Recently I have been finding that using famous routines on youtube is a great way to teach my students Lindy Hop technique and vocabulary, in addition to inspiring them about the dance.
Several benefits include:
If students want to review material, the video is easily accessible on youtube.
Often students if they watch the video get curious and look up other videos of the dancers featured, providing them with inspiration.
Students get excited about doing material which has been done for a performance, especially if it is by instructor/professional level dancers.
Most recently I taught the four counts of 8 snippet of the Silver Shadows performance at Frankie 95 featured at the 1:18 mark, and the class went over great!
When I teach these classes though I make sure to give credit where it is due and if I can’t show the video of the performance in the class, I post a link online of it for my students to see.
However as a warning, make sure if you teach in this method that you can not just perform, but also explain the material (in respect to look and technique) with your teaching partner before you are in class. Otherwise take this idea, experiment, and have fun with it!
A few weeks back I said i would write my own story of how I joined the swing dance community. I got some fun responses, it is only fair I pay back the favor.
Curiosity
Back in high school I was curious about learning how to dance some form of partnered dancing. A girl from my French class at the time named Katherine shared my same curiosity, unfortunately the one dance studio I contacted for us to take lessons from never returned my call. After that experience I thought my future of knowing how to dance was over and I went onto other things until a few years later when one fateful coincidence happened.
Discoveries During Debauchery
A few years later at Janurary 2008, I had just transferred to the main campus at The Pennsylvania State University, or more commonly known as Penn State. Joining in during the Spring semester, it felt a bit odd because everyone had their set schedules and activities/clubs to be involved with. So for the first week or two I just hung out with my roommates who were coincidentally from the same branch campus that I was from and focused on my school work. One day I was invited by a mutual friend of my roommates and I to an “International Beer Pong Tournament” on the night January 26th at a renown party apartment complex at Penn State called “The Graduate”.
Most guys stories of how they got into swing dancing usually begin with, “Well there was this cute girl..”. Mine begins with, “Well there was this keg and a beer pong tournament”. Anyways I show up this party with a friend ready to represent team Japan in this tournament and I am expecting typical drunken shannagins for Saturday night at Penn State. The tournament went great and everybody was having fun socializing and enjoying their beverages, however then something unusual happened, for one song instead of the usual top 40s music that is constantly blasted over pop stations on the radio, jazz music was played… and people started dancing to it.
My first thought was, “Hey that’s cool people are dancing”. My second thought was, “Wait, some of these folks have had a lot to drink, how the hell are they still dancing well?”. There was two facts I was unaware of at the time:
First Fact: One of the roommates (who I later found out his nickname was Orange) of my friend who invited me to this party was a member of the Penn State Swing Dance club, so that is why so many PSU Swing Dance members were in attendance.
Second Fact: The Penn State Swing Dance at the time was a drinking club with a swing dance problem.
Anyways, after witnessing this spectacle I asked around about what they were doing and they guided me to the club president at the time that was currently sprawled out drunk on the couch. In spite of his condition he assured me that I didn’t need any previous experience, I didn’t need to bring a partner, lessons from the club were free and yes no matter how uncoordinated I was they would be able to help me.
Testing the Waters
After finding out their meeting times from the website I convinced my roommates Ben and his girlfriend Jessamyn to come to a lesson with me, because for some reason I felt it would go over better if I had some friends in tow. After some brief introductions my friends and I get sorted into the beginners lesson. I thought the lesson wasn’t going too horrible until half way during the lesson I realized I was rock=stepping with the wrong foot the entire time. I was slightly frustrated as well because this six count stuff they were teaching me was different then cool stuff I saw them doing at the party.
Anyways after the lesson and general announcements my two friends and I like most new dancers hugged the back wall and talked among ourselves. After a song or two Ben and his girlfriend attempted to dance and earned some concerned looks/giggles when he dropped her on the ground during a dip. I guess the embarrassing situation was too traumatic for them because they didn’t want to come back next time. While I didn’t social dance at all that night (a trend that would continue for awhile) I showed up for the lesson next Thursday.
