Grace Thomas has been posting videos of her performances on YouTube since 2012 – and she’s managed to amass over 25,000 fans and over 7 million views of her videos!
Not only does she sing and play the guitar, but she dances.
Her style of dance is a pretty unique – and yet still retro! – genre known as electro-swing or neo-swing.
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Electro-swing originated in the 1990s and incorporates dance moves from decades well before that, such as the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and the Jive.
But once you have the basic moves in your repertoire, it’s mostly improvisation.
The music that goes along with it also takes from a variety of genres including jazz, swing, hip hop, and even house music.
In one of her more recent videos – posted about 5 months ago – Thomas dances to an EDM (electronic dance music) hit geared specifically toward electro-swing fans: it’s Wolfgang Lohr’s happy-go-lucky single “Saturday Night” featuring Nina Zeitlin.
Lohr knows a lot about making hits for this dance style – in fact, he’s the head of Electro Swing Thing Records in Berlin.
According to its website:
“Wolfgang Lohr is known for creating incredible musicscape with electro swing, deep house concoctions. The new single ‘Saturday Night’ is made for all the small occasions that call for celebration. It is made up of three exuberant EDM hits featuring the echoing voice of the award-winning singer Nina Zeitlin.”
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Thomas definitely picked the right song for her performance, because she’s even featured in Electro Swing Thing’s video montage of performances to the song!
Clearly, she’s got the right moves.
While a parking lot isn’t the most scenic place for a performance, it does provide lots of space and Thomas’ cheery demeanor could make her fit in just about anywhere.
While she’s had her electro-swing performances go viral before – earning millions of views in just months – this video sits at half a million clicks. And let’s face it, that’s still a LOT of people watching someone dance freestyle in a parking lot.
If we had to venture a guess, we’d say that not only is Thomas a great attraction for her talent, but there’s something so fun about the electro-swing style!
“I watch not for the dancing but to see someone so sincerely happy,” said one commenter
Take this video, for example – it has over 3.6 million views!
And it’s true, it’s hard not to smile while watching her!
Thomas has been humble about her popularity:
“Before learning Electro Swing, I danced east coast swing, which is still my passion. Over time I picked up electro, and one day I decided to upload a video of me dancing on YouTube. Needless to say, the YouTube algorithm found me and I’ve gained some undeserved attention on the platform.”
We think it’s well-deserved!
That boogie-woogie big band sound that all electro-swing music maintains combined with the lively energy of the dance certainly makes us want to give it a try. And we may start with this very video!
Even Lohr, who designed the track she’s dancing to said:
“Wow that absolutely rocks. Many thanks for this great dance performance on my latest track, it looks like so much fun. I feel honored and it made my day!”
Isn’t it great when people are so fun-loving and supportive? It sounds like a very cool community to be a part of.
Be sure to scroll down below to watch her video – because the pictures just can’t capture the magic.
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