Stompology is one event that I’ve mentioned time and again as a great workshop. Put on by Groove Juice Swing in Rochester, NY, it is in it’s third year. Unlike many events focusing on the partnered aspect of jazz dance, whether that is Balboa, Lindy Hop, Charleston or so on, Stompology focuses exclusively on the solo dances of the jazz family. Tap and soft shoe, charleston, black bottom and much more.
The line up this year included Andy Reid, Naomi Uyama, Jojo Jackson and Mike Faltesek with each of the teachers brings a unique array of style, skills and knowledge.
Friday I arrived off of the train in time for the late night. Held at The Keg, a sports bar, it was a relatively nice change of pace for a late night. There was a front room with the bar area and a second room which held the dance floor and impromptu stage for the musicians. The floor was a faux wood with decent give and slip. The feel of the venue was cozy yet not cramped.
Gordon Websters band started off with some easy swinging tunes until the “secret special guest” arrived, Wycliffe Gordon. I have heard many exceptional musicians and bands but when Wycliffe started to blow on his trombone the energy in the room vaulted. He laid out licks that made the hair on my neck stand up and gave me goose bumps. It was truly a great start to the weekend. (more…)
Camp Jitterbug is one of those events that gets buzz for the next year the minute it finishes. This year was truly no exception.
I had attended Camp Jitterbug back in 2005 when the main dances were still held at the Century Ballroom and the tracks were almost manageable in size. This year had approximately 500 attendees and the classes were overflowing.
The event began with registration at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. They lost my registration somehow, but still managed to have the three numbers for the various competitions that I had registered for so after a bit of waiting in line I had my packet and was queued up with friends outside one of the entrances to the theatre.
For the past couple years I have heard wonderful things about the Jump Session show which is the opening attraction for Camp Jitterbug (enjoy this trailer from last year). It is the only show devoted solely to vernacular jazz dance that I know of in the U.S. It was a full hour and a half production with an Act I and II focusing on jazz dance from charleston, blues and lindy hop to tap and even bop. Download the Jump Session program for a full list of performers here.
The show was M.C.’d by Sean Morris who was dressed sharply in a tuxedo. The opening number was a blues piece performed by members of 23 Skidoo (Teni Lopez-Cardenas, Dan Newsome, Joe Demers and Danielle Hatley) to Wild Man Blues by Sidney Bechet; followed by a charleston piece by Nick Williams and Laura Keat to Charleston by John Barry; and then a lindy hop piece by Max Pitruzella and Annie Trudeau to That Lindy Hop by Duke Ellington. Throughout the remainder of the show there were a couple pieces that truly stood out. Mickey Fortanasce and Kelly Arsenault performed a balboa routine to Wire Brush Stomp by Gene Krupa that had exceptional musicality, shading and quality of movement. Mikey Pedroza and Ramona Staffeld performed a modern jazz piece to Dark Eyes by Earl Hines that was lyrical and built tension very well, it was very nice to see a modern style number in the show.
The Jump Session show was overall quite an enjoyable experience that provides a unique outlet for performance jazz dance that isn’t competition oriented. I would have liked to see the show shortened a bit and some of the numbers cleaned up a bit more but with many of the dancers coming from across the country and putting numbers together in only a short amount of practice it was quite impressive. Additionally, half of all of the proceeds from the Jump Session show is donated to Snohomish County Campfire USA where it is used to fund Jazz Dance programming for youth. (more…)
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.
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.
I had the pleasure to attend Lindyfest on March 13th to 16th. It had been a last minute decision on my part but I was very glad to have attended an event that I have heard so much about and that was launching the much anticipated Lindy Hoppers Fund.
I arrived Thursday afternoon and enjoyed karaoke, some drinks and time with friends new and old before crashing relatively early (2 or 3 am) to get some rest from a day of travel.
One of the great things about Lindyfest is that there are always too many amazing classes that it makes it difficult to pick which ones you’ll attend.
Friday I started the day sitting in on Andy & Nina’s “Fierce Moves” class which had some great dynamic moves showcased (really one of their specialties). Because it was such a gorgeous day Andy, Nina, Swifty and I decided to lounge under some trees in the grass between the two class venues and ended up missing the second class of the day. It was worth it having come from the drab gray of New York.
The last two classes I attended were Manu & Ria’s masters class where they had us breakdown and use a six-count swing out in some very interesting ways; and Naomi’s instructors class which was, in her words basically, “an experimental class”. Naomi’ class was great as she not only had some great points on instruction and teaching from years of experience but also had us run some exercises in teaching.
partnered aspect of jazz dance, whether that is Balboa, Lindy Hop, Charleston or so on, Stompology focuses exclusively on the solo dances of the jazz family. Tap and soft shoe, charleston, black bottom and much more.
For the past couple years I have heard wonderful things about the Jump Session show which is the opening attraction for Camp Jitterbug (
The Jump Session show was overall quite an enjoyable experience that provides a unique outlet for performance jazz dance that isn’t competition oriented. I would have liked to see the show shortened a bit and some of the numbers cleaned up a bit more but with many of the dancers coming from across the country and putting numbers together in only a short amount of practice it was quite impressive. Additionally, half of all of the proceeds from the Jump Session show is donated to Snohomish County Campfire USA where it is used to fund Jazz Dance programming for youth. 
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.