Even though I really didn’t feel that involved with the community at the time, I guess I stuck with it because it gave me something to do on Tuesday & Thursday nights and it was interesting to slowly learn how to partner dance. I would show up, take the lesson, then the second general announcements were over sneak out to catch the bus back home. Anyways, this all changed when one of the follows managed to stop me before I could sneak off and said that she noticed I was attending the lessons consistently but told me to stay and social dance or all the stuff I was learning wouldn’t stick. Even though social dancing was awkward and terrifying for me at first, I listened to her and slowly started staying for the social dancing portion after the lessons.
I slowly got to meet the regulars in the club at the time and got involved in all the popular post and pre-swing dance activities they liked to do, which often involved; watching movies, themed parties, and drinking. It was fun being part of a small tight knit community that shared a similar interest and I was slowly getting to the point that social dance wasn’t horribly awkward but went somewhat okay. During this time I also finally got to learn the cool stuff they were doing at the party (Lindy Hop) and a dance from my hometown area (Balboa) thanks to a PHD graduate student there named Issac.
The Penn State Swing Dance Club - 2008
Hitting the Road to Oberlin, Ohio
One of the things I always heard mentioned but never took seriously at swing dance club was the importance of travel. It seemed like something the good dancers in the club did and not necessary for me a lowly newbie. However a bunch of members from our club were going to this event named the Oberlin Jazz Dance Festival and it featured Andy Reid and Nina Gilkenson, two instructors they had a borderline obsession with. After some peer pressure I finally committed to traveling outside my little dance bubble and going to a place I never heard of 4 hours away called Oberlin, Ohio.
I later found out that there were five instructors in total, the other three were; Bobby White, Kate Hedin, and Todd Yannacone. Over Saturday and Sunday of that weekend they taught eight lessons in total ranging from Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Solo Jazz. While I found a lot of the material in the intermediate track challenging at times, I had a blast.
However whole experience was a lot to take in for my first time on the swing dance travel circuit. I danced to my first live band, The Boilermaker Jazz Band which was more up-tempo then what I was used to but a ton of fun. I came to the realization of how large the community really was with people from all over Pennsylvania, Ohio, and a few other states in attendance. I also had my first housing experience with our lovely and gracious host Brandi Ferrebee, who took great care of us and set a high standard for future hosts/hostesses to match.
Fast Forward
My foray into Oberlin planted a seed which germinated the next few months. When I returned home in California I started dancing there and becoming into their culture which is a completely different animal from most of the East coast. The following year I became an officer of the Penn State swing dance club and started changing the format of the club using things I learned from my travels that worked for other scenes.
Its awkward reminiscing about the Penn State Swing Dance club these days, it has changed a lot since when I joined. The college now pays for us to travel to three swing dance events a year, in result more of our members are involved in the traveling circuit and the State College scene is less of a bubble. The club has a higher level of dancing, but those who can hold their own in a drinking game has dwindled considerably.
These days I have friends ranging from California to Australia in the scene. I’ve danced all over the United States and have danced as far away as Paris, France. I teach classes Pennsylvania and have had people refer to me as their dance instructor. If you told the high school version of myself this is what learning partner dance would lead to, I probably would have laughed you off.
While it is fun to remember my beginnings, I want to end this post because it just goes into details that are probably better found out just meeting and asking me about it. The last three years of swing dancing have been quite the journey, however I am curious to see what the future holds…
Penn State Swing Dance Club Members & Alumni at DCLX 2011
A few weeks back at ILHC they had as an alternative to traditional workshop classes featured at most swing dance events. These were LED talks, short lectures that were entertaining and educational about swing dancing. (If you are unfamilar with the background format of the ILHC LED talks, you can find a description at this link.) One talk I want to go into detail about was Dorry Segev’s talk on building a scene and his experiences as one of the main organizers for the Baltimore scene.
Background Story
Dorry first started by going into how Baltimore was several years back when there were only mainly three serious dancers in the area and they drove to D.C. to dance. Five people, three years prior to when Charm City Swing was founded attempts to start a swing dance scene failed because they tried to start a scene for dancers.
Charm City Swing & Baltimore
He then explained the idea Charm City Swing had when it was founded was to focus on non dancers instead of dancers and to have a framework designed on keeping new dancers happy. One quote in particular that is vital knowledge to anyone who is an organizer for any dance scene or event from this part of the talk was,
“A beginners worst fear is being in an empty room and everyone is watching.” – Dorry Segev
Several things Dorry mentioned that Charm City Swing did to grow their scene were:
Took full-page ads in the newspaper with such promotional messages as: “Swing dance – Fuck Yeah”, “Hot Girls Swing Dance”, or “Your wife wants you to do it. Charm City Swing”.
