The 1996 hit movie "Shall We Dance?" has helped the Japanese appreciate the charm of ballroom dancing. Yet despite the surging popularity of dance schools across the country, social dance continues to play a minor role in the local nightlife. Now, some devotees are promoting swing, a more casual version of pair dancing, as its revival in the United States trickles across the Pacific.
Hiroyuki Yamada, a 10-year veteran of competitive ballroom dancing, stood breathless before the dynamic gyrations at a party in Washington, D.C., in December 1997. He immediately sought a reference video to study the unfamiliar dance called the Lindy Hop, the origin of swing dance.
He got hooked on the jazz-inspired dance. Three months later he founded the Tokyo Swing Dance Society (TSDS) with other Japanese instructors of various dance backgrounds. Aside from the weekly lessons at Yoga district's town hall, they have been having events and providing workshops with top-level U.S. instructors ever since.