East Coast Swing: Intermediate

Two dated “ECS” discs on one DVD. The first is by Gary McIntyre and Lisa Richardson, and the second is by Anthony Lee and Sharon Leigh. Gary and Lisa are essentially teaching Ballroom Jive and Anthony and Sharon are mostly just showing more “normal” East Coast Swing. Formal ballroom compared to “date night” dancing… Sort of…

If you’re a beginner looking to learn “social” East Coast, or, “regular” 6 Count, or, are ramping up to learn “8-count” Lindy, rent Rusty Frank’s series instead. Not only are these two a bit of a challenge to watch – having been reworked from VHS tapes – they don’t start at “square one” either. And, there is no “Beginner” disc before this disc; this is a stand-alone Intermediate disc of Intermediate moves pitched to/for people who already know the basics fairly well.

We’ve reviewed Gary and Lisa’s WCS and Two Step discs previously. Like those, this one follows the “Show the pattern; cover everyone’s footwork; show the pattern again with tips - and move on” format. We found it useful to watch each section (there’s only two long sections) first and take notes so that we then knew better when to stop the disc and practice as we went then through a section to learn the moves within each pattern. It’s an “OK” disc for what’s presented, but it ends sort of in mid-air and you just know they had intended to add a third bit, but it didn’t make it on the disc. Oh, well…

Anthony and Sharon’s “disc” immediately follows Gary and Lisa’s careful, slow paced, and explained-in-detail disc… This one, however, moves very quickly and doesn’t worry too much about detail. They just present one move and then another... At times the contrast in the two teaching styles had us laughing out loud. Visually, this disc is not very good, but they DO get through the moves fast and IF you have done some or all of them before you’ll admit, “Well, yeah, that’s about all there is too it, really…”

That’s all there is too it if you’re familiar with hand changes, quick pivot turns, counter-balance, etc. Again, not a beginner disc, just a list of about twenty moves you can “cherry pick” if you like. There are many discs like this – just sets of moves – and like those you do best here to look for a “keeper” - while skipping the rest. At least it won’t take long.

Gary and Lisa do a very good job a breaking down their moves – which are parts of nameless patterns – very well. Almost too well… You can forget what they are talking about sometimes… But, if you need the detail on how to do something, it’s there.

Anthony and Sarah present their patterns quickly, and if you see something you like the disc is well indexed – and short - so you can rewind very easily and step out what they’re doing. It’s not a great production, but if it were a “moves workshop” you’d be thrilled to get this many moves for your bucks…