Be approachable as possible and the organizers made a serious effort at some point of the night to dance with beginners.
Have Lindy Hop demos because they give beginners context of what Lindy Hop is like and where their dancing could go down the row.
Have jams because they congregate energy, bring people in and make them feel like they are part of the dance culture, exposes the dance to people, and inspires people to dance better/raises the bar of dancing across the scene. Dorry had a phrase for scenes that don’t have jams, “future ex-scenes”.
Have booze because it attracts newbies, makes people feel less apprehensive about dance, and it creates a social atmosphere.
Keeping the floor full, its important so newbies do not feel self-conscious.
Welcome to Baltimore.
What I Took Away From This
Creating an inclusive social environment is the main theme I got from Dorry’s talk. The method the Baltimore scene seemed to employ was get people in the door and get them to feel like they are part of the community and part of the swing dance culture as fast as possible. Why I think their strategy works so well it touches on the fact that most people join swing dancing mainly for social reasons and they stick around because they feel like they belong to something.
I am reminded myself every time I take a lesson in a new dance style is that it is intimidating being a new dancer. The more of those barriers of apprehension a scene can remove, the more likely a scene is to gain a dedicated new dancer. Often it is the little details as well that help do this: having a late meal with other dancers after a dance, an instructor going up and asking a newbie to dance or just chatting with them, being put in the middle of a jam for a birthday celebration, and et cetera.
If you have stories about things that helped a scene grow or revitalize itself, please feel free to share in the comment section. I’ve shared Baltimore’s strategies with you today, because it has clearly worked for them: http://swingkicksass.com/
In spite of a hurricane and an earthquake, ILHC 2011 pressed on this past weekend in Alexandria, Virginia. With attendees from over 20+ different countries this year such as Lithuania and South Korea, ILHC lived up to its name as an international competition.
There were mind-blowing competitions, talks that had delightful stories about the history of our dance in the 80’s & 90’s, and a social dance experience that one would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the world besides possibly Herräng.
Instead of my traditional breaking down of events by usual categories, I am instead going to post about a few of the highlights of the weekend accompanied by photos.
Baltiquerque Party
I think Baltimore’s motto should be, “There will be mayhem!” because they always deliver. I got a text this past Saturday night from a Baltimore friend listing a room number and the time of 7:00 PM. I show up, this is what I stumble into.
Mayhem delivered.
During the party was impromptu group singing, people being crowd surfed, and fun times for all. More importantly though not just during the party but the entire weekend during the competitions Baltimore seemed to carry this high energy attitude. It was contiguous and seemed motivated people in other scenes to cheer hard for their local dancers as well.
LED (Lindy Enlightenment Dialogue) Talks
I had the opportunity to attend eight LED talks this year and thoroughly enjoyed each one of them for different reasons.
Lennart Westerlund's Talk on Lindy Hopping in the late 80's-Early 90's
The two talks that stuck out in my mind though were Steven Mitchell and Lennart Westerlaund’s talks on their experiences of discovering and learning Lindy Hop in the 80’s and 90’s. They went into detail about of their separate discoveries of Al Minns and later Frankie Manning. They both also gave insight to how the culture and education of the dance at their respective time was worlds apart from how Lindy Hop is today. I can only glaze the surface of how awesome these talks were, but I hope to have time to go into further detail about of them in a future post.
Impromptu Jams
6:00 AM after the Saturday Night Dance
Just because the DJed music stops at ILHC, doesn’t mean all the music has to stop. What I loved is seeing Saturday night an impromptu band break out. In addition the next morning two violinists and a cellist were playing some tunes and entertaining those of us not taking classes before the competitions. I’ve been noticing this trend of more dancers bringing their instruments to events, or in some cases learning how to play with others and I hope this continues.
General Highlights
If I was to write a post that covered my entire experience of this weekend, it would probably be tl;dr far too long. Instead here is a few highlights I had from ILHC 2011
Seeing Kevin St Laurent and Emily Jo Hoffburg make good on their promise to Baltimore at this past Lindy 500, that if they made the finals of the Champions Strictly Lindy they would crowd drive their cheering section.
