West Coast Swing is one of the most popular “vintage” dances since it is so danceable- meaning it can be danced to any kind of contemporary music, even rap!
The dance is still popular today with several dance schools teaching it across the country. Two of the instructors that teach West Coast Swing are Ben Morris and Torri Smith.
The two are a dancing pair who impress everyone with their performances.
One of the times that Ben and Torri left the audience and critics speechless with their flawless performance, was when they participated and won first place at the GPSDC Phoenix July 4th Event.
The two appear on stage and one can clearly hear the cheers of the audience that is supporting them. They take the stage and what follows has everyone applauding excitedly. It takes them a moment or so to get ready, and then they are what we would call… unstoppable!
Their dance might be an improvisation, but their moves are really smooth.
Both Ben and Torri seem to be extremely confident and know exactly what they’re doing, leaving no room for doubt- they’re just perfect.
Although they perform their dance effortlessly, one can guess that they have spent hundreds of hours practicing and trying to perfect their skills in order to reach this high level.
The video has been viewed more than 400K times and the comment section is full of people’s positive feedback for the duo’s performance.
“Now that’s art..men and women..movin and a grovin like one! God’s beautiful design,” someone wrote, while an aspiring dancer commented “when I grow up I want to be just like Ben”.
However, it seems that, while viewers enjoyed the pair’s dance, some of them didn’t appreciate the music they decided to dance to.
Several users were disappointed that this kind of dance was accompanied by modern rhythm, maybe too modern in their opinion.
More specifically, someone wrote: “It’s disappointing to have a dance form I enjoy watching being danced to music that I don’t enjoy.”
Yet, there were those who answered to the criticism that music, just like everything else, evolves, and this shouldn’t be bothering people. Others also suggested that if someone doesn’t enjoy this kind of music, they can mute the video and simply watch the dance.
In any case, it is understandable that some people prefer dances that were born several decades ago to be danced to a particular kind of music still to this day. On the other hand, it makes perfect sense dances that are popular today to have the flexibility to be danced to the sounds of contemporary music. We guess that the kind of contemporary music to be played is up to the dancers themselves.
Did you love Ben and Torri’s show? Because the judges did and they took home the 1st place prize!!
Separately these days they can be found at dance schools and various contests. In particular, Ben runs SoCal Swing Dance and manages Jack and Jill O’Rama, while Torri now lives in France and works as a dance instructor.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to dance like these guys? It sure takes time and effort, but it’s definitely worth it!
Watch the video that follows and enjoy their performance!
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