The Dance Blog-A-Thon began the 4th of May and I’ve slacked through this week on my blog being really busy in the rest of my life. So, here is my Dance Blog-A-Thon post as part of the Ferdyonfilms.comdance blog-a-thon.
I begin with a clip from the 1943 movie Stormy Weather which Cab Calloway called it “the greatest dance number ever filmed.” This clip is of the fabulous Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, who have sadly both passed away. One of the first films to features African American entertainers with an all-star cast including Bill Robinson, Lena Horne, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway and more. It was Bill Robinson’s final movie appearance and Fats Wallers last screen performance. A truly influential film and probably “the greatest dance number ever filmed.”
In the lindy hop community Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, who worked and performed under the direction of Herbert “Whitey” White, are the principal historical figures of vintage lindy hop. The most reknowned clip is a performance by the Harlem Congaroos, the top troupe of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, in the 1941 movie Hellzapoppin’. The dancers are Frances “Mickey” Jones and William Downes, Norma Miller and Billy Ricker, Al Minns and Willa Mae Ricker, and Ann Johnson and Frankie Manning. This scene embodies the sheer raw energy with which the lindy hop was performed; a departure from the clean movement of concert dances.
These two scenes are ones that always leave me in awe each time I watch them. I can go back to them at any point and feel re-inspired. When I introduce people to lindy hop, Hellzapoppin’ is the first clip I show them. It was one of the catalysts for the swing revival in the 80’s and many troupes have reproduced the choreography. Stormy Weather aways brings me back to some of the best of solo jazz movement and rhythms I have ever found.
For the Dance Blog-A-Thon these two clips truly define traditional jazz dance and lindy hop; thus why they are featured here.
This past weekend a horde of followers descended upon Rochester, NY for the first North East Girl Jam. Put on by Jojo Jackson and Groove Juice Swing it was the first event of its kind in the northeast.
Girl Jam’s are events which focus solely on the followers in the dance to highlight the important (and often times under appreciated) role they play in the dance. Historically we have paid more tribute to the leaders in the dance. Even today it is more common for leaders to be booked for gigs and then have a partner brought along then the reverse. Girl Jam is an attempt to bring much needed awareness to these topics and provide a space for following technique and creativity be at the forefront.
Friday night began with the Boilermaker Jazz Band, with Naomi Uyama on vocals, playing in the Tango Cafe. The space is a beautiful hall with high ceilings, nice wood floors and great lighting. As always, the Boilermakers did an excellent job with their song selection. One of my favorite tunes of the evening was All God’s Chillun’ Got Rhythm which is a tune found in this clip from “A Day at the Races”.
Friday also included a solo charleston and jazz contest where the winner was determined by tap out. Rachel Woods of Rochester, NY won the competition. The crowd was enthusiastic and kept the energy going while the participants all had a friendly attitude in the competition.
As always in Rochester, once the band wrapped up the party headed over to the Lindy Compound for the late night where Mike Thibault DJed until 4am. Late nights at events in Rochester are some of my favorites as they aren’t held in a dance studio but rather someones house. There is space to relax, socialize, eat and dance which creates much more of a party with dancing atmosphere than a “just another dance” atmosphere.
Saturday I assisted Nina Gilkenson with the first class of the weekend, a lindy hop technique class. The ratio of leads to follows was about 2 to 3 and the room was packed with three rows of couples facing us on the stage. We started by getting people to rockstep on the 1 2 of the swingout and then Nina worked with the followers on making their swivels maintain that same type of connection while swiveling. We then worked on using energy build-up and release to propel the follower through the swingout. The class went well although an hour definitely feels short when you are up on stage teaching.
Unfortunately I cannot report very much on the rest of the workshops on Saturday as my day became caught up in teaching privates. In the four remaining hours of the workshop day I taught three privates. The range of levels in each private varied from a beginner, an intermediate dancer, and a much more advanced dancer. I have not given many privates to dancers who don’t need considerable tweaking to their basics and it was very enjoyable to be able to work on conceptual objects and breaking down rules rather than trying to enforce them to get a particular result.
Saturday night was the battle of the girl DJs Heather Flock versus Gina Helfrich. Although the battle wasn’t the highlight of the dance, they traded back and forth throughout the evening and created an enjoyable space to dance.
The second competition of the weekend was a Jack & Jill that I helped judge. It was a tap-out format which is always slightly awkward especially when the floor is really packed at the beginning. There was no rotation during the Jack & Jill so your first partner was your only partner which can be both an advantage or a disadvantage from a competitors perspective. The level of competitors was very spread out but overall it was a really great turnout with a very positive attitude. Rajeev Hotchandani and Nicole Zuckerman won the competition (pictured here) and the crowd closed in to let them jam for the remainder of the song.
Congratulations and trophies given, the DJ spun up a hopping tune and a jam kicked off.
Despite saturday’s late night rolling on till 4 or 5 in the morning, almost everyone showed up for the first workshops on Sunday. A special treat for the leads was the Following 101 class with Naomi and Nina where they went over the basics of following and by the end of the hour the leads looked pretty solid as follows. Inside, Giselle taught a Cotton Club routine to the ladies.
With so little sleep, I disappeared to Spot to pick up some coffees to go around and some sushi for lunch. When I returned they were setting up for the lunchtime showing of clips which highlighted female dancers from our dances history. Gina Helfrich organized the videos and headed up the presentation including clips of Eleanor Powell in Fascinating Rhythm, Josephine Baker, and many of the follows from Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers and Shorty George’s partners Big Bea (Beatrice Gay) and Pauline Morse (thanks Gina).
