ;)

The Swing video by Kyle Webb and Susan Parisi which covers Jitterbug, ECS and WCS. I found these in the library; there's two volumes - one for beginning and for intermediate.

[Sagitta]

(Of course, for me I'm learning lindy after having done WCS, and I subconsciously still do 6-count ECS to lindy music. Argh.) There are six count moves in lindy!! :)

[Vince A]

Heh. MY biggest problem with WCS is that I for the life of me can't do *anything* 6-count in it. I'm used to listening closely to the music, which is an even 8-count, so anything that takes 6 counts *will* have an extra anchor step tacked onto the end of it :)

Then again, I've only danced WCS sporadically... Maybe one of these days I'll learn to improvise; that seems to be the cool part of WCS :)And that is OK . . . just dance. It's not too important until you really get into this dance. Later, when and if you compete, you may want to learn to phrase the music and do some choreography.

You say the music is in 8-counts. Let's go there. You need to get beyond the 6-counts to 8-counts right???

Just picking a number . . . say 40-counts of music, or 5, 8-counts of music.

Why not do two 6-count moves, one 8-count move, two more 6-count moves, and another 8 count move . . . 40 counts in all!!! ANy combination will do!

Try this:
Do a 6-count "right-side-pass"
Do a 6-count "left-side-pass"
Do a 6-count "push" (remember - don't travel forward on 5&6)
Do an 8-count "whip"
Do an 8-count "anything . . . getting her to count 5," hit a break, pose for counts 6-7-8,
Do a 6-count "right-side-pass"

Let's see . . that's 6+6+6+8+5+3+6=40 Yes???
How did you do???
By the way, this is not typically how it is done . . . just wanted to keep it simple and for you to do an exercise with the numbers of dance/music.