WEST COAST SWING & LINDY HOP
Gently Intensive Classes & Workshops
New York City
"The best instructor I've ever had in ANYTHING!" — Harvard Univ. students' comments 6 years in a row, for Ken's on-campus dance classes (while working on a PhD there). Scroll down for bio & videos.
WCS Crash Course / Master Class
purely for Adv Lindy Hoppers
DATE & TIME TBD: If interested, contact Ken and we'll coordinate a good time with everyone. Even if it's only 1 or 2 people.
PREREQUISITE: Swingouts are your favorite move, and you are 100% fluent with them. You can stay perfectly balanced during double-turns. You have probably taught Lindy Hop or Swing classes.
Why?
(a) Because lots of Lindy Hop events have a night of Soul music. You need WCS.
(b) Because WCS has some great ideas (and moves) that Lindy Hop doesn't … but should. Steal them. Incorporate them. Adapt them to your own personal dancing. Freshen & expand your Lindy Hop. Todd Yannacone, Anthony Chen, and a few other top Lindy Hop dancers already do so, and they regularly win competitions as a result. No brainer.
(c) Because Lindy Hop's & WCS's basic repertoire of moves such as Swingouts/Whips are essentially identical — but WCS approaches them in a way that is simultaneously much easier, much more dance-logical, and much more flexible and expandable into hundreds of variations on the fly. And much easier to learn & teach (since many of you are teachers). And thanks to WCS's core simplicity, every move is also more amenable to being danced with personal expression and musicality. Your WCS will instantly be truly good. And your Lindy Hop will instantly be twice as good — and twice as versatile — as it already is.
HISTORICAL NOTE: This "dance logic" approach is much more akin to what the O.G. Lindy Hop dancers in Harlem were actually doing as they created and developed the dance—as they experimented and innovated—compared to the ballroom-studio-style memorization approach that is most common these days for both Lindy and WCS.
(d) Oh yeah: And because dancing WCS is pretty fun once you get the hang of it. (If you can get used to the music.)
We'll approach it this way:
1. First, from a Lindy Hop point of view: Change these 4 things, and Presto Change-o! You are dancing WCS.
We'll quickly tackle them one by one. 2 are simple; 2 take some getting used to. And the last one, well, you'll need to understand some WCS from a WCS point of view. Don't panic. It's ridiculously easy.
2. Second, from a WCS point of view: All WCS moves are constructed on the fly from a tiny number of building blocks, from the inside out. It's ridiculously simple … at least in theory.
A detour into how WCS really works. Understand how a few ridiculously simple partnered-movement building blocks work in concert, and voilà – hundreds of lead-follow moves are at your finger tips, with lots of room for individual expression and musicality WITHIN the lead-follow relationship. And lots of room for creating your own lead-follow variations on the fly — so you don't need to memorize stuff. (Most people memorize a few favorites, then ad lib all the rest.) With luck, you'll notice that the partnered moves in Lindy Hop are built the same way. This should open the door to a lot of creative thinking.
3. Third, if time allows: let's bring our new understanding back into Lindy Hop, and play with the same ideas applied to Lindy Hop. Let's see what works, what doesn't, and what could work if we tinkered a little, with the same open minds and innovative/experimental attitudes and values as Lindy Hop's Original Generations.
4. Fourth, if time allows: Let's try some "Westie Hop", blending it all. My dance & teaching colleague Paula Wilson (an Alvin Ailey alum) called it that when I accidentally blended both styles. Once you get used to it, it's pretty cool. And extremely rich for musicality purposes: you suddenly have twice the repertoire and vocabulary to play with.
Become really good really fast! WCS is really simple and easy when taught this modern "dance logical" way. Ignore anyone who tells you WCS is difficult! (And send them to us!)
Sure, WCS has zillions of cool moves and "patterns." But here's the secret: All of them — from Basic to insanely Advanced — are built by mixing and matching just 4 or 5 partnered-movement "building blocks." Learn those first, and you can learn everything else 10 times faster. So that is how we teach!
After this class, you will be ready to go WCS social dancing with confidence and skill. And solidly ready to learn all the fancier things in WCS 5X or 10X faster, should you choose to.
