r/Unexpected • u/MyNameGifOreilly • 2h ago

Do you wanna see my signature move?

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u/GoingBlack 2h ago

This is West Coast Swing! These two are some of the best in the world. They are also a couple!

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u/Telvin3d 58m ago

Also, fun thing for people who aren’t familiar with Swing Dance, this is almost certainly unrehearsed. They each have a deep library of moves, and are putting them together on the fly by paying close attention to each other. It’s what distinguishes a lead dance like Swing from a pattern based dance like Ballroom. 

Swing is done in sets of 6 or 8 counts. At the start of each set he’ll give her a bit of momentum and direction to tell her roughly where she’s supposed to end up, and then the rest of the counts are open for her to improvise within. Then at the end of the set they meet back where they’re expecting each other based on that initial lead. Since you always know exactly where the other person is going to be 5-7 steps in the future you can put together some wild stuff and make it look planned, particularly if you’re this good at paying attention to your partner 

Which isn’t to say people never choreograph swing dances ahead of time, but in this case you can see that she’s just a blink behind him as she’s responding to his lead

4

u/tufff 45m ago

That's a great explanation! I just want to add that it's almost the same for ballroom and latin dances. You usually have a planned routine for fixed partner competitions, but that doesn't count for much when there are 12 other couples on the floor...