Night Club Two Step – slowing down the tempo
Steve Holdener
Night Club Two Step (NC2S) is a wonderful dance to slow down the tempo of life and enjoy your partner in this fast paced world especially in SaddleBrooke. NC2S is sometimes known as the Disco Two Step or California Two Step and is a great dance to learn to dance to slow music. Initially, it was conceived and developed by Buddy Schwimmer sometime in the mid-1960s. It was known as one of the most popular of social dances as a disco couples dance in 1978. Most of the time the NC2S is danced to mid-tempo ballads in 4/4 time with a characteristic Quick-Quick-Slow beat. A classic example of a very popular NC2S song is The Lady In Red by Chris De Burgh.
Even though NC2S is competed as a country dance it is also danced to rhythm and blues, easy listening and smooth jazz music. NC2S can travel around the dance floor, stay as a stationary dance, or a combination of the two styles. This dance is a very popular style for many wedding couples because of its smooth, romantic and yet relaxed characteristics. It’s also very popular in the country crowd and is commonly found at West Coast Swing (WCS) dances. Why WCS? Because the NC2S music tends to have the same emphasis on the “2” beat as WCS music, but at a much slower tempo.
Rita and I were looking for a great slow dance to learn and we fell in love with the dance right away when taking NC2S lessons from Tom and Ann Kurtz at the weekly Let’s Dance lessons in the month of April 2015. This is one of the most practical and versatile social dances ever conceived and I’m sure we will have many opportunities to apply over the future years of happy dancing!
It is designed to be used with contemporary soft rock (love song type of music). This type of music is common just about everywhere: nightclubs, radio, etc. The rhythm of the dance is very simple and rarely changes from the one and two count. This simple romantic dance fills a gap where no other ballroom dance fits. It gives the dancer, either beginning or advanced, the opportunity to express and create without a rigid technique being required.
Our next first Thursday of the month dinner/dance evening will take place on October 8 (delayed one week) at SaddleBrooke One in the Vistas Dining Room with the adjacent Vermilion Room dance floor beginning at 5:30 p.m. We will return to the normal first Thursday dinner/dance on November 6. Please come join us then as well as the weekly open dances/practices on Sunday afternoons (4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at MountainView Ballroom) and Wednesday afternoons (4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at the Vermilion Room). Our next Dance Party No. 1 will be on November 14 followed by Dance Party No. 2 on December 26.
To learn more about SBDC please visit our Facebook page (Let’s Dance) or contact me at [email protected].