Editor’s Note: For this series, the writers chose a Recreation Services club sport and attended practices with the teams. The stories are based off of their experiences.

 

With Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ blasting through the speakers, couples swirl around the dance floor, laughing while trying to keep in step with the music.

 

No, it’s not 1 a.m. at a Friday night house party. It’s 7 p.m. on a Tuesday night in the exercise room at Archbold Gymnasium, and the swing club is in, well, full swing. Gaga sets the mood for the West Coast style, allowing dancers to swing with contemporary dance-pop hits, including selections from Justin Timberlake and The Black Eyed Peas.

 

‘I’ve swing-danced at parties,’ said Leanna Mulvihill, the club’s president. ‘Sometimes people think it’s cool and fun, other times they just look at me weird.’

 

While swing dancing may look awkward at a party, the dancers in Archbold make the moves look natural. The older performers, who have been swing dancing since their freshmen year, glide across the floor, spinning and moving around their partners as though they are in front of a sold-out crowd.

 

‘It takes coming pretty regularly to get really comfortable,’ said Tara Wilt, the club’s vice president and a junior conservation biology major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. ‘But you can pick up the basics in a day, and once you get the hang of it, it’s easy.’

 

The basic steps are simple. Step on one foot, step on the other, rock step (stepping back on one foot). Then comes the spinning, dipping and gliding that separates the tentative beginners from the seasoned swingers.

‘It’s contagious,’ said Eric Stone, a junior natural history and interpretation major, also at ESF. ‘People try to overthink it. You just have to come out after a big day of classes and have fun.’

 

Fun isn’t in short supply at the swing club. The lead dancers, mostly male, line up on one side of the room, and the females line up opposite them. A swing dance speed dating frenzy ensues as each couple greets one another, dances briefly and then switches partners.

 

Nervousness melts away as dancers get a feel for the one-two rock step. The music changes from West Coast Gaga to more traditional East Coast swing, playing Benny Goodman’s ‘Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).’  The experienced dancers are patient with the new dancers, explaining how to keep tension in their arms and make their steps look graceful.

 

‘It’s great to see people get more confident and not be afraid to dance in public,’ said Mulvihill, a junior environmental resources engineering major at ESF. She and Stone both went to a swing club meeting their freshman year out of curiosity and fell in love with the dance style. But Stone’s passion for the dance came years earlier, thanks to a Gap clothing commercial, of all inspirations.

 

‘It’s such a stress reliever,’ he said. ‘It’s the most relaxing part of my week.’

 

Although Mulvihill and Stone never had formal dance training before trying swing, some students who have been dancing all their lives welcome the change of pace the style brings.

 

‘I wanted to do something other than ballet,’ Wilt said. ‘I liked the idea of dancing with someone else, so I gave it a try. Now I absolutely love it.’

 

Unlike the practiced routines and demands of styles like ballet, swing dancing is looser and allows more room for the dancers to choose their own moves. The style is so expressive that smiling, whether dancing or watching, is a natural tendency.

 

‘People are fascinated when they watch swing dance,’ Stone said. ‘That’s my favorite part, bringing it outside the club and watching people’s reactions.’

 

The club members also go into the community to dance, attending swing nights at the Saint Clare Theater on North Townsend Street on Thursday nights. ‘It’s a great way to mix it up and dance with new people,’ Mulvihill said.

 

Whether the dancers paired with strangers or old friends seemed irrelevant; long-harbored and budding passions bloomed in the exercise room. Before the practice concluded, all the dancers formed a circle in a game called ‘Snowball.’ Two people began dancing in the middle of the circle, and the rest of the circle broke off into pairs to dance, choosing their own moves and laughing as they twirled freely around the room.

 

After the meeting was over and most of the dancers left, Stone stopped and sighed. As he picked up his backpack, he turned to Mulvihill and Wilt with one question in mind.

‘Don’t we have time for one more dance?’

 

ertocci@syr.edu

 

Published on September 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm