During the 1960's Television put dancing on the back burner. Most people did not have to leave their homes for an
evening’s entertainment as in the past. Televisions were now affordable and almost in everyone's home. Since these couples dancers
were not going out and dancing and leading the way, newer dancers generally did not know what or how to do the dances of the past.
In walks a dance called the "Twist" and no one had to learn anything, just "twist the night away". Other freeform style dances would
follow and a whole generation grew up without partner dancing. However, there were still a small group that did dance and kept it
alive, these dancers formed Swing dance clubs and would continue it on. Then Country Western music and dancing gained popularity.
For a time many Country Western establishments outlawed West Coast Swing being done in the clubs (only a few dancers were doing it
at the time) ... as being to Sexy and to much Attitude along with stating it NOT being Country. However after awhile everyone wanted
to do it except for the die hard country western dancers.
Disco
In the 1970's, Disco became the rage and Swing Dancers
were now dancing to Disco music. Most Disco dances have strong roots in Swing, Samba, Cha Cha, Mambo, Merengue, Fox Trot and Tango.
It went through many variations in the seventies, with line dances for groups of people, solo movements that came and went, and partnership
dances, particularly the Hustle. These new young dancers did not know of the earlier dances, and they were looking for something “not
ballroom” and “not swing” to do to the synchopated beats. Believed to have originated in
and the ability to change direction quickly. It was easy to do and perfect
for the clubs.
Many of the top hustle dancers also dabbled in Ballroom and Swing and soon found many of their hustle checks and
moves could be danced in swing as well. This was the catalyst for modern WCS. Those young dancers made more young people want to check
it our as it wasn’t what their parents were doing.
Hip Hop
With disco music dying and New Wave becoming the next big thing
in pop music, “Ballroom-WCS-with-a-Hustle-influence” became the dance of choice for many in the 80’s. Many competitions were being
held across the
Hip Hop and Break dance were other dance styles that originated on the streets of
West Coast Swing, being a dance that evolves with the popular music of the day, did not immediately embrace
the Hip Hop style. It was not until the late 1990’s and the growing prevalence of Hip Hop and R & B artists on the radio that
WCS dancers started to adopt this new music and accompanying movements.
West Coast Swing is still evolving. Today, it is not
similar to its ancestor, Savoy Style Lindy at all. It does not have a certain dress style, usually just trendy-casual dress of the
day. It is not music dependent, meaning that it can be danced to any type of music available, as long as it’s in 4/4 time. Blues music,
the original music used for West Coast Swing, has been the common denominator. No matter what decade you were in, you could dance
WCS to Blues music. However many dancers also like dancing to the more up-tempo rhythms of Funk, Disco, Jazz, Soul, Motown, Beach,
Techno, Rap, Pop, as well as Country, Big Band Swing, Retro, and even some Latin. The dance itself originated from Swing music, but
now Swing is only a fraction of the music used.
As in the History of most things, there is not one definitive story of the development of WCS - there are a few. It is likely that they are all true, but there is much debate about which source had the most influence.
By the late 1940’s, Lindy Hop was
banned from virtually every serious dance hall due to too many injuries to self and others from kicks, jumps, etc., so the national
Ballroom associations, looking for a much more simple and milder form of Hollywood style, invented East Coast Swing and added it to
their syllabus. Western Swing did not look like the reckless abandon of the previous swingers and looked much more smooth, polished
and stylish, and it was danced to slower more Blues-style music. Many other ballroom teachers would dance Western Swing to entice
students to take lessons, but when the potential student would ask what it was and where they could learn it, they would be told it
was East Coast Swing or Jitterbug so as to qualify for their national accreditation. Students would think they were learning what
their instructors were doing, but except for the advanced dancers who took private lessons, they were all just learning East Coast
Swing. This dance still exists on its own, but in the competitive Ballroom world it has been developed and fine tuned to what is now
called “Jive”.
From the mid 1940's to today, the Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, and Swing were stripped down and distilled by the ballroom
dance studio teachers in order to adapt what they were teaching to the less nimble-footed general public who paid for dance lessons.
As a result, all the ballroom dance studios bred and developed a ballroom East Coast Swing and ballroom Western Swing.
On the street,
however, West Coast Swing continued to evolve. After the late 1940's, the soldiers and sailors returned from overseas and continued
to dance in and around their military bases. The prostitutes in the dance halls and night clubs on the shores of the Pacific Ocean
in
In 1959,
some of the
American Bandstand introduced a dance called the "Slop" which was
just another term for West Coast Swing. Historically, the dance asters of America were trying to control what people danced and tried
every year to create, develop and introduce new dances to the money spending public. When the music would change they would just change
the name of some of the dances and re-introduce them to the public. Swing as a dance was the main dance that would be changed or another
variation of the same dance was introduced. Many performers tried (and still try) to take credit for a new style by giving it a new
name.
