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Through the Looking Glass

Because we dance with people, not levels.

A little over a month ago I attended a Friday night dance they have in Las Vegas named Algarve Swings. A local that goes by the moniker, “Vegas Nick” was kind enough to give me a ride back to the hotel I was staying at downtown after. During the ride he asked me how long I have been dancing and after my reply of, “A little over 5 years” I found his reply of something to the effect of “Oh, so you are still new” amusing.

It was a great reminder that swing dancing, like any relationship changes with age and that even though many dancers would consider five-ish years a long time, for the individuals who have been dancing 10+ years it’s just a drop in the bucket. What I have learned from this constantly changing relationship is a topic that has been running through my mind lately and that I want to explore today.

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

When I was a newer dancer, my first exciting foray out of my swing dance bubble in State College, Pennsylvania and to the big wide word of the Lindy Hop community was the Oberlin Jazz Dance Festival (OJDF) at Oberlin College in Ohio. It was a great experience interacting with individuals who were not just taught different vocabulary and in a different manner than us, but came from a fairly different college environment in general.

Later in my dancing journey, I got to go on more exciting adventures such as my visit to the Baltimore Strut, back when it was literally on the wrong side of the train tracks and performance gigs where l learned fun things in usual situations such as how to deal with slides while dancing on a moving U.S.A. Victory-class cargo ship.

Related to that, Aaron Draplin in the talk I have linked below says,

Get out there and get wild, get dirty.

The week I spent dancing in crowded bars to live bands in New Orleans taught me a tremendous amount about floorcraft and performing in a public space. It would hard pressed to get that experience anywhere else. That’s the thing dancers who travel frequently try to convey to those that don’t, there are experiences you can’t get in class or your local dance scene.

What was important about these experiences is they pushed me out of my comfort-zone as a person and as a dancer. One thing that has not changed from any scene I have lived in is getting people to travel for the first event is a hard sell, however it opens up new avenue of possibilities for ones’ own dancing and allows you to connect with dancers in the larger swing dance community.

Swing Dancing is about People

One of my more poignant memories of Herräng Dance Camp is a moment Kendra Strode who witnessed it as well describes during a talk she gave at LindyCon:

A quick summary, at Herräng, one of the largest swing dance events in the world there was an incident where someone refused to dance with someone because of their level. In result at one of the nightly meetings an instructor publicly declared the statement from the photo below.

Because we dance with people, not levels.
Taken at Herräng Dance Camp 2012

I think it’s important for people to be reminded that dancing isn’t just a transaction where you are trying to get is a “good dance” out of your partner. For two to four minutes you are sharing moment with a person to jazz music, it is a beautiful thing. I think there are people who get caught up in climbing whatever “Lindy Hop Hierarchy” or becoming “Good” that they lose sight of that.

Be Passionate About What You Like & What You Hate

One thing that has stood out for me in the most recent years is organizers have started to be more vocal about the things they do and don’t value.

Mobtown Ballroom and more recently Lindy Focus have codes of conduct where they state, “Hey, if you take part in shitty behavior we will kick you out of our venue.” The fact that more weekly dances and events are adopting similar documentation is a great step forward and for those who do get in unfortunate situations within our community, these policies can be a source of recourse for them.

The proliferation of live music now at almost any swing dance event in the world is proof in my eyes to how having authentic swing era jazz for our events is a key value in our community these days. I’ve even joined the trend of the “almost too-strange-to-be-true phenomenon of Lindy Hoppers maturing their own musical skills” as Jerry Almonte put it by taking up the clarinet the last few months. One thing I think we have to be wary of though is often people join our dance without having a background in the type of music we like, introducing them to an appreciation of it while not coming off as alienating or elitist is something we should keep in mind.

We’ve matured as a community, going in hand with that we have gotten past the point of where running our finances off the books and doing work without contracts is acceptable behavior. We’ve started to get better at it as a community, but there is still much room for improvement. Having business agreements/contacts are important so you don’t end up with shitty situations like an instructor expected to stay at the entire social dance without pay after a 8 hour flight or warned in advance that it was an expectation. Mikey Pedroza talks about it on the Yehoodi Talkshow below that things just go smoothly when things are on paper. After working with 5+ different sets of international instructors at my college as an organizer, I am inclined to agree as well.

Sam from Dogposssum has some excellent posts on the topic. Borrowed from those posts are some quick bullet-points which I think if you are an organizer and haven’t yet should start adopting, like right now.

  • Explicit contracts for anyone who works with you. This goes from instructors (weekly & international), DJs, and volunteers.
  • Pay and/or compensate your DJs, musicians, teachers, and volunteers fairly.
  • Get some kind of general policies or code of conduct for your organization and make it publicly available.
    •  Trust me, as someone who threw someone out of a venue this will be useful to have as a resource.

Last Notes

I haven’t been writing too much this year because I have been busy with my own projects, however I plan to change that in 2015. If I could ask my readers to do anything going forward is try every once in awhile to be adventurous.

That can be as simple as walking to a different part of the room you normally dance in and dancing with someone new to heading to an event several hundred miles away from your home scene to have some new experiences. Most importantly make connections with people, because that is what our dance is about.

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What Should A Scene Provide Its Intermediate and Above Students?

I often like to ask local dancers and students for opinions or suggestions of things they would like to change to improve things for them. One suggestion I recently got has resonated with me and spurred discussion with other dancers I know ranging from former New School Swing instructors I am friends with to dancer friends I know in Montreal.  What the dancers requested was creating resources for students who were at the intermediate or above level. This in turn brought the idea to my mind of,

“What resources a scene should be providing to intermediate or above students?”

I felt ill prepared to deal with this question because as I mentioned in a previous post, besides my occasional forays into Southern California most of my time was spent learning how to dance in an isolated town in Central Pennsylvania. In result ownership for my own dance education was something I was forced to take on much earlier than dancers in larger cities that had an infrastructure to support them.

Inspiration

One conversation I had about the topic was with my friend, Annabel Quisao who was at Penn State around the same time as myself. Here is a small snippet of our conversation,

Annabel – I definitely think that some classes geared toward intermediate dancers would give them a leg up and be one of these places for inspiration, but I don’t think that’s necessarily what keeps that level of dancer coming back or trying to improve. Once one gets to that level, there has to be some self discovery and ownership of one’s improvement.

