Editing East Coast Swing (section)

==History==
The dance was created by dance studios including the [[Arthur Murray]] dance studios in the 1940s, based on the [[Lindy Hop]]. Lindy Hop was felt by dance studios to be both too difficult and too unstructured to teach to beginning dancers, but there was market demand for training in swing dance. The dance studios had initially dismissed Lindy Hop in particular as a fad.<ref name="caknsw">{{cite web|url=http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/swing.htm|title=Swing History origins of Swing Dance|year=1996|access-date=2008-03-22}}</ref> East Coast Swing can be referred to by many different names in different regions of the United States and the World. It has alternatively been called Eastern Swing, [[Jitterbug]], American Swing, East Coast Lindy, Lindy (not to be confused with [[Lindy Hop]]), and Triple Swing (or Triple-step swing).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ithacaswingdance.com/f_ecs.html|title=East Coast Swing History|year=n.d.|access-date=2008-03-23}}</ref> Other variants of East Coast Swing that use altered footwork forms are known as [[Single Swing]] or "Single-step Swing" (where the triple step is replaced by a single step forming a slow, slow, quick, quick rhythm common to [[Foxtrot]]), and Double Swing (using a tap-step footwork pattern).

East Coast Swing is a rhythm dance that has both 6 and 8 beat patterns.<ref>Dance Terminology Notebook 1995. Skippy Blair. 1995 p 27</ref>
The name ''East Coast Swing'' was coined initially to distinguish the dance from the street form and the new variant used in the competitive ballroom arena (as well as separating the dance from [[West Coast Swing]], which was developed in [[California]]). While based on [[Lindy Hop]], it does have clear distinctions. East Coast Swing is a standardized form of dance developed first for instructional purposes in the Arthur Murray studios, and then later codified to allow for a medium of comparison for competitive ballroom dancers. It can be said that there is no right or wrong way to dance it; however, certain styles of the dance are considered correct "form" within the technical elements documented and governed by the National Dance Council of America. The N.D.C.A. oversees all the standards of American Style Ballroom and Latin dances. Lindy Hop was never standardized and later became the inspiration for several other dance forms such as: (European) [[Boogie-woogie (dance)|Boogie Woogie]], [[Jive (dance)|Jive]], [[West Coast Swing]] and [[Rock and Roll (dance)|Rock and Roll]].

In practice on the social dance floor, the six count steps of the East Coast Swing are sometimes mixed with the eight count steps of [[Lindy Hop]], [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]], and less frequently, [[Balboa (dance)|Balboa]].