The Slow Death of Partner Dancing? (December 2012)
I recently found a cool tool called Google Trends. You type in any search phrase, and it tells you many people were searching for that phrase over time.
So, I typed in “swing dance” and some other partner dances and found ALL to be on the decline! The blue bar represents how many people searched for “swing dance” on the web since 2004:
Sure, I know swing dancing reached its peak in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, but I was surprised that ballroom dancing was down, even with the popularity of “Dancing with the Stars”! Salsa is way down too. What do you think? Is partner dancing on the way out? Or, perhaps it has bottomed out. Leave a comment on the Facebook wall below or the LA Lindy Hop Page on Facebook! – Brian
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The first thing to notice is that the drop seems to have evened out and might actually be starting another upswing.
The second fact is that this trend is a “national” trend? Certainly not an LA/OC thing. Lindy swing venues are popping up all over, with weekends full and lindy swing available in more than one venue every night of the week. A few years ago, this wasn’t the case.
Americans are staying home and eating, while watching TV or playing on the computer. People just want to HIDE and pretend it will get better on its own. It is the opposite of the expressive atmosphere in the turbulent sixties or the hopeful 80s.
Human connections are fraying. Institutions are crumbling. This is what it looks like in the years preceeding a revolution.