Me – That last sentence about discovery and ownership of one’s improvement is my feeling about the whole situation as well. I wonder at times though if that was a by-product of us being stuck out in State College.

Annabel – The thing is that the scene still needs to find those moments of inspiration for the intermediate dancer so that they have the motivation they need. I do think that in State College, the inspiration came from the travelling and the desire to keep the whole scene going and to do that, we all needed to get better so that Penn State was a legitimate Lindy hop community. In some ways, I think teaching before you really are comfortable with the material is one of the fastest ways to have to take ownership.

A thing to note is Annabel brought up the idea that inspiration is what is important to dancers at that stage. I know many people including myself when they are asked the reason why they travel so far and invest some serious cash to make it out to ILHC is because is for the inspiration. I am inclined to agree with Annabel’s opinion because I think in order to become an advanced dancer part of that is finding ones’ own way to add artistic expression to their dancing. A good start is finding a source of inspiration, often imitation then innovation is a good route to go.

Unfortunately discovering original self-expression is a unique and difficult endeavor. While it is something that can be encouraged or coaxed out of a person, I personally believe it can’t be “taught” in classes. To add to the confusion it seems each person gets there via a different journey which is troublesome for people who like a formulaic approach to things.

Logistics

Resources is a thing that comes to mind as someone who helps organize things for a scene. Perhaps it is because I have read World War Z too many times, but when I think about resources the term that comes to mind is “Return on Investment” a.k.a. ROI.

For example one of the reasons why I focus my time helping to train new and current DJs in my local scene is I believe they affect the most people due to they control the music at the dances. The music at the dances in turn determines (ideally) how people dance. From a ROI perspective with 1 hour spent with 5-10 people talking about DJing this is great because I can potentially affect several hundred people depending upon the number of gigs each DJ plays in the upcoming weeks.

When I think about offering services for intermediate or above students I have an ROI conundrum. On one hand there is a chance that some of these students can potentially become teachers or sources of inspiration dancers down the road. It’s similar to planning a fruit tree and have it bloom with many seeds for the future. On the other hand these same people are a very small segment of the dancing population in my local scene. If you take the set of all dancers in a scene the higher perceived level for a dancer such as “intermediate” or “advanced” the smaller the subset exists. One could make an argument that from a ROI perspective I should focus on my larger segment of the population a.k.a. “beginners”.

When a scene has limited resources it is a decision between choosing by allocating resources to beginners who often are the ones who pay the bills to more experienced dancers who can possibly become pillars of your scene in the future. No one is psychic and can predict the future exactly, I would say a start to figuring things out from a logistical perspective is determining what the organizations who are in charge of a scene values so their resource investments further the scene moving in that direction.

Root of The Problem

I think the root of the problem is something best described by Jerry Almonte on an old Yehoodi thread titled How To Get Professional?

Like I said before, people are always looking for an easy to follow recipe to win more competitions, become a professional dancer, or what religion or political party, if any, to follow. And the answer that people don’t like to hear is that its all very complicated and depends on a lot of stuff, some of which you can control, and a lot of which you can’t. But they don’t have time for that kind of critique or self reflection especially for something like Lindy Hop.

– Yehoodi User JSAlmonte

To me a big part of becoming an advanced dancer is deciding what you as a person value in swing dancing and finding an effective way to communicate that, you must develop a personal taste for what is good dancing. A common pitfall I find many dancers stumble upon is they think the “recipe” to getting advanced is the imitation of better dancers (Skye clones ring a bell for anybody?) and often that results in them just looking like a caricature of the person they admire.

To discover what you like or value is a task that involves experimentation, taking risks, finding sources of inspiration, and going on adventures which are difficult to make time for if you have the approach of a cookie cutter mindset or if you want structured classes where instructors will tell you to do X, Y, and Z. I believe for a community to be successful in providing avenues for dancers to improve at the intermediate level and beyond is by creating environments where artistic experimentation is encouraged and if possible rewarded.

Solutions

Many scenes currently provide solutions such as weekend events usually focused on bringing in international instructors to provide inspiration and instructor or organizing teams for performance opportunities. These are not bad choices, but there exists the potential to create opportunities to push our intermediate and above dancers.

For example the Seattle Lindy Exchange sponsors this amazing contest every year known as the Jazz Dance Film Fest Contest. There is some high caliber clips that have come out of this contest and in addition due to there is no entry fee, so an individual who maybe wouldn’t compete in a public performance setting are happy to do so for a film.

One thing I would like to see come back that was more frequent during the Neo-Swing era are monthly or even weekly competitions. This is something I feel Southern California still does to this day and oddly not many other scenes (to my knowledge) still do. The prizes can be as simple as free admittance to the dance next week and the contests can be run fairly casually. The whole idea is providing the opportunity for dancers in their local scene to throw down and express themselves in a riskier environment than social dancing.

Another thing I have viewed many scenes do online is starting an email listserv or Facebook group for carpools/travel information so dancers in a scene or in close by scenes can network to travel to events. Surprisingly many dancers even at the intermediate level are not aware of resources such as SwingPlanIt  and groups like these can bring them the awareness of popular out of town events and ease the facilitation of travel.

I have provided some solutions but it’s only a small smattering of the potential things a scene can do to help their intermediate and above students out. As long as solutions provide opportunity to allow dancers to experiment, take risks, or be inspired I think it’s a step in the right direction. If you have stories of things your local scene does well to assist this particular group of dancers or ideas of how to help them out, it would be great to read what you have to write in the comment section.

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Taking on the Wandering and Pondering DJ Challenge

A few weeks ago on Feburary 25th 2014,  Jerry Almonte from Wondering and Pondering issued the following challenge,

I have a challenge to all DJs. Lindy Focus inspired me to hunt down music by all the great musicians that played at that event. This got me thinking that I can do a whole night of DJed music using bands that play for dancers today. I’ve done it a couple of times now, to a really positive response. People get really excited when they hear a good song by a band, and you tell them that they can hear that music live at a dance or event sometime in the near future. This is my challenge to DJs far and wide: Do a whole set or even a whole night of music just by musicians making a living playing jazz music today. Ellington and Basie are great, but they don’t have to make rent at the end of the month. The key our exciting dance scene is the interaction between dancers and musicians. Show a little love. And if you don’t have the music to pull something like that off, then use this as an opportunity to go find some. Hey Mister Jesse(the longest running and probably only swing dance music podcast out there) has a lot of great recommendations as well as sites like Swing DJ Resources. I’m also going to be posting some of my own in the near future. Swing Music! Let’s do this!

