Rating: 
Summary: Great information ; horrendous writing
Review: I have been taking ballroom dance lessons for the past year and found a wealth of useful information in this book. If you read it carefully, this book will help you learn the steps AND look good doing them! We have all seen, and probably been guilty of ourselves, the "robotic" moves of people learning how to dance for the first time. The techniques found here will transform you into a truly smooth mover, the ultimate goal! That said, I found the grammatical structure of the writing to be truly abominable. Almost every other sentence is either awkward or grammatically incorrect, which I found highly distracting. The author clearly knows his stuff as far as dancing, but could use a good writing coach! I read his "Idiot's Guide to Ballroom Dancing", and it's as if a different person wrote it. Obviously the editing of that series is far superior, and that book has a great section on Swing dancing which is well worth checking out.
Rating: 
Summary: I Have Found Immeasurable Help with This Book!
Review: I have found immeasurable help with this book!I absolutely love this book. It is the best dance resource that I have found in print!!! Here's why: Remember when you where a kid and you received your first set of encyclopedias - this book gives you that same trusted feeling when you have a question about Swing dancing or partner dancing in general. The better you get, the longer you study, and practice dancing the more you'll appreciate this book written by Jeff Allen. Many paragraphs in this book are so power packed that they alone are worth the price. The author continually challenges the quality of your dancing to make you better and better. Ideas for improvement and creativity begin to explode in your brain and you are able to take your dancing to the next level. If you dance and don't own this book, you are really missing out!
Rating:
Summary: I Have Found Immeasurable Help with This Book!
Review: I have found immeasurable help with this book! I absolutely love this book. It is the best dance resource that I have found in print!!! Here's why: Remember when you where a kid and you received your first set of encyclopedias - this book gives you that same trusted feeling when you have a question about Swing dancing or partner dancing in general. The better you get, the longer you study, and practice dancing the more you'll appreciate this book written by Jeff Allen. Many paragraphs in this book are so power packed that they alone are worth the price. The author continually challenges the quality of your dancing to make you better and better. Ideas for improvement and creativity begin to explode in your brain and you are able to take your dancing to the next level. If you dance and don't own this book, you are really missing out!
Rating:
Summary: INDISPENSABLE for ANY SWING or SALSA DANCER
Review: I have owned this book since May 2000. It has helped to reshape my Swing dancing. Admittedly as a Swing dancer of several years, I thought I knew a lot and was pretty good. Now I am faster, smoother, and a much better leader. My partner and I work with this book often because its technical instruction during each move presented and the large section at the end of the book are INDISPENSABLE! Among the discussions are several concerning rotation. Just knowing what makes a rotation successful and when the best time to lead one with respect to my partner's body & foot positions are worth the price of this book. Unbelievably the overlapping general ideas have actually helped our Salsa dancing tremendously. Many figures can easily be converted to suit Salsa. Once we heard a good teacher say the development of most Salsa figures come from Swing dancing we began to experiment with some of the "Moves," presented in Jeff Allen's book. We have learned to apply "Overhead Swivels," and several of the "Pretzels," to our Salsa. After all Salsa is a sauce with many dance types as the ingredients. I highly recommend, "Quickstart to Swing," to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: A Power house of Information
Review: I have to start out by saying that this book filled in all the gaps. This book works great for beginners and competitors like myself. I have taken swing lessons from a couple of dozen teachers and none have made the understanding of swing as easy as Mr. Allen has. Mr. Allen covered all the important technique issues that I have heard all my top coaches' use. I found this book worked best when we worked with friends and read sections out loud to each other it was like having a true teacher in the room at all times. We have shared this book with all our friends from beginners to advanced dancers and we all found an unlimited amount of information that never seems to be presented else where. This book was very large when I first received it I could not believe how big it was and when I began to read it the amount of information that was presented in the book should have covered three times the book size. It is unfortunate that some people really did not take the time to read the book because the first couple of pages say right from the beginning this is only about swing and the four rhythms of swing. It does not go into West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Hustle, Shag or any of the other swings. The book recognizes the fact that those dances require other types of technique and style that could not be covered in this book. Not to say that the dance technique in this book does not transcend all dancing and could not be used in the other swing dances. I've danced the other four styles of swing to some degree and found that the technique is the truly important part and very applicable. This book is a must for any dancer that wants improve and learn more.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Nuances Subtleties and Techniques
Review: I have utilized Quickstart to Swing and Allen's: Quickstart to Tango for several years. I read them slowly piece by piece, topic by topic, or step (pattern) by step. You learn something new or develop a further understanding about a technique each time you reference these books. The nuances found obviously come from Allen's wealth of experience, training, and ability to assemble partnering techniques into an intelligible form for laymen. My goal is to someday get to Rhode Island and take some private training from him. Until then I will do and recommend that you do the next best thing - read and study these books!
