West Coast Swing, A Breif History (Draft)
By Timothy Michael Johnson

This article is a work in progress. More research is being done and changes will be posted as the research is being done.

West Coast Swing is a modern dance with roots that go back many years.

Some accounts report that today's West Coast Swing roots may have sprouted from Dean Collin's version of Savoy Style Lindy.

Some say that Dean had done a lot of dancing at the Savoy Ballroom in New York in the early 1930's. Others say that Dean danced little at the Savoy.

Later, Collins moved to California, danced in Hollywood clubs, taught his style dance and soon, it became popular on the west coast. Eventually, Dean made it into the movies with a slotted version of the dance.

This slotted form of swing was created/adapted? to optimize the filming of Lindy. Period movie cameras were more limited than those of today so it was very difficult to capture the essance of swing dancing as the dancers kept revolving around each other in a circular fashion. So a version of the dance was developed so that the dancers would dance on a predictable line, called a slot, allowing for successful filming. This early form of West Coast Swing was called Hollywood Lindy. Today's version of Hollywood Lindy is sometimes called Hollywood for short.

In the 50's, this dance was sometimes referred to as Western Swing and/or Sophisticated Swing, and sometimes, it still is. In Downey, California in 1958, any dance called 'Western' would not attract students. Skippy Blair and her crew would explain that 'Western' really meant 'West Coast'. Then, Jim Banister, local editor of the Herald American Newspaper suggested "Why don't you just call it that?" So when they advertised in 1961, they advertised the dance as West Coast Swing. The dances current name, West Coast Swing, entered into mainstream swing circles in the late 60's. Many credit the current name of the dance to Skippy Blair.

West Coast Swing is currently the official state dance in California.

West Coast Swing has been around for a long time. It's a dance that has changed and evolved over time, even going through name changes.

 There seems to be some significant discrepencies between different historical accounts of the origins of West Coast Swing.

Sources:
Dance Power "Own The Experience" by Skippy Blair ©1998 Article: "West Coast Swing Historical Tidbits 9/94 rev 6/96" Chapter 4: Article 1
Web Article "West Coast Swing: the Grandaughter of all Swing" by Sonny Watson