Students put their dancing shoes on for “Chicken Swing”

A crowd in the Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union kicked up their feet, attempting the… A crowd in the Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union kicked up their feet, attempting the fancy footwork of the “jitterbug” when Pitt’s Cotton Club hosted a live band and free swing dance Sunday night.

This year, Yakov Chodosh, a student at Pitt and president to the swing dance organization called the Cotton Club, started an open social dance called “Chicken Swing” with David McWherter, a friend from Carnegie Mellon University. Chodosh and McWherter created Chicken Swing in hopes that more college students, especially those at Pitt, would discover and share their love of swing dancing.

“The Pittsburgh scene needs more exposure, and that’s what we are trying to give it,” Chodosh said, explaining the primary goal of Chicken Swing.

McWherter created the name Chicken Swing after being inspired by a chocolate-and-peanut butter candy bar made popular in the 1920s called Chicken Dinner.

“Swing dancing is satisfying, like a chicken dinner,” he said, adding that people could come to the event to “burn off” their meals and satiate their hunger for a good dance.

Joe Mama’s restaurant in Oakland usually hosts the dance, but for the Cotton Club’s biggest event of the semester, the dance changed locations and kicked it up a notch with a performance by the Boilermaker Jazz Band, which City Paper recently voted Best Pittsburgh Jazz Band. Chodosh thought this was bound to attract Pitt students’ attention.

Students from Pitt and other local schools, and even non-students (who paid three dollars admission) gathered at 7 p.m. for the first part of the night’s events — a free, one-hour dance lesson, to learn the basics of the jitterbug. McWherter, who taught the lesson, required couples to rotate partners after every new step so they could adjust to new people.

“Dancing is like a three-minute conversation between partners,” he suggested.

Chodosh, who could not dance because of a foot injury, echoed this analogy, describing a type of language between partners in which they continuously exchange ideas.

“The better you get, the better able you are to communicate with all different partners,” he added.

After an hour of practicing the movements to recorded music, the dance began. Couples, dressed in a range of attires, merged onto the dance floor.

Though advertising fliers encouraged casual dress, girls wore everything from sweatshirts and jeans to flowing skirts. The Boilermaker Jazz Band stayed authentic to the decade’s clothing style with white dress shirts, black suspenders and Panama hats.

While the majority of people participated in the dance, some simply observed.

Chris Taylor, a first-year graduate student at Pitt, clung to the wall with his hands in his pockets.

“I’m here for the girls,” he explained.

Although some participants were beginners, many had experienced swing before.

Cassie Delp, a freshman at Pitt and member of the Cotton Club, got hooked on swing dancing when she went to Swing City, an organized dance at the Wightman School in Squirrel Hill. Now she is a “regular” at Chicken Swing.

Delp thinks guys should learn to swing dance because it is a “good date option.”

“Girls always love a guy that can dance. It’s sexy,” she said.

Eric Burnett, a sophomore at Pitt, took a detour on his way to the Schenley Cafe, attracted by the blaring music coming from the Assembly Room. He wandered into the dance accompanied by his two friends.

Burnett said that his interest in jazz and swing music heightened after he took Introduction to Jazz, a Pitt course taught by Nathan Davis.

“I love the whole era that swing was created,” Burnett said.

“There’s something about it that is just so classy,” he added, observing couples practicing the rock-step pattern while the band’s vocalist, Jennie Luvv, sang “I’m in the Mood for Love.”

Swing dancing, though structured, also relies on the use of improvisational moves. Couples on the floor loosened their limbs with a variety of turns, dips and rhythmic footwork. They laughed at their miscommunicative dancing and turned mistakes into new dance moves.

The jitterbug and other types of swing dancing can be done to any type of music, from a traditional swing song to a Snoop Dogg rap, Chodosh said, explaining that its versatility is one of the reasons that makes swing dancing fun.

“You name it, we’ll dance to it,” he added.

Andrew Deutsch, a Pitt junior and beginning swing dancer, was encouraged to go to the Cotton Club’s event by a friend.

“It was a good first-time experience. The instructors were funny, and I had a lot of fun,” he said.