Laurie’s back from Cali!! So, this week we’re California Dreamin’… Be sure to ask her about her dance adventures!!
Join us for a California Mix Playlist – primarily WCS, with many songs that can be danced WCS AND other dances too, such as cha, Cali NC2, ECS, 2 Step, hustle, etc.
Everyone is encouraged to dance any dance they feel, while Westies do what they always do, dance WCS to almost anything!
We’ll also have some “California” inspired treats on the snack table, and as always, anyone who wishes to, may bring favorite finger foods to share with everyone!
Lesson 7 this week – the last lesson before ‘All Out Swing’.  Dave and Laurie will be introducing concepts these Top Pros cover in much more detail –

‘All Out Swing’, Feb 26 – 28 (contact DE or Shokdance for details), with Mario, Steph and Ben!  There will no be a WCS Friday dance Feb 26, we’ll all go dancing at DE that night.

Make sure to go to http://www.wcscalgary.com for all the WCS events of the week!!!!

This week we’re celebrating Family Day Weekend with our version of “Dance Family” Day on Friday! It’s Sam and Rachelle’s 46th Wedding Anniversary on Friday and WCSwing Calgary would like to invite our whole dance family to help them celebrate too! Your whole family; children, teens, siblings, spouses, parents and grandparents are welcome!!
Come celebrate the love of dance and friendship that we have found within our amazing dance community… We’ll have a snack table set up and anyone who wishes is welcome to bring their favorite finger foods to share.
Dance lesson 7:00
Dance Practice 8:00 – slower music this week!!
Dance Party 8:30
Be sure to listen for some fun, cheesy and not so cheesy love songs in the play list along with tons of great WCS, with a bit of WCS/country in the mix.

Year of The Red Fire Monkey Party
The Chinese New Year begins next week, so Josephine Choy is joining the Team to help Co-Host the Party.  Sample some tasty Chinese treats, listen for a couple of fun Chinese WCS songs, check your Chinese Horoscope  and have a blast ‘Monkeying’ around on the dance floor!!
Join us for the 5th lesson of the New Program. We always begin with a review/warm-up so anyone can join in the fun any week – invite your friends…
As always, we appreciate our generous ‘more experienced’ dancers who come to help us help our newer friends FEEL what WCS is all about…

Come “Dance Thru The Decades” to a great mix of WCS music from the 1960’s to the Top 40 of today!  Join in on a couple of fun mixer dances from years gone by and enjoy some tasty treats at the snack table!

Lesson 4 of New Program starts at 7:00pm – We are getting amazing feedback on our lessons!!!!

Dance Practice from 8:00 – 8:30 pm

Dance starts at 8:30 pm with great tunes from our DJ team!!!

The earliest versions of WCS began to appear on the Lindy/Swing scene sometime after the late 1930’s. In the 50’s one version was called “Sophisticated Swing”. Until 1961, many variations of the dance were being developed. The Arthur Murray Schools were one of the first to try to define it in some kind of formal way. The problem was that it was evolving very quickly, so by the time it was defined, the boundaries and rules had already adapted to the next “iteration” of the dance, a phenomenon that is still happening today.

The most important development for WCS came around 1961, when Murray’s “coaster step” was replaced by an “anchor step” by Skippy Blair and the GSDTA, whereby the last step of the last triple of any pattern was slightly backwards for both partners, thus creating the characteristic stretching action that fundamentally defines the dance today. Also around the same time, the name “West Coast Swing” began to be used in print instead of “Western Swing” as the Arthur Murray Schools called it.

The 1960’s could thus be said to be the real beginnings of WCS as it is done today. So here we are 55 years later, with an awesome improvisational dance that has continued to evolve and embrace the most popular “music of the day”. Join us as we dance to some of the best of the best WCS songs from the 1960’s to the top 40 of today!!