I gave one more private in the afternoon and then taught a Spins and Turns class with Nina. The class was definitely smaller from the previous mornings class with enough space to form a circle and have us on the floor. We started off with some basic turning down the floor and then progressed to variations on the tuck turn and an inside turn from closed. The inside turn variation was one of my favorite ones that Nina does and it was really fun to teach that with her. We also taught a double outside turn where the leads needed more instruction to get the follower through it in the eight counts. I had to leave before the day was up and so missed Naomi’s solo jazz class which finished off the weekend.
With the workshops out of the way everyone who was still in town made their way back to the compound for the unofficial “Grill Jam” wrapup party. Chicken, veggies and beef were grilled happily on the porch while drinks and other goodies were consumed.
Girl Jam was one of the most social of events I’ve been to without feeling like it was forced or cliquish. Sadly I missed some of the classes I had really wanted to take.
If anyone went to Northeast Girl Jam and can say something to the various classes, please go ahead and leave a comment. Or even if you just went to the parties and dances, let me know what you thought of the event. Comment.
A few weeks late of the Youtube uploads but here are the Instructor Jams and various performances at Lindyfest back in March.
My favorites in no particular order:
Dawn and Frankie: I had mentioned in my post on Lindyfest the impact and delivery that old-timers like Dawn and Frankie have in each simple step and you can see the commitment to it in every step here.
Skidoo and Jam: A solid opening into a jam with members from 23 Skidoo and event instructors. Polished off with a California-like routine at the end.
Lafayette by 23 Skidoo: We saw this routine win at ULHS 2007 and it is just as tight in this performance sans costumes.
I met up with Jesse and the rest of the band on the poet’s walk in Central Park at noon just off of 68th St. on the east side. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, in the 80s with the sun pouring down; nice and dry with the occasional breeze.
Tin Pan has been playing all week in the park from 12-3pm near the Alice statues off of the boat pond (near 75th) but they moved down to the higher trafficked poet’s walk again today.
Evita Arce and Nathan Bugh arrived about halfway through the second tune, set their stuff down and Evita and I started dancing and a crowd of teenagers immediately gathered to watch. They were probably on a school trip to the MET or something but it was great. A couple of them even got out and danced with us for a few bars. Cameras were out everywhere and it was a fun mid-tempo tune to jam out to. The crowd was so large that Jesse asked them to pull in tighter so that people could still get past. Unfortunately, being mostly kids that crowd didn’t leave much of a tip as they wandered off down the path.
This was my first time out busking with Tin Pan and it was such a great experience. Evita had some advice on how to manage the endurance aspect of dancing for long gigs on the street; sitting out the first chorus, sitting out when someone is singing, etc. It also helped that Nathan was there and we traded off dancing solo, partnered with Evita and taking a song off here and there.
Nathan and I did a really tight solo number together based off of the shim sham where we spotlighted on breaks and varied it up a bit. It was such a good feeling to be out there performing with live music behind us and an interested crowd. Nathan is exceptionally creative and well-rounded in his solo jazz and I can’t wait to work with him more.
This was my first performance-for-money type gig and it definitely got me thinking about how I held myself as a performer (and less about what I was thinking as a dancer). It is different to be in front of a crowd of non-dancers and be performing rather than just social dancing. The way you present and interact with a crowd of people who don’t know you and don’t understand the dance puts a different sort of pressure on you. It forced me to simplify my movement and I constantly reminded myself that my dancing wasn’t just part of a social event (say as it can be at Banjo Jims) but a performance. The audience is just as much a part of the performance as the band and the dancers and can’t be an afterthought.
It was a wonderful gig and definitely a learning experience. I can’t wait to be out busking with Tin Pan again.
Have you busked? What was it like for you? Let me know. Comment.
Exchanges aren’t my top events during the year to attend but DCLX had a line-up this year that you couldn’t just walk away from. There were five hot bands playing five dances with a double-hitter for the Saturday main dance. The New Orleans Jazz Vipers on Friday night with Gordon Webster’s band playing the late night; The New Orleans Jazz Vipers opposite the Blue Crescent Septet at Glen Echo Saturday night with the Cangelosi Cards playing late night; and the Boilermakers wrapping up Sunday night.
I took the bus down from NYC Friday evening after work and met up with Lily (who was my lovely host for the weekend). We got ready for the dance and headed down to Glen Echo’s bumper car pavilion for the New Orleans Jazz Vipers. Glen Echo is a wonderful representation of art deco architecture and while we weren’t in the wonderful Spanish Ballroom until Saturday night, the atmosphere is still great. The dance was packed with barely enough room to swing out even when the band pitched the tempo really high.
As always in 
Saturday night was the battle of the girl DJs Heather Flock versus 
I gave one more private in the afternoon and then taught a Spins and Turns class with Nina. The class was definitely smaller from the previous mornings class with enough space to form a circle and have us on the floor. We started off with some basic turning down the floor and then progressed to variations on the tuck turn and an inside turn from closed. The inside turn variation was one of my favorite ones that Nina does and it was really fun to teach that with her. We also taught a double outside turn where the leads needed more instruction to get the follower through it in the eight counts. I had to leave before the day was up and so missed Naomi’s solo jazz class which finished off the weekend.
