Tonight, Steve invited me to go swing dancing at "Chicago," a local swing dance studio in Stockholm. I met Steve in a small hut on top of a volcano while I was in Iceland and he lives in Sweden. Had I known he could dance back in Iceland, we would have been doing the Charleston all the way down the mountain.
Tonight I learned that Stockholm has a very active swing scene and it is full of award winning international dancers. The Stockholm community was instrumental in the revival of swing dancing back in the 1980s. There are also a couple differences between dancing in the States and in Sweden that I found very interesting:
1) You dance 2 songs per partner
What I love about this is that you get a chance to learn how your partner dances and moves. Often times the second dance is better than the first.
2) Same Sex Duos
There are a lot of same sex duos dancing. I was asked by a woman tonight and she was a great lead. Guys ask guys. Girls ask girls. The only roles are lead and follow and even those are blurred at time.
3) Style Counts in Sweden
In my experience, being a showy or stylized dancer isn't always the best. You may catch your lead off guard, throw the beat and in some cases leads will ask you to "tone it down." This is not the case here. People make up moves, add steps and give you the space to work it. It felt so freeing to groove and let it all go!
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