After reading this challenge and realizing that I had an upcoming DJ set in Boston at Monday Night Practice I decided to give it a shot. I interpreted Mr. Almonte’s rules as the following:

Rules:

  1. All songs played must be by bands who have musicians making a living today.
  2. I have to last the entire set at Monday Night Practice (about 2 hours)
  3. Music has to be good a.k.a no playing novelty tunes just to play something that is modern.

I made a facebook event for the night and advertised that this special theme was occurring. I’m happy to say that I passed the challenge and in addition we had a much larger turnout than usual that night. I have posted my set list below but I encourage if you are a DJ looking to mix things up to give it a shot. The challenge served the Boston community well!

Challenge Accepted
Set List for March 17th, 2014 at Monday Night Practice in Boston, MA:

  1. Indigo Swing – Ruby Mae
  2. Hippocampus Jass Gang – Your Smile’s A Moonbeam On My Heart
  3. Blackstick – Si Tu Vois Ma Mére
  4. Caroline Fourmy – All of Me
  5. Joe Smith and the Spicy Pickles – A Smooth One
  6. Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators – Mr. Rhythm
  7. Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys – Take a Number from One to Ten
  8. Hippocampus Jass Gang – The Mooche
  9. Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders – King David (live)
  10. Glenn Crytzer and his Syncopators – Fortunate Love
  11. Smoking Time Jazz Club – Percolatin Blues
  12. Smoking Time Jazz Club – Sugar
  13. George Gee And His Make Believe Orchestra – Stompin’ At The Savoy
  14. Gordon Webster – Sweet Potato Fries
  15. Hot Sugar Band – Jericho
  16. Norbert Susemihl, Erika Lewis, Shaye Cohn, Jason Marsalis, Kerry Lewis, Gregory Agid – Love Me Or Leave Me
  17. The Hot Club of Cowtown – Rosetta
  18. Jonathan Dole Quintet – The Fed Hop
  19. Blackstick – Blackstick
  20. Mora’s Modern Rhythmists – Smoke Rings
  21. Cassidy and the Orleans Kids – Shake That Thing
  22. Boilermaker Jazz Band – When Your Lover Has Gone
  23. The Solomon Douglas Swingtet  – Bizet Has His Day
  24. Gordon Webster – Sweet Sue
  25. Mora’s Modern Rhythmists – Four or Five Times
  26. Jonathan Stout and His Campus – Swingin’ On Nothin’
  27. Boilermaker Jazz Band – Someone’s Rockin’ My Dreamboat
  28. Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders – Dickie’s Dream
  29. Rachael Price and The Tennessee Terraplanes – Just A Little Bit South of North Carolina
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Four Years Gone

Time is my most valuable resource as of late. Between trying to further myself as a programmer, teaching sometimes bi-weekly as a swing dance instructor locally, and spending time with people often I find myself having to choose my battles wisely. Unfortunately for you my readers, this blog has sadly lost that battle more times than I would have preferred.

The penguin represents my conscience telling me I need to blog more.
The penguin represents my conscience telling me I need to blog more.

One of my goals was to write more posts that challenge the opinions and beliefs that people have about swing dancing and the swing dance community. Perhaps it’s a sign of maturity, but often I would have ideas that felt like soapbox preaching versus having well founded opinions. Instead those ideas often ended up on my Tumblr account, where I am much less filtered.

Interesting Posts This Year

Frequently Asked Question: How To Improve Musicality : In this post I went over the frequently asked question in swing dance classes  “How do I improve my musicality/be more musical?” There are some great youtube videos in this post that illustrate my point.

Aut Inveniam Viam Aut Faciam: I addressed the common problem I viewed in many swing dance scenes, which is a sizable portion of dancers are not proactive about their dance education. I related my own experience at learning dance at Penn State for this post.

A Few Thoughts on Recent Ambidancetrous Discussions: This past year there was a discussion on the idea of teaching classes ambidancetrous or with individuals learning both roles in the same lesson. I discussed why I thought this was appropriate for Blues, but not so much Lindy Hop.

Moving Forward

One of my big regrets for this year is simply I did not blog enough. My goal going forward for this year is at minimum to blog once a month and to regularly update my facebook page. As usual if you have any topic or issue in particular you want me to write about or just want to send me good old-fashioned hate mail my email address is still apache.danse@gmail.com. Otherwise thanks for reading and I hope you stick around!

 

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Lindy Hop Class Curriculum: Then and Now

A frequently debated topic among instructors for their local weekly beginner series is the best way to go about it. You’ve probably heard some of these phrases mentioned,

Six count moves? Eight count moves Without triple steps? Four or six week series? Heavy technique or make it fun?

Instead of hashing out that old discussion I thought an interesting comparison would be to take a curriculum from an existing scene and compare it to one that existed in the early 2000’s.  I have chosen Boston as my city to sample and taken the curriculum from GottaSwing in 2001 an organization which taught lessons in the past and put next to New School Swing‘s curriculum which offers lessons these days.

GottaSwing Curriculum (2001)

Description:  An unusually thorough and entertaining Beginners course. You’ll learn over 20 moves, turns, spins and dips in just 6 weeks, plus expert technique tips. Throughout, we’ll strongly emphasize good (momentum-based) leading and following technique, because that’s the key to becoming a superb dance partner. After our Swing I course, you’ll know more Swing moves — AND you’ll have better dance technique — than after any other Swing I course on the East Coast.

  • Prerequisite: Ability to count to 6.
  • No partner or experience needed.
  • We often have several Swing I classes running concurrently. If so, you are welcome to attend any or all of them for no extra charge (e.g., to make up a missed class, or for extra practice time).
  • 6 weeks – 1.5 hours each week – 9 hours total. (Occasionally shorter or longer, depending on calendar constraints.)

Swing I – Summary List. The following is just a compact summary of variations taught in class, with ‘logical’ groupings. It is NOT the order in which we teach things! Instead, we teach in an order that makes for the fastest and easiest learning.

