About

West Coast Swing Iceland’s goal is to bring West Coast Swing to Icelanders. As far as we know, the only WCS teachers in the country are Hrafnkell Pálsson and Guðrún María Jónsdóttir, who teach for the University Dance Forum (which WCS Iceland is a part of). We offer weekly classes in WCS in the fall and the spring and dance nights year round. Check out “Classes & Dance Nights” in the menu above!

West Coast Swing is a modern form of Swing dancing, it is more upright than the typical Swing dance and it is danced to Contemporary, R&B and Blues music. It is based on 6 and 8 beat patterns, but in reality it is a 2 beat dance, allowing for a lot of freedom, which is one of its biggest draws. This freedom, the musical interpretation, and being able to dance to a host of different genres rather than just one specific genre, are the reasons why this American dance is on the rise all over Europe. This video gives a pretty nice introduction to WCS, as well as couple dancing in general.

Hrafnkell heard about WCS in Norway (thank you Rock’n'Rolf!) in 2008. In 2009 he moved home to Iceland and he and Guðrún María spent pretty much every waking moment picking up WCS from YouTube and Jordan and Tatiana’s DVDs. So as not too pick up too many bad habits in their isolated environment they went to England several times that year and learned from England’s top couple, Catriona Wiles and Paul Warden. In 2010 they both moved to the United States, otherwise known as the Mecca of WCS, and danced their arses off. They spent way too much money on various dance events and privates with the top pros. Fortunately, that wasn’t a total waste of money, as they have placed 1st in Intermediate Strictly Swing and put a Rising Star routine on the floor earning them 2nd place. Twice they’ve gotten grants from the European Union to further their dancing, which they’ve used to work with Cat and Paul, last time this summer! (2011)