Partner Dancing
We love partner dancing! Our culture at Starlight Strut is to ask different people to dance and to try both “lead” and “follow” roles.
In the Starlight Room, our partner dance mix is primarily Country-Western Two-Step and Country Waltz with some West Coast Swing and a sprinkle of Night-Club Two-Step and East Coast Swing.
Country-Western Two-Step and Waltz
Our version of country-western two-step was born out of San Francisco-based LGBTQ country dance clubs from decades past. We dance two-step with a beginner-friendly “slow-slow-quick-quick” as opposed to the rest of the country that does it with a “quick-quick-slow-slow.”
The country waltz follows the counts “1-2-3-4-5-6.”
Both dances move counter-clockwise around the dance floor.
West Coast Swing
West coast swing is danced in slots in the middle of the dance floor. Leads and follows will move forward and back and switch places in that slot. It takes a bit of time to learn, but well worth the patience.
The tempo of the music is slower, and those who feel comfortable will partner up to “shadow-dance” around the perimeter of the room.
Learn to Dance
Many of us started to learn partner dancing at events like Starlight Strut, Sundance Saloon, and Texas Rose. We continue to improve, however, by attending additional classes or taking private lessons at various schools throughout the Bay Area.
Luckily, we have two amazing weeknight classes in this building: Explore West Coast Swing on Mondays and Oakland Queer Dance Studio on Wednesdays.
