Across the room proprietors of the Shoeshine Stand try to evoke nostalgia at 5 bucks a shot. And on stage before the band comes on two twenty-somethings teach the crowd the moves of their grandparents. One dance hall in Pasadena reports 600 dancers show up for lessons like this every night. What's new for many of these dancers if the concept of actually holding their partners. Johnny Swing and Cari Elizabeth have been teaching swing for two and a half years.
Partner dancing is definitely a different thing for everybody now.
And it's more like communicating to somebody while you're dancing, whereas, before, you know, you were just maybe dancing for yourself. It's just I want to dance with you right now, I want to have a good time right now. Today's swing scene involves more than just learning the steps, it includes a return to the hairstyles of the 40's, a landscape Betty Grable or Veronica Lake, and it features clothes from that same era. Kids who were born three decades after swing went into eclipse are trying to revive that old look. Vintage clothing stores have become part of the movement, along with the music.