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Our Mission Statement
Our mission is to promote dancing and dance related activities with our friends and students throughout Fort Wayne and the surrounding area. We want more folks to have fun and make new friends while learning to dance. We also strive to serve the larger community through dance-related service activities and events.
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Basic Components of Dance
These apply to any style of dance.
The three fundamental components of dance are position, timing, and styling.
- Position is where you want your body to be.
- Timing is when you want it to be there.
- Styling is how you get it there.
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East Coast Swing
A brief introduction to basic footwork.
East Coast Swing is a great way to get into couples dancing with lead and follow. Although it is not the easiest couples dance to learn, it is very popular and a lot of fun. There are thousands of great songs that the dance can be done to. And it is done more or less in one place on the floor, so there is no need to travel around the dance floor navigating through other dancers.
Couples dancing adds frame, connection, and lead & follow to the basic components of dance. The frame is how you as a partner define your dance space. The connection with your partner allows you to communicate with one another. This is necessary for lead and follow dancing. Lead and follow is the set of practices and principles that you use to accomplish the communication. These elements work together. The frame forms the basis for the connection, the connection forms the basis for lead and follow.
Basic Pattern
Many moves in East Coast Swing use the same basic step pattern.
The basic pattern in East Coast Swing is six counts. There are three variants - triple swing, double swing, and single swing. Single swing is often danced to faster music, because it reduces the number of steps in the basic dance pattern.
In triple swing, the basic pattern is:
| Count | Pattern | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1&2 | side - together - side | triple-step |
| 3&4 | side - together - side | triple-step |
| 5, 6 | step back, recover | rock step |
The man (or leader) starts the basic pattern with his left foot. The woman (or follower) starts the basic pattern with her right foot. The foot that starts the pattern is called the lead foot - left for the leader, right for the follower.
To execute the basic triple swing pattern, the leader steps his left foot to the left,
brings his right foot next to his left transferring weight, then steps his left foot to the left.
That completes the first triple step. To execute the second triple step in the pattern,
he steps his right foot to the right, brings his left foot next to his right foot transferring weight,
then steps his right foot to the right.
To execute the rock step, the leader steps his left foot slightly back behind his right foot
(fifth foot position is recommended) and then returns weight to his right foot.
That completes the basic pattern in triple swing and he is ready to do the same thing again.
To execute the basic triple swing pattern, the follower steps her right foot to the right,
brings her left foot next to her right transferring weight, then steps her right foot to the right.
That completes the first triple step.
To execute the second triple step in the pattern, she steps her left foot to the left,
brings her right foot next to her left foot transferring weight, then steps her left foot to the left.
To execute the rock step,
the follower steps her right foot slightly back behind her left foot
(fifth foot position is recommended) and then returns weight to her left foot.
That completes the basic pattern in triple swing and she is ready to do the same thing again.