'Swing Kids' coming on strong at UW-River Falls 
         By Sue Odegard     River Falls Journal, December 24, 1998   (Reprinted by Permission)

    They admit to being addicted, even brainwashed. While groups of students huddle to cram for their finals Thursday afternoon, Amie Williams, Jason Zabinski, Niki Beckman and Clay Carlson have other things on their mind. Aerials, side cars, helicopters and suicide moves are the things their dreams are made of.  Carlson slips in a CD called "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy." For the umpteenth time this quarter, Big Band music is played in the basement of McMillan Hall on the UW-River Falls campus. Effortlessly the couples glide across the tile floor while their peers pass by unnoticing. 
    East Coast Swing has come to town.  "The guys lead and the girls follow," Zabinski said. "But we give the girls subtle cues - like a wink - to let them know we are changing the moves," Carlson added.  "The moves are random and very spontaneous," said Beckman. "It's fun, aerobic and clean."  "The basic step is toe, toe, back step," Williams said. "The rest is timing." 
     The foursome practices up to 30 hours a week in the makeshift dance studio in McMillan Hall. Williams does a pommel horse move with Zabinski, while Carlson leaps high over Beckman's head.  "There are 15 different aerials," Zabinksi said. "Those are the moves when the girl is lifted off the ground."

The students met on campus and found they shared an common love of dance. This fall they signed up to take swing dance lessons from Steve O'Rourke who teaches at the River Falls Fitness Center downtown.  "I had 300 people in my beginner's class over the past 10 weeks," O'Rourke said. "The classes are 5 weeks each and meet once a week for an hour at a time." 
 O'Rourke said he teaches East Coast Swing and the Lindy Hop. East Coast Swing has six beats and is the easier of the two. The Lindy Hop (the style that is shown in the popular Gap commercial on television) has eight beats and is reserved for more intermediate-level students. 
 "I learned to swing dance about 13-14 years ago," O'Rourke said. "I was dragged in kicking at first. Let's just say I was a very reluctant dance student." 
That changed significantly to the point where O'Rourke decided to share what he's learned with whoever might enjoy learning how to swing dance. And that's where Williams, Beckman, Zabinski and Carlson entered the picture. 
  Williams, 19, is a sophomore from Rio, a small Wisconsin farm village. Her major is broad area music. Her counterpart, Zabinski, 21, is an English and art education major from Elk River, Minn. He is also a sophomore. Beckman, 20, is a sophomore from Bloomington, Minn. She has a double major in business communication and business administration. Carlson, 18, is a freshman from Fort Atkinson. His major is medical biotechnology. Carlson is part of the UW-RF Dance Theatre. He has learned additional swing dance techniques from dance instructor Lance Benishek. "I think about dance moves all the time," Carlson said. "I'm supposed to be concentrating on my exams, but I'm really thinking about swing dancing."
"We are swing junkies," Zabinski added. 
    The four have taken their dancing shoes to two locations in the Twin Cities: The Hanger Dance in downtown St. Paul and the Wabasha Caves, also in St. Paul.
"There are professional dance couples there," Beckman said. "They are so good and we've learned a lot just from watching them." 
 

Carlson said one of his personal favorite swing songs is "Sing, Sing, Sing." Others have been pinpointed from the 1993 movie "Swing Kids," with music composed by James Horner.   Popular swing groups that have taken the swing classics and added their own personal styles are the "Cherry Poppin' Daddies" and the "Brian Setzer Orchestra."
"We plan to continue doing this and we will take the advanced lessons," Beckman said between performing a lay-back kick and several hand spring moves with Carlson. "This is so much fun and it really keeps you in shape. You have to have strong abs (abdominal muscles) to do this." 
         O'Rourke said he's in the process of setting up a new swing dance class for high school-aged students.  For more information on O'Rourke's upcoming classes, call him at 425-2262, or call up his Web site at: 

http://www.oocities.org/BourbonStreet/Delta/7284/dance.htm. 
His e-mail address is: stevorke@win.bright.net