The Jam Cellar || Swing Dance and Lindy Hop

I mean, Damn.

Damn, Jam Cellar. Kate Hedin. Yeah.

Say what? She's going to be DJing again tonight, after her incredible sets at DCLX? Damn.

And that weather–cool, overcast, the perfect night for dancing and/or loving. And I just realized I have some waffles in the fridge to make that lucky someone for breakfast. Damn.

Damn, Roots and Offshoots.

You mean there's another week of class with hand dancers Markus and Trendlyon tonight? And then a week of rhythm tap with Heidi Schultz(April 20), and a chance for us to get back to our African roots with Chanda Lupunga Phillips (April 27)? (clarification: Lush, the writer of this email, is caucasian.) Damn.

Damn, what you need.

You're already announcing the next intermediate/advanced series? And it's going to be four solid weeks of what I need? Shiiiiiiiii.

Damn, special Balboa mini-workshop with Bobby and Kate, May 8

You mean to tell me that incredibly muscular six-packed Bobby White is going to be teaching a special afternoon of Balboa with that fine looking Kate Hedin? And it's May 8? An Intermediate Balboa Class and at Noon and Advanced at 1 p.m? And each class is only $10. And it happens at DC Dance Collective, 4908 Wisconsin Ave. NW, a few blocks down from Chevy Chase Ballroom? Damn. I love Chevy Chase.

Damn, Special Inter/Adv Lindy Hop workshop with Bobby and Kate, May 22

Well, I don't know if I can believe this: "Bobby and Kate will hold two special classes from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. May 22. The first, is their patented Musicality in Lindy Hop class, at 2 p.m., centered on both leader and follower musicality. Then, at 3 p.m. is Fancy Footwork in the Rhythmic Style a class that has footwork cookies for both Leaders and Followers, that will wonderfully compliment your new musicality skills. Each class is $10. It happens at DC Dance Collective, 4908 Wisconsin Ave. NW, a few blocks down from Chevy Chase Ballroom."

Alright, Jam Cellar. Alright.

–Lush.

P.S.–I can only apologize by saying it was late and I was tired.

Tonight, DJ Glenn Scales

covered in pollen.

Tonight: Roots and Offshoots begins!

We're bringing back one of the most popular classes we've done in the history of Jam Cellar, complete with the original staff: a celebration of dances that inspired Lindy Hop, and dances Lindy Hop inspired. We've got two weeks of Hand Dancing with Markus and Trendlyon (April 6, 13), a week of Tap with Heidi Schultz(April 20), and a week of African Dance with Chanda Lupunga Phillips (April 27). $55 for entire series; $15 drop-ins.

Did we mention we need volunteers?

The Jam Cellar LLC (A Subsidiary of Swing Cat Daddy-O Productions) currently seeks several Close-Down Volunteer Coordinators. Duties include orchestrating crew of volunteers to move speakers, pick up debris, and other duties.* Coordinators will be trained and only expected to close down one or two Tuesdays a month. We are also on the lookout for other volunteer slots as well, all of which involve some form of compensation. Contact huh @ thejamcellarDOTcom

*–"And other duties." This is where companies get you.

May Inter/Adv Series: What You Need

Sometimes what you want is what you need. Sometimes, it's the opposite. Sometimes what you need is to not want. But we're not philosophers. We're just dance teachers. Teachers who plan on giving you what you need: a month-long series devoted to making our intermediate/adv dancers the best damned inter/advanced dancers in the world. Both leaders and followers will go through a boot-camp style fix of their weaknesses, and a hard-core Tony-Horton-inspired workout of their strengths. $55 for entire series; $15 drop-ins.

Special Balboa mini-workshop Type-thing with Bobby and Kate, May 8

Bobby and Kate will be drug-dealing Balboa to those who need a fix: May 8 at noonwe'll be doing an Intermediate Balboa Class and at 1 p.m. we'll be doing an Advanced Balboa Class, each with different material so people can do both. Each class is only $10. Cookies will be given to both leaders and Followers. It happens at DC Dance Collective, 4908 Wisconsin Ave. NW, a few blocks down from Chevy Chase Ballroom. (I know, I know, we love Chevy Chase, too. Especially in Fletch.)

Special Inter/Adv Lindy Hop workshop-type thing with Bobby and Kate, May 22

Bobby and Kate will hold two special classes from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. May 22. The first, is their patented Musicality in Lindy Hop class, at 2 p.m., centered on both leader and follower musicality. Then, at 3 p.m. is Fancy Footwork in the Rhythmic Style a class that has footwork cookies for both Leaders and Followers, that will wonderfully compliment your new musicality skills. Each class is $10. It happens at DC Dance Collective, 4908 Wisconsin Ave. NW, a few blocks down from Chevy Chase Ballroom. (I know, I know, we love Chevy Chase, too. Especially in Fletch 2.)

The Old Timer (Conclusion: Making Noise)

This is the final part of an essay where I discuss the world of the original swing-era dancer; a person that, in many ways, was probably not like you and me. You can find the other entries at SwungoverDOTcom. Part 1: A Classless Dance ; Part 2: A Release of Energy ; Part 3: Inside and Outside the Box ; Part 4: "The Only Count I Know is Basie."

Conclusion: Making Noise

Most of us feel something very powerful when we listen to a great swing song, or watch Hellzapoppin. And we try to capture that feeling–the feeling Frankie Manning had plastered on his face every time he danced. I think it's particularly easy for modern (especially young) dancers to fall into the trap that, if you know the moves, and try to emulate the way someone else does them, then you'll be able express that same feeling–but that's like looking at a map and a picture of a place and thinking you've been there.

When I look back at the dance floors of the last ten years, I see a lot of things (A lot of which I saw in myself, as well). A shot of the late 1990s shows me that most people thought swing dancing was a Gap ad: nothing but turns, kicks and aerials. A shot of the early 2000s show me that a lot of people thought swing was perfectly recreating Hollywood movie dancers, or trying to be as musical as possible with a groove style. A look at the late-2000s dance floor shows me that a lot of people think a Charleston pulse should be danced to all swing music regardless of how smooth it is. All of which point to calculating our dancing based on what we see others do versus what we feel like doing when we ourselves listen to the music.

Perhaps the spirit of the original jitterbugs is as simple as that: All they knew about swing was what they heard when they stepped onto the dance floor.

It's beautifully simple and honest, and shows why certain aspects of the modern scene in the last ten years look different than the original dancers. A great original dancer might only know five basic moves, but they could do those moves all night long, and happily, because they could dance the shit out of those five moves. And those five moves would all be done with a personal, individual style. If it wasn't swing music, then you weren't going to do swing to it. And if you felt like making noise, you screamed or yelled or whooped or giggled.

As ideal as that sounds, I think I would be doing a disservice to ourselves and the original dancers if we treat them only with nostalgia: pretending times were automatically better then, and everything they did was better than now. Certainly this is not the case. As a whole, our technique, our understanding of dance mechanics, and micro musicality is a lot better than the original dancers, and many of them have stated as much. But I do think, like we all too often do in the modern times, we have adopted and progressed something without paying close attention to where it came from.

Though classes, counts, and moves can make us really great dancers, the spirit of the original jitterbug doesn't originate there. It wasn't what they did; it was the way they did it.

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This week, Jerry Almonte

will sit behind the DJ booth and quietly blow your minds.

Oh Captain, my Captain! Tonight: Andy Reid's Final Jam Cellar Hurrah!

One of our founding fathers, Andy Reid, is about to begin a long journey where he will face his greatest fears and confront his destiny, and after years of wandering a savage and fruitless wasteland, he will finally find in the depth of his soul, a mirror, and himself staring back at him.

It might be Seattle, or maybe New Orleans.

But before then, we're going to see him off. And in Jam Cellar style. Bring libations, but drink responsibly.

On a serious note, we can't say how important Andy Reid has been to Jam Cellar. He really has put so much effort and work and thought into everything the Jam Cellar is that we started missing him already four months ago when he mentioned he'd be moving. Jam Cellar's t-shirts, hoodies, flyers, website, and much of it's philosophy are rooted in Andy Reid. But fear not, we're going to keep him alive in spirit, (and by constantly emailing him asking him to design stuff for us.) You're a good man, Andy Reid.

Did we mention we need volunteers?

