 Dean Collins, who arrived in the Los Angeles area around 1937, was influential in developing the style of swing dance on the West Coast of the United States as both a performer and teacher.When his wife, Mary Collins, was asked if Dean was responsible for the emergence of the dance, however, she said that Dean insisted there were "only two kinds of swing dance—good and bad".According to one of his former students, a member of his last dance troupe, Collins himself said that he had nothing to do with the West Coast Swing style.