At each President’s Ball, there’s always a group of people moving in imperfect but dazzling synchrony with one another, commanding the energy on the floor in front of the band. Those people are likely members or casual attendees of the Lawrence University Swing Dance Club, somewhat humorously called LSD for short. “Swing” is an umbrella term for a dance form first created in the early 20th century by Black Americans and often associated with jazz music. Two major subcategories are East Coast swing, which adheres to more traditional ballroom culture and is accompanied by a big band, and West Coast swing, characterized as more flexible and adaptable to different musical genres.
LSD president, senior Sydney Closson, had always been inspired by mid-20th century culture; she designs many of her clothes based on the era. She had wanted to learn how to swing dance from watching videos online, so she joined LSD upon coming to Lawrence. The club’s social chair, sophomore Kat Green, was drawn to swing dance as she scrolled through LSD’s Instagram posts before coming to Lawrence. She had experience with country line dancing back in her home state of Nevada and was therefore familiar with a variation of the form. Looking to expand her artistic horizons, she would come to join the club she had once watched from afar. Upon arriving to Lawrence, LSD vice president, junior Isaac Keith, had just quit sports to handle the workload of a Conservatory student. He was looking for a way to stay active during the school year when he came across LSD at a club fair. Since he had a history with jazz in high school and had, like Green, been intrigued by the dance form via social media, the club checked all his boxes, marking the beginning of his swing dance journey.
Despite being an organization centered around dance, Closson said LSD isn’t performative, competitive or evaluative — there’s no audition to pass or benchmark to reach. Rather, it is about having fun with others while exploring different types of swing dance. Keith explained that most people who come to the club are beginners with little or no background in swing dance, including the current board members. Green believes that, because everyone starts in the same boat, they can learn by directly engaging and therefore connecting with each other, mistakes and all. For that reason, LSD is a club that welcomes all skill levels to join.
“When you choose to be open to people — when you choose to show people a very soft […] part of yourself — it is the greatest way to connect with others in a very healthy and beautiful way,” Green said. “I think dancing is one of the safest ways to be vulnerable […] I’m fully engaging in this moment. I’m not trying to be nonchalant; I’m trying to show that I care, and I think that empowers people to be brave, to care and to connect with each other, even when it’s terrifying.”
Like many aspects in LSD, learning and making progress is a two-way street; as a music education major, Keith said teaching swing to others has not only given him a sense of pride seeing the dancers grow but also has made him more confident to put himself out there as both a dancer and a person.
Especially in more traditional East Coast swing, swing dance emphasizes a divide between the “male-female/leader-follower” roles. To Keith, this divide is arbitrary, especially since LSD believes in inclusivity beyond just skill level. For this reason, the club does not designate roles in their teaching.
Swing dance is an art involving contact, so to create a safe space for all Lawrentians, this factor is something LSD is constantly working with to ensure both individual and group-wide wellbeing. Consent, first and foremost, is something that Green said the club takes great care to emphasize.
“We want this to be a space where people don’t have to worry about being analyzed or ignored,” Green said. “‘No’ is a full sentence here.”
Both to ensure a comfortable environment and to combat the form’s traditional heteronormavity, the club also champions platonic connection in the physical touch of people learning about and engaging with the form together, rather than a way to inflate suspicion of underlying expectation. Some of the dances don’t even involve physical contact at all, Green said.
All the swing dance knowledge has been passed down through the club’s generations since its founding in 1998, according to Closson. As a result, LSD’s movement style has unique elements not found anywhere else. Keith pointed out that this is a microcosm of how swing dance is largely passed down; though there are moves that are universal, no two studios or clubs do swing dance exactly alike, which is how its subcategories are born. To broaden the club’s knowledge, Keith took lessons last summer at a studio in his Indiana hometown to bring new moves — and therefore an even more unique spin — to LSD’s style come Fall Term.
A typical day — or, rather, a typical night — in LSD starts on a Saturday at 7:30 p.m., when there is a beginner lesson. After a half hour of the basics, the social part of the meeting begins, when dancers use the knowledge from the lesson to create art with one another, fumbling and perfecting their moves along the way. Because the club depends so heavily on musical accompaniment, LSD collaborates with Jazz Band or the Fiddle Club, which Closson said fosters two-way practice for each group.
Though the club’s focus is swing dance, that doesn’t mean dancing is the only way LSD engages with the art form. The club sometimes hosts movie nights with films from the golden age of swing dance. Regarding the sometimes deeply problematic elements of 20th century film, Green said the board encourages members to adopt a “critical lens” on these outdated aspects they would like to see erased from swing culture. Beyond movie nights, in the week before the event, the club advertises dance lessons for the President’s Ball, welcoming all Lawrentians to join them in learning to dazzle on the dance floor.
The LSD board is constantly pulling from the past to lay the path for their future, be it the dance form, media from the age or even future event plans. Inspired by the “Dancing with the Profs” event the club hosted about a decade ago, LSD is currently trying to get a faculty- and staff-inclusive event together for late October. Closson also entertained the idea of more advanced or more style-specialized lessons for dancers who want to take their art to the next level.
Keith encouraged Lawrentians to come to LSD socials, and that sentiment was echoed by each member of the board.
“You can leave your homework behind,” Closson said. “It all drops — then for two hours, you can come, get really sweaty and laugh a lot.”
“A nice endorphin rush,” Keith immediately added.
LSD can be found on social media @lu_swing_danceclub or on the club’s Presence page.