West Coast Swing (Richard & Melissa, 2006-04-03)

[HunterstonB]

Pruby - you know spot about WCS. Go watch some other video's of Melissa Rutz - she always challenges the lead, its her personality.

[missheath000]

3:23 that whole bit is so freakin clean. amazing connection and control.

[christophernaze]

Richard is invincible.  Crazy, amazing creativity.

[Land1776]

the best west coast

[sarahbasel]

Excellent! They are really dancing to the music especially towards the end of the song. This is WCS improvised at it's best! A lot of play, a lot of fun and a great song!

[cdpoel]

Simply amazing and SO beautiful. LOVE it. Thanks for sharing! =)

[TanzNandl]

I never saw such kind of dancing. Smooth, improvising, real dancing to the music and you can see how much both enjoy dancing, without those fixed patterns you see in general and also so natural, nothing overdone, only with real enjoyment of music and dancing. I could really watch this all day long!!!

[ArrowBiter]

I WISH I could do that! I had to learn some different dances for history; charleston, east and west coast swing, lindy hop. It's so much fun, but I don't have a partner. Pout.

[cindelius]

@ArrowBiter the really nice thing about wcs is that it's a social dance. you don't need a partner going into it. just show up to a dance/lesson and be both polite and willing to learn. ;o)

[sarita5110]

awesome!

[gmarphis]

Those two are awesome social dancers! I have something to aspire to. Wow!

[bessogrande]

He's at Dance Boulevard every Monday night... lessons at 7:15 beg / 8:15 int... the party's from 9 to midnight.

[1888junkteam]

excellent work!

[chfalcao]

It's good to see people dancing TO the music instead of WITH the music.

These two were attuned to the music and honoured all swings and variations efforts the musicians have put into the arrangement.

They danced TO the music and played with each other.

It's a relief to see people like this on dance floors and performances.

Loved it!

[gadzooks63]

damn . . . and i thought i could dance . . .i have a way to go . . find the just right girl . . and then its on to the nationals . .

[BobitoSalsero]

Smooth, Sexy, and very creative. I love Salsa but its time for me to also learn West Coast.

[Castlecat1]

It is Wade In The Water.

[Castlecat1]

The song is a version of Wade in the Water.

[saxwolf276]

Hello... does anybody know the title of the music ?????

Thanks

Wolf

[TheLookOfLust]

wow! I had no idea how creative wcs was! totally impressed!

-cynthia

[silkath]

Lovely dancing, and so nice to see it in a casual setting. These spontaneous displays of great dancing are one of the best parts of dancing, at least for me. Its like receiving a surprise gift that you get to share with the crowd.

[IamCoffeeMAD]

thanks!

[insterburg10]

It's an awesome piece of dance - look at the way she fights for the lead!

It's so good on so many different levels.

It's improvised!! Yet you have two powerful personalities struggling for control while keeping to the same musical framework.

You're watching geniuses trying to outsmart each other. . .

[pruby000001]

@insterburg10 Um, she's not fighting for the lead and they're not struggling for control or trying to outsmart each other at all. All of her embellishments are perfectly within the WCS lead/follow framework, and work because he's also following those conventions. One of the hardest things leading is allowing the follower room to bring her own creativity to the dance. That's the product of cooperation, not conflict.

[webnanny]

I love extemporaneous dance. It shows what people can do and how much they understand the music. These two are a joy to watch. They dance beautifully together and play with the music. Choreographed stuff never gets this good.

[heartslord]

This is the epitome of how great West Coast tastes!!

Only problem I have, I can follow the great choreography but the timing of the steps is where I get lost. I'm looking for the standard WC steps 6 pattern or 8 but me just bees lost. Is it more freeform? How do I work this?

thanks

tc

[carx15]

agreed, there is no pattern count. But still fun to watch.

[petillante82]

When you're just starting out, most patterns are 6 beats, then you learn some in 8, and when you're comfortable enough, you can just count in 2 and be really flexible with the patterns. Improvisation is what makes WCS so much fun. :)

[PanoramaSplash]

After a while, some WCS dancers start thinking in terms of interpreting the music and start treating their pattern collection as a kind of artist palette. Thus the usual pattern counts become spoiled when 1) they mix or modify patterns to capture the mood of the music, or 2) they add filler steps or abbreviate some steps to hit the the break points or shine points in the music.

[grandcarriage]

Agreed... It more or less uses bits and pieces of 6 and 8 count patterns as words to make up a sentence of choreography to fit the music. Although as an improv, this isn't the cleanest dancing ever done, it's some of the most adventurous choreography I've ever seen in an improv... Kudo's to them both for such wonderful danceplay. (I'm a huge M. Rutz fan...so I'm biased) but his leading was brilliant.

[carx15]

sweet moves, muy bien.

[eddohan]

She moves beutifull and hot!

[monicamarie79]

who is the artist of this version of the song?

[PanoramaSplash]

See the video description.

[campeterson]

Kathy Mattea - (Right Out of Nowhere - album)

[richiemsn]

Ella baila muy bien ... el solamente la sigue

[RoLevin531]

They are fantastic together. I was a jitterbug in my day (I'm 79) and wish I had just one opportunity to have a partner like him.

[hustledude]

whoah this video is loud

[Big10]

Very cool stuff! Saved to favorites....

[IamCoffeeMAD]

What is the song?

[PanoramaSplash]

Information about the song has been added to the description.