Jumping and jiving the night away

More than 60 people gathered in King's Court/English House Saturday for an evening of swing dancing. The Class of 1938 Lounge in King's Court/English House was awake and swinging on Saturday night. Starting at 8 p.m., around 60 students and assorted Philadelphia residents enjoyed swing dancing to jazz tunes by artists ranging from The Nat King Cole Trio to Duke Ellington. Laughing, chatting and dancing away, the swingers partied until about 1 a.m. Wharton junior David Jacoby, the president of Penn's Ballroom Dance Society and the disc jockey for the event, explained that the event correlated well with Philadelphia's thriving swing dance community. "It was cool to have people from all different types of communities come to the dance," Jacoby said. The dance was preceded by a swing dance lesson taught by two current Ballroom Dance Society members, College freshman Bryan Hirsch and College freshman Clare Wang. Hirsch and Wang taught the basics of swing dancing by demonstration. Afterward, the instructors encouraged their students to join them on the dance floor. "I think people had a good time and I think that swing dancing is a lot of fun," Hirsch said after the event. "It's something that's relatively new as far as a Penn swing scene. Swing is just becoming popular on campus. We are definitely seeing that there is a growing demand for a swing-team on campus," he added. The dance was co-hosted by the Ballroom Dance Society and King's Court/English House. The college house provided refreshments. PennPM -- a program implemented by Penn to provide free activities for students during Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings -- also helped organize the dance. Other events this weekend, each of which were sponsored by different college houses, included a "Charleton Heston Night" in Stouffer College House and a scavenger hunt, sponsored by Spruce College House. The resident advisors and house managers from King's Court/English House were also involved in setting up the dance. "It's free and open to everyone, and it's in a fun, low-key atmosphere," Jacoby said. During the year, the Ballroom Dance Society offered dance lessons in the Class of 1938 Lounge for a set fee every Sunday afternoon. These classes varied by the level of difficulty and by the different dances taught. "On Sundays, you learn different dances. The idea is to come to these events and practice what you have learned. Their events are pretty successful," explained Ballroom Dance Society member Ehmd Coudy, a graduate student who lives in Philadelphia. "They have different styles of lessons. It's a lot of fun," Engineering junior Alex Wong said.

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