Chelsea Maupin

Sammi: So, just introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about yourself.

Chelsea: I am Chelsea Maupin, I studied horticulture at Purdue and have since graduated, I taught English in Vietnam for a year and I’m applying for a master’s degree, I work at a farm and a bakery, and I want to do more swing dancing! I’ve done it super sporadically and on and off, but it’s super fun.

S: So amidst all of that insanity, how did you find swing dancing?

Chelsea: From being an undergrad at Purdue, but I did a little bit of ballroom in highschool, and I wanted a really fun dance community – and especially going into a new place and being so overwhelmed with the newness of it all – swing was such an awesome community and stress relief.

S: I definitely agree with that. Aside from the community, what keeps you coming back to dance every week?

Chelsea: I think it’s the community, and it does change really quickly, especially at University scenes just because of people moving on and graduating, but it’s not just a community in one place anymore. It’s also a thing you can take to other places. I’ve danced in several different countries, and it’s also something that I can work on personally. I dance at home in my kitchen, I’m just more – I’m more comfortable. I think it’s kind of a little confidence booster too where it’s just a fun, zany skill.

S: Yeah! You mentioned dancing with other people elsewhere vs. yourself, so what’s your favorite thing about dancing by yourself vs. dancing with a partner?

Chelsea: That’s a good question. I think dancing by myself, I can just focus in and really listen to the music. I think it’s really fun to partner dance and to respond to the energy from a lead, because I usually follow, but dancing by yourself you can just think about the music and do whatever feels good.

S: Cool. You talk about the music and the rhythm – what does that mean to you when you dance?

Chelsea: For the rhythm and the feeling of the music? It kinda depends on my mood, like how I’m feeling coming into dance will then kind of effect how the music influences me – it goes both ways a bit. So a fast song, if I’m high energy, will be the right energy. But if I’m tired, I’ll just sit out. It sort of depends on what’s going on.

S: What’s your favorite thing that you really like to dig into when you’re dancing?

Chelsea: When I’m dancing – just with partner dancing because I mainly do partner dancing – I love it when things just kind of click well. Like the lead and I have the same energy level, we’re both listening, we know where the breaks are gonna be in the song, and if it’s a well-known song then you can definitely get creative with musicality. There’s certain dances where even if it’s a total stranger, you come away and you’re laughing and smiling ‘cause you just clicked really well, and that’s great.

S: I agree. Random last question – if you had to describe what dance is to you in five words or less, how would you do it?

Chelsea: Uhhhh… that’s on the spot!

S: Uh-huh!

Chelsea: Five or less?

S: Yeah! TL;DR!

Chelsea: Well, we did lessons today talking about energy and connection, so it probably would be, lets make it a sentence: Connected energy with friends and fun. Excluding conjunction words, of course.

Meg Perry

Sammi: So, I guess start off by just introducing yourself and talking a little about yourself to get us started?

Meg: I guess I can give you dance background?

S: We can do that, yup!

Meg: My name is Meg Perry, I’ve been dancing since I was three so, wow, that’s… twenty years now? I started in a studio when I was three learning ballet and tap and jazz, and I went through and did hip-hop and funk and all these other styles growing up, until I got to highschool when I quit all that and I just did dance team at school, which is not at all what I loved. Girls are mean, that’s all I have to say. Between highschool and college, I went on a cruise and they had ballroom dance lessons.

S: On a cruise?

Meg: On a cruise, yeah! So, of course I went, because dancing, but everyone there was 80 years old and no one would dance with me, because I didn’t show up with a partner. And it was so disheartening, I couldn’t get any of my cousins to join me. So when I went to college, and I discovered swing dancing, and how anyone would dance with anybody, and you didn’t need to show up with a partner, and you didn’t even need to dance with a partner – you could dance by yourself, it’s like a whole new experience to dance by yourself, even just to the same music and the same bands as the people dancing as a couple – I just love the versatility of swing. We took photos in tap shoes today – I think that tap is just like that forgotten cousin of swing and it just belongs so well, they mesh so well together, and I love that.

S: Awesome! I think that’s pretty… pretty good. So, did you ever imagine that you would have found swing dancing, or would you have just stuck with the ones that you had learned as a kid?

Meg: I definitely did not see swing dance coming. It took me a LOT to get into it. Literally, the swing dance team at my school, I was tutored by the president, I just happened to sit next to a member in a class about jazz music, and just all this other stuff; there were probably about ten people it took to convince me to go even once, but after the first lesson I was hooked. It took a long time to get there, I would have never guessed I would do something like this.

S: Nice! So, you mentioned jazz music. What’s your favorite part about dancing to music like that?

Meg: I think jazz is just… there’s so much of it. I already used the word versatile, but I’m going to again. You can do anything with it, and it’s never the same. You never have to dance it the same. Or you could dance the same way to 18,000 different songs and it won’t look the same, even if your feet do the same things, and your arms do the same things.

S: That is really true. We took pictures of you dancing by yourself in tap, but you also mentioned partner dancing. What’s the difference between dancing by yourself, or, what’s your favorite part of dancing with a partner vs. dancing by yourself?

Meg: I think the communication. You have such an opportunity to share creativity. I love when you have that one hand connection and you’re just solo jamming together, and you can steal each other’s ideas and then throw them into your closed dance and things like that. You’re talking the whole time, just not with your mouths. I love that about partner dancing.

S: In terms of partner dancing, do you lead or follow? Or both?

Meg: I do both. I’ve followed for a little over four years, and I’ve led for a little over three. Just this past year or so, my friend and I have started learning how to switch and do lead steals and things like that, so that’s probably my favorite. ‘Cause you never know what’s gonna happen.