Toronto Swings Better Than The Stars

Bah, east coast swing is better. :) I wish more people would learn it though (or at least learn both), this town too full of west coasters.

There are many who would say that there are too many Lindy Hoppers but I would chalk that up to ageism. *wry smile* And if T.O. is full of so many WC swingers then why are we so hard pressed to find a venue to dance?

Given that I do all Swing, Latin and Ballroom styles I would argue that East Coast is the easier to learn than West Coast. Not better, just easier. And I have yet to meet a West Coast dancer who could not do East.

By the by, the next TSDS event
featuring EC Swing will be just before Halloween on Friday, October 28th.

And for the rest of you who are scratching your heads wondering what the heck, see here get an idea of what East Coast Swing looks like.

Heheh, I only prefer east coast because it's the one I know better. :)

I should correct myself on Toronto being full of WCs: *in my experience*, all the girls I've asked to dance in Toronto have only known west coast, so I've had to either teach them some east coast on the spot or awkwardly dance the few basic west coast steps I know. To add to it, I talked to one Toronto dance instructor and she told me (a little snootily) that "nobody in Toronto dances east coast", hence my conclusion.

I use to go to dances in Hamilton, and it was all east coast there, so I was a little unprepared for all these west coast dancers in TO. :) Fortunately, there seems to be plenty of places to go learn...

BTW, while east is easier to learn, is it not better for dancing to faster songs, and west coast more apt for slower songs?

Thanks for the tip on the TSDS event, I'll try and check that one out!

PS - the "ageism" comment: which direction does that go? Young people are lindy hoppers, older folks are east coasters?

I'm curious to know where you have been dancing that is you keep on meeting women who only West Coast...

Regarding speed and East Coast Swing versus West Coast swing: frankly the issue is syncopation, not speed. Technically, you should be able to West Coast Swing to an East Coast song. The thing is, few people do.

In my opinion, fast songs (like Sing Sing Sing) should be done to *single* step swing as opposed to triple-step (East Coast) swing. But the only places that teach single step are ballroom studios, which is too bad really.

Regarding ageism: Lindy Hoppers tend to be in the 14 to 28 year old range, West Coast in the 25+ and East in the 35+ (unless they are into Country at which point they tend to be younger).

Lindy Hop is very rigorous so it is something that the kids are more likely to get into.

I have a joke: what did they call Hip Hop in the 1930s. Answer? Lindy.

The only dances I've hit in TO so far have been the monthly (?) parties on Dovercourt, just north of Bloor. Link

re: steps and syncopaction...ah, see I've only ever done single-step East Coast. At the parties in Hamilton, the songs tended to be fast enough that you could do both single or triple, depending on what you preferred, so my internal definition of east coast is a single step. Chalk it up to my lack of experience with the larger swing world...

It's like language, sorta: everybody's got a local dialect. :)

re: hip hop...funny. Cheesy, but funny. :)