Western swing students flip and dip at Fun Park Thursday
More than 500 students attended USU’s intermediate Western swing class presentation at the Cache Valley Fun Park Thursday night.
“This is the final project of the class for each semester, and it is always a perfect culmination of the great program that we have at USU,” said Andy Bingham, senior in finance and economics and a member of one of the swing performing teams.
Bingham said the class split into groups, picked songs and then made up their own dances so they could perform what they learned in class. They not only performed at the Fun Park, but also during USU’s Diversity Week and at Pioneer Valley Lodge as well.
Jeff Snedaker, senior in exercise science, watched the class at the Fun Park and said, “I was really impressed with the synchronization, style, rhythm and difficult lifts of the teams. The best part though was the choreography. Western swing isn’t something that is regularly choreographed, and it was very impressionistic, invigorating and breathtaking.”
“I wish I could do those tricks,” said Alisha Pressett, junior studying architecture, who went to watch the class at the Fun Park.
Kelsey Willden, junior in elementary education, said the dancers did some really difficult and scary lifts. It is smart of them to have performances each semester, she added, because it gets other students interested in country swing.
“It also lets them see what they can do,” she said. “It made me want to be in the class.”
Nate Lowe, senior studying Spanish and quantum physics and a regular at the Fun Park, said he started with a social dance class in high school and then took the beginner and intermediate Western swing classes and is just finishing up the advanced Western swing class from USU.
“I think that it is fun to dance in front of everyone. I was bit nervous, but it was definitely fun,” Lowe said. “It’s just like anything else. You have to work at it, and if I can do it, anyone could do it.”
Mary Kerksiek, graduate student in art education, said it is hard to learn to trust your partner.
“The lifts are tough, and I got dropped once,” she said. “I don’t trust all guys throwing me around like a rubber Twinkie.”
Willden said girls dig a guy who can dance and that most guys who country dance have cute butts.
Adam Garling, senior in exercise science who is also in the dance class, said he only has one drop on his record and “that was because it was at the end of the night and our hands were sweaty. I lost grip and down she went. Hard.”
Pressett said taking a dance class can help students increase their confidence and “doesn’t make you look like a monkey on the dance floor.”
Even if students don’t know a lot about Western swing, they can still learn, Garling said.
“I was extremely foreign to Western swing,” he said. “I have always had two left feet, and I still do. Taking the class and practicing every week has really put my lift technique on steroids.”
Bingham said country swing dancing is not for everyone, but anyone interested should definitely take the class.
“Students come to be social, learn to dance and have fun,” he said, adding the Fun Park can make for a fun, cheap date.
-keithwilson@cc.usu.edu