On Thursday nights from 7-9 p.m., the Country Swing Dance Club is dancing away at the Animal Pavilion building on the west side of campus.
AJ Rose is a sophomore at the University of Idaho who brought the club back up and running at full speed this academic year. “This year I made it a sanctioned club under the school,” Rose said.
The environment is casual and welcoming for newcomers. At each meeting, attendees are typically taught a line dance and three new moves. “Sometimes, depending on the severity of the move, it’s going to be two moves,” Rose said.
At the end, they have a “free dance” where attendees can socialize, get to know other members and hang out while practicing what they have been taught throughout the night.
No matter your level of experience, all are welcome to attend the club.
“You can have absolutely no experience. Show up and we’ll be able to help you,” Rose said. “We’re teaching a lot of beginner moves. … Once we start to grow, we’ll be able to teach the different beginner, intermediate and advanced.”
Something Rose thinks is unique about country swing dancing is how well it fits in with other music and dance paces. “You can do it to so many songs and you can switch up the pace. … With swing dancing, you can just have fun,” she said.
Kylie Scheib is a secondary education major at UI who is an active member of the Country Swing Dance Club. After seeing an advertisement about the club, she and a friend decided to go and see what swing dancing was all about.
“I wasn’t a huge dancer to start with, but getting into it, it’s just been so much fun,” Scheib said. “[I’ve been] meeting all of these really amazing people through it as well. That’s been a huge reason why I keep going back.”
During club meetings, participants get to experience both line and swing dancing. Swing dancing includes partners while line dancing is individual. Scheib describes the two as, “[Line dances] have set steps, whereas for swing dancing, in your partners, we teach different moves and then it’s up to you to put everything together into a dance.”
At the beginning of the meeting, members will introduce themselves to ease into the meeting with new members. “Everyone does make a point to get to know each other at some point,” said Scheib.
Then you can expect to start with line dances, move into learning a few new swing dance moves and then close the night by freestyling with a partner. This allows for creativity and fun while practicing the dance style.
Scheib shared her favorite songs to dance to. “If we’re doing just swing dancing, I really enjoy ‘Time is Love’ by Josh Turner. If we’re doing line dances, it’s probably between either ‘High Class’ by Eric Paslay or ‘Lonely Drum’ by Aaron Goodvin.”
Showing up is the first step into learning the skill of country swing dancing. Scheib said, “Just show up and try to not be in your head too much.”
Learning something new can oftentimes be intimidating, but having fun and being in the moment is the most important thing to remember.
“When I started, I thought that everyone was looking at me and judging me while I was messing up line dances or not getting moves right away. … We’re more happy to sit down and help you and walk you through it,” said Scheib.
The Country Swing Dance Club is open to any level of expertise. “Nobody’s watching you, I promise. And when you make mistakes, we just call it ‘adding flair’,” said Scheib.
Whether you have prior country swing dance experience or are wanting to learn something new, the Country Swing Dance Club offers a sense of supportive community and great skill. With new dance moves being taught weekly, this club is great for building swing dancing experience. Thursdays with the Country Swing Dance Club are a great way to relieve stress and have a good time with new friends.
Reese Garcia can be reached at [email protected].