Rating: 
Summary: Class finds Swing Book Very, Very Helpful !
Review: A Swing Class in Florida made up of 8 couples has very successfully completed a Beginner / Intermediate Level Lesson Series. In my attempt to find the strongest teaching tools and dance resources available, I decided to resort to the oldest of teaching techniques - a Teacher and a textbook. "Quickstart to Swing," was my choice for this Swing class after previously reviewing several of the books out there with very stringent criteria. This class was primarily made up of beginners who had taken classes elsewhere in the region. Their goal was to improve in rhythmic skills, leading and following, speed, and much better rotational skills using both new and old Swing figures found in Quickstart to Swing. Upon signup, they were all required to purchase a copy of the book along with a weekly syllabus. With their new study guide, and my assignments they were to report to class having already worked with Mr. Allen's book. The class would primarily focus on a review of their practice work at home. It was exciting to see this group progress as quickly as they did easily covering the objectives at the start of class. Some of the comments of class members right from the first session were: "I never used my knees properly before - now I am much smoother and my ankles are not bothering me," " My shoulders no longer cause me to pass beyond my control," and "My partner and me seem to be in a more desirable position," "I do not have to use as many basics to get back into position between steps!" I was very happy especially because they were happy. Not one student made reference about the use of a book during class as a crutch for me as their teacher, instead they were happy they did not have to memorize or forget important techniques offered during class time. They all seemed pleased to have a reference at hand. "Why hadn't they thought of it before?" was one of the favorable comments. One of the publicized comments about this book and the others Mr. Allen has written is that they become a tool that works coincidentally with a competent teacher during class. This book definitely lives up to its billing! UNLIKE,"The Complete Book of Ballroom Dancing," by Stephenson or "Let's Dance! : Learn to Swing, Jitterbug, Rumba, Tango, Line Dance, Lambada, Cha-Cha, Waltz, Two-Step, Foxtrot and Salsa With Style, Grace and Ease," by Bottomer which are very inaccurate renderings of Swing dancing, QUICKSTART to SWING by Jeff Allen is easy for any instructor to use without the fear of contradiction between competent teaching and a book's contents. Teachers if you are able to put ego aside this book is a wonderful way to build respect from your students and increase their capacity along with their speed in learning. I cannot recommend this as a great dance resource enough. Email me at: Dance Reviewer@aol.com and I'll be happy to tell you more!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Partner
Review: At least once a week since 1998 we open up one of the Quickstart series books and find solutions, techniques, and additional choreography that either amplify or add to what we have learned in many classes. We have taken both group and private lessons. When we mention some of the examples that we've read my teachers are generally very interested or in agreement. Evidently Jeff Allen is very well known in the dance community throughout the United States and his opinions and teaching methods are highly respected. We were not at all surprised to find that he writes a regular column in "Dancing USA" magazine called "The Dance Lesson." Admittedly we both tried to read these books as if they were novels and were overwhelmed by the quantity and increasing level of content. Perhaps by osmoses the intellectual transfer of information from the book's pages would become our dance experience. Remembering assembling a bicycle step by step got the job done, we started to do what we should have done from the beginning practice the elements according to our level of understanding at the time. When we knew nothing we worked the information from the beginning and as we succeeded and became moderately competent we moved to the next level. It is amazing that some of the problems we have as mid range beginners to Tango & Swing had been anticipated by the author. Then came the methods for corrective measures. The technique in the Quickstart to Tango & Swing books by Allen brings these books to a whole different level not just assembly of dance steps but how to do them and then how to do them better - a great partner!
