Jazzy tunes were roaring as dozens of dancers rock-stepped and spun their way around McMillan Cafe at the WU Swing Homecoming Dance this past Friday. I leapt headlong into the fray, asking someone who looked a little more coordinated than myself to dance. Despite my relative inexperience in partner dancing, I was able to move and spin to the beat without stepping on any toes. The key to this is something I learned in the first class of the semester from WU Swing Dance Club, a Washington University student group focused on Lindy Hop lessons and social events, which I attended the Sunday prior: swing dance is all about communication.

The president of the WU Swing Dance Club, senior Ali Wilkening, is no stranger to the importance of communication in partner dance and how it creates a unique opportunity to connect with others in a way no other dance form allows. She spoke on the importance of social dance clubs as opposed to those focused on performance dance.

“What I fell in love with in swing dance is not just ‘Oh, I get to do kicky moves and flashy stuff and dress up all fancy,’ it’s that I get to feel how another person is moving and how to respond to that movement, and also how to move another person without even moving myself,” Wilkening said.

Coordinated movement was the primary objective of the evening. The social started with a brief crash course on swing dance basics taught by Wilkening, which included a simple pattern of spins and swing-outs to try. These building blocks, while accessible to the newest dancers, provided a foundation for dancing along to every song played throughout the night as well as for keeping up with even the most experienced dancers, many of which had vastly different styles and preferred steps.

The wide-ranging dance backgrounds present in the group stood out as I was paired with different dancers. Some used faster steps, some moved more slowly, some spun me in every direction imaginable and some simply swayed to the beat. Every different dance interpretation of the same music only added to the eclectic sense of the social, which was heightened by the variation of older and newer pieces played. There was one consistent element: every dancer was patient in teaching me the steps and did not judge me for being a complete beginner.

The dancers were divided into “leads” and “follows” for the evening. “The ‘lead’ is the traditionally masculine role in the dance, but I’m dancing the lead tonight because I don’t like to be controlled,” Wilkening joked, emphasizing both the roots of this dance and its role going forward.

Though swing may be a dance rooted in a specific era and time, it has continued to be practiced for almost a hundred years for a very simple reason: community.

“It’s something that you don’t get anywhere else,” said Wilkening. “A lot of what social dancing is, is about building a community by connecting.” This, in her view, is what keeps the dance alive and relevant today. She expressed the continued human need for connection through dance, saying “I think that having any kind of connection with another person is what brings it to me, and that’s how I feel it’s still relevant. So any way that I can get to move another person and be moved, I think that’s what keeps it everyday. That’s kind of timeless.”

Based on the turnout of the event, many agree with Wilkening’s sentiments. “This is the biggest turnout we’ve had since my freshman year,” expressed WU Swing Dance Club Treasurer junior Kat Gemperli. “The ‘20s are coming back! We need to bring back swing!”

I may not be a dancer, but I managed to dance the night away at the WU Swing Homecoming Dance and left with a sense of the strong and welcoming community the WU Swing Dance Club has built and continues to build through their accessible classes and events.