SWINGING INTO SUMMER

When a girl stays seated for too long at a meeting of the IU swing dance club, she may be asked to dance. This was the case at the club’s first meeting of the summer, which was held on Monday night in the Indiana Memorial Union.\nA few men in the club mentioned that there didn’t seem to be as many women interested in the swing dance club at IU. \n“We’re always looking for women,” said Bill Holmes, vice president of the swing club and a graduate student.\n“We can all dance, too,” one participant said. “It’s not like we’re beginners.”\nNatalie Rodibaugh, who teaches dancing in the club, said that attendance should pick up when classes start next week.\n“In a small dance community, people come and go,” she said. “It’s a more consistent group in the summer. There are more people from the community.”\nRodibaugh said she has been dancing for seven or eight years. When a friend at IU stepped down from teaching in the club four years ago, Rodibaugh came from Purdue to IU to take the position. The club was founded in 1998.\n“[Swing dancing] is tough to learn, but it’s fun. It’s more playful than a lot of other dances,” she said.\nRecent ‘07 graduate Bjorn DelaCruz and senior Luc Minix began dancing last semester. \n“One afternoon, Luc just said, ‘Hey, we’re going to join the swing dancing club,’” DelaCruz said. “I told him, ‘Okay, I thought we were just going to go work out.’”\nDelaCruz said that although he and Minix were new, they became really involved in the club. They now organize events as officers in the club. DelaCruz said he enjoys the people he meets through the club.\n“You really get to meet a lot of new, interesting people of all ages,” he said.\nMembers in the club learn and dance various swing dances, including the Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing, and the Charleston.\nIU alum Art Oehmich has been dancing for decades. After watching the 1993 movie “Swing Kids,” about a group of kids in Nazi Germany that swing danced, Oehmich began thinking about dancing again. He decided to join the IU Swing Dancing Club after he found that he attended church with a couple of people who were a part of the club.\nWhile the swing dance club is a good way to meet people, Oehmich said that he thinks people who come out to dance aren’t looking to find a date. “We’re all here because we like to dance,” he said. “Not to meet someone.” \nSwing dance lessons begin on Monday, May 21st in the Georgian room at 8 p.m. New membership is $40 for IU students and $50 for non-students.