Is that still a going concern? I was aware of it being quite a fad during the late 90ies, when one of my favorite bands, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies (from my hometown of Eugene) got caught up in it, despite being an extremely eclectic band. I guess it stuck with some people? Good thing; it's fun music and I could see it having a similar vibe. Salsa can be pretty high energy too, I think, although if you're treating it as a series of acrobatics, it loses a little something - there's got to be some sensuality there too.
The swing dancing fad that you experienced has evolved into a vibrant community of Lindy Hop and related dances. It's relatively small, and few people are aware of its existence... but it's very robust and spread across the world. I would say the community's size is on the same order of magnitude as that of ballroom dancing.
I started doing it 6 years ago. I've been stuck doing it ever since, because of my hacker mindset, but also because of the social scene. Imho, Swing is actually much better for hackers... plenty of women, it's full of other hackers, everyone's a bit geeky, and many folks are hyper-creative and artsy. It's also easy to learn but hard to master... lots of challenge when you get really into it.
I must note that the vast majority of people have many misconceptions about swing dancing. What you saw in the fad bears little resemblance to what's done today. No one really plays Cherry Poppin Daddies or other similar pseudo-swing punk music. Lots of swing DJs are true music geeks, and play swing, soul, blues, and R&B at dances. Real swing dancing is much more about having feeling and jazz musicality than it is about acrobatics. Think of it as tap dancing with a partner. The acrobatics are definitely still around, but are basically restricted to performance. Yes, Swing is not as seductive as Salsa, but the emotion is definitely there.
