Swinging times: Thais take to a new form of dancing with street parties

Thailand’s swing dance community has grown in recent years and Sunday’s street party was organized by a group called “Bangkok Swing,” founded in 2011. They have held three such parties in Nakhon Pathom and hope to make it an annual event. The group’s co-founder Chayapong Naviroj, 29, said he discovered swing dancing while attending university in the US.

Dressed in top hats, vintage outfits and shiny shoes, hundreds of Thais grooved to swing music in a town more famous for its ancient Buddhist stupa. More than 300 enthusiasts, including foreign dancers, came out for the shindig on a street in Nakhon Pathom, about an hour from Bangkok.

Thailand’s swing dance community has grown in recent years and Sunday’s street party was organized by a group called “Bangkok Swing,” founded in 2011. They have held three such parties in Nakhon Pathom and hope to make it an annual event. The group’s co-founder Chayapong Naviroj, 29, said he discovered swing dancing while attending university in the US.

“I wanted to dance and it’s a happy dance with swing music,” he said. “Humans like to dance. Humans like to touch. Humans like music. It can go on forever.” Nakhom Pathom is home to Phra Pathom Chedi, one of Thailand’s most revered Buddhist structures, which loomed in the distance as the dancers stomped to music by bands The Shirt Tail Stompers from the UK and the US-based Casey Macgill & Friends.

“We dress up just to pay respect to the culture and how people in the old days dressed up very nicely and went social dancing,” she said.