Crossing over at Swingtime

Last weekend Scott, Vanessa, Laura and I all went to Swingtime in the Rockies in Denver, Colorado. SwingTime has been a West Coast Swing, aka WCS, event for years, but this year they decided to add Lindy Hop to the mix. There aren't too many Crossover Events, so when I found out about it, I was really excited. Overall we had a great time, though there was a bit of disorganization due to all the new Lindy stuff they added.

Laura and I got to teach a few classes and Scott did a whole bunch of Soul/Lindy DJing, more than he expected actually :). He even ran the competition music for several divisions.

WCS events have a lot of competitions, and with the addition of Lindy, there were way more this year. All 4 of us competed, and did pretty well!


Scott and Vanessa placed 2nd in the Advanced/All-Star Strictly Lindy! (Strictly means you choose your partner and dance to a random song). As Teachers, Laura and I got to do the Invitational Strictly Lindy together and the Invitational Jack and Jill (JnJ = random partner random song). Laura placed 2nd in the JnJ with Dax Hock, a real badass! We got 4th place in the Strictly somehow, and as a result we had to do the Crossover Jack and Jill.

So what's a Crossover JnJ you ask? Take the top five couples from the Pro Strictly WCS and Lindy divisions and throw them into a Jack and Jill where Lindy leads have to dance with WCS follows and vice versa. You get one WCS song and one Lindy song. Crossover JnJ's are the BEST! Everyone usually hams it up really hard. Needless to say, Swingtime was no Exception.

Laura and I were quite stressed about having to dance WCS so we got Scott (who's done a ton of it in the past) to give us some pointers. I saw Jordan Frisbee (yes this Jordan) practicing some Lindy with Jessica Cox, so I shouted some moves he should do. Instead he and Jessica came over and we started trading moves and styling for WCS and Lindy. Eventually Max Pitruzella came over to show Jordan some of his ninja moves. It was an amazing experience getting to really work on stuff with such amazing dancers.


When it came time to compete/perform several really cool things happened. First we all decided to trade clothes. WCS dancers dressed up like Lindy Hoppers. Yup I wore rhinestones and Laura wore sequins. The best part was that I drew Jessica and Laura drew Jordan in the JnJ! Getting them made everything way less stressful. When videos popup, I'll be sure to post them.

We competed in heats of 2 couples and Laura's Heat consisted of her and Jordan and Max and Jennifer Deluca. Since Max and Jordan worked out those sweet moves, they did them in sync. I wish there was video already, cause it was sooo sweet. In the end Laura took 1st place with Jordan. Jessica and I got 4th. It was awesome.

Other highlights of the weekend: A hilarious Truckin' contest and a super fun strictly blues contest. Words wouldn't do them justice, they need videos. I'll post 'em when I see 'em.

What is dance camp, and how do I get there from here?

Some of you may be thinking . . .
"Gosh, this Beantown Lindy Hop camp thing sounds really awesome from reading Angela's post last week about "the hip hop". I'm up for some punishment, uh I mean fun, like that. But I missed it this year. How do I get in on it for next year?"

You can learn more about Beantown Lindy Hop camp at their official camp URL here: http://www.beantowncamp.com/
You can also become a fan of "Beantown Lindy Hop Camp" on Facebook. If you become a fan, you'll get notifications (and I think a Facebook invite) next year when registration opens up for the next Beantown camp.

Dance camp is a fun way to immerse yourself in swing dancing and meet lots of friendly dancers from around the world. It will take your dancing to the next level, and you'll go home exhausted, but happy and in much better shape.

There are lots of other fabulous dance camps that you might consider attending, too.
Many are on Facebook as groups that you can join.
Here's a list of some of them, in chronological order:

Herrang -- http://www.herrang.com/en/ -- June/July -- Herrang, Sweden
Camp Hollywood -- http://www.camphollywood.net/ -- July 30th - August 2nd, 2009 -- Los Angeles, CA
Studio Hop Summer Camp -- http://bernard.cavasa.free.fr/en/ -- August -- Toulouse, France
SONH -- http://www.swingoutnh.com/ -- Labor Day weekend, Sept 2-7, 2009 -- Hebron, NH
Lindy Focus -- http://www.lindyfocus.com/ -- December 27-31, 2009 -- Asheville, NC
Swing Camp OZ -- http://www.swingcampoz.com/ -- January 24-29, 2010 -- Adelaide, SA, Austrailia
Lindyfest -- http://lindyfest.hsds.org/ -- March 11-14, 2010 -- Houston, TX
Camp Jitterbug -- http://www.campjitterbug.com/ -- May 28-31, 2010 -- Seattle, WA

Michael Jackson - dancing extraordinaire

Here is some rad footage of Michael Jackson on the Jackson variety show. It's awesome to see just how talented that family is.

The "hip" hop

I recently got back from dance camp: Beantown Lindy Hop Camp -- 7 days of dance classes all day and social dancing all night. It was intense.

I had the fabulous experience of taking a Hip Hop "mini-track" (1 hip hop class per day, plus a performance at the end of camp) taught by Eric Fenn, the primary choreographer for the Hip Hop dance troupe called Loose Change. The series was a ton of fun; Eric was a great instructor; and I feel like it really improved my individual body movement.

Much of the fun and art of Lindy Hop is about the interaction and connection between you, your partner, and the music. But another important part of Lindy Hop is individual body movement, which includes things like balance, dexterity, rythm, posture, and moving from your core. Someone once gave me succinct words of advice for improving body movement: "Dance. A lot." More specifically though, one thing you can do to develop your individual body movement is to study and practice other forms of dance. Solo Jazz is the obvious one, because it is so closely tied in with the roots of Lindy Hop, which is sometimes referred to by dance geeks as "(partnered) American Vernacular Jazz Dance" -- Say that five times fast! Solo Jazz can help you do things like increase your dance vocabulary and styling variations. Tap, a slightly less obvious option, can help you improve your dexterity and rythm. But what about Hip Hop? How can Hip Hop help improve your Lindy Hop? Besides being a ton of fun and giving you cool moves for club dancing, Hip Hop can help you focus on initating movement from your core and improve your expressive range, along with learning fun stuff like body isolation (hard! but awesome!).