The Jam Cellar LLC (A Subsidiary of Swing Cat Daddy-O Productions) currently seeks several Close-Down Volunteer Coordinators. Duties include orchestrating crew of volunteers to move speakers, pick up debris, and other duties.* Coordinators will be trained and only expected to close down or or two Tuesdays a month. We are also on the lookout for other volunteer slots as well, all of which involve some form of compensation.Contact huh @ thejamcellarDOTcom

*–"And other duties." This is where companies get you.

Tonight: Aerial Taster!

Not sure if aerials are for you, and you want to start small? Want a better understanding of aerial mechanics in general? Want you and your partner to build better partnership connection and trust? Tonight's aerials class is for you. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

April series: ROOTS AND OFFSHOOTS

We're bringing back one of the most popular classes we've done in the history of Jam Cellar, complete with the original staff: a celebration of dances that inspired Lindy Hop, and dances Lindy Hop inspired. We've got two weeks of Hand Dancing with Markus and Trendlyon (April 6, 13), a week of Tap with Heidi Schultz(April 20), and a week of African Dance with Chanda Lupunga Phillips (April 27). $55 for entire series; $15 drop-ins.

The Old Timer (Part 4: "The Only Count I Know is Basie")

Musicality in the Old Timer world is an enormous part of why they danced the way they did. It's a topic I'm infatuated with, and these conclusions may not last long as I keep thinking, or as I discuss this topic with others. But hopefully you will find some interesting and inspiring thoughts in this section. In our last installment, music began to enter into our equation when we mentioned how different a night of dancing would have been to a dancer who would have heard the same style of swing dance music played almost every night of a year. For this installment, we dive a lot deeper into the Old Timer dancers and how music effected their dancing.

Imagine you're a dancer in the 1930s. Dancing for you means going out at several nights a week, and every night to a different big band, each one using different arrangements. When the leader announces he's going to play "Flying Home," you don't know anything about how the song is going to sound except that the melody will roughly go "Bad-da-daaa, da-da-dadadum…Bad-da-daaa, da-da-dadadum…etc."

Any of the intricate stuff in this night's arrangement, or the improvised notes a soloist adds to the music make listening to it enjoyable and rewarding, but the chances of you as a dancer being able to change your dancing specifically to all those tiny sections as they fly by your ears are slim, especially because they would take such mental effort and skill that it'd probably be too mentally frustrating to even try it. The result–you'd spend more time dancing musically to the overall phrasing or big-picture melody, the overall flow of the music. It's the "flying home" melody, after all. And if you don't get it the first few times, they'll repeat it. Sure, the arranger might switch it up a bit, tweak it a little, but you can work with that a lot easier than trying to be incredibly musical on every small thing that passes by. You can hit things in the small part of the music, but it's through subtle, small changes in your overall movements–things that are easier to manipulate in the moment.

Now, put yourself in your modern dance shoes. When you go out dancing, you will hear the Fat's Waller recording of "All that meat and no potatoes," which you have heard fifty seven times this year alone. (For me, that's fine; it's a good song.) You know every note of that song, sub consciously if not consciously. When you dance to it, you will probably be able to hit and emphasize all the minor musical intricacies very well.

Now, here's where it gets strange: When you suddenly hear a song you don't know, you might still try to dance to the musical intricacies in it. If the song isn't full of obvious swing music cliches that will make that easy, you will have a rough flow, or make some mistakes and end up looking really un-musical, and walk away from the dance not satisfied with the musicality in your dance.

You have become a micro-musicality dancer. You have trained your musicality muscles to mainly focus on the small stuff, perhaps because you have equated "musicality" to mean "being able to dance to a song's musical changes very intricately." If you are a follow, this is not a problem, but a strength–it's the only way for you to play a major roll in musicality, since the leader interprets all the bigger movements (More on this later.) If you're a leader and this describes you, then you have forgotten how to take pleasure and satisfaction in your overall "big-picture" musicality. This is a very large difference between the old time dancer and the new.

I began thinking about this topic after talking to Nick Williams and David Rehm, who had the topic as a part of a musicality class they put on together. They told me how they had noticed the old time dancers phrased* for their musicality, whereas a lot of new dancers seem to put more emphasis on what we call micro-musicality; the minute musical stuff. They deserve credit for planting the seed that began my own explorations into old-timer musicality. The more I thought about it, the more obvious sense it made, and the more I could formulate why it was that way for an old timer dancer. This was when I composed the opening paragraph, a little schpeel I give in classes on musicality. This musicality is a very important aspect to why classic dancing looks the way it does.

For instance, look at Hellzapoppin, which was originally choreographed to "Jumpin' at the Woodside," but because it was danced to overall phrases, fits nicely into other songs. Look at the California, a piece of choreography that is universal to almost any AABA song. Look at Al Minns dancing to Jumpin at the Woodside at 1:15 in this clip. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvegobsHOVE&feature=PlayList&p=0F1CC38A3FB68C27&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=21). Or the Old Timers at Bobby McGees. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3OC6CuuUzg).

Since the old timer did most of their social dancing to live music, and thus their musicality was refined to live music, I think an old time dancer evolves their movements roughly in proportion to the importance of things in the music. Overall pulse and the way they step is determined by the songs feeling and mood. The songs melody and phrasing commands their big movements, like turns and patterns. The small stuff in the music gets a proportionately small amount of attention.

I'm not suggesting that modern dancers should give up their micro-musicality–it's a great tool, show's great skill, and makes it fun to dance to certain songs repeatedly; it's a natural product of the DJ dance world. In a way, it's something important we have contributed to the dance, like advanced frame and comfortable lead/follow skills. But I do think we should (1) remember phrasing is an important, powerful, and subtle musicality skill, and that (2) we need to always keep our micro-musicality in proportion, lest it dominate our dancing.

Where micro-musicality probably did come into play with old timers was jazz tropes–Swing music can be pretty predictable, and so I think a lot of micro-musicality evolved out of those predictable jazz moments. For instance, we all know that if we hear "Shave and a haircut," we can almost guarantee a "TWO BITS!" will follow. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers make constant use of the swing tropes in "Follow the Fleet," where the bugle call rag trumpet always prompts them to tap-out the final part, no matter what they're doing at the time. Jazz tropes were so common that band leaders like Artie Shaw began setting up Jazz tropes only to twist their endings to psych-out listeners (In Artie's case, often specifically to piss off dancers, whom he despised).**

For leaders, I think this is why old timer's tend to have a few fancy moves to bust out when people are watching, but otherwise dance a whole bunch of basic movements that they alter slightly with footwork or feel. In most of the social dancing we have, like Bobby McGees, or even the Spirit Moves jams, or even Frankie Manning, a master of innovative moves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e00F7OimG6U), we see leaders dominantly keeping to basic moves and playing within those moves.

Here's the great news, thanks to in-depth thinking and research done on musicality by my partner and a classically-trained musician, Kate Hedin: Micro-musicality has liberated the swing dance follower. Since they have almost no control over the lead moves of the dance, and more-or-less have to match their partners for pulse and flow, followers in history have not had a chance to do much more than generic "this is the mood of the song" musicality and throwing in small, odd stylings–there is very little instances of follower-specific musicality in old timer footage. But while a follower has no control over the lead moves, she can hit the small stuff. Great modern day followers are capable of expressing what they feel to the music very specifically.

The way the old timers thought of phrasing points to a broader point of how they experienced music differently than we tend to. Norma Miller used to say, famously "The only count I know is Basie."

The Count Basie pun is easy to say (and nod your head at, soulfully and knowingly) but hard for some dancers, especially new ones or musically trained ones, to fully understand right away. It's incredibly common for someone in a beginner class to ask "Why is a turn 6-counts–doesn't that mess things up, musically?"*** What Norma means, to be very technical about it, is that the original dancers had no training in counts, and didn't assume any rules about moves taking 4 or 8 counts to do so that they fit perfectly into the structure of swing music. (Besides, anyone who sees strict 8-count dancing can see how repetitive and predictable it looks after a few moments, something you don't want swing dancing to look or feel like).

Today, we summarize it by saying the original dancers did a lot of 8-count moves, because they are musical, but when it got down to it, only really cared about 2-count chunks, or up-beats and down beats. Those two-beat chunks are the basic Legos of swing music, and a dancer just puts those Legos together. That's why you can break almost all moves easily into 2-beat chunks. (For instance, a side pass– a rock-step two-beat chunk, a triple step two-beat chunk, and another triple step two-beat chunk.)

