SEATTLE – An annual Northwest dance event over 15 years strong returns this Easter, bringing some of the top talent in the world with it. But except for those who are really into West Coast Swing, one of the largest conventions in the country often goes unheralded by the casual Northwest dance fan.

Seattle Easter Swing allows beginners to mingle with the best dancers from around the world who want to show their skill and ply their trade and to just dance the holiday weekend away.

It also brings added attention to West Coast Swing, which Karen Johnston, one of the founders of Easter Swing, describes as a difficult but satisfying form of dance.

After going to dance conventions around the country, Johnston and co-founder Dean Fisher decided, why not here?

"We really could see that having something like that was really motivational for people," said Johnston about the first year of Easter Swing, which was then called Seattle Silver Swing in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Seattle Swing Dance Club.

Since its inception in 1993, Easter Swing has grown to one of the 12 largest West Coast Swing conventions in the country, all leading towards the U.S. Open on Thanksgiving weekend.  Easter Swing has moved from Seattle to Bellevue and now to SeaTac, where it will be held at the SeaTac Hilton March 20-23.

Jim Minty is taking the reigns running Easter Swing for the second full year. The 41-year-old Canadian transplant has been dancing West Coast Swing for 16 years and teaching it for nearly a decade.

There are 32 workshops at Easter Swing where dancers of all skill levels can learn from some of the best instructors in the nation.  There are competitions in which many of the top West Coast Swing dancers from around the world, as well as rookies who are just getting the steps down, show just how complex this form of dance can become.

One of the most interesting competitions is called Jack and Jill.  Dancers are paired up at random and don't know what music will be played until it starts.  Then there's Strictly Swing – you know who your partner is ahead of time, but the music is randomly selected.  And, there's Classic and Showcase.  These are choreographed routines where regular partners perform, usually in matching costumes.  In Showcase, fans get the added bonus of watching the dancers do lifts and aerials.

For those who aren't at the competitive level, there's the social side of Easter Swing.  After all the workshops and competitions, the dancing goes on all night, usually until 7 a.m.  Many people take the following Monday off of work just to recover.

"The quality of social dancing is just awesome," says dancer Jillian Boyett, who competes on an intermediate level.

One of the challenges of holding a convention the size of Easter Swing in Northwest is that Seattle is a bit off the beaten West Coast Swing path.

"In L.A., you can walk out your door and there's 30 or 40 instructors in the area.  Here, there aren’t that many," Jim says.

The big keys to Easter Swing's success story are the approximately 100 volunteers - some from as far away as Florida - who give up their time to make the weekend run smoothly.  Without them, the convention wouldn't be able to handle the more than 600 amateurs and professionals who attend the event.

"It is truly about the volunteers and the club environment itself," said Alicia Leo, who ran Easter Swing for six years before handing it off to Jim.  Alicia says volunteers even go so far as to shuttle the visiting instructors to and from the airport and provide food for the hospitality suites.

West Coast Swing

There aren't a lot of styles that let you go from dancing along with Cece Winans to George Strait to Pussycat Dolls to Eric Clapton without losing a step.

West Coast Swing, which is the state dance of California, lets dancers move to a variety of musical styles and genres.

Because of its social aspect, many of the steps are made up on the dance floor.  It's considered a more open dance than many ballroom dances because the lead and follow don't have to be mirror images of one another.

Beginners at a Monday night class at Juanita Community Center in Kirkland have it drilled into their heads by Jim and his dance partner and fellow instructor, Federal Way native Katie McCaslin, 29.

"A one and a two, three and a four, five and a six," Jim and Katie bark out the steps.

With each movement, the students have to remember where to shift their weight, relax the arms while keeping tension at the same time, with leads making sure to turn their head to see which way their partner is going without letting said partner run into them.

"Introduce yourself.  Shake hands.  Apologize for what you're about to do to your partner," says Jim on the first night of class.

Jim and Katie say a big key to being a successful West Coast Swing dancer is making a connection with your partner, with the lead knowing where to make his partner go, and the follow knowing what to do with that.  Jim uses one of his students as example of how learning to follow can help someone be better at other forms of dance.

"One year… she went to a New Year's dance camp down in Palm Springs, competed in a salsa Jack and Jill and won first place.  She never danced salsa in her life, but she learned how to follow," said Jim.

Seattle Swing Dance Club

West Coast Swing may be the Golden State's official dance, but the longest running swing dance club in the nation is in Washington state.

The Seattle Swing Dance Club has been around for more than 40 years and boasts some of the best dancers you'll find, including Jim and Katie.  Both have real jobs – Jim as a project manager, Katie as a loan officer.  They dance and teach for fun in their spare time but compete on a professional level.

"I don't make my living doing dancing.  I make my living doing something else so I can keep this as a passion," says Jim.

"We're proud of the fact we can compete with the pros without having to be pros," Katie concurs.

For perspective, imagine going to your 9-to-5 every day, then hitting the golf course in your spare time, but still being able to give Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam a run for their money.

Jim says West Coast Swing style has morphed over the years, so you may get 20 different instructors teaching it 20 different ways.  At SSDC, all the instructors basically teach from the same book.

"When we created our own syllabus, The Seattle Swing Dance Club decided it wanted consistency in teaching for the area because all the teachers are teaching different things and different people coming in to the swing club every week and it seemed like there needed to be some consistency for beginner lessons," adds Katie.