Savoy Style vs. Hollywood Style: A Fight to the Death (Hopefully?) (2011)

I have a lot of thoughts about dancing overall since I spent so much time doing it from organizing, DJing, teaching, and traveling the world for it. In general, I'd say dancing sucks in the US. It's not a welcoming atmosphere for men/leads anymore.

With the rise of dating apps, I don't see a reason to go out dancing for most men. Yeah, apps are terrible but very few women who go out dancing are of typical dating age and, more importantly, single. Most women who go out are in a relationship whereas most men who go out are single. I've done a lot of polling - the ratio is bonkers in the US. Relatively few men who are in relationships continue to dance once partnered. You will have as much competition at a social dance as you will on a dating app. I'd branch out.

It may not look much like typical social dances performed with a partner, but I'm definitely thinking of clubbings, raves and festivals as happenings were "dancing connects people" - and it's one of the primary ways almost anyone I know has been socializing, at least throughout their 20s and 30s.

I think your example is actually quite illustrative of this - the 2nd song had a lot more "swing content" than the first; since it's an older blues song the traditional West Coast Swing patterns fit it better.

My best guess from the headline would have been this was about food.

The only time I’ve ever been taught a dance, or even been present when anyone was learning a dance in anything resembling a serious fashion, was when they taught us the Minuet in 1st grade for some unfathomable reason.

I am not at all confident I could describe or recognize Swing at all, versus any remotely-similar dance (like, if you showed me swing on one video and someone doing the stanky leg on another, I could guess that correctly, but make it much harder and my odds will be reduced to chance)

I’m fairly sure the above is more-or-less the case for a large majority of adults I’ve ever known. The exceptions are a handful who did ballet as young kids.

Maybe there are strong regional effects at play? Or something SES/class related. I also don’t know anybody who did the hardcore college-prep thing that lots of folks on HN take as a given for any college-bound kids, though nearly everyone in my circle did attend college. I even know a couple who went Ivy, but they didn’t do that. Maybe that sort of thing is more likely among (though I don’t mean exclusive to!) the set who’re pushed to collect activities as a kid and carry that on into college and young adulthood.

[edit] I don’t mean to imply dance is bad, in fact it’d be sorta neat to be decent at dancing, it has just not been my experience that it’s at all a common skill—I know a lot more people who can play at least one instrument sort-of OK than people who can dance, like, at all. Actually I know more people who can play several instruments decently than who can dance at all. And I don’t run in musician-heavy circles.