Up up and away

gcsunade | gcsunade.com

Swing dance veterans sophomore computer science major Ginny VanDyck and senior accounting major Joey Waddell perform the “Marilyn Monroe” move.

The GC Swing Dance Association invites all dancers to join them every Monday

Nervous, anxious, excited, welcomed and accomplished are all words that could easily describe the participants in Georgia College’s Swing Dance Association.

Welcoming everyone from beginners to experienced dancers, the Swing Dance Association members make sure no one is left out. It also doesn’t hurt to learn that Lauren Lee, junior exercise science major and the current president of the Swing Dance Association, once considered herself unable to dance.

She started dancing three years ago at the beginning of her freshman year.

“I wanted to learn how to breakdance, but there wasn’t a club for that, so I decided to try swing dancing,” Lee said.

Swing dancing turned out to be a perfect fit for Lee. She, along with fellow juniors Kris Sehock, Wayne Cook and Robin Glaubman, have essentially saved the Swing Dance Association from dying out.

While many students believe this club to be a brand new organization started by Lee, it has actually been around for somewhere close to 10 years.

Lee says her favorite part about the job is seeing everyone’s face light up when they realize they can do the moves that, five minutes earlier, they believed impossible.

Freshman environmental science major Gabe Kustick, who participated in the club for the first time recently, had so much fun that he plans on coming back. He stated that there is no need to worry about being a bad dancer.

“You have someone there to show you the moves and a partner to help you along,” Kustick said.

Clearly this is not an activity that only a fortunate few can enjoy. Even those who do not consider themselves graceful or athletic can partake in swing dancing. This form of dancing is not as hard as it seems.

“Ballet is made hard to look easy, and swing dancing is made easy to look hard,” Leaf Ballard, sophomore English major and swing dancing instructor, said after demonstrating an impressive move called “the sweetheart twirl.”

Ultimately, swing dancing is all about having the right partner and trusting them. Women especially have to trust their partners since there is always the fear of being dropped on the ground.

It is not hard to understand why all of the instructors are so close. Working in such close proximity for hours every week makes it hard to avoid each other.

Lee said that swing dancing can help create long-lasting friendships among the people in the class. To this day she is still dancing with someone she met two years ago.

“Me and my partner Kris Schock got together our freshman year, and we just hit it off,” Lee said.

They purposely put everyone in a circle and then rotate partners so students can figure out whom they dance with the most comfortably; but the catch is that the best fit might not be the original partner brought to the class.

As intimidating as swing dancing may seem, it has attracted many new participants at GC – especially freshman.

To be a part of the Swing Dance Association at GC, attend their meetings on Mondays at 8 p.m. in the Centennial Center.

Posted by gcsunade on Sep 6 2012. Filed under A&E, Lead stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.