By David Hurtado
Students passing by the Craig Community Auditorium on Tuesday afternoons may occasionally hear lively music emanating from the room. This is not “Gangnam Style” at work; this is Swing Club.
Delaney Herman, club president, said she formed the club because she wanted to share her love for dance with other people. She initially got interested in dance through a foreign exchange student who complained of a lack of night clubs.
“I’ve been dancing swing for eight years now and it’s been a huge part of my life,” Herman said. “It’s kind of become who I am and I wanted to share that with other people. I found a sponsor who wanted to help me out and I found a space. The rest is history.”
The club focuses mostly on West Coast Swing (WCS), which evolved from the early ‘20s Lindy Hop dance. WCS is a partner dance characterized by being very musical and adopting many nuances from other forms of dance.
Aside from getting down on the dance floor, each meeting also devotes time to teaching newer members the basics of Swing. No one is required to stay for entire meetings.
“We have a two-hour block of time where we have space reserved,” Herman said. “The first hour or so is a lesson where we teach basic stuff: turns, patterns, dips; whatever we decide to work on for that day. Then the last hour of the club, we just play music. We encourage people to dance with someone else, practice the moves that we learned and have a blast.”
The club also makes a point to frequent many local dance venues including Madrigal Martini Bar, Retro, Drum Room and Louis & Company Ballroom Studio.
Ducky Seils, student and member, said he joined at the urging of his brother. Seils said he started out dancing Swing, but now works on shuffling and Tecktonik dance also.
“I initially joined because my brother was in it and he told me I should join when I came to [the college],” Seils said. “[…] It was pretty fun. I liked it and I came on my own after that.”
Andy Anderson, club adviser and dean of English, said the club welcomes students of all skill levels and can provide instruction if students are not the most skilled dancers.
“[Members] are really good about helping new people learn basic steps,” he said. “They start with beginners. If anyone who goes for the first time doesn’t know anything about dancing, someone will show them the first step and get them started. It’s open to all levels. Their goal is just sort of to promote and encourage people to enjoy dance […] You could go and in an hour, you would be dancing.”
For more information about Swing Club, contact Andy Anderson at aanders@jccc.edu or Delaney Herman at delaneyherman@rocketmail.com.
Contact David Hurtado, features editor, at dhurtado@jccc.edu.