Prerequisite: Smooth, sweet swingouts are your jam.
Location: Riverside Blvd & West 66th St., outdoors wood floor ("upstairs" by the high rise buildings, not "downstairs" by the river). Get to 66th St, go as far west as you can.
Price: Based on ability to pay: $100 if your annual income is 6 figures or higher. $10 for everyone else.
Class size strictly limited to "small."
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE: scroll down
COVID: Maximum protection & safety will be required – TBD as situation evolves.
CLOTHING & SHOES & HYGIENE
• Wear clothing. Preferably comfortable.
• Wear your dance shoes. The outdoor wood floor is genuinely good. It's fairy new, built during the pandemic.
• RAIN: We will postpone in case of rain.
• Deodorant & fresh breath required. Bring a clean shirt and change into it as needed.
• Please do NOT wear perfume!
• Please do NOT use hand moisturizing lotion immediately before class (ick slippery).
• Please do NOT use gloppy purel-equivalent hand sanitizer before or during class (ick sticky).
COVID: We will be requiring MAXIMUM precautions from everyone, consistent with whatever the COVID situation is.
NOTE: Refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
• Wear your dance shoes. The outdoor wood floor is genuinely good. It's fairy new, built during the pandemic.
• RAIN: We will postpone in case of rain.
• Deodorant & fresh breath required. Bring a clean shirt and change into it as needed.
• Please do NOT wear perfume!
• Please do NOT use hand moisturizing lotion immediately before class (ick slippery).
• Please do NOT use gloppy purel-equivalent hand sanitizer before or during class (ick sticky).
COVID: We will be requiring MAXIMUM precautions from everyone, consistent with whatever the COVID situation is.
NOTE: Refund available if you test positive or show any symptoms before class of cold, flu, allergies, COVID.
YOUR TEACHERS
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Ken Kreshtool: Internationally ranked West Coast Swing competition dancer. "The best instructor I've ever had in ANYTHING!" — Harvard University students' comments, 6 years in a row, for his on-campus dance classes (while working on a PhD there). Also has advanced degrees in psychology, education policy, and law, and formerly taught ballroom, salsa, swing & lindy hop. Ken is compressing what he has learned from over 200 dance teachers into the best classes you'll find anywhere.
Paula Wilson [not teaching in Summer 2022]: Internationally ranked West Coast Swing competition dancer. Graduate of the Alvin Ailey School's Professional Division. Professional modern dancer and internationally traveling Argentine Tango teacher for 12 years. Award-winning former early childhood education teacher.
ANECDOTE: Some years ago, a woman had taken several Level 1 classes with various different teachers, and wanted to visit our Level 2 class "to see if it would be good enough" for her. (That's literally how she phrased it.) Of course, we said yes. She came to visit during our 4th week, but accidentally arrived before our Level 1 class was finished, was welcomed in, and sat and watched. After 10 minutes, I announced, "OK! Level 1 class, we're done! Level 2 people, come on out and let's begin!" The woman rushed over and said, "Wait – I came to visit Level 2, not Level 1." I replied, "Yes, sorry, you caught the last 10 minutes of our Level 1 class. But Level 2 is about to begin, so please stay." She looked upset and replied almost angrily, "Are you sure? That was Level 1 I was watching? Not Level 2?" I assured it was Level 1, and apologized again. She said, "But … but … but they were so GOOD!"
She enrolled in our next Level 1 class.
Some videos of us. These are pure lead-follow dancing — we are making it up as we go along. Not choreographed. Typically for a demo like this, we hand the DJ 5 or 6 songs and say "you choose - play any one of them."
Paula Wilson [not teaching in Summer 2022]: Internationally ranked West Coast Swing competition dancer. Graduate of the Alvin Ailey School's Professional Division. Professional modern dancer and internationally traveling Argentine Tango teacher for 12 years. Award-winning former early childhood education teacher.
