Springing into swing
Learning how to jump, jive and wail is only part of what the USU Big Band Swing Club meets to accomplish every Thursday evening in the HPER Building.
The club has 23 official members, not including the 11 individuals who make up the club council.
“There’s a lot of different kind of people here,” said Sean Anderson, an aerospace engineering major. “It is easy to find someone you fit in with, because there is a huge variety of people here.”
Anderson is a freshman at USU and has been a member of the club since the start of the semester. He said he participated on the ballroom team at his high school but never tried swing dancing until he came to USU.
“I am in the jazz band,” Anderson said. “I play trombone. I wanted to dance to something that I play.”
Anderson said he is one of the eight people who make up the Swingcopation swing team, one of two groups affiliated with the club. Swingcopation is an advanced team, and The Swing Set is an intermediate team made up of 10 people, Anderson said.
Both teams perform and compete, and earlier this year Swingcopation won the 2011 Intercollegiate Swing Battle in Denver, Colo., Anderson said.
The swing teams can be seen performing at senior centers throughout the valley, USU basketball halftime shows and at different events at the Elite Hall in Hyrum, said senior Jennifer Monsen, club chair and music therapy major.
Swingcopation will perform Dec. 3, among other groups, at the Elite Hall Benefit Dance, hosted by the Big Band Swing Club. This year will be the sixth annual benefit dance to raise money for maintenance of the Elite Hall, said senior Rick Moore, swing club president and mechanical engineering major.
“Every year we throw a benefit dance to raise money for Hyrum City, to maintain the building,” Moore said. The club meets at the hall on the first and third Saturdays of each month for lessons and dancing. “It has a spring-loaded dance floor, so it is a lot of fun.”
The benefit begins with swing lessons at 7 p.m. A live jazz band will provide dance music from 8-11:30 p.m. Moore said students and members of the community are invited to attend. Tickets for the event are $10 for individuals or $15 for couples, and all proceeds benefit the Elite Hall.
Monsen said there is no charge the first time you attend a club meeting during the semester. There is a fee of $2 for any visits thereafter. She said the club aims to get students and anyone else who is curious to give it a try for a night and see if they like it.
“Being a member of the club, you meet new people and there is nothing better than that,” Moore said.
Students from the local high schools often come to the club meetings as well as past members who have since graduated, Monsen said.
“This is my way to relieve my stress from school,” Moore said. “I like to come and get some physical activity. I can run out in the cold weather, or I can swing dance for a night, and I can burn more calories.”
The club dances to jazz, classic ballroom music and even some salsa, Moore said. Members of the club learn, teach and perform a variety of classic dances — ranging from the “Jitterbug” to the “Charleston” — and dance in pairs solo, he said.
“Big band swing culture has always been very accepting, even in the beginning,” Monsen said. “It was one of the first places where racial segregation was breaking down, because people cared more about whether or not you could dance than what your skin color was.
“Even today, it doesn’t matter how old you are. It doesn’t matter what kind of background you are coming from. If you are willing to dance, that is the thing that is important.”
The club encourages anyone with an interest or curiosity to check out what they have to offer.
“It’s fun. You meet people,” said Monsen. “It’s a great way to keep alive an important part of our history and our culture. It’s completely American.”
– kristi.ottley@aggiemail.usu.edu