The TRUSU Social Dance Club is jazzed to tell you about their swing dance lessons.
Once every semester, the TRU Social Dance Club hosts swing dance lessons over eight weeks. Beginners are invited to try something new, listen to jazz music and learn some old-fashioned dance moves.
Swing dancing is all about footwork, connecting with your dance partner and matching the rhythm of jazz music. Swing dancing was most common in the 1920s to 1940s and has since decreased in popularity. However, the TRUSU Social Dance Club hopes to keep the art form alive. A diverse group of people meet every Monday to participate with dance instructors Jedd Macmillan and Kazia Poore.
The TRUSU Social Dance Club offers opportunities to try something you’ve either always wanted to try or never even thought about trying and, as such, hopes to have more people sign up to participate in future classes.
“Even if you think dancing is not for you, just give it a try,” said Kirsten Glass, TRUSU Social Dance Club President.
“Everyone has been a beginner at one point in their dance life. The first time I took a dance lesson, it was very scary, but it was still a lot of fun, and it meant that I got to connect with different people that I would have never met before. It’s worth a shot regardless of who you are.”
Glass hopes to expand the types of dance offered at the TRUSU Social Dance Club, like ballroom dance and various cultural dance types.
“I really also want to support more teaching of cultural dances so that people can not only show off their culture but also interact with other people’s culture in a way that maybe they haven’t before,” Glass said. “I think another way dance, music, and art is great is because we get to share things about ourselves in a very unique, creative, collaborative way.”
Swing dance instructors Jedd McMillan and Kazia Poore also had some words of encouragement to add to anyone scared and wanting to participate in the art of dance.
“Push through the awkward. At first, you will feel uncomfortable,” Poore said. “If you can push through the uncomfortable until you reach the point where you have a basic understanding of what you’re doing, then it becomes fun. You’ll be able to get creative and express your body and then connect with the music.”
“For anything that you want to learn to do, it’s okay to be bad at it at first,” McMillan said. “There’s this idea in our world that you must go out and be immediately successful. Whenever you’re thinking of trying a new activity or anything new, it’s a matter of ‘go suck at something,’ go out there and be okay with not being good. The important thing is not whether you get good; it’s about whether you get better than where you started.”
The TRUSU Social Dance Club is always looking for new dancers, participants and even instructors. Swing dance lessons will start again in January for the winter semester. Although there will be a $30 fee for all non-student community members, interested students can join for free.
To obtain more information about the Social Dance Club – including how to apply for instructor positions – interested parties may contact SDC president Kirsten Glass through the club email: trususocialdanceclub@gmail.com