Breanna Perry

What is it, exactly, about dancers being so athletic? I'm talking about swing dancers here, although of course there are other dancers (ballerinas, modern, lyrical particularly) who are athletes of dancing and spend hours a day training their body for the "sport" and exertion of their dance. There is definitely athleticism in dancing, but that's not what I'm wondering about.

No, I'm talking about the common factor I've noticed among many swing dancers--lindy hoppers, especially. It would seem that every dancer I know is (or was) already athletically involved before coming to dance. I know soccer players, swimmers, cyclists, gymnasts, runners, and plenty of yogis (both amateur and professional). I fall under the categorization of the latter two, although my initial athletic background as a fastpitch softball player of twelve years is another underrepresented faction, along with baseball players. I picked up yoga about a year and a half ago and only recently--as in, January--started running, and both have since become more serious hobbies of mine (although I don't expect them to overtake dancing anytime soon).

I know why I was drawn to yoga, and the benefits I draw from running are easily applied to my dancing; I imagine that motivations are similar for other dancers. Just like taking up tap or African dancing, these sports are a form of cross-training that can be done to improve our body awareness, body movement, strength, flexibility, and other qualities so integral to our dancing. But what about lindy hop--or swing dancing, more generally--draws so many athletes in the first place? It's easy to speculate: high-flying aerials, energetic tempos, and charleston craziness are bound to attract (or turn off, in some cases) a certain type of person. I wonder, though, if there's anything more to it than that. Or further, I wonder if I'm just finding a pattern of athleticism where I want to. After all, lindy hoppers can't all be the nerdiest nerds and athletically-inclined, can they?

Let's see how many lindy hoppers we can get together at Warrior Dash Mid-Atlantic and test this theory. Last I heard, the count was 5 or 6...