Photo Courtesy: Jan Kain
Photo Courtesy: Jan Kain
The brass instruments play a fast-paced jazz song as couples spin, flip and hop through the room. One minute the woman is being tossed over her partner’s arm, and in the next instant they are both doing synchronized triple-step and kick-through moves.
One could get lost watching them, and before you know it, you are back in the era of swing dance: a dance that symbolizes joy and ease in the form of passion and movement. San Pedro is bringing it back.
While swing dancing was a way for people to socialize in the 1930s and ‘40s, it slowly burnt itself out as time passed and new dances started to take its place. However, swing is making a great comeback in cities all over the West Coast.
San Pedro, the home of the USS Iowa battleship, is embracing its maritime history and is regressing (or progressing) back into a world where swing brought people together. San Pedro, in fact, could be considered the new home for modern-day swing.
Swing dancing, energetic and filled with improvisation, is done with partners and involves various dance styles, including the Charleston, Lindy Hop, Shag, Balboa and West Coast Swing.
Numerous dance studios have appeared all over San Pedro, and dance teachers are trying to re-expose people to the beauty of swing. Jan Kain, owner of the dance studio “People’s Place San Pedro,” believes that swing culture is trending again because it is fun and fast-paced: “More people are realizing that swing dancing is good exercise, it’s fun, a great way to meet people, and the music is fantastic,” she said.
Kain was one of the main people responsible for re-exposing San Pedro to swing culture. She believes that both the TV show “Dancing with the Stars” and the relocation of the USS Iowa to San Pedro were great influences on the way people perceived swing.
“We had an event called ‘Swing and Salute,” which was supposed to welcome the Iowa,” says Kain. “We had about 5,000 people who attended, and a band called Barry Anthony ‘N’ The Swing of Things played. We performed a dance choreography, and that’s how swing pretty much started here.”
The antique maritime costumes and “Boogie Woogie” music at the event took people back to the ‘30s.
Then, the “Swing Peedro” movement was born. Every three months, Kain’s studio is transformed into a nightclub, and a 14-piece orchestra called The Fabulous Esquires motivates attendees to literally “get in the swing of things.”
Now, Kain even gets requests to teach personal swing dancing classes.
“Someone wanted to throw a swing-themed birthday party at my studio, and they wanted us to teach them how to swing dance,” says Kain. “It’s getting more and more popular, even among the younger generation.”
San Pedro’s port and its surrounding area have a remarkable history that make it an ideal hub for a retro dance movement.
From 1908 to 1959, various battle fleets, commercial fishing boats and navy vessels docked in the San Pedro port. Fourteen thousand sailors hopped on to San Pedro soil from one fleet in 1908 alone.
Dances were held at the old YMCA, featuring sock hops and hat dances. The greatest prize for the winner was a sailor’s free call home. The Anderson Recreation Center opened in 1940, attracting dance fanatics weekly. According to the San Pedro Historical Society, the end of Prohibition in 1933 drew sailors, workers and soldiers to bars and dance salons.
“Sailors used to have a good time in dance halls. The only still remaining today is the Liberty Auditorium, which is now a garage,” said San Pedro Historical Society Archive Volunteer Sonja Ulrich. Their favorite dance: swing.
Robert Pinel, a frequent swing dancer, agrees with Ulrich: “In those days, if you wanted to meet a dame, you would eventually need to ask her to dance whether you knew how to or not!”
Although swing dance suffered a major decline after the ‘40s and new forms of dance became popular, Alan Pinel is happy that swing is reappearing because it restores elegance in the world for him.
Robert and Alan Pinel are cousins and have been avid swing dancers for years. The passion for dance has run in their families for decades, and it’s a way for their family to bond. Alan, an architect, goes swing dancing on certain weeknights to relieve himself of stress from the busy work week.
“I feel swing dancing is coming back because the music is timeless and it evokes a feeling of happiness and grandeur,” said Alan Pinel, who has been swing dancing since 1993. “It is also the least formal of the ballroom dances, so it is less intimidating for people.”
Although San Pedro seems to be the modern-day hub for swing, Kain said that it was actually the last place she imagined opening a studio. Now, people come from all over the country to support swing dance events such as “Swing Peedro,” “Diamond Swing,” and “SWING San Pedro.”
Kain believes that the lure of cardio exercise is attracting younger generations to the art of swing. “Although most of our market is baby boomers, we get a lot of younger people who want to exercise,” she said. “I think dance is a great vehicle for fitness because it’s so fun. It’s good for the soul, and good for the mind.”
“Everything always comes around full circle and history repeats itself every once in a while, like in the case of swing,” said Robert Pinel.
Whether people love the Lindy Hop because it evokes the old soul in them, or because it makes for a good workout, swing has made a trending comeback in San Pedro that no one saw coming.
“People don’t often know what is good for them or what they will like,” said Kain. “We have to expose people to swing so they know they’ll love it, and that’s what I will keep doing.”