We had a West Coast Swing (WCS) dance party last Saturday. I was talking with my wife about how to improve the dance. She is interested in WCS and hoping to improve her dance.
Like Salsa and Argentine Tango, WCS is basically a social dance and have been danced for fun or for entertainment by most. It is relatively recent event that they developed national amateur contest circuit, introduced and organized point system and many started to see the dance as a contest/show dance for themselves.
A fun thing about WCS circuit is that there are champions with many different body types. It makes a good contrast to certain performance-oriented dances. If we see a professional ballet company for example, we see dancers with relatively uniform, idealized "Dancer's body". Not too fat, not too bodybuilder-muscular. Lean, proportional and limber "right-sized and -shaped" people you will see there.
Reflecting the social dance origin, there are many "ordinary" looking people in WCS circuit. I think it is wonderful.
My wife has lean body type with long limbs. The body type looks good as a dancer, and it is strength. A potential weakness for the people with that body type is that if they allow the frame to give too much, they can look weak and fragile. The motion will start losing precision and the response delayed. So I am asking her to work on her frame. In WCS most of the time the follower follows her hand, so coordinating entire body movement to the hand movement is very important. Short and stocky dancers usually don't have the issue. They tend to have different weakness and strength.
Good news for my wife is that there are some WCS champions who have similar (or even skinnier) body type. They can be her reference. I am asking her to watch YouTube and learn what they are doing. What works and what not. After all, they are champions and their dance can guide others.
To me it doesn't make great sense if you try something that is far out of your natural strength. Dancers with fuller body can have good presence, but for them trying to move like small and agile dancers would be a pain. "Know yourself".
I'm sure you can find your champions, too.
