Swing Cats host annual Fall Stomp event at the Elks Ballroom where all can join.
Swing Cats will have its annual Fall Stomp event on Sept 29. During this event, students, faculty and alumni are welcome to participate in swing dancing, no matter their experience. The club will have live jazz bands from both ACU and HSU perform as people dance the night away.
“Fall Stomp is one of our social dances, and it’s kind of open just for people to come dance whatever they know, and you don’t have to know to be a professional swing dancer,” said Katey Graham, a senior engineering major from Rosell, New Mexico. “Swing Cats really teaches you the basics with musicality, how to listen to music and feel that beat, all the way up to how to swing dance, and then we start learning how to do harder moves.”
Since the first time it has come back after COVID-19 in September of 2022, it has been a fall event that both students and alumni look forward to. Swing Cats will also have other events and traditions later in the year.
The Fall Stomp event was created by Cole Bennet, the faculty sponsor for Swing Cats, and Mike Rogers, a professor in the department of music.
“Fall Stomp is meant to promote swing dancing and just to get the ACU community involved and to spread our joy of swing dancing,” said Ben Briggs, the vice president and a senior digital entertainment technology major from Austin.
Swing Cats was started by Cole Bennett in the early 2000s. This creation was based on his love for swing dancing and wanting to bring it onto ACU’s campus. During that time, ACU was very strict when it came to dancing clubs.
“It originally was kind of like a secret society,” Briggs said. “Swing Cats was able to meet behind closed doors for the first couple of years of them being a thing. It had to be invitation only, they couldn’t do any dances or performances, they could meet behind closed doors late at night, and it was just really hard to get in.”
Now any student can join on campus by reaching out to the organization or coming to the events that this club hosts. The Fall Stomp event will be on Sept. 30 at 8 to 10 p.m. in the Elks Ballroom. There will also be a free beginner lesson at 7 p.m.
Swing Cats also offers classes every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Studio B of the REC center for students to learn beginner swing moves. Each lesson is $1, or students have the choice to invest in a semester pass.