The pros to not concerning yourself with counts is that as a dancer, you can spend more time paying attention to the music, and allowing your movements to be driven by it naturally rather than specific dance steps set to pre-planned times. The cons to not thinking about counts is the simple fact that understanding counts are a great way to learn dance and a great way to control and hone rhythm and keep it from getting messy, which a lot of dancers who don't pay attention to counts have problems with.

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*–I'd like to explain why I have chosen to use the word "phrasing." The old timers (for the most part) didn't think of their music in technical terms, and phrasing is most definitely a technical word, so in that sense, it doesn't seem like it's the perfect choice. But as a term, a "phrase" of jazz music describes nicely the small musical stories that are told in a swing song. It describes the build-up and climax of a melody which are precisely the parts of music a good dancer would have been paying attention to. It is for this reason that I think "phrasing" is perhaps the best one-word way of describing their sense of big-picture musicality.

But, to be more specific, the big picture parts of the music that would have been the priority of the old timers also include the mood of the music (energetic phrases and drum solos compared to mellow phrases and piano solos) and the melodic narrative as a whole. If at any point in this discussion I get too white, just let me know.

**–Artie Shaw was an infamous grouch. Among one of the many things he disliked was dancers, whom he thought would dance to "a windshield wiper" as long as it had a steady beat. It is apparently because of this dislike that his soloist would break the form of jazz tropes, and his drummers would often hit odd beats to accentuate the music. Perhaps to Artie's corpse's chagrin, the result was a group of songs that became a great tool for swing choreographers like Kevin and Carla in the early 2000s, who found Artie's songs so interesting that they inspired original and interesting choreography.

So, imagine Artie Shaw being asked to make a "soundie," the 1930s equivalent of a music video. Many of them had dancing as part of their production, but Artie Shaw refused having dancers being filmed while his musicians were playing and should get all the attention. But, Artie Shaw was a favorite dance band of the era, and its understandable the producers would want to market to that audience. In the soundie for " Lady Be Good," the producers found their loophole: by filming collegiate shag dancers separately on a different sound stage on a different day, they faded the dancing shots in and out over the video for the band.

***– My own answer for why a turn can take 6-beats: It's the perfect amount of time for one turn to take. Four counts is too fast for every turn. Eight counts is too long. Six is just right.

This is the fourth part of an essay where I discuss the world of the original swing-era dancer; a person that, in many ways, was probably not like you and me. Also, I work very hard on the thoughts and words put into these essays. If you mention these ideas to others, please throw in a reference and/or send them to this website. Part 1: A Classless Dancer. Part 2: A Release of Energy. Part 3: Inside and Outside the Box

This Week, DJ Luke Albao

But you know him as Ralph Machio. Also, it is the day that celebrates/mourns the assassination of Emperror Paul 1 of Russia, the third most powerful man with mother issues in world history.

Paul 1 is born, grows up

Paul is born to Emperor Peter and his wife, Catherine in 1754. However, almost from the beginning, Catherine implies that Paul is not Peter's son, but the son of one of her lovers. It is believed to be a rumor she spread to lay doubt on his claim to the throne to support her own claim. As a boy, he was known to be intelligent and good looking, but an episode of Typhus left him with a pug nose throughout his adult life.

March's Inter/Adv Classes (March 2-March 23) HOLLYWOOD AND HARLEM:
Classic Moves and Styling

Tonight is the final class of this exciting series. Drop-ins welcome . 8:30 p.m. $15. Students should be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series.

Paul 1's early life

Paul's mother arranges two marriages for Paul; the first wife dies in childbirth. Paul soon becomes paranoid people are trying to kill him, even openly accusing his mother of putting broken glass in his food. It was around this time that Pugachev, a commander in the Russian Army, claimed he was the actual Peter I, and raised an army to go after the throne. This made Catherine, who was ruling the country, strongly reactionary, and not very well-liked by the peasants.

March 30– AERIAL TASTER CLASS

Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

Paul 1 gets a throne

Paul's mother died of a stroke in 1796. Pauls' first action was to destroy her will, which attempted to give the throne to her grandson. During his first year, he reverses many of the harsh acts his other passed, he noticed the Russian nobles were corrupt and began punishing them for their corruption, and ordered the bones of his mother's favorite lover dug up and scattered.

April series: ROOTS AND OFFSHOOTS

We're bringing back one of the most popular classes we've done in the history of Jam Cellar, complete with the original staff: a celebration of dances that inspired Lindy Hop, and dances Lindy Hop inspired. We've got two weeks of Hand Dancing with Markus and Trendlyon (April 6, 13), a week of Tap with Heidi Schultz(April 20), and a week of African Dance with Chanda Lupunga Phillips (April 27). $55 for entire series; $15 drop-ins.

Paul 1 is assassinated

Paul had alienated many powerful people with his attempts to demand chivalry from his nobility. His decisions in war were questioned, as well. On the night of May 23, 1801, Paul was in his bedroom when a group of drunken, discharged soldiers, hired to assassinate him, entered his room. They stabbed him, then strangled him, and finally trampled him to death, apparently not being very good at assassinating people. (or perhaps too good.)

DCLX bands

Touche', DCLX: Jonathan Stout, The Boilermakers, The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, and the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs. Still the best dance bang for your Lindy Exchange buck, the DC Lindy Exchange is almost here.

Tonight, DJ Kate Hedin

Swingin'est set you've ever seen. (By which we mean heard.)

March's Inter/Adv Classes (March 2-March 23) HOLLYWOOD AND HARLEM:
Classic Moves and Styling

Drop-ins welcome in this month's new series. In the original days of swing, Hollywood and Harlem were the nation's hot spots for swing dancing. Though each dancer was unique, East Coasters and West Coasters tended to share certain styles and moves in common with others from their areas. In this class, the Jam Cellar crew will teach many of these Hollywood and Harlem styles and moves, to give inter/adv dancers great tools for leading and following, and to give their dancing that classic look. Throw in a lot of discussion on the history of jazz dance, and this thing's a steal. 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 2-23. $55 for entire series. $15 drop ins. Students should be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series.

March 30– AERIAL TASTER CLASS

Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

April series: ROOTS AND OFFSHOOTS

We're bringing back one of the most popular classes we've done in the history of Jam Cellar, complete with the original staff: a celebration of dances that inspired Lindy Hop, and dances Lindy Hop inspired. We've got two weeks of Hand Dancing with Markus and Trendlyon (April 6, 13), a week of Tap with Heidi Schultz(April 20), and a week of African Dance with Chanda Lupunga Phillips (April 27). More details coming soon.

DCLX bands

Touche', DCLX: Jonathan Stout, The Boilermakers, The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, and the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs. Still the best dance bang for your Lindy Exchange buck, the DC Lindy Exchange is taking registrations now.

The Old Timer (Part 3: Inside and Outside the Box)

Part 3 of a 5-Part essay on how the old timers were probably different from us. Read Parts 1 and 2 at www.swungover.com.

In thinking about the dancing life of the old timers, something perhaps deceptively important is how consistent the music would have been to an original dancer: any swing music you would have heard at the Savoy in 1939 would have pretty much the same feeling; dancers didn't have to change much about their pulse or style of dancing like a modern dancer, who might one moment be expected to dance to a 1925 Charleston song, the next a late period boogie woogie, and the next a 1950s Count Basie song, all of which ask for very different takes on the same basic movements.* I believe this meant an original dancer could get "into a groove" better throughout a night of dancing than a modern dancer might, not having to change the fundamental pulse and style hardly any at a night of dancing. (This leads to another topic which will be discussed in part 4.)

This confinement to a certain style of music would have been a limitation, a box, that helped shape the dance. Another great limitation we probably don't think about much today would have been how many other styles of swing dancing an original jitterbugger would have seen.

I don't think we can underestimate how much bigger the world was in the 1930s than it is now. If you were a regular working or middle-class person in the era, there was very little chance you had ever gone halfway around the country, much less dreamed of going abroad on vacation.

