![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
BTW, there's very little that's more poly (outside of poly-specific and/or sex-centric activities) than a swing jam. I keep talking about how partner dancing is both a good analogy and good training for poly relationships, but a swing jam is about as poly as it gets on the dance floor.
A handful of dancers wait on the floor while everyone else forms a circle around them (usually they're people with birthdays that month or some other special thing that singles them out). Then the music starts, and someone from the outer circle jumps in to dance with someone inside the circle. As they dance, another person preps and, without allowing the dancer to miss a beat, takes their partner's place.
It's kind of like a swing dance version of double-dutch jump rope, where kids have to jump in and out of the ropes while they keep spinning, and a line forms with kids who all take turns with one person jumping in as another jumps out.
Some good-natured "competition" can happen between the partners who are cutting in, with one partner cutting in very quickly so the other partner cuts back in almost immediately instead of letting a third person cut in. But it's always done in fun. And sometimes a "tandem swing" happens, where one person dances with two partners at the same time.
The dancers in the circle have to all be aware of the other dancers around them and how they impact and affect everyone else. They are all there to have a good time. The partners pay attention to who is there before them, so that they don't cut in too soon and cut someone out of a decent amount of dance time.
The partners also pay attention to who hasn't danced yet and they wait before taking a second turn to make sure others have a chance to dance with the person in the circle.
There is so much awareness of what people are doing that affects those around them and of what the other people are doing that could affect their own decisions on where to be and how to move, and consideration for those who came before and those who will come after, and sharing and switching out partners and joyful play and fun competition and healthy cooperation ... a swing jam is really very much like watching polyamory in motion.
I wish more poly people would get into dancing.
(I know there are more poly dancers out on the West Coast and some in the UK, but that doesn't help me here in Florida or, apparently, anywhere else in the world since only those two locations ever chime in to "correct" me when I complain about the lack of poly dancers. But my point is not that there aren't *any* dancers who are poly or polys who are dancers, but that the greater poly community would benefit from a stronger overlap with the dance community, in general, because of the lessons to be learned through dancing)
A handful of dancers wait on the floor while everyone else forms a circle around them (usually they're people with birthdays that month or some other special thing that singles them out). Then the music starts, and someone from the outer circle jumps in to dance with someone inside the circle. As they dance, another person preps and, without allowing the dancer to miss a beat, takes their partner's place.
It's kind of like a swing dance version of double-dutch jump rope, where kids have to jump in and out of the ropes while they keep spinning, and a line forms with kids who all take turns with one person jumping in as another jumps out.
Some good-natured "competition" can happen between the partners who are cutting in, with one partner cutting in very quickly so the other partner cuts back in almost immediately instead of letting a third person cut in. But it's always done in fun. And sometimes a "tandem swing" happens, where one person dances with two partners at the same time.
The dancers in the circle have to all be aware of the other dancers around them and how they impact and affect everyone else. They are all there to have a good time. The partners pay attention to who is there before them, so that they don't cut in too soon and cut someone out of a decent amount of dance time.
The partners also pay attention to who hasn't danced yet and they wait before taking a second turn to make sure others have a chance to dance with the person in the circle.
There is so much awareness of what people are doing that affects those around them and of what the other people are doing that could affect their own decisions on where to be and how to move, and consideration for those who came before and those who will come after, and sharing and switching out partners and joyful play and fun competition and healthy cooperation ... a swing jam is really very much like watching polyamory in motion.
I wish more poly people would get into dancing.
(I know there are more poly dancers out on the West Coast and some in the UK, but that doesn't help me here in Florida or, apparently, anywhere else in the world since only those two locations ever chime in to "correct" me when I complain about the lack of poly dancers. But my point is not that there aren't *any* dancers who are poly or polys who are dancers, but that the greater poly community would benefit from a stronger overlap with the dance community, in general, because of the lessons to be learned through dancing)
This one, btw, is only one person on the floor, but he's someone I happen to know personally. It's his 75th birthday jam and he even has a tandem in there:
I was actually in attendance at this dance, although I did not join the jam (I never do):
There's a dancer in a silver fringe "flapper" dress in this video who does a fucking amazing job of switching back and forth between lead and follow roles, depending on if her partner is a lead or a follow (and not always along strict gender lines either).
There is also a man wearing shorts and a lei I think who also switches back and forth depending on his partners. In relationships and in kink, I am a switch, but in dancing, this is not a skill I possess at all let alone during the same song and I greatly admire those who can.