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Dissappointing
Review: Based on its great reviews on Amazon, I was expecting a well-written, clear, and comprehensive guide to swing dancing that I would able to use to both increase my moderate skill level and teach friends who were new to swing. This is not what I received. There are many problems with this book, but the one that jumps out at you first is that the author is an extremely poor writer. I'm talking not only of the ubiquitous typos and misspellings, but also of the clumsy and often tedious style of prose that he employs. Wading through this book requires a great deal of effort and perseverance. Passages must be read multiple times to puzzle out what the author is talking about. This process is made even more difficult by the fact that the book is obviously written by a person familiar with the terminology of dancing who appears to care less whether his audience is also knowledgable in this area. He will often use terms or describe situations in such a way that I had no idea what he was talking about, and had to refer to the pictures to see what was going on. This brings up the third main problem with the book. The pictures are little help because they are fuzzy and rarely cover the more difficult phases of the steps. Trying to learn from the pictures will leave you with a good idea of how you should look before and after a move, but no information about the move itself. All that being said, I feel I know no more, perhaps even, less about swing dancing after reading this book than I did before.
Rating:
Summary: Jeff Allen - Continues to Deliver the Goods
Review: From the August / September 2000 issue of Dancing USA Magazine Jeff Allen continues to deliver the goods to dancers with his newest book. Quickstart to Swing is the latest in his series of dance books that provides the building blocks, insights, and skills necessary to be an accomplished dancer. The book is about creating a foundation of skills and then adding on to it, learning new things and fine-tuning abilities. Quickstart to Swing helps you become the Swing dancer you always wanted to be. An excellent resource for students, as well as dance teachers, Quickstart to Swing avoids confusing charts of overlapping footprints and replaces them with clear, cogent descriptions that better allows the reader to absorb the material. Allen's approach to Swing dance is to break down the dance into distinct units. Each of these units easily coalesces into the following unit. The material covered in this book includes: basic patterns, underarm turns, and hand changes, double hand-holds (normal / pretzel), progressive, tucks and spins, swing rock, rhythmic body and leg movements, and rotation spin and torque. It also provides a checklist to help gauge technical success and progress Guaranteed to get you out on the dance floor as soon as possible, Quickstart to Swing is a must addition to any dancer's library.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Do It.
Review: Garbled writing and poor organization prevent judging Mr. Allen's skill in instruction or dancing on the basis of this text. The book has serious problems in structure, grammar, logic, and clarity. The writing is too bad to figure out what is going on. Upon discovering East Coast Swing I searched for a manual because I'm a word-and-diagram kind of learner. Based on Amazon's favorable customer reviews, very puzzling in retrospect, I purchased this volume. After spending days with it I was unable to figure out what he was saying. I dutifully tried to practice his guidelines and found myself baffled to the point of despair. I thought it was just me- that I learned motor skills only with difficulty. After a few weeks I took more traditional class instruction in ECS from a local, strong Dance Club. I stuck with ECS for about a year, getting a firm grasp of the fundamentals- i.e., frame, timing, leading and movement as well as just the patterns. I'm competent into triple-step. Haven't pursued ECS into 8-count or Lindy, but only because I have since fallen in love with West Coast Swing, a completely different style. At that point I revisited Mr. Allen's text, and found it just as impenetrable as I did originally. Even knowing the patterns I was only barely able to recognize them through his writing and photos. I additionally conclude that he does not really discuss frame and leading- the two most important aspects of partnered dance- at all. I would strongly discourage folks looking for an ECS intro from buying this volume. Spend the money instead on a few weeks of basic ECS classes.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Do It.
Review: Garbled writing and poor organization prevent judging Mr. Allen's skill in instruction or dancing on the basis of this text. The book has serious problems in structure, grammar, logic, and clarity. The writing is too bad to figure out what is going on. Upon discovering East Coast Swing I searched for a manual because I'm a word-and-diagram kind of learner. Based on Amazon's favorable customer reviews, very puzzling in retrospect, I purchased this volume. After spending days with it I was unable to figure out what he was saying. I dutifully tried to practice his guidelines and found myself baffled to the point of despair. I thought it was just me- that I learned motor skills only with difficulty. After a few weeks I took more traditional class instruction in ECS from a local, strong Dance Club. I stuck with ECS for about a year, getting a firm grasp of the fundamentals- i.e., frame, timing, leading and movement as well as just the patterns. I'm competent into triple-step. Haven't pursued ECS into 8-count or Lindy, but only because I have since fallen in love with West Coast Swing, a completely different style. At that point I revisited Mr. Allen's text, and found it just as impenetrable as I did originally. Even knowing the patterns I was only barely able to recognize them through his writing and photos. I additionally conclude that he does not really discuss frame and leading- the two most important aspects of partnered dance- at all. I would strongly discourage folks looking for an ECS intro from buying this volume. Spend the money instead on a few weeks of basic ECS classes.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant for any Ballroom or Swing Student!
