WCS or Boogie-Woogie?

[Karri Kaksonen]

I attended Interrock 95 at Brussels last week. They had classes
for Boogie-Woogie. To my great surprise the teacher (Swimmer from
the US) was teaching a move called Sugarpush (familiar to me from
rec.arts.dance only) and some tricky moves with funny-looking
footwork.

It did not look at all like the Boogie-Woogie or Lindyhop we have
been dancing in Europe. Now this WCS was taught to competitive
Rock'n'Roll acrobatic dancers as Boogie-Woogie. So it looks as
the WCS is moving more east all the time...

Regards,

Karri
--
Karri Kaksonen OH2BEK .......................... There are only two
Unda Oy - A Scitex subsidiary .................. kinds of music -
tel +358-0-52558522 fax +358-0-52558585 ........ Rock 'n' Roll
Kutojantie 7, FIN-02630 Espoo, Finland .........

[David Drysdale]

Karri Kaksonen (ka...@unda.fi) wrote:
: I attended Interrock 95 at Brussels last week. They had classes

: for Boogie-Woogie. To my great surprise the teacher (Swimmer from
: the US) was teaching a move called Sugarpush (familiar to me from
: rec.arts.dance only) and some tricky moves with funny-looking
: footwork.

: It did not look at all like the Boogie-Woogie or Lindyhop we have
: been dancing in Europe. Now this WCS was taught to competitive
: Rock'n'Roll acrobatic dancers as Boogie-Woogie. So it looks as
: the WCS is moving more east all the time...

: Regards,

: Karri

I've just got back from a week in Herrang, Sweden, and I was struck
by the similarity between WCS and Boogie Woogie. I was lucky enough
to meet some nice folk from Washington D.C., who gave me some more
teaching in WCS (thanks Dave & Tina!), and I spent quite a lot of time
in the evenings watching the German and Swiss dancers doing Boogie.

From discussions with them, I found out that Boogie Woogie is also a
slotted dance, and I noticed that they danced a sugar push with sailor
step footwork. Its just done to much faster music than WCS, without
the `slinky' feel, and with fewer complicated wrap moves.

Anybody with more direct experience of the two dances care to comment?

[ BTW, I plan to post a trip report about Herrang soon, if anyone is
interested. ]

David Drysdale

[Scubadance]

I dance mostly wsc. I had my first lesson in b-w this past June in West
Virginia at the Washington D.C. Swing Dance Committee event called the 9th
annual Savoy Swings Again. The b-w teachers were Marcus Koch and Barbara
Kaufer from Germany.

I decerned two differences in b-w and wcs:

(1) the rock step in b-w is forward; in wsc it is backward (a forward rock
step is more latin, e.g. rumba or cha-cha)

(2) b-w has lilt (commonly called "bounce") in that it rises and falls
much like jitterbug. In contrast, wsc uses "cuban motion" (hip motion) to
keep the dance level with the floor. This is also called dancing "in the
floor."

LA