Basic Patterns & Moves
West Coast Swing is built from a small set of foundational patterns that combine into nearly infinite variations. Almost everything in the dance is constructed by chaining, modifying, or breaking these patterns. Two structural facts shape the entire vocabulary:
- The dance is slotted. The follower travels back and forth along an imaginary rectangle. The leader stays mostly out of the slot, stepping in only to redirect or block the follower's path.
- Every pattern resolves to an anchor. A small, weighted settling at the end of each pattern re-establishes connection and stretch before the next thing begins.
These two facts are the difference between WCS and the more rotational, all-direction-traveling swing dances it descends from.
The slot
The slot is the imaginary lane the follower travels along — typically the length of about two body-lengths, oriented at whatever angle the couple started in. The slot itself does not rotate during a single pattern; what rotates is which end of the slot the partners are facing.
Why slotted? The most commonly cited reasons are:
- Hollywood-era stage geometry. Filmed dance had to stay in frame; a long, narrow lane fit the camera's view.
- Crowded social floors. The slot is space-efficient and predictable, which makes it safer to dance in a tight room.
- Lead/follow clarity. A predictable lane simplifies the follower's options for "where I might be going next."
The slot is not a hard line. Skilled dancers shape and rotate it continuously, but the underlying geometry — follower travels, leader clears — persists.
The anchor
Every pattern ends with an anchor — a stationary, settling action on the final two counts (5 & 6 of a 6-count pattern, or 7 & 8 of an 8-count pattern). The anchor is arguably the defining feature of WCS. It does several jobs at once:
- Re-establishes stretch. Both partners settle their weight back, which loads elastic tension into the frame.
- Closes the pattern. A pattern without an anchor is incomplete; an anchor without a pattern is just standing still.
- Creates a decision point. The moment of anchor is when the leader decides what's next; a strong anchor gives them the time to choose.
The mechanics of a good anchor are heavily taught: weight stays back, the center stays grounded, the connection does not pull the follower out of the anchor before they choose to leave.
The six basics
These are the patterns taught first in nearly every WCS curriculum. The counts column gives the standard footwork; the description is the geometry.
| Pattern | Counts | Description | |---------------------|--------|-------------| | Sugar push | 6 | Follower walks in, compresses with the leader, and is sent back to the anchor. Follower does not travel the slot. | | Left-side pass | 6 | Follower passes by the leader's left side, ending at the opposite end of the slot. | | Right-side pass | 6 | Follower passes by the leader's right side. Mirror of the left-side pass. | | Underarm turn | 6 | A right-side pass with the follower turning under the leader's raised left hand. | | Tuck turn | 6 | Follower walks in, is compressed and "tucked" toward the leader, then rotates outward through the turn. | | Whip | 8 | Follower travels around the leader (rather than past), and is whipped back into the slot. |
Footwork detail
Most 6-count basics break down into the same rhythmic template:
| Count | Action | |-------|--------| | 1 | Walk (single weight change) | | 2 | Walk (single weight change) | | 3 & 4 | Triple step | | 5 & 6 | Anchor triple (weight settles back) |
The 8-count whip adds two more walks and an extra triple:
| Count | Action | |-------|--------| | 1 | Walk | | 2 | Walk | | 3 & 4 | Triple | | 5 | Walk | | 6 | Walk | | 7 & 8 | Anchor triple |
These templates are the default — extended walks, syncopated counts, and held beats are routine in modern WCS, especially at slower tempos.
Connection principles
Connection is the physical conversation between partners, mediated through the frame and hands. Four concepts cover most of what gets taught.
Leverage and compression
The two physical states of partner connection:
- Leverage — partners are pulling away from each other; the frame holds the tension. Patterns that travel the slot live in leverage.
- Compression — partners are pushing toward each other; the frame absorbs and returns the energy. The sugar push and the start of the tuck turn live in compression.
A good leader and follower switch between these states continuously and mostly imperceptibly. The instant of transition between leverage and compression is where most lead/follow signaling actually happens.
Stretch
Stretch is elastic tension stored at the end of one movement and released into the next. Without stretch, a pattern has no mechanism to start the next pattern; the dancers have to push off from a dead stop. With stretch, the anchor of one pattern becomes the loaded spring of the next.
Frame
The frame is the structure of the arms, shoulders, and torso that transmits connection. A useful frame is firm without being stiff: rigid enough that signals travel from center to center, soft enough that nothing jerks. Modern teaching tends to emphasize tone — adjustable firmness — over fixed positions.
Center
Movement initiates from the center, not the hands. The follower's response to a lead is a response to where the leader's body is going, not to where the leader is pulling them. Most "lead/follow problems" in intermediate dancers turn out to be hand problems — too much arm, not enough body. See Glossary → Center.
Rhythm units
Most WCS footwork breaks down into a small set of rhythm units:
- Walk-walk — two single weight changes (counts 1, 2).
- Triple step — three weight changes in two beats (
3 & 4or5 & 6). - Anchor triple — the final triple, with weight settling back. Always the closing rhythm unit of a pattern.
- Syncopations — extra
&counts inserted between walks. Used for styling, footwork variations, and hitting musical accents.
Rolling count
Skippy Blair's rolling count subdivides each beat into & a 1 — a
finer-grained way to talk about where weight is in the half-beat between
main counts. The rolling count makes it possible to describe smooth,
continuous weight transfer without forcing the dancer onto a "step / no
step" binary. It is the standard way modern instructors discuss timing of
triples and syncopations.
See Music → Counting and phrasing for how this interacts with phrasing.
Beyond the basics
A small, opinionated list of patterns that build directly on the six basics:
- Basket whip. A whip variation in which the leader catches the follower in a "basket" wrap on the way through, then releases.
- Reverse whip. A whip danced in the opposite rotational direction.
- Continuous whip. A whip that loops without resolving to an anchor, chaining into the next whip.
- Sugar tuck. A sugar push that ends in a tuck turn instead of a clean anchor.
- Inside roll / outside roll. Rolling patterns with a turn under the leader's arm, often used as a passing variation.
Beyond patterns, modern WCS draws heavily on:
- Styling — what each dancer does within the count structure.
- Body motion — continuous, weighted, often dramatized travel of the center.
- Cross-style influence — hip-hop, blues, zouk, contemporary, and tango vocabularies all show up in modern WCS, especially in Showcase routines.
Video demonstrations
Patterns are easier to see than to read about. The slots below are placeholders until contributors add verified demonstrations — see CONTRIBUTING → Video embeds for the attribution policy.
A note on standardization
WCS terminology is not perfectly standardized across studios, countries, or eras. The names in this article are the ones most commonly used in modern American teaching; you will encounter variations elsewhere. Where the geometry of a pattern is clear and the name is contested, this wiki uses the name most commonly seen in current WSDC-event workshops and notes the synonyms in Glossary.