Watching Skye Humphries and Frida Segerdahl tear it up in the Champions Strictly Lindy with solid dancing and not needing any tricks or flash.
Actually getting a use out of the four years of French I learned in high school. (Maidmoiselle Delfolie would be so proud of me!)
Seeing friends from my home turf (Southern California) come out in a horde and throw down in the competitions. Special props to the Fly Rghts for performing not once, but twice in the team division.
The junior division this year was inspiring, it gives me a lot of hope for the future of our dance.
Learning that the motto of Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five featuring Hilary Alexander during their LED talk is “Fuck ’em”
Your Turn
I’ve been doing the usual stalking browsing of Tumblr/Facebook and the rest of the internet for other perspectives on ILHC. But oddly its mostly just people watching videos of the event and their reactions to it. The rest of you folks that attended (I know there are at least 799 of you) either in the comment section or elsewhere, share your experiences of what ILHC was like. I’m curious.
If you were wondering what time it was this past weekend, the wrong answer would have been Lindy Focus Boom time. That’s because in the words of Andrew Thigpen, it was actually….
"Andrew Thigpen at Lindy 500" taken by Dorry Segev
Lindy 500 BLO time!
Lindy 500 & The Baltimore Lindy Open
Charm City Swing and Towson University Ballroom Dance Club had a… well to be honest, i’m not sure what it was exactly. Normally I feel comfortable describing a weekend as a workshop weekend, competition weekend, or an exchange. In this case though, I was left at a loss.
The event had a lot of competitions, yet they were laid back and were not the dominating activity of the event. The Sunday night Soul party had a fun exchange feel, but with the Baltimore touch of people running around with sparklers in front of the venue and Nina Gilkenson coming out with a fire extinguisher thinking someone started a fire. While there were two tracks of workshops with Kevin St. Laurent, Jo Hoffberg, Nina Gilkenson, & Michael Seguin, it wasn’t the main focus of weekend for all of the attendees.
The best description I can muster is it was like an all you can dance buffet of things people like at swing dance events. However unlike many events that try this and end up spreading themselves too thin, I felt they provided the organization to make sure all facets of this event ran well.
Classes
I ended taking Kevin & Jo’s classes, however what mainly stuck out to me was the musicality class they taught with the Boilermakers & the two aerials classes they featured.
Mr. Infallible or Captain Obvious, unsure which at this moment. Photo by Dorry Segev
For the aerials class, I enjoyed that they put emphasis on safety as the main priority and would rather risk going into a overly detailed description on technique, than having people rush through things and hurt themselves. There were enough breaks with explanations to ensure people were not getting fatigued as well. One thing I liked in particular is I felt the right amount of being challenged versus being pushed outside my comfort zone.
The musicality class with the Boilermaker Jazz Band was great because (besides the joking comments about Jonathan Stout) it gave some perspective from the musicians’ side of the dance floor. At the beginning of class they played three versions of Honeysuckle Rose. First one was a 20’s version, second one was a 30’s swing era version, and the last one was a 40’s/50’s version. Afterwards they explained what they did to make each version sound from that particular era and what kind of rhythms those songs lent themselves to. One of the details I appreciated was them going into detail about tags and how those could affect a song.
Contests
The contests at BLO (Baltimore Lindy Open) consisted of an Invitational Jack & Jill, Open Jack & Jill, Strictly Lindy, and the 30-60 second Cabaret division. When they said anything goes in the Cabaret division, they meant it. A fellow by the name of Ian won in the Cabaret division with a dramatic Bob Dylan reading of a song that involved churning butter.
Invitational J&J, Photo by Dorry Segev
The results I have for the competitions are posted below, if you can fill in the blanks please email me at apache.danse@gmail.com or post in the comment section and i’ll update this.
Invitational Jack & Jill
1st Place: Kerry Genese & Elliot Susel
2nd Place: Beth Hartzel & Charlie Wieprecht
3rd Place: Ranya Ghuma & Jason Neisz
Strictly Lindy
1. Colleen Vernon & Charlie Wieprecht
2. Emily Lancaster & Jason Lancaster
3. Beth Hartzel & Albert Mak
Sunday Night Soul Party
I pity the fools who decided to bail out of the Sunday night dance, to end the event Baltimore had a soul party at the Baltimore Strut. Even a vintage music snob like myself can appreciate a night to just let loose and have fun to some soul music. There were sparklers, drenched people being cheered as they ran through a pouring storm into the dance venue, and MAYHEM the Open Jack & Jill.
