Misguiding with The Stars

Swing It Seattle was founded on connecting our community to the history of dance. In turn, this means providing historical and cultural context for its development.

On the flip side of this exists programs like Dancing with The Stars. While I am glad that a mainstream program has brought attention to partner dancing, DWTS completely fails to bring this context to a wider audience. Even worse, it is incredibly commonplace to incorrectly identify dances and the music they are connected to.

Nothing makes my blood boil more than when I see clips like this:

This dance was announced as “The Charleston.”

This is not the Charleston. It’s not even close to anything resembling the Charleston.

This kind of misinformation does not advance an audience’s knowledge or appreciation of jazz dance. It gives an incorrect association with the dance’s development and the culture that created it. And it’s not even the correct terminology!

So if this isn’t The Charleston then what is it? Quite simply: It’s really cultural appropriation of the worst kind.