This meant, as a swing-dancer in the 1930s, you probably hardly ever saw anyone dance who wasn't from your region. You might have taken train trips, or moved to a different city, but this was relatively few people compared to today. You might also have seen all the swing dance movies, like Buck Privates, but you'd have to spend a lot of money to be able to fathom what was going on with the dancing, since the movie would only play for a few weeks then be gone until the VCR came out fifty years later. Swing dancer and clip-studier Nick Williams, on the other hand, has probably seen Buck Privates hundreds of times, much more than anyone in the original swing era ever has.

So, there were obvious differences in the way people danced based on region.** There are lots of stories about how in some regions, even individual high schools had their own dance styles, and local teenagers could spot rival high-schoolers based on how they danced.

The modern swing scene, however, has Herrang. It has relatively cheap airfare and planes that go anywhere. It has, most importantly, You Tube. Three hours after a contest happens in New Orleans, a Korean dancer can download it and see what Lindy Hop in New Orleans looks like. The upside, of course, is that someone in Korea, who never had a chance to see Lindy Hop before, can see all they want to now. And that's awesome when you think about it. The downside, ironically, is that a year from now, Lindy Hop from Korea may very well cease to look any different from Lindy Hop in New Orleans. Of course this is too extreme to happen to such an extent, but there's no doubt that, even compared to five years ago, regional differences in dancing are a lot less dramatic.

Why are regional differences important? It's tempting to theorize that since the original dancers had only a few local hot shots for inspiration, and an occasional movie, their relative isolation gave them a better opportunity to develop individual styles. What I mean to say is, having tons of resources isn't necessarily good for creativity, which often does its best work under a certain amount of limits and obstacles. Yes, the original jitterbugs dance floor might have been empty in terms of dancers that they could get inspiration from. But a creative person would look at an empty dance floor and see all the spaces they could fill.

You Tube is, to be sure, an incredibly good resource for anyone wanting to dance, and I wouldn't have it taken away for anything. It's brought inspirational dancing to far too many people who wouldn't have been able to see it otherwise. And for me, its an incredibly good resource to study dance, and write long essays such as this, but I have to keep myself in check, lest I allow my focus in dance to become mainly looking at other people enjoy a great swing song while I sit in a chair with bad posture.***

The boxes that we put our dancing into are different boxes than the old timers had. Whereas they had boxes mainly of regional confinement, style of music, and a stricter idea of social behavior, we don't. (The evidence of which is nicely summed up in the words "Blues exchange.") Often, we've put our own boxes around a lot of our dancing, like in the late 90s/early 2000s, when we'd almost purposefully constrict ourselves with boxes labeled "Hollywood Style" or "Savoy Style" or "Groove," only to leap right back out of those boxes after stuffing ourselves in them for a few years. These boxes are for the most part gone, but now we have the burden of choice: Too many possibilities.****

Which is one of the reasons I've been thinking about the old timers recently.

World War II, of course, quickly brought the rest of the world to almost every person in America. Men who had never stepped outside of their state met Europe and Asia up close and personal. When they went home, for most of them it was time to find a job, start a family, and very few kept up the youthful hobby they loved. Even if they had wanted to continue swing dancing regularly, the music wasn't around much after the war, as jazz had turned to Bee-Bop. Except for a few groups of dancers in California and New York who continued to meet up and dance or perform over the next seventy years, the original jitterbug was, for the most part, extinct.

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*–One could argue this gives an unsuspected regional bias in modern competitions. Imagine you spend most of your week dancing to 1950s Count Basie at your local club, and then enter a contest at a big out-of-town workshop weekend. They start-off with a 1920s Bechet number, and you try your best; even though you might be a much better technical dancer than those in the comp who dance to that style of music all night at their weekly club, there's a very good chance that won't show in the competition. Hopefully you go home realizing you either need to practice to all kinds of music if you want to be a competitor, or you simply should choose very carefully what contests you enter.

Now however, I think the regional bias has given way to the workshop weekend competitor. This is a person who does well in competitions because they spend most of their money and time going to events with competitions and where the music they dance to is the music they will hear in competitions. They might not even go out dancing in their own town, because they spend all their dancing energy away.

**–The differences were obvious enough for people in the late 1990s to deem them styles, like "Hollywood" and "Savoy" style, which, at the time, was to help people see those differences in styles, but, in hindsight, ballooned out of control and undercut (1) the similarities of dance the mechanics both styles shared with each other, and (2) the individuality of many of the dancers involved. For instance, put Hal Takier between Frankie Manning and Dean Collins, and it'd be very hard to put a label on him.

***–In the 1980s, rock music discovered the synthesizer (trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.) The result was that almsot eveyr song had loud, obnoxious synthesizer, taking a new technology and focusing so much on it, and having it mess up almost every good melody, before Depeche Mode came to the party and told everyone to chill the fuck out and showed them how it was done. I think that we are still running rampant a little with all the technical improvements in the world. I'm not anti-or pro-technology; it is a tool, and can be used for good or evil. So I'm very happy we have the ability to do all this stuff with technology, but I' don't think I'm at a point yet where I'm using it only to better my life. For example: I try now to allow myself to check email only twice a day, unless I'm awaiting something important: this save me roughly ten hours of daylight to do other things.

****–There's a great TED talk (promoting a book written by) Barry Schwartz which talks about how too many choices leads to unhappiness rather than more happiness. Basically, the modern person has so many choices that blame for not being happy with something is placed on the modern person. Schwartz puts it really well in an anecdote about himself buying jeans: He had the same pair of basic jeans for ten years, never had a problem. Goes to buy new jeans, realizes there are fifty varieties, he gets fitted, buys a pair, and knows the jeans fit and look better than his old pair of jeans. But he's not actually happy, because he can't help but think there is yet another pair of jeans that would fit even better, or look better, if he just looked a little harder. He concludes: in the old days, there was only one pair of jeans, and so if something didn't fit right or look right, it was the world's fault, not yours, and you could move on with your life a lot happier and sooner. Thus, too many options and choices tend to give people the unhappy feeling that there might always be something more/greater/perfect out there.

FBI notice: I work very hard on the thoughts and words put into these essays. Likewise, I try to quote and give credit to those who have inspired my thoughts in this essay. If you mention these ideas to others, please throw in a reference and/or send them to this website.

Tonight, DJ Mike Marcotte,

And, Beginner 6-Weeks Series starts tonight

Our incredible 6-week Beginner Lindy Hop series begins tonight. Tell your friends.

Boilermaker Jazz Band @ Glen Echo Park! (Sat) March 13

Need we say more? They're incredible. $15 Admission, Beginner Swing Lesson @ 8PM (Free with admission), Dance From 9PM – 12AM. Glen Echo Park Park Spanish Ballroom, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, Maryland. Presented in cooperation with the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts & Culture, Inc., the National Park Service and Montgomery County, MD

March's Inter/Adv Classes (March 2-March 23) HOLLYWOOD AND HARLEM:
Classic Moves and Styling

Drop-ins welcome in this month's new series. In the original days of swing, Hollywood and Harlem were the nation's hot spots for swing dancing. Though each dancer was unique, East Coasters and West Coasters tended to share certain styles and moves in common with others from their areas. In this class, the Jam Cellar crew will teach many of these Hollywood and Harlem styles and moves, to give inter/adv dancers great tools for leading and following, and to give their dancing that classic look. Throw in a lot of discussion on the history of jazz dance, and this thing's a steal. 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 2-23. $55 for entire series. $15 drop ins. Students should be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series.

March 30– AERIAL TASTER CLASS

Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

OH MY GOD, DCLX BANDS

Touche', DCLX: Jonathan Stout, The Boilermakers, The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, and the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs. Still the best dance bang for your Lindy Exchange buck, the DC Lindy Exchange is taking registrations now.

April series: ROOTS AND OFFSHOOTS

We're bringing back one of the most popular classes we've done in the history of Jam Cellar, complete with the original staff: a celebration of dances that inspired Lindy Hop, and dances Lindy Hop inspired. We've got two weeks of Hand Dancing with Markus and Trendlyon, a week of Tap with Heidi Schultz, and a week of African Dance with Chanda Lupunga Phillips. More details coming soon.

The Old Timer, Part 2: A Release of Energy

This is the 2nd part of a 5-part essay about how the original swing dancers were probably different than you or me. As I mentioned in the last post, I've been wrestling with this deformed mutant death section for two weeks. My apartment is covered in blood and paper scraps. I don't pretend to know who won. Hope you enjoy it, though. Read Part 1: A Classless Dance, here. The other four entries are much shorter, I promise. Also, I hope it goes without saying that many dancers today DO inhabit the spirit of the original jitterbugs. The criticisms in these essays are geared towards general trends within the scene.