All I can say is Baltimore knows how to throw a party, that’s why they have their own section in the ILHC seating plan.
I wanted to share with you guys a note David Lee from Washington D.C. wrote in “The Collegiate Shag Community” facebook group.
Petition for Shag Contest at ILHC: I’m sure all of us would love to see a shag contest at a high profile event such as ILHC. As it is fast approaching, now is a great time to petition for a shag contest for next year. I spoke with one of the organizers about it and running a contest presents challenges of paying for judges and prize awards. Thus, to run a successful contest, ILHC would need about 20 couples.
1) So, can you let me know in the comments whether you would be willing to come to ILHC and compete if there were a shag division? Obviously 20 couples is a lot more than there were at Camp Hollywood this year. So if you are at all inclined, please comment as it will be a gauge to let the organizers know how many people they could expect.
2) If you are interested, it would be helpful to let the organizers personally know. You can email them at ILHCinfo@ilhc.com. Please let them know both a) whether you would attend ILHC specifically if there were a shag division and b) whether you would compete.
3) Finally sponsors would help defray the cost of the contest, so please let me or them know whether you would be willing to sponsor as a scene or event organizer.
Requirements for A Competition
ILHC says they need 20 couples to run a successful competition. If you take a look at the ILHC registration page, you will see to register for any of the couple contests (Balboa/Lindy) it is a $50 dollar fee per couple. So in total they need to garner a minimum of $1000 dollars to make this contest a reality.
However it may not just be a money issue, an important part of having a contest for any event is making it exciting enough to warrant taking time away from the social dance floor. ILHC has a unique crowd of attendees in comparison to most events. In result the Shag division would have to be a fairly full in terms of registration and contain high caliber dancers for them to take the additional time and resources to make this happen.
What You Can Do To
If you have an interest in Shag there are several ways you can help out.
1. Say You Are Willing to Compete
The first and most obvious one is say you are willing to compete. People I have talked to about dancing Shag competitively in respect to this past Camp Hollywood Shag Division frequently gave me the excuse of, “There is no way I could even compare to the other people in the division”.
This past July I competed at the Camp Hollywood Shag division anyways. Was I ready or even close to the caliber of the other leads? Not even by a long-shot. While there were side benefits of giving me something to work towards, what mattered to me though was I liked this dance and they needed people for the division. Supporting the Shag community was a more important priority to me then any apprehensions I had about looking like garbage in comparison to Sailor Mike about the competition.
I think a lot of people get into the mentality of “competing against” people, which is unfortunate. One of the best pieces of advice I got in terms of competition was from an story David Frutos was telling the story about the first time he was in a competition with Ryan Francois. He said something to Ryan the effect about being apprehensive of competing against Ryan and his partner. Ryan corrected him after saying, “You are competing with us, not against us”. It is a small difference but if you come out on the competition with the latter attitude, competitions suddenly become more relaxed enjoyable experiences and seem less intimidating.
Don’t feel like you have to be the best Shag dancer ever to compete in this division. There is a year to prepare, one just has to be motivated to practice.
2. Email ILHCinfo@ilhc.com Explaining Why You Want A Shag Division
Part of making this happen is showing the organizers of ILHC there is an actual significant interest having this division exist. While any interest is good, if you email them list in particular; if you have attended in the past, if you are registered for this year, and if you have a history as a competitor at the event.
3. Spread The News of This to Other Shag Dancers
There is a bunch of us Shag dancers out there, the problem is we are all spread out. While there are a few motivated individuals out there who work hard to advocate the dance, this effort to create a Shag division will only come to fruition if we work together instead of staying fragmented. If you know any other people who are regular Shag dancers or even show a slight interest in the dance, make them aware of this.
4. Keep Dancing Shag and Work To Improve Your Own Dancing
To be candid one of the biggest frustrations I have had to deal with taking up this dance is the criticism I received towards it, sometimes even by amazing dancers who I respect. In some cases I have even heard it referred to as a “novelty dance” or “full of patterns, mostly choreographed”.