ANECDOTE: Some years ago, a woman had taken several Level 1 classes with various different teachers, and wanted to visit our Level 2 class "to see if it would be good enough" for her. (That's literally how she phrased it.) Of course, we said yes. She came to visit during our 4th week, but accidentally arrived before our Level 1 class was finished, was welcomed in, and sat and watched. After 10 minutes, I announced, "OK! Level 1 class, we're done! Level 2 people, come on out and let's begin!" The woman rushed over and said, "Wait – I came to visit Level 2, not Level 1." I replied, "Yes, sorry, you caught the last 10 minutes of our Level 1 class. But Level 2 is about to begin, so please stay." She looked upset and replied almost angrily, "Are you sure? That was Level 1 I was watching? Not Level 2?" I assured it was Level 1, and apologized again. She said, "But … but … but they were so GOOD!"
She enrolled in our next Level 1 class.
Some videos of us. These are pure lead-follow dancing — we are making it up as we go along. Not choreographed. Typically for a demo like this, we hand the DJ 5 or 6 songs and say "you choose - play any one of them."
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WHAT IS WEST COAST SWING?
In very short: West Coast Swing (WCS) is Swing and Lindy Hop moves done to R&B and contemporary Pop music.
Here is a nice introductory video with various top Champions (apart from odd ideas in the subtitles about the names of music genres).
Here is a nice introductory video with various top Champions (apart from odd ideas in the subtitles about the names of music genres).
More thoroughly: West Coast Swing (WCS) is a partner dance, a smoother and highly sophisticated form of Jitterbug or Lindy Hop-style Swing dance. It spun off from Lindy Hop in California during the post-WW II decades when Lindy Hop itself went dead or dormant for 50 years. It has continued evolving dramatically even today, adapting to new music and new dancers. Over the years, it has "borrowed" (stolen and adapted) almost every cool move, turn, dip, and styling from Lindy Hop, Salsa, Hip Hop, Country, and booty-shakin', and even some Ballroom, Zouk, Tango and Blues. West Coast Swing has one of the biggest vocabularies of moves and combinations of any partner dance — and the widest range of music styles. At the same time, WCS Followers have more freedom for improvisation than in any other partner dance. WCS is the easiest of the Swing dances to learn (if you have the right teachers — that's us!), while remaining one of the most fun and challenging to fully master. Come get in on the fun!
WCS and Lindy Hop
Lindy Hop and WCS are cousins. They are the same … but different. What's the difference? In addition to the very obvious smooth style & music differences, there are 2 main dance differences:
(1) WCS dancers do zillions of variations in the MIDDLE of moves, and almost no variations at the beginning and ends — while current Lindy Hop is exactly the opposite. (You'd think they'd merge their insights, but it hasn't happened.)
(2) In the mid-1980s, WCS reversed the follower's swivels from "out, in" (contrabody) to "in, out" (unibody) as a result of adapting lots of cool moves from Salsa, especially Salsa's Cross-Body Lead moves. The surprising but natural result is that Turns start one beat earlier or later, and therefore you are on the other foot — which freaks people out until someone points it out. Which we just did. And then you go, "Oh. Feels weird for a few minutes. But no big deal." Once you try both, you realize that both work perfectly fine, and you realize that the dancing itself is infinitely more fun and important than any rigid footwork nonsense — and at that point, you stop worrying and become a much freer, better dancer.
Also, (3) Lindy Hop has both Rock-Step and "Forward-Forward" to start moves (depending on when the leader initiates the follower's forward movement). In WCS the Rock-Step vanished in the early-1990s so the followers always start forward-forward.
And editorially, I'll add that current WCS is *much* more of a true lead-follow dance, and is much more innovative and creative. Lindy Hop has stalled into stasis. I hope that changes. A few top Lindy Hoppers are trying to bring back the innovative and experimental spirit of the original Lindy Hoppers — emphasizing the importance of DANCING to the music rather than faking one's way through rigid ballroom-studio step patterns — but they are not mainstream yet.
WCS and Lindy Hop
Lindy Hop and WCS are cousins. They are the same … but different. What's the difference? In addition to the very obvious smooth style & music differences, there are 2 main dance differences:
(1) WCS dancers do zillions of variations in the MIDDLE of moves, and almost no variations at the beginning and ends — while current Lindy Hop is exactly the opposite. (You'd think they'd merge their insights, but it hasn't happened.)
