Product Review

Swing Dancing for Beginners Volume 1 is specifically for absolute beginners. In minutes Shawn and Joanna will have you up and dancing along to single and triple time swing, the two most popular variations of the dance. This DVD, like all of the Shawn Trautman Dance Instruction DVDs, is professional, easy to follow, designed for beginners and fun for everyone. The design of the curriculum and camera placement for the DVDs allows leaders to do the EXACT movements that Shawn presents, and it allows followers to mimic Joanna in real time without having to turn away from the screen. In addition, you'll also get to dance each dance with music alongside the instructors at the end of each section. This beginner DVD covers everything from the history of Swing, how to do Slow Steps, Rock Steps, and Triple Steps, what the footwork is for both leaders and followers, how to properly use the four connection points specifically for Swing, and how to go from one dance position to another to another, seamlessly. You'll also learn lead and follow elements to each move, what adding lilt to your body means, how to do left turns, right turns, underarm turns, and much more. With nearly two decades of experience, a number of World Champion students to their credit, and their recently published book "Picture Yourself Dancing", Shawn and Joanna have perfected the basic elements of each dance while specializing in the leading and following aspects which are extremely hard to find. Shawn and Joanna will demonstrate, explain, and teach you to lead and follow the Swing so you can dance anywhere with anyone, rather than just learning a single step that can only be done with your partner. Once you're comfortable with this DVD, you'll want to look into Beginner Volume 2 as it seamlessly adds on to everything you learned here to rapidly gain confidence based on consistency and repetition.