r/Unexpected • u/MyNameGifOreilly • 2h ago

Do you wanna see my signature move?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

[removed] — view removed post

16.8k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

431 comments sorted by

View all comments

495

u/GoingBlack 2h ago

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

35

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

1

u/tongfather 42m ago edited 14m ago

You're absolutely correct about swing dancing but wrong at the same time. This is rehearsed. Those aren't regular swing moves.

Edit: ok apparently I need to clarify my response. YES, most of this is regular swing, but obviously the main part of the video that was "UNEXPECTED" (the Bob's Burgers looking twerk thing) was rehearsed. I'm no world would your partner know to do that, then switch directions to do the other way.

God damn, reddit is weird.

2

u/Uh_It_Wasnt_Me 23m ago

no, you're wrong. this is not prepared rehearsed thing with set choreography. 

even as a West Coast swinger of many years experience, but 15 plus years rusty since danced multiple times per week... I can put together some pretty great stuff that most people would look at and think was pre-rehearsed. And I was nowhere near the level of these two. 

yeah they may have danced some of these things before, or even some of these sequences before (maybe not in this exact order or with each other)... but it's obvious to anyone in the the West Coast scene long enough the there are tiny little delays and signs that this was improv - probably at a Jack and Jill competition. they're super fun to participate in and often result in great moments like this, although this is a top tier one. 

as others have stated these two are now a couple and getting married but doesn't take away from the skill they both had/have. once you get past a certain point, emphasis and focus is on musicality and improvisation and playing to the music and rhythms. throw together two people who are at that level and some pretty amazing stuff comes out

1

u/Telvin3d 33m ago

This is 95% regular swing with maybe 5% fusion stuff, which is absolutely normal for dancers at their level