  • Good (momentum-based) Leading & Following Technique
  • Basic step – Single, Double, Triple
    • Closed Position
    • Open Position
  • “Simple” change of places (low hands)
  • Arch Turn
  • Lady’s Inside Turns (aka ‘Loop’ Turns) (left side; right side)
  • Sweetheart (2-hand version of Lady’s Inside Turn) (left side; right side) — also known as Cuddle or Wrap or Basket
  • Lady’s Outside Turns (left side; right side)
  • Parallels (2-hand version of Lady’s Outside Turn) (left side; right side)
  • Man’s Outside Turns (left side; right side)
    • High-hand version
    • Break through the hands — 2 versions
    • Fred Astaire-inspired version
  • Man’s Inside Turns (left side; right side)
  • Man’s Sweetheart (just for fun)
  • Various Alternating-Person and Mix-and-match Turns Series
    • Almost every conceivable combination
  • She-Go/He-Go (5 different versions)
  • Double Arm Slide (aka Dishrag or Drape) (3 different exits)
  • Simple Dip [if we have time]
  • As far as we know, no other 6-week (or even 10-week) Swing I class comes even remotely close to teaching you this much!

New School Swing Curriculum (2014)

New School Swing curriculum offers two different 4-week series that classes go for an hour each in 6-count move and 8-count moves and both are required to move up to the next level of classes. Included with beginner classes is something known as Lindy Dojo where instructors stick around to help beginner dancers. The cost for this is included with the beginner series.

Description 8 – Count:

Whether you are brand-new to swing dancing or would like to refine your Lindy Hop technique, this is the class for you. In these four sessions, we’ll focus on basic 8-count Lindy Hop moves for the brand-new dancers, but we’ll concentrate on good technique and connection so there is always something for more experienced swing dancers, too. This class is one step in our two-step beginner track. You must know all the material in the 6-Count and 8-Count Lindy Hop Basics and Fundamentals Classes before moving to advanced beginner classes. Either beginner class may be taken first. No partner required.

Description 6 – Count:

Whether you are brand-new to swing dancing or would like to refine your Lindy Hop technique, this is the class for you. In these four sessions, we’ll focus on basic 6-count Lindy Hop moves for the brand-new dancers, but we’ll concentrate on good technique and connection so there is always something for more experienced swing dancers, too. This class is one step in our two-step beginner track. You must know all the material in the 6-Count and 8-Count Lindy Hop Basics and Fundamentals Classes before moving to advanced beginner classes. Either beginner class may be taken first. No partner required.

6 – Count Curriculum:

  • Pulse
  • Open and Closed Frame (Position)
  • Weight Shifts and Triple Steps
  • 6 – Count Basic and Rotating Basic
  • Tuck Turn
  • 6 – Count Circle from Closed
  • 6 – Count Circle from Open
  • Send Out
  • Return to Closed
  • Right Side Pass

8 – Count Curriculum:

  • Pulse
  • Open and Closed Frame (Position)
  • Weight Shifts and Triple Steps
  • Side by Side 8 – Count Basic
  • Follow in Front
  • Leader in Front
  • 8 – Count Circle from Closed
  • 8 – Count Circle from Open
  • Swingout from Closed
  • Swingout from Open
  • Side by Side Charleston Basic

Comparison

Funky Move Names: Reading the older curriculum a thing that stood out to me at first was the unusual names of some moves. After some thought I realized though it’s just because probably some of these names or even the moves themselves may have faded out of the common vernacular. I am thankful though that some of those moves have become unpopular such as “The Drape” from the curriculum I linked or “The Pretzel” from their Swing II curriculum.

Time Commitment: New School Swing asks for 4 one hour classes, whereas GottaSwing asks for 6 hour and a half classes. A total of 4 hours expected for New School Swing and 9 hours expected for GottaSwing it is obvious they have slightly more than twice the time to cover material. However, there is an optional 45 extra minutes each week a beginner student can commit to on top of their courses at New School Swing due to Lindy Dojo, bringing the potential time spent by beginner students to 7 hours.

I would say the advantage GottaSwing had was due to the large time commitment teachers could cover a fairly comprehensive body of material. However the disadvantage from a marketing standpoint is that produces a larger barrier of entry. New School Swing’s approach shines in that area because there is an optional component for making more motivated students have a clear avenue to spend extra time to improve.

Emphasis: No partner or experience required is something they both mention from the beginning. The reason why this is important to note is because as an organizer trying to fill classes one of the fastest ways to doing that is removing as many barriers of entry as possible such as apprehensions such as “I don’t have a partner” or “I don’t have any dance experience”.

In terms of Gottaswing’s curriculum, it is kind of ambiguous because at the beginning there is an emphasis put on technique, yet the order in which the material is listed out and the disclaimer at the end they also seem to pride themselves on getting through a large number of moves. These two separate values are stated in different places which is a tad jarring. New School Swing also states it values teaching new moves and teaching good technique, however these are stated neatly in one sentence so a prospective or returning student is aware that these two things will happen in class.

Conclusion: Making a guess, I would assume GottaSwing’s curriculum catered toward dancers coming off the tail end of the 90’s neoswing craze who after watching Malcom X or the Gap Add thought of swing dancing as a series of flashy moves. Take a jam circle from US Open 1999 for example.

An interesting observation is they both share an element of some homogenization. GottaSwing in Boston seems to start individuals off with variations of the 6-count basic and goes into variations. Whereas, New School Swing utilizes the common method of teaching swingouts by starting students doing an 8 count pattern in side by side and continues to work towards the lindy circle, then finally the swingout. In the last two years many people including myself have made complaints about the homogenization of Lindy Hop, but it could be argued it’s an ongoing process that dated back to the late 90s.

Redaction

Previously I erroneously wrote here an assumption that GottaSwing in Washington DC had a relationship with the organization by the same name that previously existed in Boston. That information was a false assumption and has been edited out of the post. My apologizes to Tom Koerner in the comments section of the post and my readers.

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Who is Ernie Smith?

A few months ago I was attending Steven and Virginie in Rochester and they had a panel with Dawn Hampton and Norma Miller which I attended. During the talk Norma mentioned a man by the name of Ernie Smith and said something to the effect that without him we may have never seen the film Hellzapoppin. I can only imagine that the world of modern day swing dancing would look much different if that film were unknown to our community.