Review: Here's a book that answers anything you wanted to know about Swing dancing but didn't know how to ask. We use this book to correct and improve our interpretation and understanding of concepts and the techniques of Swing & Rhythm dancing. Since we are interested in becoming teachers, we exchange the roles of either leader or follower. The book is written this way so it makes it easy to do. Allen says in the `How to Use This Book' section that the descriptions of the steps are conversational and delivered as if he were there with the reader, so we read aloud for each other. He's right, when we do this it's a lot of FUN and it makes it seem if we are in a class with him. If there is anything or any term, we didn't understand there is an item by item technique section and glossary along with a fabulous index in the back section of the book. You can always tell the quality of a book by the content and thoroughness of its index. The book challenges those who have learned Swing improperly or have tried to mimic it. On page, 2 and 3 Allen detailed the detrimental habits we ourselves had formed and with the help of this book have eradicated! Lastly, if you can read and understand this review you won't have any trouble with this book! There must a couple of hundred thousand words in this book so it is packed. So as not to be overwhelmed by the size of this book, we worked in small increments, using the wonderful lesson by lesson cumulative approach found chapter by chapter. We kept in mind that this is a `How To' book so we worked on how to do it and not just how to read it. Most importantly, we'll continue to use this book for years to come, especially if we want to show others how to dance a great Swing. BRAVO and THANK YOU Jeff Allen!!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant for any Ballroom or Swing Student!
Review: Here's a book that answers anything you wanted to know about Swing dancing but didn't know how to ask. We use this book to correct and improve our interpretation and understanding of concepts and the techniques of Swing & Rhythm dancing. Since we are interested in becoming teachers, we exchange the roles of either leader or follower. The book is written this way so it makes it easy to do. Allen says in the 'How to Use This Book' section that the descriptions of the steps are conversational and delivered as if he were there with the reader, so we read aloud for each other. He's right, when we do this it's a lot of FUN and it makes it seem if we are in a class with him. If there is anything or any term, we didn't understand there is an item by item technique section and glossary along with a fabulous index in the back section of the book. You can always tell the quality of a book by the content and thoroughness of its index. The book challenges those who have learned Swing improperly or have tried to mimic it. On page, 2 and 3 Allen detailed the detrimental habits we ourselves had formed and with the help of this book have eradicated! Lastly, if you can read and understand this review you won't have any trouble with this book! There must a couple of hundred thousand words in this book so it is packed. So as not to be overwhelmed by the size of this book, we worked in small increments, using the wonderful lesson by lesson cumulative approach found chapter by chapter. We kept in mind that this is a 'How To' book so we worked on how to do it and not just how to read it. Most importantly, we'll continue to use this book for years to come, especially if we want to show others how to dance a great Swing. BRAVO and THANK YOU Jeff Allen!!
Rating:
Summary: Do it, buy it NOW!
Review: I am amazed at how Mr. Allen's book Quickstart to Swing has a habit of polarizing readers - but not dancers! All I know is that my teacher (a champion in her own right and a judge) highly recommended this book to me as she does to ALL of her students and anyone who asks. She told me that Allen holds dozens of top teacher awards recognized by the National Dance Council of America and that the technique that is found in his book is perfect for the foundational experience necessary to allow any Swing dancer to begin and then grow into a terrific one. She added that there are many inferior ways to approach Swing dancing that ultimately end in students' failures. The content in this dance resource is not one of those.
