Don’t think you can come to a swing dance and just sit there.

The dancers won't let you, and neither will the music.

"You have to throw yourself into it completely. There's this energy, this drive,” dancer Karen Maria Capo.

The music gives you an itch to move.

"Very rarely do you see someone that's kind of half-heartedly swing dancing,” Susan Shelton of the Austin Swing Syndicate said.

"This kind of music is timeless. You hear 15 year olds today who are like, 'I love Sinatra, ‘ “ Capo said.

Swing dancing got its legs almost a century ago, and it still hasn't gone out of style.

"It's a uniquely American experience. You have swing music from the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, stuff they're playing now. It gets people out on the floor,” Shelton said.

The dance steps have gotten trickier over the years from the East Coast Swing to the Lindy Hop.

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"It's gotten a little more formalized than it was in the ‘20s. It's based on what is called a turn out, which is this nice circular pattern,” Clint Zehner of the Austin Swing Syndicate said. "Everyone's just a little different. You have people who have a very ballroom feel. You have people who come from a hip hop background. You have people who have never danced before. As long as people are having fun, it's always good."

Don't count on dancing with the same person all night -- swing is a social dance.

"It's pretty low pressure. You have three whole minutes to make an impression. And if it crashes and burns, you leave. If it's successful, you can ask for another dance,” Shelton said.

Of course everyone is too busy having fun to think about calories, but swing is definitely a dance that will get you fit.

"Since I started dancing I lost 20 pounds. When it's good swing music, good blues music, good anything that they play here, I'll get up and dance. I know I'll do that,” Shelton said.

This weekend Austin is hosting a big swing dance, called an exchange, with dancers from allover the country. For more information visit austinswingsyndicate.org.