Spending my time to argue against their established opinions is probably a waste of my time. Instead I focus more on improving my own dancing and aim to prove them wrong one day through example. In my humble opinion, how we can improve as a dance community and earn more respect is by setting a standard of excellence for ourselves and not settling for mediocrity.
About two years ago I stumbled upon Shag dancing at Camp Hollywood 2008 during their competition and was inspired to take it up after. Luckily a few months later two dancers (Amantha & Alan) were kind enough to give me a free lesson and got me started down the path of learning.
The point I want to make from that story is people get inspired to respect and take up our dance by seeing amazing dancers out there. It doesn’t matter if that forum is competitions, jam circles, or even the social floor. It is not just the reason for why one should continuously work to improve their own dancing, but why it would be a stride forward for the Shag community to be featured at ILHC. It would expose our dance at the international level to the swing dance community and give us a chance to show them what we can do.
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” – Charles Darwin
The definition of “levels” and how dancers place themselves in those “levels” has always been a source of debate in the Lindy Hop community. Many of us have gone to events where they have level auditions in order to make sure dancers in the advanced or masters track is are the level appropriate for the material, Mike “The Girl” Legett actually writes a nice article about this topic. For those of us who have organized workshops, figuring out how to carefully word level descriptions in hopes that people can police themselves is a struggle.
I am curious to why the fact that level jumping (attending classes for which one [clearly] does not meet the level requirements) occurs more freuqently in Lindy Hop than in other subcultures. Recently I had a group practice session myself that I explicitly stated in the event description as a requirement,
“You can comfortably lead or follow a swingout on the social dance floor. This do not mean you have taken one Lindy Hop class and have learned it. This means it is something that is almost, if not completely second nature to you.”
Yet I would say a noticeable portion of attendees who showed up were not comfortable with swingouts and in one case a person only had one lesson previously in Lindy Hop. In result I have been discussing with multiple dancers from different backgrounds (Ballet/Tap/Hip Hop), dancers of multiple skill levels in Lindy Hop ranging from newer dancers to people who have placed in national competitions, and I read the research paper on the Dunning-Kruger effect “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments”.
In 1999 Justin Kruger and David Dunning wrote a paper on the paradoxical idea that those most incompetent in a domain usually have the inability to distinguish incompetence (whether it is themselves or others) from competence. They also noted ironically the way for them to gain that ability is by becoming more competent.
To quote wikipedia, Kruger and Dunning proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:
Tend to overestimate their own level of skill;
Fail to recognize genuine skill in others;
Fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy;
Recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they can be trained to substantially improve.
Sample test group from the Dunning-Kruger paper.
This explains why Intermediate classes are often crashed by people not prepared them. The class descriptions fall on deaf ears because people lack the experience/context to properly evaluate themselves. However this does not explain why this happens so frequently in swing dancing compared to other skill related domains. From my personal research I have come to the conclusion of two main points of why it is more of an issue for our community.
1. Because Swing Dancing is a “Street Dance” and is not standardized it creates a lack of context for newer dancers to develop the metacognative skills to properly assess their own skill level in dance.
When one participates in most martial arts communities it is a well established fact that you have to go through all the material in the belts before black belt material. When one wants to become an engineer there is an established curriculum of the required class material.
To add to the confusion the definition of levels is subjective depending upon the location of an event in the world and the target group of dancers they are trying to attract. David Lee from DC wisely noted in a previous post of mine about definitions of the “Intermediate” level in Lindy Hop,
You know all of those definitions above have liberal and conservative interpretations. An intermediate at Camp Jitterbug isn’t the same as an intermediate in our local DC classes. The bell curve changes depending on where you go.
I’m guilty of making the mistake of misjudging myself ready for a lesson in the past due to this bell curve. When I first started dancing after taking “Intermediate” classes in Pennsylvania for a few months I flew back home in California and took an “Intermediate” class out there for the first time. Much to my surprise the class was way above my head and I had my ass handed to me in the lesson.
Many of the individuals who I talked to that were from different dance communities commented on the fact that there was an established system of progression, in some cases there was even a requirement of time invested in certain levels.
