What is Swing Dancing?

Question:

What is Swing Dancing?

My Friend and I are trying to Swing Dance to some 60s music and we want to know what Swing Dancing is.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Nowdays, it is usually a couple dance. It can be danced socilally or competitively. Swing dance is a group of dances - East Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, Jitterbug, Jive and many more. Search www.youtube.com - you will find a lot of examples of what it looks like.

On the history of swing dance:
The term "swing dance" is commonly used to refer either to a group of dances developing to the evolving Jazz music during the Jazz a.k.a. Swing era (late 1910s to 1940s) or to the forms that are later evolutions based upon this era. Historical swing dances as a family are usually situated within an African American vernacular dance tradition, though there are some exceptions which developed within the white or mainstream American community based on prior partner dances mainly influenced by European dance. Swing music features the syncopated timing associated with African American and West African music and dance. This syncopated rhythm was the basis for Dixieland Jazz that is where the term swing comes from.