Swing Dance With Jonathan & Sylvia

BLAST from the Past! Had a grand time at the Swing Dance held at the Camarillo Rec Center… with their wonderful, floating floor! Thanks to the hard work and continued devotion to share the joys of Dance by JONATHAN BIXBY, twice a month our cozy town rocks with rhythm and good times. Nope. I didn’t get to dance every dance. However… each one was inspirational! But slowly getting acquainted, I certainly danced more the second visit than the first. This is NOT City life with a Club on every corner. For a mere $ 15, we have an opportunity to dance on a REAL dance floor with live, quality music, no alcohol or obligation to purchase! AND, there’s a freebie… Jonathan teaches the large class for an hour before official start time! We gathered in a large circle and changed partners. It’s worth going just for that!
My old eyes have new appreciation. What optimism and courage these men of multi generations show in learning and THEN get up their nerve to ask some strange woman to dance… hoping they will. Try on those shoes ladies!
Yep, I enjoy the City but feel fortunate to return to my hometown, Santa Barbara.
Let the Dance Begin! Thank YOU, Jonathan!

If you want to learn swing dance to last a lifetime, Jonathan & Sylvia are the teachers of choice! When my husband and I lived in Santa Barbara for 16 years before moving to Hawaii, we took several classes from them from ballroom to swing. Our favorite was swing and their gentle but firm teaching methods have lasted as we have enjoyed doing the moves on cruises and celebrations of our lifetime. We are now in our sixties and enjoying the pleasure of all kinds of dancing from our baby boomer rock and roll to the exciting and smooth swing moves taught by this talented and wonderful couple! Join in and your life will be happier — it’s true!

I was excited to finally attend a swing dance in my hometown, after several years of West Coast Swing in Lindy-​Hop dancing in the San Francisco bay area, where I live now.
Lucky me! I happened to schedule a trip to SB on a weekend that Stompy Jones — one of my fave local-​to-​me bands was playing. I gathered a group of friends to come take the lesson with me (some of them needed the beginning lesson; I figured to try leading, or at least to use the opportunity to get to know a few dancers).
My first disappointment with the teacher’s failure to discourage couples from pairing up and NOT rotating during the lesson. It is well-​known that dancing with a variety of partners is the best way to learn. But that was a small thing.
The lesson ended, and the band needed an extra 30 minutes to finish setting up. All fine, and quite normal. People danced to the DJ music in the interim. I led one of my friends in some West Coast Swing. Dancing to any sort of music is generally better than sitting! And the music the teacher was playing was fine.
The band started and more people got up to dance. I waited a song or two, then walked over and asked one of the guys that had taken the lesson to dance. All good; I don’t mind dancing with a beginner from time to time. The song ended; I looked around, no one asked me to dance.
I spent the next hour or more dancing with my friends, and asking various Santa Barbara dancers to dance. But here’s my gripe:
NOT ONCE, from the time the lesson ended until the band took its first break, did anyone ask me to dance!
First of all, I’m NOT a beginner. Where I live, there are many, many people who ask me to dance — friends and strangers alike. I’m not hideously ugly. I don’t smell. Actually, I receive frequent compliments on my following skills, including my styling and musicality. So I’m pretty sure that I’m doing a few things right!
No, I think the problem is that Santa Barbara is a town/​area that is cliquish, and no one wanted to take the time to look for, and ask, a stranger to dance. And the teacher (I don’t recall his name) and the organizer (Jonathan Bixby) are partly responsible for this cliquishness, as they set the tone for dances — to be inclusive, or exclusive. Several announcements were made; none of them being «ask someone to dance that you’ve never danced with before.» Also, it would have been easy for the teacher to seek me — or any of the other followers that took the lesson (there were only six of us) — out for a dance. I guess he just couldn’t be bothered.
The thing is this: I get it. I am part of a thriving West Coast Swing Dance community here int he SF bay area. I have a large group of dance friends, and I do enjoy dancing with them. AND — we, ALL OF US, make an effort to ask people we don’t know to dance with us. Some of the best leaders I know are great about this. I am a follower, and not at all shy to ask men to dance.
So, in sum: dancing in Santa Barbara was a big disappointment, and I sure won’t be making any effort to attend dances there in the future. I’d like to think that the «Westies» in the area might be friendlier…