A famous air step known as "The Snatch"
A famous air step known as “The Snatch”

In matter of fact Terry Monaghan writes in his obituary on Yehoodi,

Over the years he made every effort to find the artists who appeared on them, and enabled them to see themselves for the first time, in most cases! Frankie recently remarked, “If it wasn’t for Ernie I wouldn’t have known who the hell I was.”

Ernie brought together influential members of community. Terry also writes,

When the new groups taking an interest in the Lindy emerged in the early 1980’s most of them found their way to Ernie’s place. The “Swedish Swing Society” did in 1984 and the “Jiving Lindy Hoppers” followed in 1985. Ernie put us in touch with each other and the newly organised group of former Al Minns students who became the “New York Swing Dance Society.” Moreover Ernie gave us the telephone numbers of surviving Lindy maestros like Norma Miller and Pepsi Bethel, and in fact it is difficult to know where we would have been without him.

The National Museum of American History out in Washington D.C. notes,

The ERNIE SMITH JAZZ FILM COLLECTION, 1894-1979 consists of 352 reels of 16mm motion picture film.

To put that in persecutive that is one of the largest film collections based on jazz dancing in existence. Due to what started out as a curiosity, over time and through hard work Ernie managed to network some of the most influential members of our community together, educate countless people about the history of the jazz dancing, and provided resources to dancers in the past and present that shaped our entire community.

The Importance of Historians in Our Community

The reason why I mention Ernie’s work is I believe we are at an important point in the development of our dances. Unfortunately we are slowly losing our original dancers and there will be a time in the near future where there will not be new dancers who can say they have learned the stops routine from an original Savoy Ballroom dancer or “finesse” from an original L.A. balboa dancer.

Ernie Smith, jazz film collector and historian
Ernie Smith, jazz film collector and historian

I believe it is important to support individuals and organizations who educate and preserve the history of our dances. It’s why I have been excited about a new group started by our friends from Cat’s Corner out in Montreal, the Jazz Rhythm Inspirations.  They have been offering a wealth of information about jazz dancing in an easily digestible platform.

In addition Mike Thibault out in Rochester, with the help of Groove Juice Swing over the last two years, had some very good talks two years ago featuring Kevin Minns, the son of Al Minns. This year, they repeated their success through a talk with Norma Miller and Dawn Hampton at their event “Steven and Virginie” in Rochester.

Bobby White also has been doing a great job at his blog Swungover thanks to an interview with Norma Miller at Beantown out in Massachusetts, an informative article about the real “swing kids” of Germany. The article has great references, such as the Stephen Wuthe a Berlin-based DJ who has gathered extremely vast knowledge about Swing music, and Swing 101, which is the best primer I know to date for new dancers to learn about the history of our dance.

Last but certainly not least is my favorite blog Jassdancer. Every post on this blog is solid and contains occasionally humorous, but always informative history about “jass” dancing. My only complaint is I wish it would be updated more often.

Moving Forward

While innovation and moving our dance forward is important, I believe the preservation and education of the history of our dances for the swing dance community is essential. This is why I challenge each reader to, at the minimum (if you have a spare moment), to support individuals who provide the services above.

If you are feeling more ambitious and you have the time then I challenge you to to do it yourself. Who knows, you might be the next Mura Dehn or Ernie Smith.

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Frequently Asked Question: How to Improve Musicality?

A frequent question I receive from students is, “How do I improve my musicality/be more musical?” There are a myriad of potential answers I can give from taking up a musical instrument, learning AABA structure and when a song uses four 8s versus six 8s, listening for breaks in songs, and the list could go on.

If you can teach your pets to play swing music for you to help out, by all means go for it.
If you can teach your pets to play swing music for you to help out, by all means go for it.

What to do?

However my #1 recommendation for anyone whether they are brand new day one newbie or a seasoned dancer is increasing your familiarity with the music. In particular I mean authentic swing dance music from the swing era or modern bands who play in that style. One result of being familiar with the type of music that is played live by bands or djed many dancers can do thing such as recognize famous riffs and play off them.

Example 1: (Compare the first video at 6:13 to the second video at 0:47)

To give you a further context riffs, melodies, and et cetera from jazz standards come up all the time in live music. If you are a dancer wants to or already regularly participates in competitions this is a concept for you to note.

Example 2:(Compare the first video at 1:16 to the second video at 2:13)

If you are scoffed at the last sentence and thought, “Well I never plan to compete… like ever.” This idea also comes up in social dancing at exchanges with live bands as well.

Example 3:(Compare the first video at 2:32 to the second video at 3:47)

I’m a firm believer that one surefire way to increase your ability to creatively express yourself within swing dancing is developing your familiarity with the music.  When watching people dance a sign of a more advanced dancer over a novice one is the ability to discern what the music calls for and responding to it in an appropriate artistic manner. We have all encountered the “Tandem Charleston no matter what song is playing” lead, this is an example of where a lack of familiarity with the music causes a disconnect between dancing and the music.

I’m not the only person who holds a similar opinion as well, Glenn Crytzer writes in an interview on Dance Word Takeover,

Generally as people become more advanced that they get more into the music. I think the opposite is true as well, the more people get into the music the more advanced they can become as dancers. – Glenn Crytzer

How to go about this?

There are several ways to improve your familiarity with swing dance music which I have listed below.

  1. Listen to as much authentic swing dance music (preferably live) as you can: Active listening is the optimal situation where you are trying to pick out individual instruments and seeing how they affect the band, listening to the rhythm section, or listening what other songs or musicians may have influenced their musical choices.
  2. Talk shop with your local jazz musicians, bandleaders, hardcore jazz fans and DJs: The majority of these people as long as they are not busy doing their work are excited to talk to you about this subject matter. Often they will give you recommendations to versions of songs you may have not heard of before or various insights that you likely wouldn’t have stumbled across on your own.
  3. Learn how to play a musical instrument: This is listed at third because it is obviously probably the most time consuming and involved out all three suggestions. However having a music background does give you unique insights into jazz music.
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Carnation Plaza

Fifty-seven Years Of Magic

Dave a collector of vintage Disneyland photos wrote on his website about Carnation Plaza,

 When the Bandstand was moved from Central Plaza over to Adventureland and Magnolia Park, the Carnation Plaza Gardens were constructed and opened on August 18, 1956. A plethora of talent has performed under the tent of this area, including Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Harry James, The Osmond Brothers, Lionel Hampton, Tex Benecke, Cab Calloway, and Stan Kenton.

