Wild Wild Westie (W3) is a West Coast Swing (WCS) event in Dallas, held on July 4th weekend since 2012.
Holding a national-level dance event is a lot of work for organizers; inviting traveling pros as judges and/or as performers/teachers/MCs/DJs, booking hotel with big dance floor(s), mobilizing not a small number of volunteer staff, and above all, needing to attract dancers, so that the event can go on financially.
In Texas in 2000's, there were big WCS events like Americas Classic in Houston (January) and Dallas Dance in Dallas (Labor Day). They both went belly up in 2010's. No jinxing.
The W3 basically replaced those events in 2010's, along with Novice Invitational in March.
In 2020-2021, covid shut down all dance events. West Coast Swing communities in this region also took hit from covid. Currently in mid 2022, WCS communities are more or less in recovery phase.
I had not been to big (3+ days) WCS event for a long time. As life threat of covid is reduced with vaccination and improvements in other treatments, I felt like going to a big WCS event. I love this dance after all. So I made this July 4th weekend a mini dance vacation.
I left OKC on Saturday, drove 4 hours, got tested for covid (this event is a covid testing event with vaccine requirement), joined the event in the evening for watching competitions/shows and late night social dance. I spent Sunday for the same, then came back on Monday July 4th. Glad to see familiar faces and to meet new people.
What you see in WCS event:
Big WCS events are usually structured like this; they have leveled competitions for novice (meaning WCS competition novice, not total beginners), intermediate/advanced, and champions. These categories are defined by points each dancer accumulates in WCS contests. Winning/higher placements gives you more points at a time. Levels are aligned from amateur contests to more interesting/show-worthy contests.
The point system is not exactly the ideal system, as it assumes dancers' current levels are proportional to points (it is not. But it may make sense to encourage personal engagement and growth). As such, point system can work as a barrier to established dancers like professional dancers in other dances. But a better system is hard to find.
To some, WCS points are brownie points. To others, the points are tangible awards for their efforts, sum of good memories, and/or something that may come with perks.
If you are committing to WCS contests, read the rules, practice the dance and sign up.
I digress. Competition categories include Jack and Jill, Strictly Swing, Pro-Am, and Routine ("Classic" and "Showcase" defined by lifts/drops/non-swing dance moves allowance). They are also categorized by dancers ages, from junior to sophisticated (age 35+) and masters (+50).
In addition, there are workshops and classes. They can teach many subjects; patterns, drills, contest mindsets, choreographed moves, connection, etc.
And social dances in between the contests and in late night. This social dance hours are for all, both for active contestants and for "just dance and have fun" people, who may or may not be former contestants or otherwise very good dancers.
Good thing about social dance is that people don't care about titles. Sure, the way they dance gives away who are (likely) pros and who are not. But asking dance is a lot simpler in WCS than, say, Cabeceo ritual of Tango.
Now, a note on dance levels. I am talking from a spectator's standpoint here.
Some dances are clearly divided to (a) stage dance by pros and to (b) dance by amateurs, like ballet, jazz/contemporary, and ballroom. Pro performers in these dances are (or they better be), convincingly professional performers, even to layman's eyes. These stage dancers with "trained" look make Broadway shows and National TV-level stage shows.
Argentine Tango and WCS were born from social dance. In 110+ years of history, AT went through this pro/am separation. Someone in a book "Tango Tips" described stage AT performance as "professional deformation". I laughed, but true, what pros do on stage shows is so far apart from the hug and walk, what social Tango dancers do on social dance floor.
WCS is younger and is still going through this pro-am separation. Some (few) dancers are polished to the level of Broadway shows. Most are not.
"Most are not", but in general, followers (usually women) are better dancers in WCS, same with Argentine Tango.
Perhaps it is due to the differences in the lead/follow roles. Leaders' primary job is support, then lead, then dance and look good, in this order. Refining dances and becoming appealing dancers are late in the agenda for leaders. Alpha-male type dancer-leader are rare and far in between.
Followers' primary job is to "follow and dance and look good", at the same time. In contests, they hardly survive without some form of appeal. They are better, because the selection is tougher? Maybe.
As followers are better dancers, it can show in the dance. Sometimes it looks like "one-woman show", when follower being strong dancer and the lead focusing on his support role. Each couple, especially leader, needs to think how they can create nice dance.
Note on Lead and Follow roles:
Which is tougher, follow or lead? It is up to you to decide. And you can literally decide after you try them both. In the W3, there were lots of dancers with "switch roles", and even a class for that. I usually lead, but can follow and dance. I can tell you, following is lots of physical work, as the main "moving parts" is the follower in WCS.
After all, WCS is a swing dance, and swing motion has both slow and fast aspects. WCS dancers usually use "slow" time for anchor and play, and use "fast" time for smooth moving to create the mix of slow/fast (swing) motions. Leader tends to stay in the middle playing the role of support and visual center point, and follower moves around like the swinging seat.
Speaking of physical work, in fact, you can see much faster speed of energy flow in higher level WCS dancers than, say, novice and masters. Having quick feet and fast response time is an indicator as advanced (or younger) WCS dancers. There is no immediate cure to fix immobile or all slow follower in WCS. Overall smoothness and the swing motion cannot be achieved without both partners bringing knowledge and physical ability to the dance floor.
On social dance:
I did late night dance for two nights (seriously, after such a long time). I do not always like late night dance, because in late night dance people tend to lose concentration and go to autopilot mode. Crèche moves with overactive frame can be the norm.
But the late night dance floor was filled with raw energy. After these years including covid. What fun it was.
I did lots of watching as well. The social dance may not always look polished. But who cares. Something interesting is coming out of all these energy and experiments. WCS is alive and well there. I love it.
I hope WCS communities come back from covid disruption soon, safe and sound.
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PS Covid variant is on the rise again and there were reports of tested-positive at the event. They went to immediate quarantine and masking. I checked myself yesterday and was negative. We'd have to deal with covid like this for some time.
