SYTYCD- Last night's 2nd dance was the first time I didn't hate Jessica, but it's still too little too late. And Comfort has never blown me away the way I feel like she was set up to do, but that may just be me. She could coast by as a hip-hopper for awhile, but having seen the other dancers have much more versatility, I'm tired of waiting for her breakout week.

Can someone explain West Coast Swing to me? Because I didn't feel the chemistry last night, maybe I was distracted by the cheesy costumes but Joshua and Katee didn't seem to own it, they seemed very aware of the cheese factor- so if it's a dance done with irony I guess that's ok.

30 Days- I told my husband while watching it that I wish there could be a followup that was reversed, where the gun toting people went to live in the city and saw that gun violence is a real issue, and came to associate guns with crime or drugs or drivebys. I'm sure some of them would feel even more like they needed a gun for their own protection from that crime, but really, what can you do about getting hit by stray bullets? A gun isn't going to help you out much if you don't even know where the shooting is coming from. After moving from Seattle to Montana 3 years ago, I still can't adjust to so many people having guns. I know now how many people have concealed weapons just walking around the mall, and it's been explained to me that you don't go anywhere without your gun or you'd feel like part of you was missing, but I still just don't understand.

I was very excited to see Kherington (a) do a routine in shoes

Well, boots. But at least they had heels, although still not the spiky ones that everyone else has to dance in.

I did the fast forward/rewatch test this morning. For the first time, I didn't rewatch Mark/Chelsie. I did stop on the Joshua/Katee contemporary, Thayne/Comfort's smooth waltz, Will/Jessica's shirt number, and the bed number. The latter didn't seem any better, in fact it seemed even less dancy and more contrived. Although I still think the shirt number is too prop-based, it improved on rewatch. I half rewatched Benji's number, but it was just too damn slow for swing.

I do think it is time for Matt/Kourtni to go, I would sort of like to see Jessica and Thayne go and see what Will and Comfort could do together.

The problem with the WCS, it seems to me, is that it was too slow.

It looked like the could have picked it up just a notch and been successful. That cartwheel thing should have been taken out altogether because they just couldn't do it, but a different ending could have been choreographed.

OK, so I'm having a hard time finding a good youtube clip, because the problem is, much like competition ballroom waltzing is ridiculous looking oftentimes just because of the costumes, competition west coast swinging is often ridiculously cheesy. Much like how Benji does it.

But non-competition west coast swinging (which doesn't end up being the stuff on youtube) is HOT.

If you ignore the crowd cheering, and look the the individual moves (and not the group), you can kinda see it in this group dance here. Really, what I'm saying is, I like the basic stuff. Or when the really good people improv, rather than competition dance. But even then, there's a little too much performance to it, and not enough paying attention to your partner and the connection between you, which is what makes it sexy for me, as a performance.

There's a reason that everyone I know who sees it done in the club by people who are good at it goes "Ooh. I want to learn how to do THAT". Two step is fun and all, but people just want to learn it so they can dance. When they see people west coast swinging, it's like "Damn, that looks sexy"

This is maybe a dumb question, but is there East Coast Swing?

There is, and it is the swing I prefer.

Heh. There is East Coast Swing (I suddenly feel like I'm about to stir up an East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry too). I also do East Coast swing. It's probably more what you think of when you think of swing dancing. Boogie woogie bugle boy and all that. I think of East Coast stuff as being cute. Bouncy. Fun. But not sexy.

t runs away from msbelle

This is maybe a dumb question, but is there East Coast Swing?

Apparently yes! But I've read the descriptions of both on Wikipedia and still don't get the difference.

no need to run away. I don't think of east coast as sexy, just swingy. It is fun to dance. I've never done west coast, but the slides and pausing in it (of what I've seen) bother me. This is kinda sexy WC swing and I still don't like it to watch: [link]

Oh they're very different!! When you're not dancing in competition, just in a big group of people (which is how I do it--obvi, competition is going to be different from everything):

East Coast swing, the basic is step, step (side to side), backstep (or triple-step, triple-step, backstep, depending on the speed of the music and who's teaching you). It's bouncy and fun. You and your partner face each other, and don't tend to move out of your spot much, but may kinda go in circles. So you start with that side side backstep and then start throwing in turns and kicks and so on and so forth.

In West Coast, in theory, you and your partner are in a "slot", so you have a space on the dancefloor where the two of you may move back and forth in a line. It's more similar to a LindyHop, and I'm sure it is known as west coast swing because it somehow evolved from East Coast blah blah etc etc. There are a few different basic moves, but the first one they usually teach you is called a sugarpush, and the follow walks towards the lead (you're facing each other) (one-two) they are together for a sec (three-and), and then the lead pushes the follow away (four) and then there's a step (five-and-six). There's more hip action. Which I like. :)