Photo of Carnation Plaza pre-renovations by Gregg L Coope
Photo of Carnation Plaza pre-renovations by Gregg L Coope

For those of you not so lucky to be from California, in Disneyland  there was this place known as Carnation Plaza, which has been referred to as “The Longest Running Swing Dance Venue”.  A notable part of the Southern California swing dance scene for years, case in point you can see California swing dance legend Hal Takier dancing to the song Avalon there in 1987.

For a more comprehensive view, there is a small documentary on the topic of Carnation Plaza called “A Stage that Walt Built”.

However, here is my personal attempt to give you a glimpse of what Carnation Plaza was and still means to Southern California.

Date Night

Beginning in 1957, Date Nights were a staple of Disneyland culture continuing almost until the 70s. Advertised in local newspapers they were claimed as a way to become a BMOD (Big Man On Dates). In 1967 for $6.50 in the United State one could get 10 rides and full admission to the park which included dancing.

Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/disneylands-date-nite-of-the-50s-will-make-you-wish-you-had
Entrance of Disneyland looks great, attendees not so dapper these days.
datenight2
As seen by the school yells, this was when the collegiate school spirit was part of Southern Californian culture.

In an article on Mouse Club House, the author Scott Wolf wrote,

Music has always been an important part of the Disneyland experience, with the traditional Disneyland Band performing there since opening day. And while that band remains an essential element of the overall ambience of the park today, on June 28, 1957 things really got swinging! For the first time Disneyland would extend its operating hours until 1am on Friday and Saturday nights for Date Nite, in an attempt to attract young couples as a dating hot spot. Couples could purchase Date Nite discounted tickets which permitted admission only after 5pm. Carnation Plaza Gardens became the chosen central Date Nite location and the local Elliott Brothers band were brought in as the Date Niters who had the ability to perform everything from the slow dances to rock ‘n’ roll to the “La Raspa,” which became a Date Nite tradition.

datenight4

On Stage Magazine

To give a better picture of what Carnation Plaza was about, here is an article from On Stage magazine, which features an interview with Stan Freese who booked professional swing bands for several years at Disneyland.

The Stage that Walt Built
At Disneyland’s Carnation Plaza Gardens, performers can stand in the footsteps of giants.

Stan Freese calls the Carnation Plaza Gardens Stage his “home away from home.” That’s not too much of a stretch.

Freese has been helping put on shows at the historic Disneyland venue since 1974. Today, he books the professional swing bands that fill the stage every Saturday night. The job never gets old, thanks in large part to Freese’s appreciation of the star-studded history of the stage, which opened in 1956.

“This is the longest-running big band stage in the world,” he says, rattling off a list of the stars who have graced the venue over the years. The roster includes Cab Calloway, Bob Crosby, Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Lionel Hampton, Les Brown, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Harry James, Eartha Kitt, and Benny Goodman–whose orchestra was the first big-name group to perform on the stage, back in 1961.

Freese, now 66, enthusiastically hops around the large stage, recreating how things looked when big bands performed there seven nights a week. “Right here is where Louis Armstrong sang ‘Hello, Dolly!'” he says. Stepping to his left, he continues: “Over here is where Count Basie and Duke Ellington played the piano. Right on this stage, looking out at the castle.”

The “castle,” of course, is the famous Sleeping Beauty Castle–the ultimate symbol of Disneyland fun and fantasy–and located “just a stone’s throw” from Carnation Plaza Gardens, as Freese puts it. The stage itself is about 20 feet wide and can accommodate 35 to 40 musicians; larger groups spread out onto the terrazzo dance floor. They perform for audiences of up to 150 people under a canopy of gold and burgundy, which adds to the festive atmosphere.

The history and the surroundings only enrich the experience for the student bands, orchestras and choruses that perform on the Carnation Plaza Gardens Stage. “They are walking on hallowed ground, playing in this hallowed venue,” says Freese. “They should all know when they come here how exciting this stage really is.”

Jim Hahn, director of instrumental music at Tuffree Middle School in Placentia, Calif., has been bringing bands to Disneyland for more than 20 years and understands the importance of sharing the Carnation Plaza Gardens Stage legacy. “Every time we go,” says Hahn, “I explain the history of that stage to the kids.”
Hahn, a saxophone and clarinet player, performed on the stage himself in 1981 with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. It was the first visit ever to Disneyland for the Philadelphia native. “I was in awe, knowing all the bands that had played that stage,” he says. “It was mind-blowing.”

Every spring Hahn brings two jazz ensembles to play at Carnation Plaza Gardens; in the fall, he brings a marching band to perform in the Disneyland parade. It’s more than history and fond memories that keep him coming back. In Hahn’s opinion, everything about the experience is top-notch. “It’s nothing short of the Disney standard,” he declares.

Hahn has particular praise for the sound quality and the location of the Carnation Plaza Gardens Stage in the bustling heart of Disneyland. “It’s a loud stage,” says Hahn. “It attracts a lot of people.”

The effect never wears off on Hahn. “As many times as I’ve taken the kids there, it’s still–as corny as it sounds—it’s still a thrill.”

Wendy Shepherd, choral director at Wilson High School in Tacoma, Wash., says the experience of playing Disneyland can be “life-changing” for students. She has been bringing her Scintillation Show Choir to perform on the Carnation Plaza Gardens Stage for 10 years. “As a child, to dream of the magic of Disneyland, and then as a young adult to achieve the goal of performing there and working with the Disney choreographers, is immeasurable,” Shepherd says. “I have students who are in their late 20s who Facebook me now, and to this day, recall their experiences, the joy, the achievement of their dream, the way it moved their lives positively.”

The thrill has never worn off for Stan Freese, either. Born and raised in Minneapolis, he made his first trip to Disneyland at age 12, when he marched in the parade with his school band. “It was just great,” he recalls. “I had no clue I was going to work there.” A tuba player, he performed as a soloist in the Soviet Union in 1969. That led to his Disney job interview and his role as leader of the original Disneyland Band, starting in 1971.

