The Jam Cellar || Swing Dance and Lindy Hop

If you caught the latest edition of "Hey, Mr. Jesse" then you know that Yehoodi Radio is keeping Jam Cellar on the air every Thursday in June!

So tune in to Yehoodi Radio and get ready for The Big Big Event this weekend which will include an all Jam Cellar DJ line up and a live performance by the Hot Club de Jam Cellar!

Don’t worry because you can immerse yourself in an entire weekend of Jam Cellar goodness at The Big Big Event just a little over a week away. There you can hear recorded music played by the Jam Cellar DJ’s in person!

If that wasn’t enough, actual live music will be provided by The Solomon Douglas Swingtet on June 6th and a double bill featuring The Russ Wilson Swingtet and The Boilermaker Jazz Band on June 7th. And somewhere in there will be the live debut of The Hot Club de Jam Cellar!

Register now at www.TheBigBigEvent.com!

Listen this Thursday at Yehoodi.com

Until then, we leave with you with the Dj’s in their own word (with some heavy and often unnecessary editing.)

Luke Albao was born on his birthday, currently resides in Baltimore, and will die on an undisclosed date. Flowers are appreciated.

Jerry Almonte has been dancing, teaching, organizing events and DJ’ing in the DC area since 2001. He loves DJ’ing around DC because the dancers will get down to whatever style and era of jazz and blues (and the more than occasional soul tune) that strikes his fancy on any given night.

Kate Hedin fell into DJing, in 2003, at the legendary Spy Bar in Cleveland, Ohio –usually filling in last minute when Marty & Valerie forgot they were out of town. Because of her passion as a balboa dancer, Kate has also become know for her tunes at balboa events

Allen Kerr strives to get people excited about the music they're dancing too. The music needs to be interesting and have the energy that makes for great dancing. Trying to avoid those overplayed tunes, Allen tries his best to find those hidden gems that keep the dance fresh and exciting.

Betsy Kipperman has been Lindy-hopping for almost ten years. As a music teacher and working musician she has been collecting all kinds of music for a long time. She is partial to all things jazz, but in particular has loved dance music from the '30's and '40's. She is always looking for music that will energize and inspire great dancing.

Mike Marcotte has been DJ'ing in the Washington D.C. area for the past seven years, whether it has been as the house DJ at K2 Dance Studio, putting together Sunday Blues at Glen Echo with his partner Donna Barker, to The Jam Cellar and beyond. The Boilermakers love him, and he wishes he could travel with them spinning their every break.

Andy Reid has dedicated most of his life to listening to, dancing to, promoting, and playing music (poorly). He's more known for his dancing – which he happens to do all over the world – but he also sometimes likes to play his favorite music for dancers, but, truth be told, he'd rather dance or hang out most of the time.

Glenn Scales can be heard regularly around the DC area mostly at The Jam Cellar and Chevy Chase Ballroom. In addition to DJ'ing at DCLX and other various workshop weekends and lindy exchanges, he has manned the DJ booth for several Lindy Hop and Balboa competitions.

Lee Tucker's first exposure to the Lindy Hop occurred at a high school assembly in Ithaca, NY sometime around 1999. To the best of his knowledge, members of Minnie's Moochers taught his high school chorus to do the Charleston, but somehow none of them has yet owned up to taking the gig. Since he moved to DC in 2006, Lee has remained an active DJ and social dancer. His music has been known to cause spontaneous vernacular jazz dancing.

Naomi Uyama discovered lindy hop in her hometown of Washington DC over ten years ago. When she's not traveling in the name of triple steps, decorating cakes, or loving libraries, Naomi lives in D.C. and spends most of her life not being Nina Gilkenson, despite the large amounts of people that think she is.

I want to welcome a new contributer so this blog, Jerry Almonte.  Jerry is a regular DJ and mainstay of the DC scene.  He's kind of a silent knower of all and always has a well thought out and insightful take on pretty much everything.  Jerry also always tends to have the finger on the pulse of what's going and really knows the recent history of the dance.  For that reason, I thought I'd bring him on and see what he has to show us.

