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| Snapshots of WCS in the Decades Before 1990 |
A reader had somehow come up with the idea that I write in order to return WCS back to the way it was danced in the 1990's... only! As I've said before... yes, I consider the 1990's to be WCS's "Renaissance Era" (a period of intellectual and artistic vigor). But to say that I believe a dancer is dancing WCS only if he is dancing it the way it was danced in a single decade? That just couldn't be further from the truth.
West Coast Swing has been danced within the confines of the WCS Essentials since it was born.
I write so the dance of WCS can survive... the WCS that has been danced for decades. I write so that dancers won't buy the "we don't do that anymore" jargon when they're being taught Abstract Improvisation or Zouk instead of WCS.
So I created a video of WCS being danced BEFORE the Renaissance Era in order to help. WCS is WCS, no matter what the era. I love it all. We all do!
So here it is - and I look forward to having even more soon!
Enjoy:
Generational Swing: WCS before the 90's
See! When people rant against "1990's dancing," they are simple uneducated. Unread. They don't know what they are talking about. Ignore them. A fool is a fool.
The WCS that was the rage in the 1990's had the same basics and rules as those in the 1950's. Triples, Push Breaks, six count patterns... sorry to disappoint the sheep out there, but the proof is in the footage.
Deal with it.
Again, I thank all the dancers who first shared these on YouTube. It is my belief that the easiest way to combat untrained "renegade" teaching is by posting our historic videos... preserving our dance for future generations.
xoxo,
Katherine Krok Eastvold
An excerpt from Weekly Note #16: Generational Swing. Get the full and complete version in the book Setting Dancers Free, available on Amazon.com.
