Swing Dance Steps Online

Swing dance steps online offer a useful instructional aid for dancers of all levels.

A number of sites exist to share swing dance tutorials and lessons.

The Ballroom Dance Group offers online classes in Waltz, Fox Trot and East Coast Swing. Before you begin a course, the Ballroom Basics section explains how to navigate the site, how to read the instructors' tables and graphs and how to understand abbreviations used in the lessons. It also includes several informational articles on ballroom dancing topics like leading and following and features a glossary of terms.

BallroomDancers.com offers online lessons for West Cost Swing and East Cost Swing. East Cost Swing includes instructions for five steps and West Coast Swing includes directions for ten steps. Each step is presented with an overview, a breakdown of the men's and women's parts, and in most cases, several video clips.

How 2 Dance offers full lessons on the Lindy Hop, Balboa, West Coast Swing and Nightclub Two Step. Each dance includes multiple lessons, and lessons are divided into several segments to make it easy to view just the portion you need. Demo videos showcase the instructors as they demonstrate a particular step, taking care to show it from multiple perspectives so both men and women can get a feel for the appropriate footwork. There is also an archive of move demonstrations -- short clips displaying a single step like the side pass underarm. They are merely illustrations and don't go through the process of teaching dancers how to do the moves.

Jiveoholics Anonymous is a site that might be of interest to those looking for swing dance steps online. Although it isn't strictly swing, jive dancing does have its origins in swing dancing. Jiveoholics Anonymous features a library of more than 600 dance steps. You can search for a specific step or browse the collection. Each step is rated for intimacy, complexity, and safety. A written description describes how to perform each move. Videos and animations of the steps are only available to paid members of the site. Advice for beginners and a Q&A forum round out the site's resources.

Ross Mernyk's Swing Dance Steps is a site created by a dance lover rather than an instructor. Mernyk has compiled directions for all of the steps he's learned through his own classes, organized by starting position. He also includes links to swing-related resources, like bands in the genre.

Swing Dancing on Wikibooks is an open source instructional manual for swing dance steps. Featured swing dances include the Charleston, Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing and Balboa. In addition, the site describes individual moves, like the sugar push, and classes of moves, like aerials. Pages offer notes on variations and stylistic options. There are a few disclaimers to keep in mind, however, before using the site. It's a work in progress, so some sections are incomplete or missing. As a user-created text, it's also impossible to verify the credentials of writers and whether they have enough dance experience to make a valuable contribution. However, taken as just one more option for swing dancers, it's a useful addition to the list.

Utah Rhythm and Dance provides a swing step list with written instructions for 11 steps. Charts include the beat counts and men's and women's parts. It's not as flashy as some of the other sites, but when it comes to getting down to basics, it's really all a student needs to start dancing.

Swing dance has been around since the 1920s. Once you've viewed these swing dance steps online, you'll be ready to join the next generation of swing dancing.

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