Back in step

Luis Boria and Laura Vega swing around to blues music played by members of the LowCountry Blues Club Wednesday March 9, 2011 at Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ in West Ashley. Photo by Grace Beahm

Dancing is an important part of Charleston's history. Prohibition-era flappers pounded out the dance steps of The Charleston inside the speakeasies and dance halls of its namesake.

Today, these buildings are faded and cracked with the passing of time, but The Charleston and other social dances are still lighting up local dance floors.

Nearly every night of the week, a restaurant, park or gym is transformed into a makeshift dance hall.

Tables are pushed aside at Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ in West Ashley to make room for blues dancers.

Sound systems, water coolers and fans are hauled into The Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul to accommodate swing dancers.

Fishermen pack up their rods and reels and leave the Folly Beach Pier as shag dancers take over during a moonlight mixer.

Salsa, contra dance and tango nights also color Charleston's social dance scene.

While social dances vary in style, they are characterized by patterned footwork and movements that form the basis of communication between two people, a "lead" and a "follow," according to Tim Wisard, a dancer with Elite International Dance Studio.

The dancers either hold hands, or place one hand on their partner's shoulder or back. This connection is the basis of a wordless conversation, according to Frank Tobin, a local software engineer who reluctantly signed up for a ballroom sampler class to prepare for a friend's wedding, and now rarely spends a night off the dance floor.

The deep concentration of the dance sometimes results in an almost trance-like "high," Tobin said. "When you're both feeling the music strongly and that bass reverberation is going through you at the same time, there's nothing like it. You're not here anymore. You're in the realm of the music at that point."

A self-proclaimed "computer geek," Tobin never imagined the effect his first ballroom dance class would have on him.

Jeremy Hernandez spins Alex Medlin to blues music played by members of the LowCountry Blues Club Wednesday March 9, 2011 at Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ in West Ashley. Photo by Grace Beahm

"It lit a fire in me. It taught me how to let music affect me physically. Most people will tap their feet when they hear music because they feel something and want to react to it. But they stop there because they don't realize what other movements are available."

Dance steps, designed specifically to fit certain genres of music, serve as a guide to responding to different rhythms and emotions within a song.

"Music is like waves of water moving through the air. You can either surrender to it and bob up and down in sync with the ocean, or you can ignore it and just splash around in the water. But that wastes a lot of energy, and you miss out on a great experience," Tobin said.

Most social dances are easy to learn due to the simplicity of basic steps, the guidance of an experienced partner and a community of social dancers whose love of throwing their latest moves around the dance floor is only surpassed by their passion for sharing this experience with newcomers, said Stephen Duane, creative director of the recently established Roaring '20s Hot Jazz Dance Club.

Duane is convinced that anyone can learn the Lindy hop, an eight-count swing dance characterized by high-energy steps and expressive movements.

"Rhythm can be learned, and in essence, I believe I could have someone dancing Lindy hop in 10 minutes. Just learn the basic pulse and rhythm, and you can start dancing," he said.

Duane has a way of taking difficult, complex techniques and simplifying them into concepts that can even be grasped by children, as evidenced by the perfect swing-outs and shim shams of his 8- and 9-year-old students who can be seen around the club on occasion.

Every Friday, Duane teaches a Lindy hop lesson at Spirit Moves, the current "home" of the Roaring '20s Hot Jazz Dance Club.

And then the party begins.

Swinging jazz music fills the studio, which is always decorated according to that night's theme. Movies are projected onto the back wall, an artist paints elaborate designs on dancers' faces and decked-out partiers grab a partner and start stomping out the jazzy beats.

As a sixth-generation Charlestonian and grandson of a big band musician, Duane couldn't be happier than when he's surrounded by Dixieland music and swing dancers.

"I take pride in the fact that the dances and steps that were being used in Charleston in the early 1900s got put into the Lindy hop, thereby having a big influence on the style of jazz dancing and jazz music. I've set up this club in hopes of preserving the dance and the music as an integral part of Charleston's history," he said.

Lindy hoppers cannot help but feel the carefree, fun vibe of the Roaring '20s within the dance, eventually transforming even the most withdrawn individual into an energetic dancer.

One glance at Duane in his club makes it hard to believe he has ever been anything other than the suspender- and fedora-clad jazz enthusiast chatting excitedly about his latest discovery of big band tunes. But that hasn't always been the case.

"Before I started dancing Lindy hop, I kept my personality bottled up; I was in a shell," he said. "I wished that people could tell I was really fun and outgoing, but I didn't know how to express that. I wasn't good at conversation and going out. But dancing brought out my personality and developed my outgoing self."

Each style of social dance draws something different out of the dancer. As the "yoga" of social dance, blues dancing allows for deep concentration on connections, according to Aaron "Rat" Barse, a graphic design student at the Art Institute of Charleston, and a frequent blues dancer.

Blues dancers often close their eyes, shifting focus to the center of the body, the breathing patterns of a partner, the subtleties within the music and the feel of the dance floor, he said.

For Barse, there's no other feeling that compares to a good blues dance.

"You get off the dance floor, and you're on such a high because you've never felt anything like that before. It's like a drug; you get addicted and just have to keep going back for more."