A Release of Energy

The first swing out was like madness. It was everyman for himself. The loud yell from the dancers meant that it was on. They made noises similar to those of Martial Arts, the sound that releases pent up energy.

–Norma Miller, describing the first night of Harvest Moon Ball semi-finals at the Savoy.

The great depression caused such a stifling melancholy on the country, it actually makes sense that people would spend money they couldn't afford to go out and hear great jazz and forget their troubles. For mild-mannered teenagers in America, the explosion of swing music expressed an excitement that sharply contrasted the boring, sugar-sweet music their parents listened to, and we all know how important music is to teenage culture.* Swing music and swing rhythm itself can be characterized by it's paradoxically relaxed but driving release of energy.

An original swing dancer probably released a great deal of their pent-up physical, emotional, and social energy through a night of dancing. Think about it: A modern person can do a million things to entertain themselves physically and emotionally. In the 1930s, and during the great depression, even a person who lived in the city had much more limited options. For most average Americans, movies, dancing, or drinking at a bar were probably the main desires as far as leaving the house, (which, come to think of it, is not very different from several of my friends). And only one of those was a place where a teenager could meet other people and socialize. Aside from the malt shop, it's where teenagers met up before the age of arcades, malls, concerts, and cocaine orgies. And even malt shops had records and dancing. It's also not surprising because, as we all know, swing dancing is fun as hell.

Let's take a California teenager, or even a person living near the Savoy, like a young Frankie Manning or Norma Miller. That person could easily dance almost every night of the week, to incredible live, big bands whose sole (and soul) purpose was playing for dancers. (A much-more-complicated-than-you-would-think art, and a lost one, with the exception of a handful of modern bands).**

Anyway, that teenager that could dance five nights a week was, like most teenagers, probably interested in gaining acceptance with their peers and dates with members of the opposite sex. This means, realistically, a good portion of their dance energy was probably spent towards impressing their partner or competing with (friendly or not friendly) rivals. Or, take Frankie and Norma, who had to constantly one-up dancers like Shorty Snowden to get recognition. Anyway you look at it, showing off was a part of the spirit of the original jitterbugs.*** For instance, can you name any other partner dance where it's common practice to have people all of a sudden start clapping around another couple and then have people take turns exhibiting their dance? The fact that Jam Circles were a part of jazz dance beautifully illustrates this spirit.

And I don't think it's a bad thing. A lot of us who grew up in the 90s, were taught, often subconsciously, that being a competitive person is at root a bad thing; that putting focus on one-upping someone else is contradictory to the more kindly spirit of simply trying your best and enjoying what you're doing. The old dancers, if they thought about it at all, didn't think the two ideas were contradictory. I believe almost all tried their best and enjoyed what they were doing, part of which was the game of trying to one-up their friends and rivals. It's a pretty easy impression to get from talking to old timers, or by reading Norma Miller's Book, the Savoy Section of Marshall Stearns Jazz Dance, and Frankie Manning's autobiography. It's a form of competition that, if fostered in a healthy way, can lead to incredibly inspiring dancing. ****

It helps to clarify that (1) "showing off" has a modern negative connotation implying a vain act, and though I do think vanity probably creeps into it somewhere for a lot of people, I don't believe it's a necessary part of it and I'd prefer for people to look on it more as a neutral term for "displaying their skills" and (2) there are different ways to show off.

Of course, the modern dance scene, especially a lot of competitors, don't seem to have much of a problem with wanting to show off. But I think there are several important problems with the way many of the modern dancers choose to show off . (For instance, I think it's easy for many competitors to choose the form of showing off where you say "Here's what I can do, can you do it?", whereas a more difficult, and more artistic, way to show off is "This is who I am, who are you?" That's what I see so clearly when I see Al and Leon dance next to each other. Of course, an up-and-coming swing modern competitor should not be expected to have reached the level of self-expression of veterans like Al and Leon.) But that's something we'll talk about later.

Chivalry

Before I do, I'd like to put forward a theory that (I think) plays an important role in the way a lot of the original dancers showed off. Despite the fact that a majority of the old timer leaders around today are "dirty old men," who would make a sexist/racist/anti-Commie/pornographic comment by the end of two shots of George Dickel, almost all of them still grew up with an idea of chivalry that is different than what we have today. This is due partly to the fact they were a lot closer to the Victorian era than we are (And don't get me wrong–chivalry, to this writer, is good human decency). But it is also probably due to the fact that chivalry, to a male teenager, is a great way of impressing women, an old-fashioned way of showing off.

And I think this chivalry extended into their dance: To the old timers, it was very important to be a good person to dance with. And showing off that you were a good person to dance with didn't just mean you could dance well and lead challenging steps, like it tends to do today. If you were that teenager we were talking about (Ah, yes, the teenager), you paid attention to your partner, you kept him/her from getting kicked around on the floor, and you'd be right there with them through the tricky moves. (For instance, Frankie Manning always taught, "Bow to your queen.") To top it off, you'd show off your partner to everyone else on the dance floor. *****

As further evidence for this chivalry, I'll use this anecdote: Sylvia Sykes likes having the original Pure Balboa dancer Dean Raferty judge leads in modern Balboa Jack and Jills, because he always marks down heavily for leaders who don't pay attention to their followers. Some of the "hot shot" leads in these contest won't even get passed through to finals by him–a score they should pay attention to. As evidence to the fact that this chivalry is often a double-standard, Sylvia doesn't like many old timer leaders to judge followers because they'll just choose the girl with the best legs.

I know what you're saying–the old timers muscled their women around, and in many clips, the leaders are just holding onto their followers to show off (Perhaps they will use Leon James, in his spirit moves slide jam, to prove the point–his jam is 3:03-3:30 in this clip.)

But I believe this peacock jam actually proves my point nicely. First off, yes, this is a jam where Leon James shows off (in the "Sausage Fest" section of the Spirit Moves–which I must admit I could happily watch for hours) and takes almost all of the attention away from his follower. (But she does have plenty of space in the movements to dance and show off her own styling). But, more importantly, if you watch this clip and imagine an average modern couple doing the exact same jam, what would be out of place? I think it'd be rare to see 3:25-3:33 in a modern jam–a moment where both leader and follower are simply smiling and laughing with each other. Leon James IS paying attention to his partner, he even stops all of his peacocking and breaks down for a moment to share a laugh with her.

Competition

Now that we have added a little chivalry to the mix, let's look at that teenager (what teenager?) in the other part of their dance life: competitions. A dancer in the swing era might have done contests all the time, especially if they were a California dancer. The California kids we see in the films made a lot of their spending money by winning contests, which I've heard some old timers say happened practically every night. Also, the California kids had access to Hollywood, and the opportunity to dance in a lot of films if they were good enough. Thus, showing off became an entertainment art. I believe a lot of partners began working more as stage performers than social dancers–an important distinction to make.

As far as early Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag footage goes, we have almost nothing of social dancing, let alone social dancing to the actual music the dancer's are dancing to. Almost everything we see in the original footage is someone who knows there is a camera right there, which we all know affects the way people dance. But, retracing my argument from an earlier footnote, I think we can still get an idea for the spirit of the original jitterbuggers even though we're not seeing them in their natural social-dancing habitat, at least.

Modern day dancers are different people in a different world, dancing for possibly different reasons. I started off dancing not only because I was drawn to it like a moth to the flame, but because I realized I was a theater dork who had no idea how to talk to a girl I wasn't in a play with. For many others, they're the math and science types who realize that the world of meet-and-greet bars is a needlessly awkward method of socializing. And for almost all of us, it's a love for something in the past–something we have at least some level of nostalgic passion for. I think it's interesting that for us, we're enjoying a historical hobby, but for them, it was a popular, contemporary hobby. I don't think it's very important, just interesting. I think the fact we all, original and modern dancers, love the music so much, is far more uniting than such a difference in point-of-view would be dividing.

The idea that "showing off" is a part of the original spirit of the jitterbug might be hard for some modern people to latch onto. After all, a lot of us modern dancers are simply looking for a fun time, good exercise, and a chance to enjoy great music. Is there anything wrong with this? Of course not. I even think such an idea is very much in the spirit of most of the people you'd see on the dance floor in the 1930s. So perhaps I should clarify–I believe that showing off is an important aspect of the swing dance artist, which makes obvious sense, as we are the only canvas our art can be displayed on.

