Westcoast Swing
Westcoast Swing came out of the swing era Jitterbug.
Dean Collins may have helped jumpstart this non jump craze in Los Angeles around 1937.
With music in 4/4 time Thier is a 6 count basic.
Necessity maybe the Mother of this invention.
What is most notable is thier is no hopping around as in East Coast Swing.
See, Some dancer get a lot of joint pain from hopping around and prefer this type of low impact dance.
Rather then call it Low Impact dancing people use the Euphemism Sophisticated .
Your probably not going to see people dancing this to Benny Goodmans Sing Sing Sing. (Or any music more then
200 BPM)
Today it is danced to slower music to making it less of an aerobic work out.
Another interesting feature is it evolved into a slot dance.
Why? The most believable story goes: Starting in the 1940's A cult of Prostitutes sometimes called,
The Hieroduleites ran dancing on the West Coast.
The Hieroduleites controlled and worked the California shorline's bars and motels.
These ladies of the night would encouraged sailors to drink before every dance.
They got some of the liquor monies and soon owned almost all the Bars and Motels on the shore.
Anyway during the course of an evening, the sailor was hardly standing, the lady was moving back and
forth in these narrow hallways slithering up an down.
That is till the sailor was ready to spend the big bucks through the door at the end of the Hall.
Westcoast swing also has the Sugar Push where you bring the girl in and push her away as though she's tried
to lift your wallet. (The move may comes from the Jitterbug.)
Today Westcoast swing is the fastest growing dance craze, do to a group of ladies who promote it with Love
Bombing.
Perhaps these ladies are descendants of the Hieroduleites.
Lord M