Check out these clips of Eric Fenn and his troupe, Loose Change.

"Human Nature" --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ5CK43oKUE

"Day" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piw1M6NVz1s&NR=1

"Currents" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu31jSsG_aY&NR=1 -- This one has some Lindy Hop mixed in.

"Evolution" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbzUW2LSNw

At OSDF 2003 -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlq-HL8RNUs&NR=1

If you're interested in improving your individual body movement, I strongly encourage you to go out and take a solo dance class, especially Tap, Jazz, or Hip Hop. It's lots of fun AND great exercise, so it will help increase your stamina, too. . . Next time you go out dancing Lindy Hop, you can dance all night long!

Austin Swing Syndicate 10th Anniversary

Last Thursday was the Austin Swing Syndicate's 10th Anniversary bash. It was a fabulous night of wonderful live music by the Syndicate All-star Band, including such awesome local musicians as Jonathan Doyle, JD Pendley, Ryan Gould, Mark Gonzales, Emily Gimble, Donna Hightower, and Erik Hokkanen. I'm missing a couple names in there, so if you know the piano, cornet and drummer's names, feel free to leave them in the comments. Anyways, the All-star Band was fantastic, playing a lot of mid-tempo, hard-swinging standards that kept the entire floor packed all night long! In particular, I absolutely loved that JD played straight rhythm guitar. Having that hard swinging guitar really brings the band together and makes me need to move.

We also got to hear and see a bit of the history surrounding the Syndicate's creation. Burke McRae and Amanda Matthews, the main founders, were in attendance. Amanda received one of this year's Syndie's, a golden ticket that allows her the privilege of never again having to pay cover or membership dues. Burke received his a few years ago. The other Syndie went to lindy-lifer Colin "Reverend Shadyglenn" Wise. Colin, a lawyer, helped draft the Syndicate's original by-laws and has been dancing, DJing or helping out at the Fed almost every single Thursday for the last 10 years! It was awesome to see them honored. It ended with a huge snowball/jam with all the board members over the years and those that were dancing back in the beginning.

Tony Spielberg took a ton of pictures, and hopefully they'll be online sometime soon. I'll make sure to add a link to them at the end of this post when that happens.

For the occasion, Laura and I put together a couple performances that we put on right after the Birthday Jam. We did our new Lindy Routine and got a few people together do the Tranky Doo. Thanks to Tony for posting those videos on Vimeo.

Here's to another 10 years of Lindy Hop in Austin!

Overwhelming and Amazing: A Review of the Frankie95 Celebration.

Frankie Manning, the single most influential force in Lindy Hop. It's no surprise that about 2000 Lindy Hoppers from around the world converged on New York over Memorial weekend to honor his passing and celebrate his Spirit. The Spirit of Frankie Manning was indeed present as those 2000 dancers pulsed on the enormous dance floor of the Hammerstein Ballroom in the Manhattan Center. Every where you looked dancers smiled and bounced around until they kicked everyone out in the wee hours of the morning. Frankie95 was the largest and most important Lindy Hop event to date.

My absolute favorite aspect of Frankie95 was the Spirit of Frankie. Everyone at the Event was filled with the Spirit of Frankie. Throughout the 5 nights, everyone carried with them a Warmth, a sense of belonging to something greater. It was a fantastic feeling. Even with several noticeable hiccups over the weekend, everyone stayed excited and supportive.

That excitement was fueled in part by the amazing Performances each night, culminating in a Big Show Sunday night. Dancers from all over the world performed Jazz, Tap, Charleston, and Lindy Hop in a Variety of Forms. There were Vintage recreations, new routines inspired the past, and plenty of tributes to the Man, Frankie Manning. In the Sunday show, they recreated Hellzapoppin'! Sadly, that won't be appearing on Youtube. Performers throughout the weekend included: The Harlem Hotshots, The Silver Shadows, The Ninjammerz, and many others. Here's a few of the most notable nightly performances.

A Recreation of The Berry Brothers' Facinating Rhythm by the Killer Dillers:


A Tribute to Frankie Manning by the Silver Shadows:


The use of the spotlight was brilliant!

A Super Fast Routine, Jitters by the Ninjammerz:


The Harlem Hot Shots performed many times, but my favorite was this weird one:


Since this review is starting to get really long I'll only talk about one last thing, the crazy competitions. The two competitions of the weekend were the Hellzapoppin' Lindy Hop contest, and the World's Largest Jack and Jill competition. The Hellzapoppin' contest pitted some of the best dancers in the world against each other in a no holds barred throw down! Ok, it wasn't the craziest thing ever, but it was pretty awesome. Scott recently posted the finals, but here it is again:



If you look closely at the 4th couple, you'll see yours truly dancing with Laura! I still don't know how we made finals, but we did and it was super fun. The World's Largest Jack and Jill had somewhere around 500 dancers enter! In the end it boiled down to just 7 couples. And again, Laura and I somehow made it to the finals, and Laura was even in the top 3! It was judged by Audience applause. Take a look:



That's it for now! Look out for further installments with details on the Comps, Performances and anything else I can think of!

Congrats to Mike and Laura!

The Lindy Project's very own Mike and Laura made it to the finals of one of the biggest lindy hop competitions since the 1940s!

They are the 4th couple.