In discussing this essay, my partner Kate pointed out something that struck home. If you look at a lot of advanced swing dance competitors today, they seem to compete for the end product, rather than the means to that product. They dance to be thought of as a badass, to get the recognition. There dancing asks "Will this get people thinking highly of me?" rather than says something like, "This is who I am," or "I'm really loving this song," or even "Check out this great move I'm really excited about." which is, as we mentioned, an important component to the way the Old Timers showed off. ******

Perhaps an important aspect of this is that almost all chances for a modern day swing dancer to show off is a contest, with clear placements of who won or not. The jam circle, however, was a way for dancers to show off, with the only contest and placements being in the imagination of those taking part or watching. One could argue it's only a small difference, but I think an important one. I think Jam Circles, without a clear winner, helped foster showing off a dancer's individuality. And of course, having frequent jam circles helped make the original dancers very good at showing off. In my partner Kate's early days (2002-ish), they had a jam circle every week. To prepare, Kate and her partner would learn new steps to show off each week, and I imagine a lot of early swing dancers doing the same thing, in terms of practicing to show off their stuff.

Spontaneous jam circles don't happen much these days. They made a brief rebirth for a few years in certain cities and events, but I can only recall three or four I saw last year, and almost all of those were weekend events. So, like Fight Club, where Tyler Durden gives everyone homework to go out and start a fight, I'd like to push all of you readers to go out this month and start a jam circle. (1) Wait for a relatively uptempo song (2) Grab two friends (3) surround a couple that's doing well, (4) start clapping and yell when they do something inspiring (this simple Pavlovian Conditioning will get them to try to one-up themselves) (5) Make it a point for all three of you to stay their clapping until the end of the song. Even if a Jam Circle doesn't grow, imagine the exhilaration for that one couple to have their own personal jam circle. Or, they may just be scared. But it will be a start.

Now, all of this said, here is something I think is very important to modern day dancing: You don't have to be incredibly good at showing off to make a living teaching swing. Because, though showing off might bring an entertainment and inspirational element to the dance, it has almost no direct effect on teaching the dance. For that, you need a good teacher who understands the mechanics of the dance an can convey those ideas to groups in affective ways (and rotate enough to keep people from getting angry). I think many people tend to combine tightly the idea that a good competitor and a good teacher are one. They do sometimes come in package deals, but do know there are some incredible performers who teach very poorly, and there are some incredible teachers who simply don't do their best dancing in front of audiences. But if we realize this, we can have the best of both worlds–performers to inspire us, teachers to guide us.

I work very hard on the thoughts and words put into these essays. Likewise, I try to quote and give credit to those who have inspired my thoughts in this essay. If you mention these ideas to others, please throw in a reference and/or send them to Swungover.com .

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*–Benny Goodman's 1935 concert at the Palamar was the first instance of the kind of energy teens in mass would later put towards Elvis and the Beatles.

**– I recently did an in-depth interview with Jonathan Stout where he goes into pretty descriptive detail about how he gears everything his band does towards dancers. Look for it on Swungover soon.

***–One could argue there's a bit of a logical circle here: I theorize showing off is a part of the original spirit of the jitterbugs; based on the evidence that I've seen it in most of the old clips and read about it in autobiographies of great dancers–clips which were taped for the purpose of showing off the dance, and great dancers who were made great by their ability to show off. See the problem? There could have been many more average dancers who never showed off that we don't see because they were never special enough dancers to be put in a clip or to write a book about their life. So, if we looked onto a dance floor of the 1930s, it might not stick out that showing off was necessarily a part of the spirit of the jitterbugs.

But to me, this problem isn't really an important one. That's because being a performer, entertaining people (if only yourself), exploring one's creativity, and making athletic demands on your body all seem to match perfectly the swing music that is being danced to. Swing music, filled with musicians showing off their solos, and bands showing how hard they can swing. It is in this sense I believe it is part of the spirit of the original Jitterbuggers. One might argue that Pure Balboa is an exception, which I mention later in the footnotes.

Being an actor and ham, I'm fine with showing off being a part of the dance. I've recently taken a long, deep inward look at myself and realized I should be a lot better at it, considering who I was as a young boy. If he saw me today, my twelve-year-old self would say "What's your problem? Why aren't you hogging all the attention in the room?" I think one reason I (and other dancers) choke a lot in modern competitions is because (as mentioned in the essay text) we're not used to focusing on one-upping each other. We're not used to allowing that competitive drive and confidence to take over at the very moment it needs to. The pressure which is crushed so easily by confidence becomes an impenetrable fortress with the lack of it. I think it's one reason why so many So-Cal dancers handle competitions well–the one-upness attitude and showing-off confidence has been an important part of their scene ever since the neo-swing craze and before.

****–It's like the rare-but-very-powerful Lennon/McCartney syndrome. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were talented in their own right, but always inspired and pushed each other to write better and better songs, in what was an incredibly productive competitive environment. To demonstrate, I will now get Hey Jude stuck in your head. Naa-na-na-nananaaaaaaa….

*****–This is where I'd like to mention Pure Balboa briefly. Pure Balboa was a chest-to-chest dance developed on packed dance floors. If swing music is a relaxed explosion of energy, then Pure Balboa dancers emphasize the relaxed part of it more than the explosion part. It was a dance done mainly by sweethearts, and on a packed dance floor where people aren't going to see many steps. So, showing off becomes a lot more partner-focused, and more internal. What a Pure Balboa dancer shows off in leading/following and creativity is smoothness, finesse, subtly. Not having video of the original Pure Balboa dancers, I can't say for sure whether it looked like showing off was part of their dance. But I believe it was still there, again, almost part of the music.

******–Partially to blame is the fact is that competition in modern Lindy Hop has the hope of actually leading someplace–whereas to the original dancers, swing dancing was just a beloved hobby. An original dancer wasn't going to teach the dance and make hundreds, like today. A 1930s Jitterbug wasn't going to have admiration and recognition beyond his ballroom peers, other than simply being a stage performer with a novelty act. The other factor is that people try to break down the "rules" of winnign based on what they see win, and so start to structure their dancing around winning contests. Though it's good to explore the performance aspect of contests, this idea of competitors gearing their dancing to win all to easily becomes a Frankenstein that takes over a dancers chance at honest self-expression if not kept in check.

Tonight, DJ Abigail Browning!

Boilermaker Jazz Band @ Glen Echo Park! (Sat) March 13

Need we say more? They're incredible. $15 Admission, Beginner Swing Lesson @ 8PM (Free with admission), Dance From 9PM – 12AM. Glen Echo Park Park Spanish Ballroom, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, Maryland. Presented in cooperation with the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts & Culture, Inc., the National Park Service and Montgomery County, MD

March's Inter/Adv Classes (March 2-March 23) HOLLYWOOD AND HARLEM:
Classic Moves and Styling

In the original days of swing, Hollywood and Harlem were the nation's hot spots for swing dancing. Though each dancer was unique, East Coasters and West Coasters tended to share certain styles and moves in common with others from their areas. In this class, the Jam Cellar crew will teach many of these Hollywood and Harlem styles and moves, to give inter/adv dancers great tools for leading and following, and to give their dancing that classic look. Throw in a lot of discussion on the history of jazz dance, and this thing's a steal. 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 2-23. $55 for entire series. $15 drop ins. Students should be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series.

March 30– AERIAL TASTER CLASS

Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

OH MY GOD, DCLX BANDS

Touche', DCLX: Jonathan Stout, The Boilermakers, The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, and the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs. Still the best dance bang for your buck, the DC Lindy Exchange is taking registrations now.

Interview with Paul Cosentino of the Boilermakers

I woke up this morning, all ready to publish Part 2 of "The Old Timer" 5-part Essay, when I discovered someone had replaced my penetrating and thought-provoking work with a rambling post full of ambiguous prose. This happens to me a lot. So, while I rework it over the next few days, I hope you will enjoy this:

Paul Cosentino, the leader of the incredible Boilermaker Jazz Band, has done countless gigs in the DC area, and with his group, still inspires even the most cynical dancers to come out anytime they play. If you've never been to DCLX before, this is a great year to go.

