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Swivels

Swivels: Footwork

Finally getting to the promised footwork part of swivels – better late than never, right? I hope so.

There are two basic footwork patterns that you can do, and they’re both easy. They both take 2 beats, so they can be done on the 1+2 of a swingout, or repeated for switches.
Are you ready? for the big Reveal? In no particular order, the two footwork patterns are:
(dum-dum-DA!)
Step-Step: step on alternate feet evenly on every beat (1 2)
Kick-Ball-Change*: kick with your right foot, step on your right foot, step on your left foot (1+2)
These two footwork patterns are interchangeable because they take the same number of beats and you wind up on the same foot at the end. The Kick-Ball-Change is just a gussied up version of the Step-Step.
Let’s take a look at these in action – my apologies for repeating clips, but I want to use ones where you can see their feet.
Step-Step Swivels (I call these “Jewel swivels” because this is her standard footwork)
Buck Privates at 1:49 – Jewel just steps on every beat, starting by sitting deep into the 7+8 of the previous swingout. On the even beats (8, 2, 4, 6, etc.) she steps to the left with her left foot, and then brings her right foot to meet it on the odd beats (1, 3, 5, 7), all while maintaining her turnout.
Kick-Ball-Change Swivels (I call these “Jean swivels” — guess why?)
Groovie Movie at 3:45 – it’s hard to see if you aren’t looking for it, but Jean is doing KBC swivels. You can tell because her toe comes up slightly on 1, which doesn’t happen if you’re putting your weight down. It’s not a big kick from the knee, it’s just a little flick. Try keeping your heel slightly touching the ground.
Groovie Movie at 5:36 – here you can see Irene Thomas (brunette in the center) and Kay Smith doing KBC swivels alongside Jean. It’s nice to see some other LA follows featured in switches besides just Jean and Jewel!
The footwork pattern you choose is completely personal choice, and it’s not dictated by the lead at all. Use the music as your cue – I think that Step-Step swivels are a little smoother, and KBC swivels are snappier. You can travel cover more distance with Step-Step swivels than KBC, and when the music’s really fast you won’t have enough time between the beats for Kick-Ball-Changes, so Step-Steps are your only option. Practice both and play with changing them up!
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*Kick-Ball-Change = KICK/step on the BALL of same foot/CHANGE your weight to opposite foot
It’s not “Kick the old ball and chain”…

Swivels: Practice that Shoulder Stuff

How you hold your shoulders during swivels and switches has a big impact on the overall look – for the classic LA style swivels, it’s important to pull your shoulders back and center them over your core (don’t hunch forward and don’t lean back – your shoulders should be directly over your hips). This technique is functional as well as stylistic – you’re building a solid foundation in your midsection, so that your bottom half can relax and let your feet do more than just hold you up.

Go look in a mirror and practice this. Hold onto a doorway and bend your knees a little, and check your posture in that mirror. You don’t even need a full length mirror – your bathroom is fine, because you’re only looking at your shoulders. If you feel wobbly, try to use your stomach and back muscles a little more. If you can’t find those muscles, go do a couple stomach crunches to show you where they are!
Got that posture figured out? Now here’s the tricky bit. While doing your footwork*, isolate your shoulders and don’t let them rotate forward & back/left & right as your hips move. Hold them steady. Don’t let them wiggle and flop around and distract from your nice turnout you’ve worked on. Pay extra close attention when you rotate to the right – keep that left shoulder in place!
Okay, here’s your inspiration clips – you’ve earned it!
“Chool Song”, Dean Collins and Jewel McGowan dancing
In her switches at 1:00, Jewel holds her top half up and steady, and her shoulders barely wiggle – even with those giant sleeves that accentuate everything! Notice too that she opens up from Dean a little – she’s not perfectly parallel to him (which makes this a better angle for the audience), but she still holds steady.
“One Girl and Two Boys” from Swing Fever, Jean Veloz dancing with Don Gallagher and Lenny Smith
In this clip, Jean does some sassy ups and downs with her shoulders, but still keeps them back and doesn’t let them rock in as she swivels. Notice too how her arm does different stylings, but she still keeps her posture.
If you feel inclined, go back and watch the last clips I posted, and this time watch their shoulders. I’m trying to post a variety of clips (and not just Buck Privates every time!), but if you’re into this, go watch them all again!
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*Footwork- still planning a post on this, but that one will take a little more time to write, so I’m stalling! 🙂

Swivels: Don’t cheat your turnout

I’m an old school LA style Lindy Hopper, and as such I’ve spent more time watching old clips of Jewel McGowan and Jean Veloz do swivels than is strictly healthy. Fuzzy black and white images, played in slow motion, over and over and over…retina strain? OCD tendancies? sleepless nights?

In an effort to save you this pain, I thought I’d share some of my observations — if you’re interested in swing dancing, I’m very interested in your feedback. If you’re here because of a more general interest in vintage style, please enjoy the clips and come back for future posts on fashion, music, etc!
Watching clips today, I realized that one of the critical elements in achieving sharp swivels is having an equal amount of turnout on both legs. A lot of girls will turn out their left leg on beat 8 of a swingout, but not rotate back in toward their right arm and turn out their right leg on beat 1. If your turnout isn’t even, your swivels will have all the snap on only one side and not be smooth and even.
Here’s the classic Buck Privates example:
At 1:37, Dean Collins and Jewel McGowan lay into some of the prettiest swingouts ever recorded on video, followed up with the epitome of switches at 1:49. Even if you can’t see her feet the whole time, you can see that Jewel’s knees rotate an equal amount left to right.
And Groovie Movie:
At 3:45, Jean Veloz (dancing with Arthur Walsh) lays into some deep swivels of her own – even though her footwork is different from Jewel’s, she still gets plenty of turnout on both sides. (I’ll go over footwork in a future post.)
Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule…Jewel McGowan usually has amazing turnout, but in the Baby Boogie, her switches at :25 aren’t even on both sides. Does it look as good as usual? I don’t think so – her right side kinda drags along.
Nitpicky? Absolutely. But the main differences between LA style and other forms of Lindy Hop are stylistic  – we do the same moves, but in a different way – so if you aren’t precise about your execution, the style gets lost.