East Coast Swing

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East Coast Swing (ECS) is a social partner dance primarily derived from the Eastern Swing Dance. Eastern Swing, in turn, was evolved from Foxtrot or more specifically its leaping version known as Shag. Furthermore, many aspects of East Coast Swing were, and still are, influenced by Charleston and Lindy Hop. In many dance studios and classes, East Coast Swing is taught as one of the first forms of swing dance because of its forgiving nature when a mistake is made and its relatively simple step routine.

East Coast Swing is the modern form that is a fusion of its early counterparts Eastern Swing and Lindy which were street dances. This form of swing dance utilizes both six and 8 count patterns. The name East Coast Swing was coined to initially be a divider between the street form and the new variant used in the competitive ballroom arena.^{[citation needed]} While based on Eastern Swing, it does have clear distinctions. East Coast Swing is a standardized form of dance that was developed to allow for a medium of comparison for competitive dancers. It can be said that there is a right and wrong way to dance it as the technical elements of this form are documented and governed by the National Dance Council of America. The N.D.C.A. oversees all the accepted standards for American Style Ballroom and Latin dances. Eastern Swing was never standardized and later evolved into several forms such as: (European) Boogie Woogie, Jive, East Coast Swing, and Rock & Roll.

[edit] The Basic Step

Depending on the region, the basic step of East Coast Swing is either "rock step, step, step" or "step, step, rock step". Despite the differing order, the rock step is always taken on beats 1 or 3 of the music and because the ECS step is six counts and the music runs on 4 counts, the step pattern will result in the exact same dance.

The non-rocking steps, as is often seen on dance floors during slow songs, can be substituted with a triple step or a kick step rather than a single step. The most common result is a basic move of "rock step, triple step, triple step", however, other combinations are possible, such as "rock step, kick step, step".