Lately, people have been asking me about getting started in dancing. I thought I would write a longer blog entry about it, something I could point people to.

In October of 2008, I sent email to the "Contact Us" link at Four Seasons Dance Studio. I basically said, "I want to become competent at the random social situations that come up in life." I used wedding dances or a night out with the Rockin' Hollywoods as my examples. I received a reply from Rebecca Abas, the studio owner and a truly fabulous dance teacher. She basically said, "That means waltz, foxtrot and swing."

Waltz and Foxtrot form the most basic core of ballroom dancing. They are danced in the well-known dance position we all see on TVs and movies -- gentleman's right arm on the lady's back, lady's left hand on the gentleman's shoulder, gentleman's left hand holding lady's right hand. Waltz is danced to 3/4 music and foxtrot to 4/4 music.

For those who aren't musicians, 3/4 music is 1-2-3, 1-2-3. 4/4 music is what we hear much more often and has a four-beat. 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. The Norah Jones song, "Come Away With Me" is a fabulous, slow waltz. You would foxtrot to Sinatra.

Swing is also danced to 4/4 music. I can swing dance to almost any rock music. I've also done swing dancing to things as non-swingy as a hip-hop mashup. It feels weird, but hey, I'm a middle-aged white guy -- I'm not going to do that stuff the kids do to hip-hop, that's for sure!

When Rebecca made her suggestions, I was totally on board for waltz and foxtrot. I thought she was insane to suggest swing. That's for young people, I thought -- no way could my body move that way. I was way too big, way too heavy, way too clumsy, way to old.

Rebecca was right, I was wrong. Swing became my favorite style -- by far. If I go out dancing, it's almost always swing.

The thing is, I didn't really know what swing was. Sure, I'd seen it on movies. Lots of throwing the woman around and jumps and stuff, right? Well, sure. If you're a professional performer in a choreographed situation or doing a demonstration, aerials are great. They don't belong on the social dance floor. Do you really want to throw your lady across the floor and knock over five other dancers? I don't think so.

When people first tell me, "I want to learn to dance," the next question becomes, "What style?" Rebecca originally taught me the above dances, but that's just a beginning. New dancers may have an idea of what they want to learn. Choices are:

-Basic ballroom: waltz and foxtrot and go from there
-Swing: start with east coast swing and branch out in a variety of directions after that
-Latin: salsa, cha-cha, rumba, bachata, samba, etc.
-Tango: and I mean Argentine tango, of course.

Okay, there are other choices, but I'm not going near those :-)

What would I recommend? Whatever makes you happy. Okay, want something more specific? I'd take 1 or 2 months of basic ballroom lessons. At the same time, I'd dive completely into swing. Why? It's fabulously fun and there are multiple opportunities to go swing dancing every week, at least here in the Twin Cities. Plus the music rocks!

Don't think you can swing? Ha. If I can do it, you can do it.