Do you recall any memories from the first time you played for dancers?

I played for dancers with George Gee's Band when he was based in Pittsburgh in the late '80's. I also played with Gee at the Cat Club in NYC in 1988 where the New York Swing Dance Society had their events. It was a really nasty punk club. But that was the first time I saw the Shim Sham lead by none other than Frankie Manning himself. The first time I played specifically for dancers with my own band was at the Edgewood Club in Pittsburgh which is a really cool old hall where they have had dances on Sunday nights for years. And we also played for the first Pitt Stop Lindy Hop which was about 9 years ago. But even when we played mostly Jazz Festivals, a lot of the old timers would get up and dance.

As a dancer, there are a lot of qualities that go into making us want to dance that a lot of jazz bands filled with "great" musicians don't necessarily have. Did you make specific changes to your group when you started playing so often for dancers? If so, what were those changes?

Mainly just making sure that the tunes were not too long. Each solo generally should just be one chorus instead of as many as you want. You don't want to kill anyone out there. Other than that, it is not too much different from playing a concert- change up the tempos so that it doesn't get boring, pass the vocals around. It's not too complicated if you just give it a little thought.

What are some of the worst gigs/ performing experiences you've ever had?

We got hired to play for the openings of a bunch of bagel shops. The gigs were at 7am and they would pass out free bagels to everyone. We did a street band type set up, and were outdoors. It was about 5 degrees on one of the gigs. On the other end of the spectrum, we once played for a car dealership right on the blacktop with no cover and it was around 100 degrees. Those are rough ones. We also played a wedding once where they started to raise a video screen right in front of the band in the middle of a ballad with a full dance floor. That was humiliating.

The best?

Playing at Lincoln Center for Midsummer Night's Swing was great- but really, there have been numerous dance events that just had so much energy. You never know when one of those will happen! We also did a wedding many years ago where they flew us into Vermont, the family had rented an entire country inn, and they also brought up the head chef from Commander's Palace in New Orleans. That was one hell of a shindig!

Alright, who are your favorite clarinetists?

Well, it depends what I am in the mood to hear. The guys from the early era that I like are Jimmy Noone, Johnny Dodds, Omer Simeon. Of course I also love the swing era guys- Goodman and Shaw- and some of the side players- Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Buster Bailey… There were so many greats!

Your favorite bands all together?

Again- how much time ya got? I love Ellington… and anything by Fats Waller!! Of course Basie, Chick Webb, Shaw, Goodman, Lunceford, Hampton, Fletcher Henderson. I like small groups sessions with men from those bands as well- stuff lead by Teddy Wilson for instance.

The boilermakers have a rhythm that's not exactly Dixieland, not exactly Charleston, not exactly late-era swing, but sounds like it belongs alongside all of those. Was this a conscious choice?

Nope. We are a jazz band in the truest sense of the word. We take songs from different eras, and by different composers etc., and try to give them our own treatment. We don't talk about trying to play a song a certain way (unless, for instance, we are playing for a Charleston competition- and then of course we would play a Charleston rhythm/ tempo). Rather, we prefer to let a tune develop stylistically, and in terms of tempo and feel, to where it is comfortable and we like how it sounds. We are not a repertory band. We are not trying to imitate anyone else, or sound like anyone else. We want to have our own unique sound. And I think we do. That was always the goal for bands that we admire. You know when it is Basie or Ellington or Waller! Louis Armstrong once said that he wanted people to know it was him playing before they saw him- just from his sound and his tone. That's jazz. True jazz musicians take a "standard" song and interpret it their own way- using tone and rhythm and tempo- and that is what we try to do as well.

If the boilermakers were allowed to go out swinging with one song before the world ended, which would it be?

Ha! I guess it would have to be "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" I think we have had more fun with the tune than any other…

[Editor's Note: Dancing to the Boilermaker's All God's Chillun is one of my favorite experiences in dancing.]

This week: DJ Glenn Scales!

Boilermaker Jazz Band @ Glen Echo Park! (Sat) March 13

The Jam Cellar is combining the amazing Boilermaker Jazz Band and the beautiful Glen Echo Spanish Ballroom for an awesome night of dancing! $15 Admission,
Beginner Swing Lesson @ 8PM (Free with admission), Dance From 9PM – 12AM. Glen Echo Park Park Spanish Ballroom, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, Maryland. Presented in cooperation with the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts & Culture, Inc., the National Park Service and Montgomery County, MD

March's Inter/Adv Classes (March 2-March 23) HOLLYWOOD AND HARLEM:
Classic Moves and Styling

In the original days of swing, Hollywood and Harlem were the nation's hot spots for swing dancing. Though each dancer was unique, East Coasters and West Coasters tended to share certain styles and moves in common with others from their areas. In this class, the Jam Cellar crew will teach many of these Hollywood and Harlem styles and moves, to give inter/adv dancers great tools for leading and following, and to give their dancing that classic look. Throw in a lot of discussion on the history of jazz dance, and this thing's a steal. 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 2-23. $55 for entire series. $15 drop ins. Students should be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series.

March 30– AERIAL TASTER CLASS

Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

The Old Timer (Part 1: A Classless Dance)

This is the first part of a 5-part essay where I discuss the world of the original swing-era dancer; a person that, in many ways, was probably not like you and me. Also, I work very hard on the thoughts and words I put into these essays. If you mention these ideas to others, please throw in a reference and/or send them to this website.

In trying to capture the true spirit of the original swing dancers, I realize often how much I fail at doing so. I think that, to some degree, the modern scene as a whole has this problem. Look at an old Jitterbug picture, and chances are there's something about it that we wouldn't quite capture in a dance picture taken today.

This is much more true for video clips. For instance, a few of us Balboa teachers work very hard to figure out why the "Venice Beach Clip" dancers look the way they do, and why we don't look like them. I believe before we can start recovering that spirit of the original swing dancers, we first have to understand how different they are from us. By which I mean this: Even though we may all be desiring to express ourselves to the same great music, the original dancers came at that expression from different paths, and I think that produced a different dance than we have today.

A Classless Dance

We often joke in classes how the original dancers are absolutely terrible at teaching the dance. A lot of the crotchety southern California old timers would teach with only the words "no", "nope," and "you're doing it all wrong." If you asked them what step they just did, they'd do it again, different, swearing that they did it the same as the first time. It's not their fault. In fact, it reminds me of my father who tried to teach me how to drive stick in his corvette, which he loved at least half as much as my mom, whom he loved more than anything in the world. He couldn't explain things very well and got very frustrated about it, especially after the sound the car made when I interpreted his instructions. The reason why he couldn't teach it is because it's something he learned to do himself, something he had perfected his own way of doing through countless years of trial and error, and something he had never been asked to teach before.

One of the large differences between the original jitterbugs and us is that we are almost all taught how to dance by instructors. This simply was not true for a lot of the original dancers, which is why they, for the most part, aren't good instructors. People like Frankie Manning, who ran a troupe of dancers and was expected to train them, and Dean Collins, who was passionate about teaching and breaking down the dance, were pretty large exceptions to the rule. For the most part, dancers learned by going to a dance and trying to steal stuff they saw others do, or by trying to make up new stuff. (Frankie Manning has said he was known as the biggest thief in the Savoy Ballroom.) Anyone who has tried to learn by this method today knows the result: in trying to steal something from someone else, you get it wrong, and in doing so invent a new step.

In a several ways, this style of learning is actually more productive for certain dancers than the modern take-a-class style. Let me explain: The act of taking a class could be looked at as being spoon-fed a dance education. To get better, or to create their own look, most of the original dancers had to be very pro-active about learning how to dance. After seeing a move they wanted to steal, they'd probably have to try it out right away, before they forgot what it looked like. They'd make up material often, and before they'd go out to a dance, they'd probably practice the new stuff they were working on to try out that night.

Working so hard to learn something by yourself without a teacher is a very personal thing. It makes the product of that learning a child, complete with some amount of the love, protection, and pride that connection infers. Something tells me this is an important part of the puzzle of the original jitterbug spirit. The great dancers you see in the past probably don't look like any other dancers, because they worked hard to build up their own personal style of swing dance. (Side note: the only reasons why others of the era look like Frankie or Dean is probably because Frankie or Dean taught them).

