The Swing Dance Association is a student-led club on campus dedicated to spreading the love for jazz-era dancing.
The club accomplishes this task by hosting events for those interested in learning, from weekly lessons to monthly social dances. The club is filled with students that are experienced in dance, including the two members most often in charge of lessons, Kelvin Chang and Shelby Lee.
Anyone can be involved in the SDA. However, SDA president Karena Spratt recommends that anyone who intends to take on a more integral role spend at least a semester coming to their lessons and participating in events.
East Coast Swing, the style of swing dance taught by the SDA, is a social dance, one where students often find themselves dancing with students they don’t know. For many people, it may seem like something outside of their comfort zone. Dancing in SDA is a way for them to gain the confidence to get out of their shells.
“So, when I first joined I was a little nervous,” Spratt said. “Because I’m very much an introvert, this isn’t really my kind of thing. But I thought it was kind of interesting because I used to go to a couple of weddings and I never really knew how to dance. I had two left feet for the longest time, and this kind of gave me the confidence to, you know, get out on the dance floor.”
The SDA gives free lessons on the Marietta campus to anyone who wants to learn. The lessons are 5-7:30 p.m. and are split into two training sessions: a beginner’s lesson for an hour, then a 30-minute break before continuing with the intermediate lesson for the rest of the night.
In East Coast Swing, two people form a pair and complete the moves together: This pair is made up of a lead, the person who initiates the moves in a dance, and a follow, who reacts to the movements made by the lead. In SDA, nobody who attends the lessons is expected to have a partner.
When someone shows up to the lessons, they are paired with one of the other attendees and the instructors walk them through the moves they will be learning for the night. After spending some time practicing, they will then get some time before the end of the lesson to use their new skills in an “open dance” session.
For anyone who wishes to attend, lessons take place in the J.M. Wilson Students Center, room A201. No experience is necessary to attend the lessons.
In addition to lessons, the SDA hosts monthly dances for anyone interested in dancing in a social setting. These dances are typically 6-9 p.m. and include a beginner’s lesson for the first hour before transitioning into open dance. The cost to attend dances is $3 for Kennesaw State students and $5 for non-KSU students. Information about when both lessons and dances take place is available on the SDA’s Instagram, @ksuswingdance.