Rating: 
Summary: Author can't write!
Review: I think there is some good info on swing dancing in this book... somewhere. Unfortunately, the writing and organization are so bad that I found the book worthless. Before I return the book and get my money back, I will write this review and maybe save some potential buyers. There are alot of positive reviews that don't mention the horrible writing -- they are probably friends of the author doing him a favor. The writing is so bad it is absurd (how did it get published?) You will reread a sentence 5 times and still have no idea what it means. Don't waste your money. If you do, save the reciept.
Rating:
Summary: Awful!
Review: I thought this book was terrible. My husband and I took swing lessons this winter and loved it. We wanted a book to help us practice on our own. This is NOT the book. The pictures are blurry so you can't tell what the dancers are doing. The instructions are too long and wordy, plus there are numerous typos on every page making it very difficult to figure out what he's trying to say. It's the first book I've ever returned.
Rating:
Summary: Care about Dancing? This Book?s for You!
Review: I use this book in much the same way I use any assembly instructions, I do not expect an easy read like a novel. Each element of the 100 or more dance steps is described in complete and exacting thoroughness. The detail is simply remarkable - you will become a MUCH better dancer, a MUCH better student, or a MUCH better teacher. Allen's time unit method for Swing dance isolates ALL the pertinent movements of the legs, arms, and body into each of Swing's two beat integers. This leaves nothing to the imagination and makes your rhythm and sequence of movements completely predictable and above all consistent. The book is written in gender non-specific language which can be of immense help to teachers of dance or those wishing to learn both parts of leaders and followers. At a cursory glance, this may seem to produce an awkward writing style but it is grammatically correct. Allen's own directions are to read the instructions of each figure type aloud in much the same way you would or should expect to hear a good instructor's delivery. Better still, have your partner or even a third person read them aloud and create your own little class. This book will keep on delivering and should be in everyone's library that really cares about dancing. There's plenty for the beginner as well as the more advanced. The book will certainly grow with you as your dancing improves - what more could you ask of a good companion!
Rating:
Summary: Care about Dancing? This Book¿s for You!
Review: I use this book in much the same way I use any assembly instructions, I do not expect an easy read like a novel. Each element of the 100 or more dance steps is described in complete and exacting thoroughness. The detail is simply remarkable - you will become a MUCH better dancer, a MUCH better student, or a MUCH better teacher. Allen's time unit method for Swing dance isolates ALL the pertinent movements of the legs, arms, and body into each of Swing's two beat integers. This leaves nothing to the imagination and makes your rhythm and sequence of movements completely predictable and above all consistent. The book is written in gender non-specific language which can be of immense help to teachers of dance or those wishing to learn both parts of leaders and followers. At a cursory glance, this may seem to produce an awkward writing style but it is grammatically correct. Allen's own directions are to read the instructions of each figure type aloud in much the same way you would or should expect to hear a good instructor's delivery. Better still, have your partner or even a third person read them aloud and create your own little class. This book will keep on delivering and should be in everyone's library that really cares about dancing. There's plenty for the beginner as well as the more advanced. The book will certainly grow with you as your dancing improves - what more could you ask of a good companion!
| 
