East Coast Swing (ECS) is a form of social partner dance.
It is danced under fast swing music, including: big band, rock and roll, rockabilly, and boogie-woogie.
[2] East Coast Swing can be referred to by many different names in different regions of the United States and the World.
[4] The name East Coast Swing was coined initially to distinguish the dance from the street form and the new variant used in the competitive ballroom arena (as well as separating the dance from West Coast Swing, which was developed in California).
East Coast Swing is a standardized form of dance developed first for instructional purposes in the Arthur Murray studios, and then later codified to allow for a medium of comparison for competitive ballroom dancers.
Lindy Hop was never standardized and later became the inspiration for several other dance forms such as: (European) Boogie Woogie, Jive, West Coast Swing and Rock and Roll.
In practice on the social dance floor, the six count steps of the East Coast Swing are sometimes mixed with the eight count steps of Lindy Hop, Charleston, and less frequently, Balboa.
Because East Coast uses a six step pattern with music employing 4 beats per measure, three measures of music are required to complete two sets of steps, as shown in the following table.