r/WestCoastSwing

How often are you going to events and competing? How many comps did it take you to move through each division? I have seen people talk about things in months/years, but not in event numbers so I’m curious.

I know people in my division who are traveling and competing every month, sometimes twice a month. I’ve been doing around 6 a year/every other month and thought that was a good amount, but I’m not progressing as quickly as I “should” be (or could be if I went more often). I know comparison is the thief of joy and all that. A recent WDOTD post about the advanced division also made me realize I really don’t want to be there right now lol. 

I remember being over the moon when I got my first newcomer points years ago, and even though I’m so much more skilled now, some of that joy has been overtaken by comp fatigue and general disillusionment.

For those who stopped competing, when did you know it was time to stop? Did you ever go back?

I could not figure out a way to make that title less weird so bear with me.

I was thinking the other day about how interesting this hobby is in that you can get so much contact and intensity, and only after remember to ask for each other's names. That could really scare off a lot of newbies. First lesson, you're learning everything with an open position. And then you go into a social dance and especially as a follow leads are using whips and starter steps and you expected the only contact to be hands and suddenly it's not. I was freaked out my first social, but now of course I realize it's completely normal and wasn't a lead being weirdly touchy.

Just some thoughts I've been having recently, and was interested to hear opinions from the broader community.

Hey Westies, I've been making West Coast Swing content for around 2 years casually. At first, it started with biographical videos like "Why I started dancing?" and then moved on to include me and my friends journeys with West Coast Swing. And this year I moved on to cover a few events around London and the community behind them. Most of it is Jack & Jill dances mixed with me and my friends goofing around, just random shenanigans. But events are few and far between (and are expensive) where I live so it's tough to make regular content.

However, I've been talking with a few of the West Coast Swing organisers here and I've been tasked with growing the community to keep bringing more people into this dance. I know pro Jack & Jill dances are what currently gets people to try this dance, but I think these dances can also be intimidating, because the only ones that go viral are the all-star/champ dances and the skill gap between them and a newbie is huge. My ideal goal would be a "Dancing with the stars" or "So you think you can dance" style reality show only focused on west coast swing, but that's just a pipe dream.

So I'm wondering what sort of West Coast Swing content would you like to watch, especially on a cozy Saturday night? What content would get someone who's never stepped onto a dance floor to give it a shot?

More a random story time, but last week I decided to hit the beginner lesson as an experienced lead just walking about the venue waiting for the social, and ended up really vibing with a follow there. I asked them to dance during the social and the dance was actually SOOOO good. I only led basics, really, but the vibes, chemistry, physical connection was just there.

The thing I find so interesting is that we danced I think 4 times, and each dance became exponentially worse in a mechanical sense - we clearly were still having a lot of joy together, but by dance 4 we became really disconnected and there was no flow in the dance. I have to think that maybe I just became more and more experimental with the partnership and they were still a beginner at the end of the day, but idk lol

Do y’all ever have days or even just moments where everything goes off the rails or your favorite partner and you just aren’t making sense suddenly?

In my city there isn't much opportunity for guided practices or socials so I mostly just take lessons and then learn other dances though out the week. I don't usually take privates just cause cash is a bit stingy right now and I don't really have a dedicated partner to work with through the week.

I'm just curious what folks do to practice getting better in their own time by themselves if any. I have time to practice as I cook and wanna jam to music.