Completing a marathon is exhilarating for runners; the elation after eight hours on a hardwood dance floor is exhaustingly similar.

Last weekend 14 students from BYU-Idaho stepped, spun and swiveled their mark into America’s swing scene at the 2006 Utah Lindy Exchange —satisfying the crazy urge to get out and dance.

A three-day dance convention of sorts, the Lindy Exchange gives passion-driven swing dancers from around the world a chance to gather together and exchange styles, techniques, moves and lots of sweat.

“By the end of the night, we all looked utterly distasteful, our toes were swollen sausages, and we stunk,” said Alexis Kragenbrink, a sophomore from Golden, Colo., and first-time exchanger. “It made everyone look all the more attractive.”

Each exchange strives to characterize the uniqueness of the host city, showing off local bands, venues and personality.

Planners brought in Utah’s personality with a day of skiing or snowboarding and a Polygamy Lindy dance contest, where instead of couples they dance in groups of three or more with one person leading and the rest following.

“Only in Utah could they pull this one off. We loved the contests and the people here [are great],” said Dave Hamaker from Sacramento, Calif.

Participants come from all over the world and build connections through the social dancing and interaction. “Strangers from Colorado taught me new moves in the Salt Lake City library,” said Scott Kraczek, a computer engineering major at BYU.

“The swing society is one in which people will let strangers come from around the country and stay in their homes so they can go to a dance,” said Adam Thompson, a dancer converted to lindy at BYU-I and a BYU graduate. “In this place I can walk up to anyone and start talking to them. Why? Because we all have something in common — we swing.”

It’s the instantaneous friendships that make the exchanges work and keep people coming back.

“It unifies people — male and female, those who speak different languages, ages, those of different religions and beliefs — and it all begins with only eight steps! It is exhilarating and is one of the healthiest and most fun addictions that I’ve ever had,” Kragenbrink said.

Sometimes described as bouncy, circular or downright spastic, the lindy hop embodies coordination, strength and a lot of style for addictive fun.

“Ballroom and Latin can be stiff and affected, but swing is the embodiment of the American spirit through dance,” Kraczek said. “It stems from the freedom we feel to be relaxed and invent new things. This week I made up a few new moves which I’ll use regularly.”

Learning new styles and techniques completes the goal of Lindy Exchange. Joanne Scott, a freshman from Waterford, Calif., liked “learning to adapt myself to different styles and techniques. I learned a lot of new styles of swing dancing that I’ve never seen or heard of before.”

Joanne got a private lesson in form through a few dances with Doug Silton, a professional swing dancer, teacher and performer out of Los Angeles who came to dance and DJ.

The Melissa Pace Quartet and the New Deal Swing Orchestra provided live music.