Swing Dancing- Division and Analysis

           On Friday, September 28^th, 2012, I received my first swing dance lesson. While I would never have voluntarily done something such as this (mainly because I am convinced that despite appearing to be normal, I actually have two left feet), it was during English class so I had little choice in the matter.  Friday morning before school, as I was putting on my shoes with the least tread, as instructed by Ms. Guerrard, my mom asked me why were swing dancing in class, and that was when I realized that I actually did not know the answer.

            As I walked into the cafeteria, only slightly tardy, I saw Ms. Guerrard instructing all of us how to do the basic step. We were split into two groups, the leaders and the followers. The first thing we did, was a little bit of a warm up by bending out knees. After that we were taught a simple rock back. As a follower, we stepped back with our right foot and transferred our weight from the front foot to the back foot. We repeated this motion a few times before adding the next step. Ms. Guerrard showed us a triple step that we would do. We then practiced this move. Each time we learned a new step, we would repeat it without the music, and then with the music several times to assure that we correctly completed the step. After we completed it, she would add on a small piece.

            Once we had gotten the first few basic steps down, we proceeded by repeating the process with a partner. Because we are young and awkward with people of the opposite sex and dancing, it took us a while to warm up and be able to laugh at ourselves as we looked like complete fools, or at least I did while I was dancing, if you could even call what I was doing dancing (it was more like tripping over my partner’s feet, or my own, then apologizing profusely and laughing uncomfortably). Once we finally had conquered the step with a partner and were confident in it, a new step was added. And once again the process repeated.

            Finally having learned what we thought was all of it (including a spin), we paired up once again and repeated the steps with music and a partner. As my partner and I began to get the hang of it, we would rotate and get a new partner. Then another step was added, where the female would get pulled in close to their partner and stay close for several steps before being pushed out. This is when we learned the true purpose of swing dancing. Apparently, swing dancing had once been used as a way for men to court women, and by pulling them in close, they were given a chance to, ahem, get to know one another better. Swing dancing was a perfect example of division an analysis because the dance was divided into small steps which we then learned individually before slowly growing upon each other.