St. Louis dance clubs dance to both imperial swing and west coast swing. Our Jefferson County Swing Dance Club provides St. Louis swing dance lessons before each dance. Come to swing dancing in St Louis at our biweekly Tuesday dances. Sometimes we are called club imperial Arnold MO. Southside imperial dance club dances biweekly on Sunday. Our Jefferson County swing dance club dances to both imperial swing and west coast swing in St Louis, MO. Imperial swing dance and west coast swing dance are similar but distinct dances. Our club also performs line dances.
WELCOME TO THE JEFFERSON COUNTY SWING DANCE CLUB (JCSDC) – ARNOLD, MO (a member of the St. Louis swing dance clubs community)
JUNE 30 VOLUNTEERS CAN SIGN-UP TO HELP ⇒ Dance Events Blog
Join JEFFERSON COUNTY SWING DANCE CLUB
For Our SPRING INTO SUMMER SWING DANCE
Sunday June 30th
With LIVE BAND at CONCORD FARMER’S CLUB
Paul Bonn and the Bluesmen.
$10.00 admission at door
Doors open 4:30, dancing 5 – 9 pm
Cash bar – No outside liquor or beverages but outside snacks are permitted
10140 Concord School Rd., St. Louis, MO 63128
3,000 Sq.Ft. Wood Dance Floor
doors open at 4:30pm.
$10.00 admission at door
Dance Flyer ⇒ swing into summer 2019
More SWING dance videos on the right column (PC and tablet) or at the bottom of the page (smart cell phone)
- Jefferson County Swing dance flyer and DJs schedule (quarterly flyer) (click here) PDF file ⇒ 2ndqtrflyer-2019
- Jefferson County Swing dance news Letter (PDF file) ⇒ news letter page 1 (April 2019)
Song requests for the next Jefferson County swing dance can be left on the DANCE EVENTS BLOG page ⇒ DANCE EVENTS BLOG (BLOG page is similar to a FACEBOOK page with the latest event posts)
MIDWEST FEDERATION SWING DANCE SCHEDULE (St. Louis Dance Clubs) ⇒ ALL CLUBS
Southside Imperial Dance Club, St. Louis, MO ⇒www.southsidedance.org
⇓ SUBSCRIBE TO THE BI-WEEKLY CLUB NEWS EMAIL BELOW ⇓
First time visitors get into the swing dance/lessons for free. Free soda and popcorn.
Our Jefferson County swing dance club in Arnold, MO is the place for swing dancing for any age, any gender; single or married. We do both line dances and couples’ dances. We swing dance to current popular music. Our DJs accept song requests.
We are a non-profit organization located in Arnold, Mo. Our club is devoted to promoting Imperial Swing Dancing in the Jefferson County & the St. Louis Metropolitan area.
We meet on the 2nd & 4th Tuesday of every month in Jefferson County at the Arnold VFW Hall at 2301 Church Road, Arnold, MO 63010. The rear building entrance leads directly to the swing dance room. (See picture below).
Visitors are welcome. You do not need to be a swing dance club member. It is not necessary to have a partner, we have many members who are available to dance with you. Our swing club also does line dances (Electric Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Blurred Lines, etc.)
Swing dance lessons are 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Open swing dancing is 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm.
Admission is $5 for JCSDC and sister swing club members and $7 for non-members.
SWING DANCE DATES (All members are welcome at board meetings.)
| Jan 2019 | 8 | 22 | board meets Jan 8 at 5 pm |
| Feb | 12 | Feb 23-Mardi Gras Dance Feb 26–NO DANCE |
|
| Mar | 12 | 26 | Board meet March 12 at 5 pm |
| Apr | 9 | 23 | |
| May | 14 | 28 | Board meets May 14 at 5 pm |
| June | 11 | 25 | June 30 dance at Concord Farmers Club |
| July | 9 | 23 | |
| Aug | 13 | 27 | |
| Sept | 10 | 24 | |
| Oct | 22 | Oct 8 no dance | |
| Nov | 12 | 26 | |
| Dec | 10 |
Visit our membership page for information on becoming a member of J.C.S.D.C. ⇒ Membership
IMPERIAL DANCE (St. Louis Dance Clubs)
In the St Louis, MO swing dance community, Imperial Swing Dance is the most common type of swing dance. Imperial swing dance is a combination of east coast swing dance and west coast swing dance. Imperial swing dance is considered to be an east coast swing dance style because the footwork is the same as east coast swing. However the NATIONAL FAST DANCE ASSOCIATION states that St. Louis Imperial Swing is an off-shoot of West Coast Swing Dance, not East Coast Swing Dance.