(2) In the mid-1980s, WCS reversed the follower's swivels from "out, in" (contrabody) to "in, out" (unibody) as a result of adapting lots of cool moves from Salsa, especially Salsa's Cross-Body Lead moves. The surprising but natural result is that Turns start one beat earlier or later, and therefore you are on the other foot — which freaks people out until someone points it out. Which we just did. And then you go, "Oh. Feels weird for a few minutes. But no big deal." Once you try both, you realize that both work perfectly fine, and you realize that the dancing itself is infinitely more fun and important than any rigid footwork nonsense — and at that point, you stop worrying and become a much freer, better dancer.
Also, (3) Lindy Hop has both Rock-Step and "Forward-Forward" to start moves (depending on when the leader initiates the follower's forward movement). In WCS the Rock-Step vanished in the early-1990s so the followers always start forward-forward.
And editorially, I'll add that current WCS is *much* more of a true lead-follow dance, and is much more innovative and creative. Lindy Hop has stalled into stasis. I hope that changes. A few top Lindy Hoppers are trying to bring back the innovative and experimental spirit of the original Lindy Hoppers — emphasizing the importance of DANCING to the music rather than faking one's way through rigid ballroom-studio step patterns — but they are not mainstream yet.
FAQ: World's best WCS group classes? Drop-ins? Late registrations? Can I start in level 2?
ARE THESE NEW YORK CITY'S BEST WEST COAST SWING GROUP CLASSES?
Yes.
ARE THESE THE WORLD'S BEST WEST COAST SWING GROUP CLASSES?
Yes.
DROP-INS PERMITTED? Yes for our one-day workshops. But for our multi-week classes ... sorry, no. Our multi-week classes are cumulative — each lesson builds intensively on all previous lessons. NOTE #1: For our higher level classes, exceptions can be made with prior permission of instructor. Talk to Ken. NOTE #2: Most folks have to miss a class during the series; that's OK. You just have to be brilliantly attentive when you return! NOTE #3: "Drop-in" means paying for a single class in the middle of the series. It's common for classical conservatory classes such as ballet, modern, etc.
LATE REGISTRATIONS AFTER THE FIRST WEEK? (For multi-week classes.)
We are extremely reluctant. We have never had anyone catch up after missing the first week of our Level 1 classes. We want you (and all your partners in class) to be happy! Not frustrated! Our class is intensively cumulative. In our Level 101 classes, we lay all the groundwork and cover everything in the first class. And then we build on it over the remaining weeks. Please come to the first lesson! Thanks for understanding.
• If you absolutely cannot attend Level 101's first lesson, contact us to schedule a private lesson before the second lesson. Please note that — just like when going to the movies — there's no discount for starting late.
• Start at 2nd lesson? I have taken previous WCS classes, so I should be OK, right?
Sorry, but no. We want you to be happy and successful, not frustrated! Our teaching method is completely different from the antiquated "steps & patterns" teaching method that you almost certainly experienced. That old teaching method from the 1890s was for a totally different kind of dancing called "Sequence Dance," and does not work well for WCS. We have no idea why nearly all WCS teachers still use it. We use a completely different and better teaching method that reduces your WCS learning curve to weeks instead of years — with almost all of the important teaching differences right at the beginning. Everything you already know will return in a much easier-to-use form later in our class — so don't discard your skills! — but it will not help you at all at the beginning of our class.
• Start at 3rd lesson? No, sorry. No exceptions. We cover so much ground in the first two lessons, that we have never had anyone successfully start during lesson 3. We ask you to wait until our next class series starts. Thanks!
CAN I START IN LEVEL 2 or 3 (aka 201 or 301)? I HAVE PRIOR (PARTNER) DANCE EXPERIENCE.
No, sorry. We ask everyone to start in our Level 101. Reasons:
• First, just like you, a majority who enroll in WCS classes have prior dance experience, so our Level 101+201 class already takes that into account! (But it's also perfect for folks with zero prior dance experience.)
• Second, our teaching approach is completely different, especially at the beginning, which is how our students become so good in weeks while other teachers' students take years to reach the same level. There is not any satisfactory way to skip it.