"A Skillful Breaking of Expectations": Embodied Knowledge, Communication, and Connection in West Coast Swing Dance Sociology/Anthropology Thesis Nicole Cox April 2nd, 2012 Advisor: Professor Farha Ghannam Acknowledgments: I'd like to thank all the teachers who gave me the tools to complete this project, those who taught me to write, those who taught me to be curious, those who taught me to dance, and those who taught me that dance and academics could exist together. I'd also like to thank my parents for encouraging me to dance, and in doing so gave me the unique tools necessary to do this research. A special thank you to Pallabi Chakravorty for all of your guidance and for always challenging me. You are an inspiration. Thank you to Sharon Friedler for all of your support in each of my endeavors, and Sarah Willie-LeBreton for guiding me through my many convoluted ideas over the past three years. And finally a very special thank you to Farha Ghannam and Christy Schuetze for your invaluable insights on this project. I am so thankful to have been able to work with such wonderful scholars who made this process as simple and clear as possible. Thank you to everyone who helped me through this process, listened to my ideas, looked at drafts, and kept me sane. My friends and family are my best supports. It is thanks to a Eugene Lang Summer Research Grant that I was able to conduct this research. I would also like to thank all of the dancers who welcomed me into their community with open arms. Their enthusiasm for the dance and love for their fellow dancers drew me to dance events over and over again, until I fell in love with the unique space they created. A special thank you to Richard Kear for your words of wisdom and title inspiration; and the dancers and teachers of Northern California who took it as their personal challenge, and eventually personal source of pride, to teach me the ways of a West Coast Swing dancer and watch me turn into one. Thank you for the countless hours of dancing, talking, kindness, and laughs. Table of Contents Abstract------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 I. Introduction: The World of West Coast SwinK ___________________________________________ 5 II. America's Vernacular Dances: A Timeline of Transformations and Cultural Exchange ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ .36 III. Creating a Dancer, Creating Community _____________________________________________________ 54 IV. The Language of West Coast Swing ____________________________________________________________ .70 V. Learning to PIa y _________________________________________________________________________________________________ 94 VI. Conclusion: Embodied Connections------------------------------------------------------------- 107 BibIi ograp hy ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 113 Abstract: West Coast Swing dancers use an embodied language to create a space in which definitions of social relationships and cultural norms are redefined. What results, is a network of individuals who feel a particular connection to their fellow Swing dancers both within their local community and globally. This thesis places embodied experience at the center of human interactions to ask the question: what are the characteristics of West Coast Swing that allow people to transcend traditional social boundaries and create community? Through ethnographic research conducted at West Coast Swing dances, classes, competitions, and events, I explore the ways in which the body is a key feature in the mediation of human relationships on and around the dance floor, and the thematic and structural elements of West Coast Swing that allow it to accept a multitude of social and cultural identities, while providing a platform of commonality. I focus on the roles of bodily learning, embodied communication, and improvisational play, in creating bonds between individuals within the West Coast Swing community, and locate this current trend within the larger historical context of Swing dance traditions. Cox 5 Chapter 1 Introduction: The World of West Coast Swing Imagine that in front of you is a large rectangular room with light brown, smooth wooden floors. Mirrors line a long wall, and chairs are scattered about the edges with several small round tables. For now, the room is brightly lit. Music plays as background noise: a salsa, a waltz, a tango, big band jazz, the latest top 40 hits. One couple walks slowly through the steps of a foxtrot, as an instructor watches from a few feet away. This ballroom, for one evening each week, is an escape into the world of West Coast Swing for social dancers from California's San Francisco Bay Area. Dancers at these events come from as far south as Santa Cruz and Aptos, and as far north as Santa Rosa and Napa. West Coast Swing is a social lead-follow dance that evolved from Lindy Hop in the late 1940's. It is a rhythm dance, but danced with a smooth style and characterized by its syncopated rhythm, linear motion, 'swinging' feel, improvisation, and focus on musicality. The cultural, racial, and age distribution at West Coast Swing events such as classes, dances, and competitions generally reflect the wider community in which they are situated. The style of the dance itself is a reflection of contemporary culture; and as a result, the music, dress, and styling that overlays the structure of West Coast Swing is determined by time as well as place. Let's go back to the empty ballroom for a moment and fill the space. What do you hear? As the dance begins, sound amplifies and a West Coast Swing song fills the room; loud enough to lose yourself in, quiet enough to hear your own voice. What is playing? It might be your favorite song. Over the course of the night you will hear contemporary top forty hits and songs from the 1940's. You'll hear country, blues, swing, hip-hop, soft rock, pop and more. As people fill the room some go straight to the dance floor, some stand around the edges conversing, and Cox6 still others sit to watch dancers moving about the floor. Most are dressed nicely. Some come in jeans and others in nice slacks. Most men are wearing short sleeved collared shirts while women come in nice blouses, many sleeveless for the warm California summer. Some dancers have come from work and are dressed business casual. The men wear black dance shoes that vary in style from ballroom shoes to jazz sneakers to boots with a slight heel that adds a western flair to their appearance. The women wear dance shoes with a short thick heal, some are open toed and reminiscent of a toned down ballroom shoe while others match the men's black shoe style. As you look around you will see one of the most diverse social scenes in today's contemporary society. In this one room there are representatives of many cultural, racial, and national backgrounds, as well as an array of personalities, ages, heights, and body types1 There are kids as young as thirteen and adults in their eighties, all moving to the same music and doing the same dance. In fact, the two people dancing to your left are a man of twenty-two and a woman of seventy-six. The couple dancing to your right is a Filipino man and a Caucasian woman. A biker with multiple tattoos, piercings and a skull on his shirt is laughing with a young woman in a pink polo and pearls. A beginning dancer from Texas swaps dance stories with a professional dancer from California. Where did these conversation start? On the dance floor. If you walk closer to the center of the room, you'll see couples dancing. The follows 2 move back and forth over an imaginary line called the slot as the couple spins, dips, glides, and plays with the music, all the while moving their feet in syncopated rhythmic patterns. On the dance floor forty couples all move in parallel direction, yet each creates a distinctly different The multicultural setting I observed in northern California is in part a factor of the mix of cultures in the area. Although some events around the country are more homogeneous in cultural makeup, swing events seem to mirror communities in such a way as to suggest that the dance can be taken on by a wide range of people. 2 It takes two roles to dance West Coast Swing. One partner in the couple fills the role of lead, while the other fills the role of follow. Although traditionally women fill the role of follow, and men the role as lead, dancers­ especially skilled dancers - will often break out of these gender roles. I will further discuss these roles in the functioning of the dance later in this chapter. Cox7 picture with their bodies. Each couple paints a story using the music as their outline, and using West Coast Swing technique as their vocabulary. The song ends. Dancers on the floor thank their partners and walk toward the perimeter of the room as other dancers filter on. Some will find a new partner and return for the next song, while others take time to rest, to converse, to catch up verbally with the friends they have made through weeks, months, or years of nonverbal communication on the dance floor. After a few hours some begin to leave. The host stops the music, and once again the ballroom goes quiet. The dancers drive home. Some leave with friends they met dancing years ago, or even weeks ago, while others have come and gone on their own. Each goes their own way after sharing moments when the connection between music, movement, and partners align perfectly for a song or even just a few seconds. This is the scene at a typical West Coast Swing dance held every Monday night at a ballroom studio in the heart of California's Silicon Valley; however, if you travel several hours, across the country, or across the Atlantic Ocean and walk into a West Coast Swing dance, the scene is likely to look quite simila? Often the dance floor is the first place strangers will speak, yet without using words.