ESU Swing Society teams up with HPER Club to promote physical activity

Kate Garrett / The Bulletin

Virgina Volzke, sophomore international business major, warms up with sophomore English major Kris Swearingen. Last year Swearingen created the club and they now have many members.

The Emporia State Swing Society will strive to become a larger and more active dance group this spring in an attempt to promote physical fitness within the community.

“Our main goals this semester are to increase in size and bring a fun physical activity to the city of Emporia” said Chris Swearingen, sophomore English education major and president/creator of ESU Swing Society.

To achieve their goal of promoting physical fitness, the society has joined forces with the HPER Club to co-host Swing Night at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Memorial Union Ballroom.

This event will be larger than the society’s typical meetings in hopes of bringing in a number of new students and sparking interest in the swing dance style. The swing society will teach participants two swing line dances including the Shim-Sham and the Sweat.

“I am very excited for Swing Night,” said Mark Brinkman, sophomore biology major. “It is always a good time when the Swing Society hosts an event alongside another organization, because there are always new people to meet and to dance with.”

In addition to events hosted on campus, the Swing Society will also be participating in a number of activities off campus within the Emporia community

“We will be working to participate on a number of community service events this spring,” Swearingen said.

The club’s first project will be in cooperation with the Didde Catholic Campus Center. Each year, the Didde Center hosts “Sleep in a Box,” where volunteers will sleep in a box overnight in order to raise student and community awareness of homelessness.

Members of the society will also participate in the Senior Citizen Prom, which is an opportunity for older citizens to come together and share in a fun evening full of dancing.

The ESU Swing Society was created last year to bring together students who are avid swing dancers, as well as those students with no experience with the swing style. The group meets at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the Hornets Nest.

The first hour of the weekly meetings is reserved solely for beginning dancers. The beginning dancers are able to learn the steps of swing in a smaller group setting with more individual attention.

Following the beginner lessons, the entire society will meet and dance from 8-10 p.m. Each meeting consists of the dancers learning well known swing dance steps. The dancers learn each movement and then take the time to practice the steps and dances alongside other club members.

“At each of the meetings we learn new swing dances like the East Coast [and] West Coast,” said Lainie Harber, sophomore biology major. “After learning these, the guys and girls pair up to practice them. We pretty much just dance and have a lot of fun.”