Jerry also helps to organize The Big Big Event coming in June 6-8, 2008.  Check it out.

Welcome Jerry.

One of the Jam Cellar founders, Skye Humphries and his partner Frida Segerdahl doing their "24 Robbers" routine at an event in Grenoble, France not too long ago. I like watching dancers reach a comfort level with a routine that allows them to perform it with more ease and playfulness each time.

I'm happy to announce the newest installment with our very own Naomi Uyama… – Editor (Andy)

My Name: Naomi Uyama
Year I Started Swing Dancing: 1997
Where I Started Swing Dancing: Washington DC
Current Location: Washington, DC

Sing Lim

About 3 months after I started swing dance lessons I saw my first "clip", a taste of the dance world outside DC.  Someone was playing the video from Can't Top the Lindy Hop and event that coincided with Frankie's 80th birthday, held in NYC '94.  That's when I saw Sing dancing with Ryan Francois in the opening sequence and a guy standing next to me said "That's Sing Lim.  She's the best follow in the world.  They say she can follow anything."  Boom, my dance universe exploded and I thought, 'that's what I want- to follow anyone doing anything at anytime."  It really shaped my priorities during the sponge phase of learning to dance, and I think her influence, not so much as a literal teacher- I never took a class from her, but as an ideal really shaped my following and the focus I've always put on it.  Aaaand her jam with Ryan towards the end of the vid totally stands the test of time, its amazing.

(See Sing with Ryan Francois at about 2:00 above. – ed)

Sylvia Skylar

Sylvia and Eric taught the first big workshop I ever attended (Coincidentally I believe it was the first big workshop they had taught).   Before then I had just been learning the basics from local teachers.  When I saw her what blew my mind is the way she was doing what she was doing.  I hadn't yet realized there was more than one way of doing things, and that your basics could look stylish, with lines and grace.  Not only that but their presence opened my mind to scenes outside my own, and gave me the desire to travel and dance in other places which proved invaluable in my first years of learning.  Plus she's a funny lady and sews pretty things, who can beat that?

Sylvia Sykes

I remember when the lindy hoppers all adopted Sylvia as their own second mom.  She had been doing her thing for years, keeping the flame alive in the shag and west coast scenes and right around 2000 came this rush of rag tag kids who all claimed her as their own.  Her dancing was smooth and understated.  She could do bal, west coast, shag, and goodness knows what else.  She was a classy and very  versatile follow which I looked up to immensely.  Plus she's been dancing for decades, sometimes with a partner, sometimes without, when her style is in, or when no one had heard of it.  She's a strong dedicated lady and she still shows me a path I would like to take.

Here's the first installment of those who paved by my by little old me.  We'll be having all sorts of other folks doing this, so stay tuned… – Editor (Andy)


My Name: Andy Reid
Year I Started Swing Dancing: 1999
Where I Started Swing Dancing: Ithaca, NY
Current Location: Washington, DC
My Website Address: http://www.andyandnina.com/

My name is Andy Reid.  I started dancing in early 1999 in a swing dance hotspot at the time, Ithaca, NY.  You couldn't walk down the street without seeing a Lindy Hopper.  I started swing dancing after attending a dance with some friends and feeling like a total chump standing awkwardly against a wall for 2 hours until someone finally convinced me to dance.  I felt sufficiently ashamed that I was so inept that I decided to take classes downtown.  Since then, I've forgoed my roots as a hardcore kid addicted to 7" records, to a world traveling performer and teacher. 

Below you will a small sampling of folks who have paved my way as a dancer.  I decided to leave out some of the 1st and 2nd generation Lindy Hoppers because you will find them all over the rest of this blog.  Whitey's Lindy Hoppers – most notably Frankie Manning, Dean Collins, that tall dude from Keep Punchin' that come out first in the "contest", etc, etc.  Instead, I decided to focus on the newer guard.