2. Swing Dancing is often promoted or marketed as a hobbyist activity for everybody, in result people may get disillusioned that it requires less of a time/effort investment than skills that are promoted under the banner of an artistic field or a sport.
One of the things I love about the swing dance community is it puts a serious effort to be an inclusive community. Often swing dancing is promoted as an activity for everybody, no partner or previous experience required! This is in contrast to ballet that promotes itself as a serious art form that demands an investment of time and passion to even become considered competent at it or martial arts where in countless films it is portrayed as skill that requires hard-work and dedication at all times.
However anyone who is an experienced Lindy Hopper will tell you, getting a decent swingout and maintaining it is hard work that can take years. Attempting to get a good swingout is a challenging endeavor that can take a lifetime. But the way Lindy Hop is marketed by most promoters to the public, you would never guess this is the case. To play the devils advocate, my personal theory is because of this inclusive atmosphere it allows some dancers to get disillusioned of the actual difficulty to become a skilled Lindy Hopper and what a skilled Lindy Hopper is.
Conclusion
While level jumping has been and always will be a problem for the swing dancing community, I believe it is a trade-off we get for freedom of expression and having an inclusive community. If people on a fairly often basis put themselves in the wrong levels, I consider that more than fair trade for the advantages we gain as a dance community.
Events in the swing dance community have different ways of approaching this problem. Some of them put highly detailed level descriptions that even list what moves one should be able to perform and BPMs one should be able to dance at. Others have auditions for the higher skill tracks before classes start. Personally what I haven’t seen but I could be interesting is having videos posted showing the level of competency they are looking for in each track. Dancing is a difficult subject to debate about or explain with words, perhaps a visual aid could greatly assist an event attendees judgement.
One of my favorite swing dance related publications to read of all time is Cameron Seller’s “Reminiscing about Swing: When It was a Subculture“. Cameron gives amazing insight to what it was like to become a member of the swing dance community during the late 90’s in Washington D.C. with all that entailed from finding new venues, meeting new friends, to competition.
What stood out to me though was this article was written on a very personal and honest level. As a newer dancer when I first stumbled upon this a few years ago and took a lot of the perspective in it to heart. I actually (in retrospect unecessarily) set myself as a rule after reading the article that I would refuse to buy any dance shoes until I won my first competition because of this article.
New rule, you aren't a real swing dancer until you get featured on Faux News.
Challenge to Readers
So this post I am going to have a change of pace around here. Instead of me rambling on about something, I want to hear stories from you guys. Exciting right?
What I to read from y’all is similar to what Cameron wrote in his article and what many people have done at http://iamlindyhop.com/. I want you to post in the comment section your story about joining the “swing cult” known as the Lindy Hop community. It can be any length you like, however if you wish to to make it as long as Cameron’s feel free to.
If I get a reasonable response I’ll work quid pro quo and write my own personal experience as a new blog post. I look forward to reading all of your responses!
With ILHC approaching on the horizon I know not just a bunch of my friends from Southern California, but Lindy Hoppers from around the world are going to be boarding planes with the East Coast as their destination. In result I want to address an issue that many passengers get concerned with, getting the seat they want for their plane flight.
Attending college in Pennsylvania but living in California during school breaks has required me to take multiple flights a year and while I may not be seasoned as some of the national instructors, I have picked up a few tricks from frequent travel.
Personally, I am an aisle seat person. Having the option that I can get up and wander around the plane at any time makes me happy. However I know some people like the scenic view and prefer the window. I’ve yet to meet anyone who likes being squished in the middle.
There are though a few ways (devious and non-devious) that one can ensure they are in the seat of their personal preference.
1. Check in Online
This by far is probably the easiest and stress free option. Most airlines when you check in online will give you box where you can select a seat preference. I’ve yet to not get the seat preference I wanted when using this method. In addition if you are just flying with one carry on luggage and a personal item this allows you skip long lines at the front of the airport to check in.
2. Ask a Flight Attendant for a Seat Change.
Flight attendants tend to be friendly people who try to make your flying experience as comfortable as possible. If you spot an empty seat that you would want to sit in, there is no harm in asking. Worst case scenario they say no and there is no loss to yourself.
