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What is West Coast Swing?
West Coast Swing is a laid-back, improvisational, smooth and sultry dance done to a wide variety of slow-tempo music, including R&B, disco, pop, blues, swing, jazz, and country. You'll recognize artists such as Christina Aguilera, Michael Jackson, Roomful of Blues, and Ray Charles. Our emphasis is on having fun and playing with the music, rather than wild, gyrating acrobatics.

When does the club dance?
We host weekly and monthly dances. Six-week lesson series are taught on Tuesdays. Fun and inexpensive lessons precede our Wednesday dances. Our club also hosts visiting professionals from the West Coast Swing community.

No partner necessary. Singles and non-members are welcome! For further information, call our Hotline at (608) 222-7750 or keep exploring this web site.

Will I enjoy dancing?
It's easy to find out if you like to dance and to dance West Coast Swing in particular. Simply come to one of our dances or sign up for lessons. This dance is done to a variety of music--from blues to pop to funk to country, so you can use it almost anywhere you go. Our current members enjoy learning more intricacies of this playful, sophisticated dance as they progress, and newcomers enjoy meeting a group of friendly new people. You can join our club at any of our events. As a member you will receive our quarterly newsletter with articles about local and regional West Coast Swing dancing, plus discounts on our events.

Gary Oien spoke the words first, "We gotta start our own club."

We all agreed. Gary, Sue, Carla and I were returning to Madison, Wisconsin from a West Coast Swing Workshop and Dance at the Minneapolis Rebels Swing Club given by a visiting professional named Jeannie Tucker. The Rebels' members were very hospitable and even insisted that the four of us do a spotlight dance (gulp!) in front of a hundred strangers and Jeannie. Their president, Judy, seemed thoroughly delighted that we would drive 4-1/2 hours just to participate at a Rebels event. What none of them knew, and what we knew all too well, was the scarcity of West Coast Swing dancing opportunities in Madison in the fall of 1996. It was frustrating for the dozen of us who had been dancing West Coast for at least a year or two.

But wait, why would we try doing something called West Coast Swing in the first place? Isn't it the state dance of California? Well, forget about West vs. Midwest. It's just a great dance! I learned it about six years ago when I lived in Tucson. When I moved to Madison, few people knew what West Coast Swing was. Occasionally one of the local dance instructors would teach a class in West Coast, but it was simply not the wonderfully sexy, funky, and improvisational dance I had seen in Arizona.

In August 1995 at a Chicago dance, we met some other nice folks from Madison, including Sue Pederson and Carla Starks. Eventually I met and danced with a Chicago-based West Coast Swing instructor, Janice Kenyon. The idea of Janice giving a workshop in Madison was proposed and it happened that fall. The workshop was attended by 24 people, about half of whom caught the West Coast bug and continued dancing wherever there was music and floor space available. That workshop also paired up Michael Collins and Carla Starks Collins for the first time!

After that, our unofficial West Coast group took advantage of any opportunities we could to attend workshops and dances. In February 1996 we took a road trip to Minneapolis for a small, but wonderful, Swing Dance Convention. It included workshops by such West Coast Swing notables as Michael and Mari Kiehm and the effervescent Skippy Blair. That September, we were lucky enough to have Ginni Hustad (of Step-n-Out dance apparel) bring Carrie Lucas to Madison's Sapphire Studio for workshops. But after the great workshops and road trips, the frustration was always the same: where do we dance?

Finally, after yet another Jeannie Tucker workshop in Minneapolis and after we had seen what a swing club could offer enthusiastic dancers, Gary just stated the obvious. We gotta start our own club. Upon returning to Madison, Gary began the quest to locate a venue for our music and weekly dance instructions. After he found the friendly and supportive manager and DJ (Buzz) at Flashbacks, we knew we had a home. Initially, we told them we expected about 15-20 people each week--then crossed our fingers.

Since then we've grown tremendously and West Coast's popularity is flourishing. Local interest has grown to the point that we can host professional instructors. Great idea Gary!