The ultimate guide to finding the beat in the music! Question: Should I count the music?Answer: Always. * No matter who you are, what your musical background is, or how skilled you are at feeling the music, counting always elevates your dance. Dancers who move by feel only are unattached to their third partner, the … Read more
Many beginners struggle to dance rolling count songs because they don’t hear many rolling count songs played. But, while blues music is played much less frequently than 10 years ago, a lot of contemporary music has opportunities to dance rolling count—if you know what to listen for. Many contemporary songs, especially in the lyrical style, … Read more
When you’ve mastered hearing upbeats and downbeats in music, you are ready to bring that skill into your pattern work. West coast swing is a two-beat dance, so all patterns are built on the downbeat-upbeat structure. If all you dance is basic, off-the-shelf WCS patterns, you don’t need to know that structure because the dance … Read more
One of the common led syncopations in WCS is the transitional weight triple, in which the follower ends the spin with an extended leg but no weight change, and then shifts on the & in order to make up the weight change for the next movement. This rhythm is used in almost every hip catch, … Read more
Great dancers can make their triples match the music. In this drill, we’re going to work on flipping between straight count and rolling count on the fly. If you’re not already familiar with the idea of the straight and rolling count, you should practice doing straight and rolling triples before attempting this drill. In this … Read more
by Brian B at west coast swing online
Brian & Megan 
