While everyone said they found the trumpet blaring music of Benny Goodman and other Big Band directors to be interesting, not everyone preferred it to jazz or rock and roll. Although some more intrepid dancers confessed to their partners "Oh, I love this song, this is really cool," more confided with somewhat disappointed expressions, "This is O.K., but I can't get too enthused about it."

But even if students were not overly excited about the swing music itself, the majority of those in attendance said they enjoyed learning the new skill. Wook Lee '83, a former Leverett House resident, taught the students the fancy steps and twirls.

"Learning to do the swing is really awkward at first," Lee said. "But you'll be surprised. If you isolate each part and teach the men and women separately, then there should be no problem."

The only problems that Lee could foresee impeding a student's progress would be medical ones. "You should always wear comfortable shoes--not heels," he told his students. "The way I look at it is if you ladies step on the guys' feet at this tempo, then they just won't be there any more."

To prevent the students from "initially killing each other," Lee separated the men and women, sending each sex to opposite sides of the room. He taught the men the basic steps, and then repeated the demonstration for the women using a brave volunteer.

"Now try it with a partner--someone you don't know," he urged. "The more people you dance with the better you'll learn." Lee told everyone to introduce themselves, cautioning "but no last names, phone numbers, or partners' addresses--save that for afterwards."

Some students found themselves dancing with partners they will probably not dance with on Saturday. Because more women than men attended the class--"the only time you'll ever experience this phenomenon at Harvard," Lee said--several all female couples graced the dance floor.

After Lee assured himself that each couple knew "the basic step," he had them move on to "the close position." "Now this position is called 'the close position' because that's what you are--close to your partner. Just don't get too close to your partner," he warned.

Lee told the women to place their hands lightly on the men's shoulders and the men to put their hands on the women's backs. And, while he emphasized "lightly" to the women--saying that in this day of equality they could hold their own arm's weight--he had stricter advice on "close position" etiquette for the men.

"Men, I said backs, not butts, not anywhere lower on the body. You keep your hands on their backs," he cautioned.

One advantage to learning the swing, Lee said, was cultivating the art of leadership. "Men, this is your chance to learn how to lead," he said. "Many of you will have to plan ahead for the first time in your lives."

To teach the concept of leadership, Lee relied on the ancient rule of chance. "Now, pick a number between one and five. Got it? O.K., guys, that's how many basic steps you're going to do before you change to the open position again," he said.

Lee apologized to the women for the swing's inherent male chauvinism. "Well, you know, this is an old time thing. When they made this up, including leading, it was a male world. It's harder to lead, though, so you women should actually be glad," he said.

After the students perfected some of the basic swing steps, Lee increased the dance's tempo, to make the situation "more realistic." But faster did not mean better for the majority of the dancing neophytes.

"This is way too hard and complicated," complained a biochemistry concentrator who said she has no trouble handing in lengthy problem sets but just couldn't get the steps right.