Origins
How it began.
I grew up dancing. Not as much as I would have liked, but moving and expressing myself to good music always felt natural. I leaned into it more in college and found that dancing was one of the easiest ways to meet people, connect, and have fun.
When I came back to West River, I was surprised by how many people didn’t know how to dance. I always thought it was just part of the culture out here, but it turns out it was more of a small-town South Dakota reality.
One day, a friend and I decided to try something. We started teaching lessons at a bar just across the Wyoming border in Beulah. We brought in about 20 to 30 people, which was a great start, but it was not enough to sustain long-term.
Then things shifted.
We were asked to teach at a fundraising event at Besler’s Cadillac Ranch, one of my favorite dance venues around. After that event, I pitched the idea of turning it into something consistent. Something people could count on.
That is where SoDakSwing really began.
We now regularly draw crowds of 250 or more on live music nights and continue to teach both beginner swing and line dance lessons.
But this is about more than dancing. In a world where so much of our identity lives on our phones, I think people are craving something real. A place to connect face-to-face. A place to move, to learn, and to feel like they belong. That is what we are building here.
Something rooted in tradition, but made for everyone.
Austin Huether
Founder of SoDakSwing
Where'd the dance halls go?
Let’s talk about country swing dancing, line dancing, and dance halls. But first, we need to talk about ballrooms. Traditionally, ballrooms were more formal and often associated with higher social classes. At the same time, a more accessible version of social dancing was growing alongside them. This became known as the dance hall. Dance halls exploded in popularity around the turn of the 20th century and became widespread across the United States. They were more relaxed, more social, and open to a much broader range of people. With the rise of rock and roll in the 1950s and 60s, partner dancing began to shift and decline in mainstream culture. Many dance halls closed or were repurposed into other venues like clubs and discotheques, though they held on longer in rural areas. Out of these social dance environments, country swing eventually emerged. It is a modern blend influenced by western swing, east coast swing, west coast swing, jitterbug, and country two-step, along with strong roots in southern and western dance culture. Unlike traditional styles, it was never standardized, which is why it feels so free and expressive today. The other half of SoDakSwing is line dancing. Line dancing grew during the country dance boom of the 1970s through the 1990s, pulling from European folk dances, as well as American square and contra dancing. It was designed to be simple, repeatable, and accessible so anyone could join in. Today, line dancing continues to evolve and is no longer limited to country music. It now shows up across pop and other modern genres, keeping that same spirit of community and accessibility alive.
