by Jeff Ward-Bailey, guest writer
Molly King’s dance background was a little different from that of some of the other dancers you’ve seen profiled in these pages. She didn’t do ballet as a kid (unless you count jumping around with scarves when she was three). She didn’t get into dance by training long hours under rigorous conditions, or by dropping out of school to pursue professional instruction.
At right, King dances at Swing Diego 2011 (with pro Jang Wilder)
Instead, Molly says, her moment of dance clarity came on New Year’s Eve 2009, when she walked into a little ballroom club in Denver, Colorado, to ring in the new year.
“Someone invited me to West Coast Swing the next day,” she remembers. “I thought, ‘Oh, it’s like, side, side, rock, step … no big deal.” But when she returned, she says with a smile, “I walked in and had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t even pick out the basic structure, there was so much styling going on.”
Fortunately, one of the dancers took her aside
and showed her the essentials – and from there, she was off and running. West Coast Swing, a slotted dance derived from Lindy Hop and danced to modern music, wasn’t Molly’s first time dancing – she performed on the Principia Upper School Poms squad in high school, and on the Principia College Dance Team during her freshman and sophomore years of college – but as she says, it’s “where I found my heart.”
and showed her the essentials – and from there, she was off and running. West Coast Swing, a slotted dance derived from Lindy Hop and danced to modern music, wasn’t Molly’s first time dancing – she performed on the Principia Upper School Poms squad in high school, and on the Principia College Dance Team during her freshman and sophomore years of college – but as she says, it’s “where I found my heart.”
Above left, King dances with pro Brian Wong
“I love going out on the floor and being able to connect with an audience,” she says. “West Coast Swing is all improvised, and it’s so much fun to try to bring the humor of the song and the dance onto the floor and get people laughing and excited.”
In Denver, Molly began dancing five to six times a week. “As soon as I found it, I would never come home,” she laughs. She entered her first competition in April, four months after having discovered West Coast Swing. Then she found out about Pro-Am competition, a format where amateurs are paired with pro-level dancers (think “Dancing With the Stars”). Two months later, she had entered that competition, too.
King dancing at her first competition - the Colorado Country Classic 2010
“I love the competing aspect,” Molly says, “because it’s kind of like performing.” Competitions are structured in different ways: in some, dancers compete with a familiar partner; in others, with someone they’ve never met before. These “Jack and Jill” competitions, Molly says, are her favorite: “It’s all improvised, so you have to treat it like a three-minute relationship, listening to your partner within the dance.”
Competitors earn points for timing, technicality, and teamwork, and can accumulate enough points to place into higher levels for future competitions. “Novice is the hardest to get out of,” Molly sighs. “It’s like a street race: anyone can enter … I have a goal to get out of novice by the end of the year. Long-term, I don’t know, but I’d love to be all-star or champion [level].”
At right, King dancing with pro Pete Green
In the meantime, though, Molly says West Coast Swing has taught her some life lessons: “The better you connect with your partner, the better the end result is. But you can't have a good dance if you're holding back; you can't move forward if you're split-weight, not committed to one foot or the other. It’s a good metaphor for relationships with other people, [and] your relationship with God.”
West Coast Swing also affords Molly the chance to do something few other dance styles would allow: walk up to professionals and ask them for a dance. 
“The pros aren’t untouchable,” she says. (In fact, she’s Facebook friends with a few of them.) “They’re totally cool, really accessible. But they get worked, because someone isalways asking them to dance.” At social dances, she says with a laugh, it’s not uncommon to see a pro dancer being circled by two or three hopeful partners at the end of a song, all of whom will pounce as soon as the new song begins.
“The pros aren’t untouchable,” she says. (In fact, she’s Facebook friends with a few of them.) “They’re totally cool, really accessible. But they get worked, because someone isalways asking them to dance.” At social dances, she says with a laugh, it’s not uncommon to see a pro dancer being circled by two or three hopeful partners at the end of a song, all of whom will pounce as soon as the new song begins.
At left, King with pros Pete Green and Doug Silton
[See Molly dancing with pro Jason Wayne at the recent Pro-Am 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZXPd1EvRoc]
What’s next for Molly? “Until I'm old and decrepit, I'll be dancing,” she laughs. “It’s just so much fun … I’ll keep looking for creative ways to integrate it into my life.” Now living in California, Molly dances once a week and makes as much time as she can for West Coast Swing dances and conventions.
Above, King dances with pro Shaheed Qaasim
“As soon as I landed in California, I connected with West Coast Swing people, and it became my new community,” she says. “They’re my family out here.”
Dance on, Molly!____
Want to see more of Molly's dancing? Check out these videos on YouTube!Molly says, "These are all Jack-and-Jills, meaning you don't know your partner beforehand, they rotate all the leaders and the followers and then you dance with that partner--no pre-planned choreography at all."
King competing at Boogie by the Bay Prelims for Jack & Jill 2011
http://youtu.be/VEw6L6M4vDM
King competing with Pro West Coast Swinger Jason Wayne at Jack and Jill O'Rama
http://youtu.be/VZXPd1EvRoc
King and Pro Pete Green - social dancing
http://youtu.be/u30x31GD-Fs
King competing in the Prelims at Meet Me in St. Louis Swing with Stephen
http://youtu.be/h4Na1O06RWU
And here's one of King's favorites of the pro's dancing (also not choreographed): http://youtu.be/SLzfg6r3xUw
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