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Did you know that Al Green's song "Let's stay together" is a crossover Rumba/Swing

Cross Fusion dance parties offer a music format that allows West Coast Swing, Latin, Hustle, Ballroom and other dance styles to co-exist in a fun party atmosphere. The music is carefully selected to accommodate these diverse styles without compromising music quality or dance entertainment. The energy is exciting!

Anytime you have a developing dance or an established dance community that focuses on a singular dance form, it is common for some of the members from that community to become bored with its movement or limited musical offerings. What often happens, is that some of the dancers and DJs from that community will start venturing out and seeking new flavors to bring new life and feeling to the dance. Sometimes this will manifest itself in the creation of new moves, both traditional and non-traditional (adding/fusing movements from other dance forms) and sometimes this will manifest itself in the introduction of new musical flavors, both traditional and non-traditional.

A good example of this can be found in today's West Coast Swing dance community. Where in the Ballroom community, they have multiple dances and the music to go with those dances, this differs in the W/C Swing community. The W/C Swing dance community is a predominant singular dance community. Similar to that of the Salsa, Hustle and Tango dance communities. But Westies, as they are affectionately called, will today dance their singular dance to many different types of traditional (Blues) and non-traditional (Cha Cha, Rumba, Tango, Foxtrot, Disco, Hip Hop, etc.) music. Thus experiencing different emotional feelings and/or creating different movement expressions of the dance. They do so, probably more than any other singular type dance; other than maybe Ceroc. The latest of which is dancing West Coast Swing to Neo Tango music and adding Tango movements and/or attitude to the West Coast Swing dance. Wait till the West Coast or Hustle communities try a Paso Doble.

Because of the extensive use of Cross Fusion and Crossover music in dance communities, like that of West Coast Swing, a song that is played and that may even be a popular hit amongst the dancers, might also enjoy that same status in other dance worlds; both Swing based and non-Swing based. So, it is not uncommon to put on a song and watch 2 or more different dance forms out on the floor at the same time dancing to the same song. You might see a West Coast Swing and a Foxtrot; or a Hustle, a Samba and a West Coast; or a Rumba, a Cha Cha, a Hustle and a West Coast all at one time! Wild isn't it !?

Thus the creation and/or evolution of "Cross Fusion Dance Parties". Cross Fusion dance parties offer a music format that allows West Coast Swing, Latin, Hustle, Ballroom and other dance styles to co-exist in a fun party atmosphere. The music is carefully selected to accommodate these diverse styles without compromising music quality or dance entertainment. The energy is exciting !

Cross Fusion Music is usually music that has combined multiple rhythms or hybrid rhythm characteristics (fusion) or a structural flavor (crossover) that can accommodate several different dance forms. An example of this kind of music can be found in some of today's Neo Tango music produced by groups like Gotan Project. Much of this music has non-traditional back beat rhythms being added to them to give the Tango music a more contemporary feel and expression.

Some Hustle music rhythms sit on the edge between Samba and Hustle or Cha Cha and Hustle or West Coast Swing and Hustle.

The same goes for some contemporary Latin and Ballroom music. A lot of Foxtrot songs crossover very well and are great music for Smooth Lindy or West Coast Swing. One of the most popular Foxtrot CD's in the Ballroom world is the Smoothies CD. This was originally made and marketed to the Carolina Shag dance community.

Remix projects by DJ's and record companies are very popular these days too. Remixing is often used to create structural rhythmic variations of a new song release or, to create new life for non-dance type music and those "oldie but goodie" classics. This often leads to the creation of Cross Fusion music that can now be comfortably used by multiple dance forms like Hustle, West Coast Swing, Cha Cha, Rumba, Foxtrot, Ceroc, etc..

Cross Fusion dances, are dance forms created out of the consistent combining of a significant amount of movement and/or style of two or more dance forms to the point that you literally create a hybrid that qualifies as a new dance. This is a common occurrence in the world of Swing. Some examples of these Cross Fusion Swing Hybrids would be Soulful Swing Fusion , Universal Swing, Ceroc, Swustle, Imperial Swing and Swango.

Even some of today's currently accepted styles of West Coast Swing were once argued as being something other than West Coast Swing. For example, back in the late 1990's, it was argued that the Hip Hop Funky style of West Coast Swing that was being done by many of the younger dancers of that period was not West Coast Swing. But, was in fact an artistic evolutionary hybrid form of West Coast Swing. Attempts were made to qualify and categorize it as a new form of swing. One of the suggested names was Groove Swing. The argument was that when a dance evolves far enough away from its original form stylistically and movement wise, it is then considered to be a new and separate evolutionary art form of the dance, warranting its own separate identity. In this case, that was the considered opinion of the traditional guard of the younger dancers Funky West Coast Swing. It never did happen though. Instead, the West Coast community started creating sub-categories of its dance. Similar to what Ballroom does with its International vs. American style. Also, some of the movement concepts of the Funky WCS were adjusted to preserve the integrity of the dances basic movement.

When the Carolina Shag and West Coast Swing dance communities met each other at the SOS Grand Nationals (now called the USA Grand Nationals ) back in the mid 1990's, the young junior dancers were so excited by each others dance form, that they would stay up late trading back and forth. The W/C Swingers were adding lots of the famed Shag footwork to their dance and the Shag dancers were adding the exciting W/C Swing patterns to their dance. What was being witnessed, was the evolution of a new hybrid dance, Swag. Or, as famed Swing dancer Mario Robau humorously called it, Shing. Although, this major movement exchange was short lived for the most part. The Shag community is very strong on tradition and concerns for the preservation of its dance prevailed. But, the Shag community will never be the same. Communities usually never are, once they’ve been exposed to an attractive entity.

As for the West Coast Swing community, they never seem look the same for very long. This is a dance community that seems to change its look about every 5 years. The West Coast Swing dancers tend to move on to the next new toy like a child opening gifts at Christmas.

We have seen these patterns of influence and evolution through the decades as several swing forms have evolved out of Lindy Hop since the late 1920's and early 30's. Sometimes the evolution is a result of combining or "fusing" it with another dance form. Sometimes there are other factors. Regardless, dance is every changing and evolving. That keeps it fresh and for that, I am thankful.