Swing dance is second nature to us dance aficionados so it’s easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the general difference between Hollywood and Savoy style Lindy-Hop.
And West Coast Swing, of course.
And West Coast Swing, of course.
You might be assuming too much, says the guy who read that article without any idea at all what it was actually about.
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.
100% there are, plus age/cohort effcts. I grew up in central Italy and didn't know anyone who knew any dance, but by middle age caribbean dances (mostly salsa and bachata) became quite popular and every group of friends had a few folks taking classes and going to dance. There might have been a moment in time lambada was popular?.
When I moved to Hungary it turned out everyone had learned waltz in school or something (tho nobody would go out to dance it).
But that aside: It's kinda sad a lot of folks don't really learn to dance any more. It's a great way to socialize (and closely get to know mostly members of the relevant sex, if that's your kinda thing ;)
The Swing community is still relatively strong, the ballroom community is somewhat smaller but at least somewhat alive, but social dancing as a general way to get together is almost non-existent outside of that.
Highly recommended. (Though, skip most dance schools. If I've ever seen a money-extraction-scheme, it's ballroom dance schools in the US)
I'm pretty certain many could correctly identify and name a waltz.