Picture yourself in two-tone shoes bopping to the upbeat music popularized during the Big Band era and beyond. You and your partner are enjoying the fast tempo, manageable footwork, and innumerable moves offered by swing dancing. As you dance, you settle into the strong, elastic connection characteristic of swing, with the relaxed handhold and frequent movement toward and away from your dance partner.

The relatively stationary nature of swing dancing allows you to practice on any size dance floor or, for that matter, almost any size corner of a crowded dance floor. As you practice your new skills, you're finding yourself dancing swing at more and more venues - you couldn’t have done without it at that class reunion, and at your coworker’s wedding last week you and your partner were the talk of the table.

Swing dancing enables you to get out there and heat up the dance floor more frequently than you ever thought possible. You are now swing dancing at specific swing events in your area, as well as at country nightclubs, ballrooms, and almost every dinner and dancing special occasion that has come up. The timeless swing will not go out of style any time soon with its toe-tapping beat and hip dance moves.

visualize swing dancing

Upon starting your first swing dance lesson (Swing Dancing for Beginners Volume 1), it's best if you watch the first section one time through without trying to do any of it. Just give your mind a chance to absorb the material so it’s somewhat familiar to you when you hit replay to start the section over again. Watch how the dancers move, think about the words that are used, and picture yourself dancing the swing.

The second time you go through the DVD, it’s recommended you take notes. Jot down the important parts of the swing so you can engage other parts of the kinesthetic learning prior to getting up and dancing along. Write down what the connection points are, what the basic steps are called, how many counts are in a basic, how to align with your partner, and so on. Also, write down any questions that you might have about the swing. There’s a good chance you will find the answer later in the DVD, and if it’s something you’re already pondering, you’ll be sure to remember the answer.

You’ll find that by time you get ready to stand up and try the swing with the DVD, the dancing won’t be nearly as overwhelming. Writing down the key concepts will allow you to get a jumpstart on the rest of swing dance lessons in the series. You’ll find that after you get up and try it, you’ll probably have more questions (that's good, by the way!). As the DVD goes on, the steps will be broken out into separate views using picture-in-picture formatting, pointers will be given on where you should be during different parts of the dance, and frequently asked questions will be addressed that should satisfy most, if not all, of your questions and then some.

The third time you view the DVD, you'll probably be dancing along with it real time. See how far you can make it just by watching and trying. You’ll probably find that one of the two of you is able to pick up and understand the material more quickly than the other.

Then, picture yourself dancing swing at upcoming events or at local venues where you and your partner can go. Where will you go out dancing after you learn the swing? Again, there are many possibilities, so start thinking of them.

Now, if you're ready to look at the swing DVDs that will get you started, check the images below. After the products, we'll go through some of the basics. This will give you an idea of how the video lessons are taught and to what detail.

recommended swing dance videos

If you'd like to read more about Swing Dance Basics and how to do the dance, we have a page set up that is taken directly from our book, Picture Yourself Dancing. The bullets below show some of what all you'll find on the Swing Dance Lessons page. Keep in mind, each of these topics are covered in much more depth on the full-length DVDs themselves:

• Swing Dancing Overview (an overview and description of the dance)
• Six-Count Swing Basics (slows, quicks, timing, and where to step)
• What are quicks and slows?
• Swing dance mirroring (how to practice with your partner w/o worrying about connections
• The Swing Basic as a couple (foot positions, connection points, etc.)
• Tips for followers regarding dancing the Swing
• Tips for leaders in dancing the Swing
• Right Turns for the Swing (and how it's led)
• Left Turns for the Swing (and how it's led)

To read more about each of these topics, visit our Swing Dance Lessons page here (will be back online in July of 2009.

To read more about the easiest way to start dancing the Swing, visit our Swing Dance Video Lessons page here.

To learn to dance the Swing as a part of a great introduction to country western dancing, visit our Country Western Starter Pack page by clicking the image below.