St. Louis Imperial Swing Dance is halfway between east coast swing dance and west coast swing dance. It uses the east coast swing dance footwork and faster tempo, but uses the west coast swing dance slot pattern with west coast swing dance turns.
A non-dancer cannot tell the difference between a west coast swing basic move and an east coast swing sugar push move. Those two swing dance moves will look the same. But to the dancers, there is a huge difference.
The Midwest Swing Dance Federation has 9 swing dance clubs, mostly in the St Louis, MO area. Most of these St. Louis dance clubs use the east coast imperial styling of swing dance. Everyone is welcome at any of the St Louis swing dance clubs. You do not need to be a club member. Each St Louis swing dance club offers free or nominal cost dance lessons for beginners the hour before their dance starts. These swing dance lesson are group lessons, where you rotate partners to be sure that everyone learns the lesson equally well. Partners are not needed for the dance lessons. Each club has its own website that lists the dates of their dances.
Dance halls with independent swing dancing dates.
- Concord Farmers Club (sometimes called Concord Hall)
- Casa Loma Ballroom
Private swing dance lessons are available at Just Dancing Studio, U Can Dance Studio, and St Louis Destination Swing Dance Club.
Group swing dance lessons are available at Just Dancing Studio and the Saint Louis Community College (Sherry Martin).
East Coast Vs. West Coast Swing: What’s the Difference?
When people see that we teach both East and West Coast Swing at the Jefferson County Swing Dance Club, their first reaction is often, “What’s the difference?” Because a lot a beginning dancers assume that “swing dancing” in itself is a singular dance style, they don’t realize that there is more than one type.
West Coast Swing is generally seen as a slower, more formal swing style than East Coast, although they are both fun dances. Unlike the circular patterns of East Coast Swing, West Coast dancers often staying within a specific rectangular slot on the dance floor, moving in an up and down section.
Swing Dance Steps (6 count patterns)
The East Coast style of Swing is made up of two triple steps and a two step (rock step).
The West Coast style of Swing is made up of two walking steps and two triple steps.
Variations of Dance
- East Coast Swing dance is a simpler 6-count variation that spawned from the six-count variations of the Lindy Hop. It evolved with swing-band music of the 1940s and the work of the Arthur Murray dance studios in the 1940s. It is also known as Six-count Swing, Triple-Step Swing, or Single-Time Swing. East Coast Swing has very simple structure and footwork along with basic moves and styling. It is popular for its simple nature and is often danced to slow, medium, or fast tempo jazz, blues, or rock and roll. Occasionally, Rockabilly, aka Rock-a-billy, is mistaken for East Coast Swing, but Rockabilly is more closely related to Western Swing.
- West Coast Swing dance was developed in the 1940s, as a stylistic variation on the Los Angeles style of the Lindy Hop. It is a slotted dance and is done to a wide variety of music including: blues, rock and roll, country western, pop, hip hop, smooth, cool jazz, R& B, and funk music. It is popular throughout the United States and Canada but was uncommon in Europe and much of Asia until the 21st Century.
- Western Swing has long been the name for jazz-influenced western music of the 1940s and, by extension, two-step, line dancing or swing dance done to such music. Contemporary 21st century Country Swing or dancing or “Country Western Swing Dancing” (C/W Swing) has a distinct culture, with classes and instructional videos on YouTube and DVD teaching dips, lifts, aerials and flips. It adds variations from other country dances, swing styles, salsa and more. As the name suggests, it is most often danced to country and western music.
- Carolina Shag was danced along the strands between Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, during the 1940s but, during the 1990s and later, has expanded to many other places. It is most often associated with beach music, which refers to songs that are rhythm-and-blues-based and, according to Bo Bryan, a noted shag historian and resident of Beaufort County, is a term that was coined at Carolina Beach, North Carolina.
- Imperial Swing is a cross between East Coast and West Coast Swing as it is done both in slot and in the round. It started at the Club Imperial in St Louis. George Edick, who owned the club, let teenagers dance on the lower level and the swing dancers of the time taught them what was learned from their trips to the east coast. As people traveled around, they added parts of west coast, bop and Carolina shag to complement the dance and make it distinctive. “The Imperial” has elements of “East Coast”, “West Coast”, “Carolina Shag” and “Bop”.
