The Cultural Agreements of Brussels West Coast Swing

Inclusion

• • • Swing dancing is a social dance available to ALL humans. No one is excluded unless their behaviour is unwelcome or dangerous.
    • Everyone deserves to feel welcome, especially new dancers.
    • Racism in any form is not welcome. As are unsolicited comments about race, age, size or sex. There is no place in the club for sexual innuendos or comments.
    • Everyone is empowered to communicate calmly and assertively in the moment to request clarification or suggest alternative behaviour. To seek help, please contact any member of the team in person or through email or Facebook.

Attitude

• • • Swing literacy: Like learning a language, the goal is to be able to dance effectively and safely with anyone anywhere, to a variety of different music. You can never know enough technique, because technique gives you access to tools and toys. Patterns are just the roadmaps but the real art is in the partnership and musicality: the conversation. The ultimate goal is to be literate or fluent in the physical language of West Coast Swing.
    • Compensation et adaptation:  Treat every partner as an individual – learn how to accommodate and adapt to each person to be able to enjoy every conversation. You can’t consider yourself an advanced dancer if you can’t have fun with anyone but an advanced dancer. 
    • Dancing with better dancers: This can be intimidating, but extremely educational and worth the nerves.
    • Dancing with beginners: This is very valuable for learning compensation skills, and socially valued in order to elevate other members of the community so you can have more fun people to dance with! Remember how intimidated you were by the better dancers when you first started.

Roles

• • • The role of teachers: Teachers enjoy social dancing too, and are “off the clock” during a social dance, so they are not evaluating you.
    • Open roles: Gender is irrelevant to dance WCS. It is both acceptable and common for men to follow and women to lead, and to dance with a partner of the same gender. Like in a tennis double, in WCS it is the team that counts.
    • The role of leaders: Simply one half of an equal partnership. The word “leader” does not mean “advisor” and does not give you license to teach, tutor, or coach your partners.
    • The role of followers: Simply one half of an equal partnership. The word “follower” does not connote a lower rank.

Floorcraft

• • • Slot width and length: It is a stationary dance, not travelling like waltz. The slingshot creates movement in straight lines, which fits well on a crowded floor. Everyone should follow the same slot direction.

• • • Judging flow of traffic: Leaders need to use good driving habits (partnership movement skills such as posting) to be aware of the traffic around them and avoid collisions.
    • Courtesy: Walk around the edge of the dance floor, avoiding getting in other dancers’ way. Wait for traffic to clear before moving into a space. Always apologise after a collision and check to see if the other person is ok.

Communication

• • • Feedback:
      • Feedback is reserved for classes, usually for teachers to give to students, unless the teacher is facilitating peer feedback.
      • It is not acceptable to offer unsolicited feedback on the social dance floor. 
      • If someone is trying to offer you advice, find a polite way to decline or change the subject.
    • Invitations/Refusals:
      • Any gender can equally invite others to dance, without any stigma whatsoever. 
      • An invitation consists of a verbal question and/or a physical gesture, then the inviting person needs to wait for verbal or physical consent.
      • Demands and forceful physical contact is not welcome. 
      • Refusals should be rare, to be used at your own discretion. 
      • No one owes anyone a dance.
    • How to close a dance:
      • After saying thank you with a consented hug or a high five, escort your partner back to where you found them, unless they prefer otherwise.
    • Be cooperative:
      • WCS is a social, improvised, creative collaboration. This involves physical listening, acceptance, adaptation, and harmony.

• Having fun? Let it show on your face! 

• • • Even if you are concentrating or distracted by the music, it is expected that you smile at your partner and physically demonstrate that you are enjoying yourself with them.

Physical respect

• • • Personal space:
      • In general, body zones to avoid are those covered by a bathing suit.
      • Pay attention to your partner’s body language and facial expressions to assess their comfort level. If they appear to be uncomfortable, stop and either apologise or ask for their preference.
    • Hygiene:
      • Pre-showering is highly recommended. But if you come straight from work or from a long day, make sure you at least put on a fresh shirt. 
      • Come prepared to sweat, with changes of shirts, deodorant (not just antiperspirant), and gum or mints. 
      • Avoid garlic and raw onion before dancing, and clean your mouth and hands after smoking. 
      • No hand lotion or heavy perfumes.
      • Wash your hands frequently.
    • Inebriation:
      • Social dancing is a party activity, so some drinking can be expected, but know your limit. 
      • You need to be at least sober enough to maintain balance and not hurt your partner.
      • You are responsible for your actions while under the influence.
    • Balance and control:
      • You are responsible for maintaining control of your own balance, and not relying on your partner to rescue you. This means even your use of counterbalance should be continuously calibrated and adjusted.
      • Leaders are responsible for being even more prepared than the follower to support both of you in an emergency.
    • The rule of impact and absorption:
      • The mechanics of direction changes can be uncomfortable or even violent if you do not use elasticity. Respect physics and learn to take advantage of them for entertainment and for safety.

Clothing

• • • WCS dancers often use suede shoes. The current trend leans towards low heeled sandals, boots, or sneakers.
    • Westies wear jeans/leggings/slacks for social dancing, no skirts or high heels.
    • It is standard practice to bring multiple changes of shirts to change into throughout the night.
    • Take care to consider where your partner needs to physically hold you when choosing what to wear.

The global WCS community

• • WCS is an American cultural dance that is danced in developed countries all over the world. In the past decade there has been exponential growth all over Europe (France, Poland, Germany, UK), Australia, Brazil, with strong communities now developing in Asia.
  • Weekend dance conventions bring dancers together in the hundreds for workshops, amateur competitions and social dancing. There are a few near us, and it is common for dancers to drive or fly to larger conventions several times a year. Social dance competitions are very popular (but not required), from beginner to expert level.
  • It is very likely you can find WCS social dancing wherever you travel, as well as a social network of dancers who would be happy to advise you about their activities and dance community.