Hoppin’ and boppin’ with the Swing Club
The Kent Concert Hall was swinging things up Friday and Saturday as Utah State University’s Swing Club kicked it into high gear.
Amy Andersen, a graduate student in marriage and family therapy and a team director for the swing club, said this show was “intense.”
Andersen compared this year’s practices to the last three years she’s been involved in the club.
“We work twice as hard,” she said. “The routines are better, we have two teams now and it’s grown so much.”
Anderson said the hours of practicing have doubled due to the increase of performances and they created an A team and a B team because of the member increase.
The club performed three times with a matinee and two evening performances.
Lacey Erickson, a senior majoring in exercise science and the show’s coordinator, said there was more to the show than just dancing.
“We didn’t want it to be like an extravaganza where we just show all of our routines,” she said.
The club wanted the dance to have more of a story, Erickson said, by showing their routines in a different way.
“It was hard from my perspective,” she said. “I felt like I was responsible for making it good.”
Andersen said there were times everyone in the club was worried the show wasn’t going to be finished. They worked on the routines even harder five days before the show.
“We may be unsure, all of us love to perform,” Anderson said. “We know how to improv and know how to perform.”
Improvisation is just what they did.
Erickson said her and her partner did some moves she didn’t know they were going to do until they were performing.
“We practiced [the move] before,” she said. “But we never actually did it until the performance.”
Shannon Whipple, a sophomore majoring in history teaching, said the show was amazing.
“I was really impressed with the time they had to put into it,” she said.
Whipple said the costumes and the music made the show the success it was.
“In the end they had modern swing and World War II swing combined,” she said.
She also liked how they had more than just dancing.
“The big group dances and the singing were the best,” Whipple said.
Andersen said the club does more than just perform on campus.
“We’ve danced at Summer Fest and the Cruise-In,” she said.
Erickson said they even get to dance on the “best floor in Utah,” the Elite Hall in Hyrum.
Erickson and Andersen are both excited to see new faces be involved with the club. They said it is more than just for single people. And it’s not only students who participate.
The club is now gearing up for their next performance in April. For more information visit them online, at www.usu.edu/swing.
-srkrebs@cc.usu.edu