©2001 Alan Chung

For this paper, I decided to investigate a cyber community whose main focus was dance. I put in a search on google.com and, after getting over 14 million results, I decided that it might be slightly more prudent if I refined the search criteria somewhat. I searched for “swing dancing” and came up with over 300 thousand results. I decided that I would take this opportunity to click on different links and see if I could further filter the topic. I went to one website called Yehoodi.com, “The website for the hardcore hep-cat swinger!” This site provided a link to swing communities all over the globe. As I was exploring the posts, I noticed that there was an address listed for people who were thinking about going to DC to dance. The address led me to Swing Out DC. This site was obviously created after Yehoodi.com, as people were complimenting the site’s creator in making as nice a forum as the one in Yehoodi.com. After finding, and registering with this forum, I decided to focus on a cyber community of swing dancers in the DC metro area, because this is where I am located.        I believed that this type of community would have links to other dance related sites and forums about certain dance elements. However, as I read further into this cyber community, I found a much more diverse community than I had anticipated. They do not have a specific name for themselves because the community engages in so many different types of swing dancing, including jitterbug, smooth style, hollywood and savoy. Although in personal posts and conversations, they like to distinguish which type of swing dancing the people in the cyber community engage in, they still fall under the category of “swing dancer” or “swing enthusiast” and do not seem to mind being classified that way.         What is interesting about this DC based cyber community is that, while the majority of members are from this area, people from other parts of the country, indeed, even the world, will post on this site. It seems as though the people from this area are constantly in communication with other swing dancers all over the globe. They discuss dance related topics and political issues, they share pictures and inside jokes. They even have what they refer to as “Lindy Exchanges” that are held throughout the world. When these events near, many posts are put out on different swing forums in order for dancers to find other dancers to stay with. People stay with each other for a couple nights during the Exchanges. It seems that, although the community is extremely large, people know each other through posts and in person, making the community seem much more tightly knit than one might first imagine.        Aside from the Swingout DC forum, there is a large amount of other websites that the people in this community like to visit. They not only visit other dance related forums, like Yehoodi.com and the Chicago based Windyhop, but other websites such as Dance Store.com located at http://www.dancestore.com, a website where the dancers can buy dance clothing and accessories. Some of the dance teachers even have their own web pages in order to advertise themselves and the dances venues they promote. Some of the more popular sites include Jitterbuzz.com located at http://www.jitterbuzz.com, Gotta Swing.com at http://www.gottaswing.com, Hollywood Swing at http://www.hollywoodswings.com, and Dance with David.com at http://www.dancewithdavid.com. Two more particularly popular sites that these dancers enjoy visiting are located at http://www.swingmovie.com and http://www.natch.net. Both of these websites, Swing Movie Database and Natch Dot Net, are frequented by many of the dancers in order to find a film that they can watch and get ideas about ways to improve their dancing, or make it more vintage.         It seems that everyone I have spoken with in this community is quite amiable and happy to hear that someone new has joined, because this often means that they will be able to dance with someone new at one of the local venues. The main forum that I found, Swingout DC, seemed to have a lot of people from various backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, and political views. In fact, they even held a long discussion about what one person believed was the predominance of liberals on the board. They talked about this issue in great detail and some people were found to believe exactly the opposite, so there is really no way to tell what the majority believes. However, even without knowing the political orientations of each member, this, and other forums holds discussions about political issues that affect people both in and out of the dance world. They talked at length about the issue of public school vouchers and whether or not people thought the Pledge of Allegiance was constitutional.         Although the posts seem to come less frequently, due in part to many students going back to school and not having as much time as during the breaks, this still remains a lively board that I may want to stay a part of after this assignment is finished, especially once it begins to pick back up again. The individuals involved have taken their passion for swing dancing and developed relationships with each other, in person as well as online. They have created a community that enjoys each others company and opinions, regardless of age, race or sex. Though my own exploration of this community, I learned a lot more about than I thought I would about the general term “swing dancing,” and I hope to continue building relationships with the people in this cyber swing community. Competency Addendum NCLC 249 Home