3. Just Sit In An Empty Seat
I actually employed this method on a recent flight from Colorado to Pittsburgh, I got assigned the middle seat and I was not going to deal with that for four hours. What you do is put your carry on luggage in the overhead bin like usual, then hang out at the back of the plane until everyone is nearly seated. Keep your eyes peeled and just sit down in an empty seat, I have managed to snag entire rows to myself on some flights doing this. Worst case scenario if you are accidentally in somebodies seat or a flight attendant asks why you are there, just respond with “Oh, I apologize I am in the wrong seat” and move back to your original seat. Though I have yet to have that situation arise.
Hopefully this helps a few people’s flights a slightly more comfortable experience. If you have any short flight related travel tips, feel free to leave them in the comment section.
This past weekend I attended Camp Hollywood XIV, while I could talk about what I got out of the classes I took or how awesome the music was, there is a theme from this weekend that still resonates soundly with me. That theme is the idea of sincerity in ones dancing.
Oscar Wilde wrote in DeProfundus,
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
I have not just seen this in Camp Hollywood, but in competitions across the United States cliches such as; pointing at the judges, non musical or worse badly executed aerials for the sake of flash, and using other people’s material in a non-homage sense.
Can this sadly sometimes pay off and get people awards? Yes. However if all one wants out of dancing is some golden plastic and an ego boost, I can’t help but feel pity for them. Because in a few years no one remembers (or probably cares) who got X place, in Y comp. They remember those moments that took them on a journey and evoked an emotional response.
What inspired me this weekend was in a lot of the competitions this year at Camp Hollywood there were people who carried this spirit of being themselves and sincerity in their dancing. In many cases I was happy to see they were rewarded for it.
While there were many moments that made me smile and inspired me this past weekend, I want to talk about two performances in particular, both from the showcase division.
Camp Hollywood 2011 NJC – Morgan Day & Emily Wigger – Showcase
Even before I get to the routine I just want to add that these two handled pressure with grace. They had not one, but two technical difficulties with their performance. First the contest staff on stage could not get the music to run for around five minutes before the routine. After that first problem the DJ mistook a pause in music as the end of the routine, in result he stopped the music prematurely. The DJ then had to rewind the music to slightly before the pause and they had to start again mid-routine. In spite of those setbacks they both performed admirably.
Morgan and Emily’s routine was not extremely technically difficult nor had mind blowing musicality/moves. What made it special and a moment never to be forgotten in Camp Hollywood history was it was two people who had an original creative idea and sold it on the performance floor.
When the performance was over they received a standing ovation by the entire crowd. In addition when they received 4th place at the award ceremony the crowd booed and started chanting first place. However I think everyones’ indignation was satiated when Morgan and Emily earned the well deserved Golden Budgie award.
The Golden Bugie: An award which is given out by Hilary Alexander, who runs the National Jitterbug Championships and Camp Hollywood, awards to the person or persons who best exemplified the spirit of Jitterbug for the entire National Jitterbug Championships/Camp Hollywood.
Camp Hollywood 2011 NJC – Alice Pye & Peter Kertzner – Showcase
What I loved about this routine is the entire time I was smiling, giggling, or laughing. They took the idea of the older mentor and young newbie and let their personalities shine in those roles. I saw the routine in person, but even re watching the video online I can say with confidence the second they got out on the floor they owned that routine by not showing a second of indecision or nervousness.
On a personal note as someone who used to dance to electronica music at raves “electronic musical recitals” it made me reflect on my own journey changing from the electronic music subculture to the subculture of swing dancing. I think many other people who when they were younger and used to be involved with other subcultures, but fell into the world of swing dance can relate on a personal level to this theme.
Sincerity
In not just the two showcases I mentioned above but from also different competitors that inspired me this weekend, what stuck out was a sincerity in their dancing. They were not out there for validation from others, but the joy of dance. I think that stands the test of time more then any placement or plastic drinking mug trophy can provide.
Footnote:
I would like to thank Patrick Szmidt & Natasha Ouimet for putting up the videos for Camp Hollywood and other previous events they have attended so quickly. They do a great service for the community posting high quality videos of competitions at events for no charge and after hearing them talk briefly in a group discussion I am assured they are good people as well. Even if its only a few dollars, consider throwing them a donation at: buildingthecommunity.patrickandnatasha.com
It's The Way That You Do It 