Frequently Asked Questions

Related to Swing dancing in that it has similar origins in the early 1900's African American community, Blues is a style of social partner dancing which was danced in smoky after-hours juke joints and house parties a hundred years ago. Its past is as old and mysterious as that of Blues music itself. Today, Blues is danced by swing dancers worldwide to slow, groovy Jazz, Swing, and Blues music. It can be a highly individualistic and improvised dance, but it has very simple basics.

The key features of Blues dancing are its expressiveness, its subtlety, and its very free structure, which lends itself to improvisation and musicality. Blues is a dancer's dance: just about everything you do in Blues dancing is for you and your partner, and not for anybody who may be watching. The best Blues dances will give you the distinct feeling that you and the person you are dancing with are the only people in the universe. Blues is fun, relaxing, playful, and sensuous.

Whether you ultimately want to dance fast or slow, blues is a great way to learn connection and musicality skills. Blues breaks partner dancing into its essentials - weight changes and lead-follow technique - that will be directly applicable to all other styles of partner dancing.