Third swing contest reflects growing community

 

Winners at this year's China Swing Dance Contest.

 

By Joshua Dominick/Annie Wei

This year’s China Swing Dance Contest, held December 12 at Salsa Caribe in Sanlitun, showed that the dance is gaining a foothold onthe mainland.

The contest, which brought together some of the region’s best swing dancers, was divided into three main categories: a debut class for beginners, a main class for more experienced dancers and a mixed-leel “Jack & Jill” event in which competitors were judged individually.

James Li, an IT project manager, and Tracy Jia, a buyer for a German company, took first place in the debut category. Jia has been a hip-hop and salsa afficionado for the past five years. Li Jie, a journalist, and Zeng Weiming, a jazz sax player, took top honors in the main class.

Zeng also placed first among experienced dancers in the Jack & Jill category, while Sophie Sun, an English translator, was No. 1 among beginners. Prizes included tour packages to swing dance events around Asia.

The contest, organized by Swing Beijing and now on its third year, brings dancers from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the US to the capital. Many of this year’s participants wowed judges with their skill despite having discovered swing less than a year ago.

“It was lot of fun. I guess that’s the charm of swing,” Zeng said.

A big draw this year was Sinclair Ang, a swing instructor and performer in Singapore. Ang, who has been dancing for more than 10 years, has helped build a thriving dance scene in the city-state. Aside from judging the contest, he also performed and conducted a series of workshops.

The event also featured one of China’s most admired swing jazz bands, Beijing Big Band.

The country’s swing scene is steadily growing. In Beijing, members of Swing Beijing practice ad perform in public every Sunday afternoon, either in the square of The Village in Sanlitun or by the south gate of Chaoyang Park.

The dance became better known domestically when Feng sheng (The Message) hit the big screen this year. The film features a beautifully dance scene between actress Zhou Xun and Adam Lee, the founder of Swing Beijing.

Swing is a jazz-inspired couples dance that reached its height in the 1930s and ’40s, growing alongside American jazz legends like Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. The dance saw a renaissance in the 90s with the help of American dancing legend Frankie Manning. In Asia, South Korea has the biggest swing scene with 3,000 regular dancers.

Swing Beijing also offers private classes. For more details, visit swingbeijing.com.