The Canadian Swing Championships is an annual event held since 2002 to showcase Canadian swing dancing. It is held near Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 over the Victoria Day

Victoria Day

Victoria Day is a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated on the last Monday before May 25, in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. The date is also, simultaneously, that on which the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday is recognized...

 weekend. Before 2005, the event was called the Eastern Canadian Swing Championship, but was renamed when no equivalent event was started in Western Canada and the ECSC became the de facto national championship.

At CSC, competitions are held in lindy hop

Lindy Hop

The Lindy Hop is an American social dance, from the swing dance family. It evolved in Harlem, New York City in the 1920s and '30s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. Lindy was a fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development but is mainly based...

, classic lindy hop, west coast swing

West Coast Swing

West Coast Swing is a partner dance with roots in Lindy Hop. It is characterized by a distinctive elastic look that results from its basic extension-compression technique of partner connection, and is danced primarily in a slotted area on the dance floor...

, charleston

Charleston (dance)

The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one...

, balboa

Balboa

Balboa may refer to:Vasco Núñez de Balboa , Spanish explorerBalboa may also refer to:- Places :* Balboa, León, a Spanish village and municipality* Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, California, also called Balboa...

, blues dancing, jive

Jive (dance)

In Ballroom dancing, Jive is a dance style in 4/4 time that originated in the United States from African-Americans in the early 1930s. It was originally presented to the public as 'Jive' in 1934 by Cab Calloway. It is a lively and uninhibited variation of the Jitterbug, a form of Swing dance...

, and a fast dance. Competitions are divided into jack and jill format

Jack and Jill (dance)

Jack and Jill or Dance with a Stranger is a format of competition in partner dancing, where the competing couples are the result of random matching of leaders and followers...

 and rehearsed routines for pairs and for teams. In some events, separate competitions are held for professionals and amateurs.

In addition to the competition itself, the weekend acts as a lindy exchange

Lindy exchange

A lindy exchange is a gathering of lindy hop dancers in one city for several days to experience the dance venues and styles of that local community and to dance with visitors and locals alike...

, including instructional workshops and social dancing. It is the largest annual lindy exchange in Canada, attracting over 500 people per year to full-event participation, plus the numbers attending only as observers.