In Freese’s early days at Disneyland, the Carnation Plaza Gardens Stage was still bringing in national talent for its night-time big-band series. There also was a period in the 1970s and ’80s when pop acts like the Osmonds, the 5th Dimension and the Pointer Sisters played there. These days, the evening shows are performed mostly by swing bands that Freese books from Los Angeles, Orange County and as far away as San Francisco.

Whether the performers are professionals or students, they enjoy first-class treatment. Buses come straight off the Santa Ana Freeway into the Disneyland back lot, where students and gear are unloaded. On the back lot, the students can avail themselves of the dressing and rehearsal facilities as they prepare for their big moment on the Carnation Plaza Gardens Stage.

“The whole thing is magic,” Freese concludes. “Now it’s just up to the kids to have fun and make great music to become part of that heritage.”

Walt Disney

A little known fact about Walt Disney is that he was a fan of jazz. In fact in 1935, he produced an animated Disney short named Music Land, which attempted to bridge the gap between classical music and jazz.

As a matter of fact, Walt himself was a patron of Carnation Plaza as well.

1958 Walt Disney enjoys a dance at Carnation Plaza
1958 Walt Disney enjoys a dance at Carnation Plaza

Besides supporting Jazz in different ways such as recordings, Disney was friends with many of the musicians who played at his park including Louis Armstrong.

Louis Armstrong and Walt Disney
Louis Armstrong and Walt Disney

A Sweet Note

While it looks different these days due to recent changes, dancing in Disneyland is still a notable part of the culture of swing dancing in Southern California and of Disneyland itself. I would like to leave you with a quote from the parks founder, Walt Disney,

To all who come to this happy place; welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past …. and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America … with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. – Walt Disney

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A Few Thoughts on Recent Ambidancetrous Discussions

Not too long ago there was a tumblr post on Ambidancetrous advocating the idea of teaching beginner classes where you have students try out both roles. In addition on the blog The Lindy Affair there was an interview with Anne, a member of Yale’s ambidancetrous scene where she describes her community.

Positive Results from this Community Discussion

What I enjoyed about these posts is that they encouraged discussion in person, on tumblr, on facebook, and even most recently on the Yehoodi talk show. I took the time to talk to several of my students, dance instructors I am friends with, fellow dancers I know, and even a few non-dancers as to how they would feel about the advantages and disadvantages of teaching in this manner. We also explored the tangental conversations that sprung up from exploring this line of conversation.

What I enjoyed the most is that it seriously challenged my views and methods of how I teach dance, which as an instructor I am always trying to test and improve.

My Views As A Student and Participant in the Swing Dance Community

In a previous post I wrote that a few months after I started dancing as a lead, I took several classes as a follow after being thrust suddenly into a teaching role. Until recently, I had forgotten an important fact: that when I enrolled in these classes, I asked the instructors’ permission to take the classes as a male follow. Nothing on the website stated that this was forbidden and neither of the instructors indicated in their speech that I had to choose the role of a lead. Regardless I thought it was the polite thing to do to run it by them first.

When I was learning how to follow, my classmates were generally polite. Once in awhile I would get a question like, “So why are you learning how to follow?” One thing I really appreciated was that I had a few instructors actually point me out in classes and mention what I was doing was a great idea for improving as a dancer. However, there were some notable negative experiences: once I had the unpleasant experience of having a guy outright refuse to dance with me in a workshop class because I was in the rotation as a male follow. Another incident that left a particularly bad taste in my mouth was I when was asked to compete as a lead instead of a follow in a competition because “we don’t have enough leads”.

Organizers, if you label your competition result sheets like this you are doing it wrong. They also may be relabeled.
Organizers, might want to consider the chance that a female lead or a male follow might make finals. This will prevent us from having to relabel things.

Based on my personal experiences I do have to agree that there are definitely social pressures to choose the gendered stereotypes for partnered dancing within classes.  There are still a significant amount of instructors, for example, who use gendered language for roles in classes. It is a tad odd for me, a male follow, to be referred to as a lady during class.

As a student or participant in a community, I will fully admit I have a bias. I’m a natural extrovert and it makes me not as empathetic to others as I should be at times. However, I have had to learn as a teacher, that not everyone is as comfortable in an unfamiliar social situation. Most newbies when they are taking their first dance class already have enough apprehensions to deal with; adding onto the heap the idea that people might see them as the odd one in the group could steer them from a role they were curious about in order to fit in with their class and appease anxieties they may have.

I Like My Vegetarian/Vegan Friends

On a tangent I am addressing this post “Why a lead who doesn’t follow is like a vegan making barbecue.” The author writes about the idea that instructors should know both roles in order to be effective at their job. I agree with this point, please no more classes where I have leads telling me “you just follow” as advice on how to understand that role.

However where I disagree with this blog post is that it implies that you need to pick up the other role to be a better dancer. Learning the other role in swing dancing competently is not the only avenue nor a necessity to becoming a better dancer. I have many vegetarian/vegan friends and peers who are amazing dancers, as in they compete and place at the big name competitions like ILHC and such. However in spite of being fairly experienced dancers, when they dance in their non-primary role some of them are absolute rubbish.

I’m not going to disagree that learning the other role does provide some advantages, especially in terms of being considerate to individuals in dancing. However I disagree with the tone this post takes where it implies that one is at a serious disadvantage if they do not learn both roles.

My Views As A Teacher in the Swing Dance Community

To give a short background of my teaching experience I have been teaching swing dance for about 3+ years on the East Coast of the United States. Usually local drop-in classes, monthly series, and the occasional one-day workshop out of my local area. As just a general dancer I travel a lot and tend to go to larger national/international competition events and nearby smaller regional events.

What this background means is that as a teacher, skill acquisition and/or improvement for my students is a high priority. For other instructors, creating an inclusive environment where students feel welcome or ensuring their students have fun may be more of a priority. Now I am not saying that I do not factor those other two things in when I teach; in beginner classes making sure my students have fun and are comfortable is my main priority. Beginner classes are the equivalent of sticking your foot in the pool to see if the water is okay, and I know the majority of people taking their first swing dance class aren’t there to throw down in a competition the next month. However, making sure that I provide the base fundamentals of the dance I am teaching and allowing my students the opportunity to succeed is something I am not willing to compromise on.