MIDWEST DANCE FEDERATION
The Midwest Swing Dance Federation has 9 swing dance clubs, mostly in the St Louis, MO area (St. Louis dance clubs). See “sister clubs” menu for links. Most clubs use the east coast styling of swing dance (unless stated differently below).
- Jefferson County swing dance club – Arnold, MO
- Destination swing dance club (west coast swing St Louis)
- Jefferson City Swing Dance Club, Jefferson City, MO (imperial swing – east coast swing)
- Lake Of The Ozarks Swing Dance Club, Lake Ozark, MO (imperial swing – east coast swing)
- Moolah Shrine swing dance club (St. Louis dance clubs) (imperial swing – east coast swing)
- Midwest United States Imperial Swing Dance Club, Collinsville, IL (St. Louis dance clubs) (imperial swing – east coast swing)
- Southside Imperial Dance Club, St. Louis, MO (imperial swing – east coast swing)
- St Charles Imperial Dance Club, St. Peters, MO (St. Louis dance clubs) (imperial swing – east coast swing)
- Rebels dance club (west coast swing St Louis)
For college students:
- Washington University Swing Dance Club (St. Louis dance clubs)
ABA CLUBS (American Bop Association)
Most east coast swing dance clubs belong to this association. Most of these dance clubs are east of the Mississippi River.
LINKS TO ABA SWING DANCE CLUBS
Atlanta Swing Dancers, Atlanta, GA – atlantaswingdancers.com
Chicago Jitterbug Club, Chicago, IL – chicagojitterbugclub.com
Chicago’s Windy City Jitterbug Club, Chicago, IL – jitterbugchicago.com
Choo Choo Shag Club, Chattanooga, TN – choochooshagclub.com
Cincinnati Bop Club, Cincinnati, OH – cincibop.com
Corvette City Bop Club, Bowling Green, KY – corvettecitybopanddanceclub.com
Derby City Bop Association, Louisville, KY – derbycitybop.com
Evansville River City Bop Club, Evansville, IN – ercbopclub.com
Indy Dancers, Indianapolis, In – indydancers.com
Great Lakes Swing Dance Club, Burton, MI – glsdc.org
Jefferson City Swing Dance Club, Jefferson City, MO – jeffersoncityswingdanceclub.wildapricot.org
Lake Of The Ozarks Swing Dance Club, Lake Ozark, MO – lakeozarksswingdance.com
LEXDANCE, Lexington, KY – facebook.com/lexdanceky
Little Rock Bop Club, North Little Rock, AR – littlerockbopclub.com
Memphis Bop Club, Memphis, TN – thememphisbopclub.com
Mid-Ohio Boogie Club, New Albany, OH – midohioboogieclub.org
Magic City Boppers, Birmingham, AL – magiccityboppers.wixsite.com/magiccityboppers
Midwest United States Imperial Club, Collinsville, IL (St. Louis area)- musicswingdance.com
Moolah Swing Dance Club, St. Louis, MO – mssdc.org
Music City Bop Club, Goodlettsville, TN (Nashville Area) – musiccitybopclub.com/
Ohio’s North Coast Jitterbug Connection, Cuyahoga, OH – oncjc.org
R & B Shag Club of Spartanburg, Spartanburg, SC – rbshagclub.org
Shag Atlanta, Roswell, GA (Atlanta Area) – shagatlanta.com
Smoky Mountain Shaggers, Knoxville, TN – smokymountainshaggers.com/
Southside Imperial Dance Club, St. Louis, MO – southsidedance.org
Spa City Bop & Swing Dance Club, Hot Springs, AR – spacitydanceclub.com/welcome—main-menu.html
St Charles Imperial Dance Club, St. Peters, MO (St. Louis Area) – scidc.com/
St Louis Imperial Dance Club, St. Ann, MO (St. Louis Area) – slidc.org/
Steel City Boogie Club, Pittsburgh, PA – steelcityboogieclub.org/
Tampa Bay Beach Boppers, Tampa Bay, FL – tampabaybeachboppers.com/
Top Of Kentucky Boogie Club, Fort Mitchell, KY – topofky.com/
West County Swing Dance Club, Manchester, MO (St. Louis Area) – wcsdc.com/
NATIONAL FASTDANCE ASSOCIATION
