Senior James Oh has taken up an unusual hobby, namely, swing dancing. Swing dancing is a style of dance that takes after the jazzy moves developed in the 1920s and 1930s.
Oh started dancing on Dec. 16, 2011 at 2 p.m. in Washington state. “I started dancing because I told one of my friends that I wanted to learn how to dance so I could sweep women off their feet,” Oh said. His friend told him about the swing club at his previous school and after taking two weeks to decide whether to go or not he finally joined, “I have not looked back,” Oh said.
Oh started learning in the club at his school in Washington. He moved to Charlottesville this past August and started taking classes at Swing Cville on the Downtown mall.
He has practice every Wednesday at Swing Cville, however, “a good amount of swing footwork does not need a lot of space, so I sometimes do a little during lunch or even under my desk,” Oh said.
Oh said, “the thing with swing dancing is that once you get into one dance, it is really hard to not go for another.”
Swing dancing does require quite a bit of physical work, such as: good knees in order to pulsate on every beat and some endurance to keep up during fast songs and to keep dancing for multiple songs.
Currently, Oh has no dance partner. He has had a connection with two girls before, however, one was from the club in Washington. The other lives in Connecticut: they met at a convention in Sept.
“We hit the beats with a lot of flair and musicality and it was just fun dancing with her,” Oh said.
He has a lot of passion for dancing, and loves every aspect about it. Oh found it hard to choose just one part, but he’s narrowed it down to two.
“The ability to express myself in swing dancing, the kooky spontaneity of Lindy Hop to the sultry sensuality of blues dancing is something that I have not found in any other medium,” he said.
Oh’s other favorite aspect of dancing is how many great people he has met through swing dancing.
“Everyone that I have come in contact with who shares the same passion for this branch of dancing, like I do, have always been kind, friendly, and informative in helping me become a better dancer,” he said.
And Oh does intend on becoming a better dancer but is uncertain of what the future holds for him as a swing dancer, although he aims to go to his first competition sometime soon.
