The largest and longest running swing dance group in the province will be swinging up a storm on Pitt Meadows Day, Saturday.
Members of Suburban Swing will be holding free lessons and then leading a dance periodically throughout the day at heritage hall on Harris Road.
Jason Warner, who teaches at the dance company, said that swing dancing today is basically just a big public dance for all ages where participants are able to put away their technology and socialize with each other.
Swing dance is a group of dances from the 1920s to the 1940s, including the Jive, Lindy Hop and Balboa and Shag.
“We dance to the sounds of big band music, jazz,” he said, adding that Suburban Swing has been around for more than 20 years.
Warner loves swing because it is a classic dance.
“If you look back at that era, people didn’t have cell phones, they didn’t have movies as much, it was a simpler time,” he said.
He also loves the music because “it feels like it just moves you.”
At a basic lesson, the leads and the followers are separated into two groups. Then they are taught the footwork before being put together again.
During the lesson, everyone is rotated around in order to meet the different people in the group.
Warner teaches East Coast swing. People from as far away as Bellingham, North Vancouver and Hope attend the dances at the club in Abbotsford. They usually host up to 150 people on Sundays at the club and at the Christmas dances they usually get about 400 people in attendance.
He is hoping to grow the club in Pitt Meadows to about the same.
For the Pitt Meadows Day dance, he advises people to bring their energy.
“Then other people will have the energy because it’s such a social thing. If you come excited, you are going to meet exciting people,” he said.
Vicky Young, a boogie-woogie, rockabilly dancer from Edmonton, will be a guest instructor at the event.
Warner’s favourite tip that he gives dancers is when you are dancing with somebody, dance like they are your favourite person in the world, put your best foot forward, and make like the song you are dancing to is your favourite song.
“You change those three things about dancing, you will enjoy yourself a lot more,” he said.
Suburban Swing will be performing from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the upper heritage hall on Pitt Meadows Day.
The Pitt Meadows club meets every Wednesday evening from 7:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. for a drop-in lesson and dance until 10 p.m. at the South Bonson Community Centre, 10932 Barnston View Road.
• For more information, go to suburbanswing.com.