Quickstart to Swing is well organized beginning with very basic choreography (just enough to get by if that is your wish) to the more advanced closed position dancing. It features about one hundred choreographical patterns. Once you understand that six-count Swing is broken into 3, two count patterns the book becomes VER EASY to understand. Allen calls a two count pattern a unit and describes each pattern as follows: 1st Unit then the movements, 2nd Unit then the movements, and lastly 3rd Unit and then the movements. I fail to see the difficulty. He writes in gender non-specific language which is the only acceptable way to teach in California and elsewhere that human rights and free choice are respected, one of the wonderful things about dancing. Once the reader gets used to the pronoun, their, following the noun either Leader of Follower there remains NO problem at all with this book.
No other book on the topic of dancing has a comprehensive section following the choreography called simply "The Technique". This wonderful section of the book covers the following: Check-Off list for success, the Swing Rock in depth, rhythmic body and leg movements, the feet, framing and handhold's (a section of several pages where a previous reviewer mentioned there was nothing on the topic), leading and following, a dance step, a fabulous section on rotation, and mental and physical attitudes and priorities. All told, this section called "The Technique" is about 75 pages long and again unparallel.
The book has been called by one dance expert who is the publisher of a weekly dance newspaper "An encyclopedia of Swing Dancing" - I agree. This book has no equal! I'm sure there are some grammatical flaws but I have never found a book without them. Dancing is not easy so I'm sure it is not easy to write about especially when an author really attacks the subject and fully breaks it down. Allen does a great job!! This is a resource not to be missed. It is for anyone who steps on the hardwood with the intention of dancing Swing or any other dance. Do it, buy it NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Do it, buy it NOW!
Review: I am amazed at how Mr. Allen's book Quickstart to Swing has a habit of polarizing readers - but not dancers! All I know is that my teacher (a champion in her own right and a judge) highly recommended this book to me as she does to ALL of her students and anyone who asks. She told me that Allen holds dozens of top teacher awards recognized by the National Dance Council of America and that the technique that is found in his book is perfect for the foundational experience necessary to allow any Swing dancer to begin and then grow into a terrific one. She added that there are many inferior ways to approach Swing dancing that ultimately end in students' failures. The content in this dance resource is not one of those.
Quickstart to Swing is well organized beginning with very basic choreography (just enough to get by if that is your wish) to the more advanced closed position dancing. It features about one hundred choreographical patterns. Once you understand that six-count Swing is broken into 3, two count patterns the book becomes VER EASY to understand. Allen calls a two count pattern a unit and describes each pattern as follows: 1st Unit then the movements, 2nd Unit then the movements, and lastly 3rd Unit and then the movements. I fail to see the difficulty. He writes in gender non-specific language which is the only acceptable way to teach in California and elsewhere that human rights and free choice are respected, one of the wonderful things about dancing. Once the reader gets used to the pronoun, their, following the noun either Leader of Follower there remains NO problem at all with this book.
No other book on the topic of dancing has a comprehensive section following the choreography called simply "The Technique". This wonderful section of the book covers the following: Check-Off list for success, the Swing Rock in depth, rhythmic body and leg movements, the feet, framing and handhold's (a section of several pages where a previous reviewer mentioned there was nothing on the topic), leading and following, a dance step, a fabulous section on rotation, and mental and physical attitudes and priorities. All told, this section called "The Technique" is about 75 pages long and again unparallel.
The book has been called by one dance expert who is the publisher of a weekly dance newspaper "An encyclopedia of Swing Dancing" - I agree. This book has no equal! I'm sure there are some grammatical flaws but I have never found a book without them. Dancing is not easy so I'm sure it is not easy to write about especially when an author really attacks the subject and fully breaks it down. Allen does a great job!! This is a resource not to be missed. It is for anyone who steps on the hardwood with the intention of dancing Swing or any other dance. Do it, buy it NOW!
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