Inspiration 1: Bill Borgida
Bill was my first teacher so it seems appropriate I start there.  Bill went out of his way to support my dancing.  He invited us over to show us old clips.  He asked me to fill in in his classes when I started getting my chops.  He consistently gave me feedback and filled me with passion from the dance.  Bill drilled into our heads that nothing is more important that having solid basics and an ear for the music.  He started a lot of us out and let us fly… and fly we did.

Here's Bill dancing a year or so ago with Laura Glaess, a fantastic dancer from Austin, TX.

Inspiration 2: Steven Mitchell
Steven taught me how to dance from my heart.  From Steven I learned how amazing it is to move with a partner.  We used to follow him around the northeast (before everyone flew everywhere) and attend all his classes.  Every time I saw Steven he would have a very simple, but very sage piece of advise for me.  He was always very direct and very concise.  I think the most notable advice I recall is when he approached me after watching me dance (during a rather wild and frantic period in my dancing).  He said "I need to take you to my church." and just looked up, opened up his arms, took a breath in and, and stopped moving.  I knew exactly what he meant.  That comment forever changed my dancing.  I've never been a religious person, but Steven introduced me to a sprit that I had never felt before.

Here's a video of Steven dancing with the legendary Dawn Hampton:


And, what the hell, he's a clip from Can't Top The Lindy Hop in 1995.  Steven is in the taxi cab pants and Erin Stevens is his partner:

Inspiration 3: The Rhythm Hot Shots
The Rhythm Hot Shots were a team of dancers from Sweden.  These Swedish powerhouses!  I remember seeing "Hellzapoppin'" for the first time and thinking… "Ain't no way I could do that."  They make me think it's possible.  They are still around as The Harlem Hot Shots.  Check em out.

Another clip from 1995's Can't Top The Lindy Hop.  I must have worn this tape out:



Inspiration 4: (The Other Members of) Minnies Moochers
When I was 22, I was asked to join a dance group full of teenagers.  The were the best dancers in town and I enjoyed their company.  They inspired me and shaped my dancing and we all grew together.  What was happening in this group was really something special and unique and I jumped in head first.  We spend several days of every week in the gym in a creative frenzy and it was one of the greatest times of my life.  Minnie's Moochers was, and is, Kate Engle, Lucy Engle, Caitlin George Wellman, Susan Wolff, Sylvie Ynetma, Jenna Hallas, Simnia Singer Sayada, Ramona Staffeld, Sarah Spence, Mark Eckstein, Robin Coleman, Skye Humphries, Finian Makepeace, Ben Furnas, and I.

Here we are, in 2000 at NADC:



Inspiration 5: (The Other Members of) Silver Shadows
Yes.  Another team I am in.  This team is my family and these are the folks I look to and find the most inspiration.  Silver Shadows are Nina Gilkenson, Naomi Uyama, Ramona Staffeld, Caitlin George Wellman, Frida Segerdahl, Skye Humphries, Peter Strom, Todd Yannacone, and I.

My favorite routine we've done:

Hey folks,

I an attempt to start generating some regular video content on this blog again, I am going to start a new feature called "Those Who Paved My Way". In this feature, many dancers that you may or may not know will be highlighting their teachers/inspirations/mentors with videos and words.

Stay tuned… The first installment will be coming soon.

Andy

PS. For those of you reading this on RSS aggregators, I have revamped the RSS feed so that it now includes the class reviews and a little better presentation. I suggest you unsubscribe and resubscribe to this url: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jamcellar

Well, admittedly, this isn't a dance clip, but I found it interesting enough to mention.

I came across this Slim Gaillard clip today.

While it's hard to recognize the drummer in this video, his name is Scatman Crothers.

You've probably seen him before. Here's a closer look.

Doesn't ring a bell? Well, he's none other than the beloved and charming medium Dick Hallorran from everyone's favorite children's story, The Shining.

He's been in a lot of movies, and is a famous musician. We really paved the way for heros like Ice-T to go from Cop Killa to CSI.

Credit to Peter Loggins for finding this. I bet we'll see some of these airsteps at the next competition.