East Coast Swing Dance

This dance, unlike the West Coast Swing, is a rotational dance. With its easy basic step and lively music, this fun dance is sure to be a hit with everyone. You can learn east coast swing at Dance Louisville.

East Coast Swing is danced under fast swing music, including rock & roll and sometimes boogie woogie. Originally known as Eastern Swing, the name East Coast Swing became more common in the late 1970s and beyond. The dance was created from the Lindy Hop style because some instructors at the time, deemed Lindy as too difficult and unstructured to teach new students. East Coast Swing is a much easier dance to learn compared to the Lindy Hop, Shag or even West Coast Swing.

The East Coast Swing is considered one of the american rhythm dances, in the competitive ballroom dance world. Its basic is broken up into two main movements: triple steps and rock steps. More often than not, the basic is counted as so: triple step, triple step, rock step. Each triple has 2 counts and the rock step has 2 counts, making the basic a 6 count pattern. There are other variations of the basic step, but for the most part, the basic patterns are in the 6 and 8 count range. East Coast Swing music is usually danced to fast and upbeat music making this a lively dance, both fun to watch and fun to do!

You may be asking, what is the difference between East Coast and West Coast Swing? Great question! There are major differences between these two styles. While both use a 6 count basic pattern, that is about the only similarity. East Coast Swing is a rotational dance whereas West Coast Swing is done in a linear, or slotted fashion. Their rhythms are also reversed, for instance: East Coast starts with a triple, and West Coast Swing ends with a triple, also known as an anchor.