Swinging in Black and White: Redwood Empire West Coast Swing Club's Annual Event

By Al Francis:

The terms sugar push, sugar tuck, starter step, swivel walk, side pass, inside turn, catch and return, a whip, a cradle whip along with He Goes, She Goes and Go Home with Her Whip (or him) were not part of “50 Shades of Grey,” but rather are names of partner dance moves in West Coast Swing.

A Sonoma county group, The Redwood Empire Swing Dance Club, which has been around since the late 1980s according to longtime member Vara Harvey, sponsored its annual Black & White Ball recently at the Petaluma Veterans Memorial Building.

More than 100 dancers took advantage of the ideal wood floors for dancing West Coast Swing and a few Country Swing and also some Night Club Two Step dances to the music of DJ Mike Pyle. There were dancers from Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties.

The Redwood Empire Swing Dance Club has another monthly dance with free beginner lessons at 7 a.m. April 25 at the Odd Fellows Hall located at 545 Pacific Ave. in Santa Rosa. The group’s web site is www.resdc.org.

A venue to learn and enjoy West Coast Swing dance is The Flamingo Swing at the Flamingo Hotel & Spa located at Fourth Street at Farmers Lane in Santa Rosa. It is recommended that new dancers or returning dancers take the beginner class at 7 p.m. with Kyoko Morrison, and popular Sonoma County dance instructors Edna Lucero and Dick Jensen teach an entertaining intermediate class from 7:45 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

Then, DJ Fred Loebenstein provides music during open dancing until 11p.m. to liven up the lounge with blues, contemporary, pop, R&B so that dancers can partner dance to Country Two Step, Country Waltz, Night Club Two Step, Cha-Cha and but mostly West Coast Swing.

Another popular place for West Coast Swing is the WNY Warehouse located at 64 Digital Drive in Novato in the industrial part of town. The venue provides dance lessons, social dances, Zumba and Country Line dance events. West Coast Swing classes are on Tuesdays with a beginner and an intermediate class starting at 7:30 p.m. for an hour and then open dancing. Social dances are offered on scheduled weekends.

Two-time U.S. Open Swing Dance Champion, national instructor and judge Kelly Cassanova teaches West Coast Swing classes Wednesdays at Ellington Hall in Santa Rosa with a beginning class at 6:30 p.m., followed by an intermediate class at 7:30 p.m. in sessions of four weeks each month.

Ellington Hall is located at 3535 Industrial Drive, suite B4 in Santa Rosa in a complex directly behind K-Mart. www.ellingtonhall.com.

Photo credits go to Al Francis of NapaSonomaPhotos.com