When I first mentioned to my wife that I was thinking about getting involved with Dublin’s swing community, she put down her cup of tea, turned to me and said: “You’re thinking of doing what?!”
A swift clarification that I was talking about swing dancing saw her relax. “It still has the whiff of a man in the midst of a midlife crisis,” she warned.
Swing is an umbrella term for a variety of partner dance styles including Lindy Hop, Charleston, Balboa and Collegiate Shag, among others, that emerged around 100 years ago from the pulsating big band swing jazz and social dance scenes cultivated by the African American community in Harlem, New York. As per its name and origins,…