Recently, I came across interesting news & videos that may perhaps encourage more trend setting in our dance scene. A "crossover" dance event called "Dig Tha Feet" has been running in Canada for a few years now which seeks to jointly promote swing music and lindy hop with rock & roll music and rockabilly jive & boogie woogie dancing. It is in some ways not dissimilar to the early days of rock & roll when we see swing (Lindy) dancing to Bill Halley & the Comets in videos or "jitterbug" dancing in those early years Hollywood movies about rock & roll music and dancing.

Cross promoting 1950's style rock & roll music and dance with swing is of course not new to Australia as there has been past events and dance competitions in Melbourne that seek to do just that. I can still remember those occasions when Swing Patrol teachers and dancers competed in VRRDA dance competitions and, vice versa, rockabilly dancers competing in swing's "fast feet" dance competition. I 'm not sure if it's still happening today but I have wondered many a times why, in our dance scene, there is not a closer coming together more often of the swing and rock & roll dance styles.

I can understand "tribalism" exists in almost every human activity and I agree it's not a bad thing in itself. I am also not saying that we should abandon our roots. But our dance scene (swing and rock & roll) is relatively very small in Australia and therefore increasing participation could be a very good thing indeed, quite apart from other synergistic benefits. Interestingly, I have noticed in recent times a couple of rockabilly music festivals cross promoting rockabilly, rock & roll and swing with their bands line up. In Melbourne at least, we still have some "rock & roll" dance schools teaching both swing and rock & roll. Consequently, it's not uncommon to see some social dancers here crossing over rock & roll and swing in their dance steps. And of course, we commonly see DJs playing some swing music in our regular rock & roll social dances. But will we again see more joint promotion and cross over of swing and rock & roll in some dance events in Melbourne or else in Australia? I suppose it is a question of demand and what the majority of dancers want. Only time will tell.......