My reaction is one I'm starting to be familiar with. I could see and hear that it was East Coast swing (edit: it wasn't, technically it was Lindy Hop, or Charleston) but they were doing stuff I'd never seen at all, and I couldn't fit it into or on top of anything I knew. It was East Coast swing at a level that I couldn't imagine reaching. God it looked like fun, and I wanted really badly to get there, but I just didn't have basics I needed.
In particular, I could see how they started with a basic - almost, and sort of did a throwout - but not quite, and somehow the timing was being changed up. I'm watching the dancers, going Yes, Yes, Yes, HUH?The more you learn, the more you realize how much there is to learn.
But one in a while the universe smiles on you. At the very next East Coast swing class I took, the teacher said "Tonight we're going to learn Lindy timing". Well, that sounds good, I love all the East Coast swing I've ever tried, and Lindy hop is like the happiest dance ever, So, I like the sound of that - I'm game. The instructor demonstrated, and what do you know, that's the move that had me looking like a hound dog trying to eat a grape. I definitely don't have it down, but now at least I have a label, some notes, and something to practice.
I also recently had my first West Coast Swing class ever. I'd seen others dancing it, but again, didn't have anything for my brain (or my body) to hang on to with it, but it's been on my list to try for a while, because: Swing Fan, and oh my goodness the music, the music, the music. Al Green, anyone? "Chain of Fools" and "Mustang Sally" by the Commitments, Eric Clapton, Roy Orbison, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, James Brown, Taj Mahal, The Eagles, Prince, Chris Isaak, the Foo Fighters, Joss Stone. All that stuff that has the Blues in its blood.
So far I've just had the very basic sugar push and an underarm pass. I like the fact that the dance partners are constantly approaching toward and receding from each other - that's almost a metaphor for relationships right there - and you're still dancing together, you're still connected. It Breathes. And I like the asymmetry of the figure. A nice box step is wonderful, but the sugar push has the not-quite symmetry of a tree or a mountain. It feels a little fractal.
As you can tell, I'm really jazzed about West Coast (musical whiplash warning...) Even better, my studio is doing a series of classes that build on one another focused on West Coast Swing.
I am so there.
Edited April 2013 to correct my bad guess that what I was seeing was ECS.