I think that teaching a beginner class with students learning both roles in a 45 min to 1 hour time frame (typical for swing dancing) is not an optimal idea. This is based on my experience as someone who has danced and competed in both lead and follow roles in the last few years, taught beginner classes where people learn both roles, and has been teaching for a few years. This has been further reinforced by discussions I have had with other instructors.Interestingly enough though, for Blues it seems to work perfectly fine.

The main reason why I think it works for Blues and not so much for Lindy Hop is while both dances take a considerable amount of skill to do well, as a new dancer Blues has a lower barrier of entry. Certain dances are easier to social dance at the beginning of one’s dance education. In my beginner 6-count swing drop-in dance classes a noticeable portion of my class struggles to do one role barely competently. While there is overlap between the two roles of lead and follow, it is a fact that each role does inherently pose unique challenges. When I have had students trying to tackle all of the challenges of the roles of both lead and follow in a 45 min to 1 hour time span for a typical 6-count swing beginner class, often a notable portion of my class did not get to the level of competency that I am satisfied with as an instructor.

Am I completely against the idea of an ambidancetrous newbie class for Lindy Hop? Nope. I think a beginner 6-count class for Lindy Hop can be taught ambidancetrous if you have more time, such as 1h and 30 minutes and/or if the class has a considerable amount of already experienced dancers in rotation. Another option is teaching a weekly series instead of a drop-in class, because you will have more time to work with students.

Closing Thoughts

Overall while I think exploring the idea of teaching both roles to students in a class is an interesting concept with a potential for positive results such as allowing one to be an effective instructor, gives insight to dancers about the challenges faced by both roles, and addresses issues of gender equality within the swing dance community. However based on my experience an instructor and a dancer who dances both roles I do not believe this should be at the expense of possibly leaving new students not receiving a basic amount of knowledge in their beginner classes.

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Aut Inveniam Viam Aut Faciam

I have always wondered if other people in the Hammond Building found it strange to hear the sound of desks sliding and screeching across the floor for over an hour.

About four years ago in State College, Pennsylvania I was a new lead and frustrated that follows I danced with couldn’t feel me lead a rock step. The result of that was I decided to take the matter into my own hands. An immobile object wouldn’t compensate for my shitty leading, so I drilled leading rock steps on classroom disks at the top floor of the engineering building in an attempt to get my body to understand the feeling of using my body to create a stretch during a rock step.

The Benefits of an Isolated Scene

The running joke in State College was “we were four hours from everything” and with Washington D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia in that range it wasn’t far from the truth.  As a scene we had 1 hour classes followed by a usually 2 hour dance twice a week and one monthly large dance. Our big deal event was our semester workshop which had international instructors for absurdly low prices such as $20 dollars for a weekend workshop of 8 classes. While it wasn’t the worst situation in the world, it still was no L.A. or Washington D.C. where you have a large community of dancers and regular instruction from nationally recognized instructors.

What it did give us is the gift of forcing those of us who wanted to improve to take ownership of our dancing improvement. We would do stupid things to get in dancing with advanced dancers like leave after colleges classes at like 5pm and drive four hours to Washington D.C. to dance at the Jam Cellar (which at the time as a newbie I was convinced was like the Mecca of dance), stay to the bitter end, and then take shifts driving back to make it home in time for 8 AM classes the next day. I believe I visited Washington D.C. about three different times before I actually saw what it looked like in the daylight.

One memory that stands out in my mind was feeling left out after attending a workshop weekend that during the shim sham I had no idea what it was or how to do it. That became the catalyst which caused me the following week to use the video below and teach myself the entire routine.

The important concept I got from living in a somewhat small/isolated scene is it was not my communities’ responsibility or whatever instructors’ responsibility to help me to improve, it was mine. If I watched a video and thought I looked like shit there was always a mirror to remind myself of whose fault it is.

The Problem

The problem I have noticed in swing dance communities in general is a sizable portion of dancers are not proactive. What I mean by that is they expect to be spoon-fed and given the answers from instructors. Yes, you can learn that way but it is a slow route and not conducive to getting past intermediate at best. Even worse I would argue you are likely to end up more looking like a poor imitation of another dancer instead of developing your own voice or personality in movement.

I’m not saying to completely abandon teachers or classes, obviously those have value. What I am saying is there is a definite value being able to develop yourself as a dancer outside of formal swing dance class and many of those skills such as being able to visually learn and recreate movement have multifaceted applications. When you have classes as your only source of learning then the material your teacher’s present and possibly the social dance floor are your only source of input. However when you choose to attempt to learn something anything you can grasp is a source of inspiration; Frankie Manning, Dean Collins,  Willa Mae Ricker, or Jewel McGowan. Even non Lindy Hop sources are game, one dancer I have personally have pulled from is Maurice Mouvet.

Over the years I’ve had requests for me to teach people some things like swingout variations or solo jazz routines and often my thoughts are, “It’s on youtube, you could learn it tonight instead of waiting around for me to show you.”

An interesting trend is a lot of amazing dancers (including a few from State College) have always had this attitude in dance and in many cases they actively seek out opportunities to work and collaborate with others outside of a traditional workshop and classroom setting whether that is locally or involves travel. Jon Tigert wrote in his blog about his experience when he was in a tiny remote town in Italy for two and a half months and out of the dance loop. Did he use that as an excuse to rest on his laurels and complain about how there was no one to dance with? Hell no, instead he worked his ass off at improving his quality of movement through solo jazz.

Don’t Dream It Be It

Here is my challenge to you dear readers. Take something you have always wanted to learn (within reason, please don’t crack skulls learning aerials off of youtube) and do it. No partner? Post a facebook status, ask people in your classes, or worst case scenario work on solo quality of movement. Tranky Doo, Big Apple, or California Routine? There are videos for all of those online. If you actually take me up on my challenge write in the comments about it or even better show me on video or in person. I’ll leave you with this quote from Mr. Tigert,

So you are wondering how you can become a better dancer, even if you don’t have a partner, or you can’t afford classes. Get off your butt, stop reading blogs and watching videos, put in your earbuds and just dance. – Jon Tigert