A note on followers: imagine a follower that never took a class in her life. She had no idea what any "steps" were, she only stepped under her feet and it was up to the leader to move her around. This meant a leader would absolutely have to lead what he wanted to do, and a follower would always step right under herself.

The downside to all of this is that the original dancers didn't really have a lot of, well, gentleness. We can tell because in a lot of the clips, it's obvious the followers are being muscled around, and that sheer pulling/pushing is doing work body leading could be doing much better. Also, different dancers might have different leading/following rules, or not many rules at all (at least, consistent ones).

Obviously, the classes-is-spoon-feeding statement is an extreme description, and I don't want you to think for a second that I'm suggesting the modern scene stop taking classes. I think the benefits of classes far outweigh the cons (especially for women's arms). Teaching is incredibly important to any modern swing dancer because it means you don't have to reinvent the wheel by trying to learn swing mechanics on your own. Because of classes, modern dancers have a much bigger range of movement, much deeper understanding of technique, I believe, and much more inspiration for what they can accomplish. And though a follower can learn an awful lot about swing dancing by thinking about how an original follower would have danced having never had a class, the original follower's couldn't do half of the super advanced things a modern master follower could do who used modern frame and following techniques.

Besides, here's the best news: it's easy to get the best of both worlds by going to classes AND trying to steal/create the way the old timers did.

This week, DJ Lee Tucker,

Will not be spending Tuesday night in gym socks reading Guns and Ammo magazine, like last week. Instead he will be at The Jam Cellar, playing music to the hordes of people who were locked up in their houses all weekend after forgetting to go buy bread at the grocery store before the blizzard, and thus survived mainly on the fig newtons at the back of the pantry that expired in 2008.

Performance Class Extra Practices

For those in our Performance Class, Kate and Bobby will hold additional 30 min classes in "the other room" from 10 to 10:30.

March's Inter/Adv Classes–(March 2-March 23) HOLLYWOOD AND HARLEM:
Classic Moves and Styling

In the original days of swing, Hollywood and Harlem were the nation's hot spots for swing dancing. Though each dancer was unique, East Coasters and West Coasters tended to share certain styles and moves in common with others from their areas. In this class, the Jam Cellar crew will teach many of these Hollywood and Harlem styles and moves, to give inter/adv dancers great tools for leading and following, and to give their dancing that classic look. (It'll also help you understand why you feel such different swing-outs from different dancers). Throw in a lot of discussion on the history of jazz dance, and this thing's a steal. 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 2-23. $55 for entire series. $15 drop ins. Students should be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series.

March 30– AERIAL TASTER CLASS

Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

A Quick Note on Floorcraft*

At two recent events, I went to some dances that were packed, and thinking I'd try to show some students a good time, I made the horrible mistake of asking them to dance. I just as well could have asked someone to join me in getting kicked in the soft part of the ankle for three minutes.

And these weren't the random, apologetic kicks of someone who misjudged their Charlestons. These were the far-worse, apathetic kicks of people who simply didn't give a damn about anyone else on the dance floor, even their partners, because THEY were feeling the music. (Actually, to be more precise; they were more likely trying to make everyone, including themselves, think they were feeling the music.) I got kicked so many times I can't count, and only heard ONE SINGLE APOLOGY.

This of course happens all the time, (it was even part of swing back-in-the-day; the movie Twice Blessed used it for comical affect.) I just happened to experience it twice in under a month, a thousand miles apart, and at a time when I was exhausted from teaching people how to be considerate to their dance partners all day. I was also jet lagged and in the general mental state one gets when being woken up at 4 a.m., and thus I had dropped any silly niceness my normal demeanor has and could despise these people with the proper amount of hatred they deserved.

I could write a long essay on floor craft, (and I did for today's email, it even involved the phrase "The Texas Tommy the Nazis used on POWs" ) but I'm going to cut it short by simply saying: If you want to engage in partnership dancing, your first priority should be making sure your partner is not in any danger. Otherwise, try solo dancing.

Likewise, if you are going to enter a tight dance space, let me know what logic you're using to make you think you can dance like it's your space alone.

I might adopt that philosophy; and make sure I find a space next to you. ***

——————————————————————–

*–I just love footnotes. Even when they're pointless.**

**–Just kidding. The (*) footnote symbol was leftover from when I looked up from the original draft and realized it had grown to three pages worth of writing, and I wasn't anywhere finished about talking about floorcraft. I then put in the (*) footnote mark, pointing to a footnote that said: "Of course it's not quick. It started off that way, but this is Bobby writing, so, of course it's long as hell."

***–Original ending of this short note added the sentence. "And trust me, there's one hard-cor mother f*cker waiting to come out of me."**** Which Samuel Jackson would have nodded in agreement at looking at me when I wrote it. It felt great to write, a cathartic moment writer's live for. I guess I have some pent up feelings on floorcraft.

****–If you question the amount of hard-core ness that is available in the body of a dorky anglophile theater nerd, then you haven't seen me play basketball against hypocritical theologians.

Tonight, DJ Lee Tucker

Will be sitting at home in his pajamas watching Supernanny. Because, as well you know, the god of weather wants nothing more than to drop snow on Jam Cellar events. In light of what "The Weather Man" is saying, we're going to pre-imptivley cancel tonight's Jam Cellar. For those in our Performance Class, Kate and Bobby will hold additional 30 min classes in "the other room" at the next 2 Jam Cellars from 10 to 10:30.

March's Inter/Adv Classes–(March 2-March 23) HOLLYWOOD AND HARLEM: Classic Moves and Styling

In the original days of swing, Hollywood and Harlem were the nation's hot spots for swing dancing. Though each dancer was unique, East Coasters and West Coasters tended to share certain styles and moves in common with others from their areas. In this class, the Jam Cellar crew will teach many of these Hollywood and Harlem styles and moves, to give inter/adv dancers great tools for leading and following, and to give their dancing that classic look. (It'll also help you understand why you feel such different swing-outs from different dancers). Throw in a lot of discussion on the history of jazz dance, and this thing's a steal. 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 2-23. $55 for entire series. $15 drop ins. Students should be comfortable with all the material in our Building Your Basics series.

March 30– AERIAL TASTER CLASS

Are you a guy who doesn't know how to pick up a girl? Are you a girl who doesn't know if she wants to be thrown? Now's your chance to try it out, as a little taste before our month-long aerial series coming this summer. We'll learn a basic aerial or two, to get you used to the idea. This class is specifically geared towards creating good aerial posture, attitude, and practicing technique. $15 gets you into the class and dance. 8:30 p.m. March 30. Partners recommended, but not necessary. However, we do recommend comfortable clothing and sneakers for both boys and girls. (Practicing aerials can be a work out.)

Notes from Last Week's Town Hall Meeting

9:00 –Refreshment table is set up before the Free 9 p.m. beginner lesson is to take place. Following which will be the meeting.

9:30–Meeting set to begin. Refreshment table includes fruit, but no cookies, Cran-Apple juice, but no coke. Salsa, but no Fritos. Free beginner class students suspected.

9:40–We finally decide to start meeting once Jam cellar organizers are outnumbered by people attending meeting.

9:42–Introductions made, Bobby makes welcoming error by asking the awkward guy just what the hell he's doing coming to the public meeting.

9:43–From the beginning, Andy Reid assumes Bad Cop role, Lee Tucker assumes Good Cop role, Kate Hedin assumes corrupt drug-trafficking cop role, Gretta Thorn assumes maternal role, Jeff Booth assumes absent father role, and Bobby White assume the police chief from the Police Academy Movies role. Jerry Almonte stands in a corner, listening intently and saying "hmm" a lot.

9:46–Beginning with the topic of education, the Jam Cellar, with the help of the community, discusses the rampant problems of juggling the high population of inner-city public schools. Session concludes that the ultimate problem is the stupid among the world far outnumber the wise.

9:53–The far-reaching scope of the conclusion hits home with each person individually, and the meeting spends roughly four minutes in silence.

9:57–Andy Reid says "balls."

9:59–The Jam Cellar Organizers explain why we don't have birthday dances, snowball dances, and why the annual Polka Contest was canceled.

10:10– The salsa incident happens. Andy Reid rushed to the hospital.

10:35–Doctor gives us the go-ahead to visit Andy, and conclude the meeting there. We cram into his tiny room and give him the plant someone stole on the way out of the Jam Cellar.

10:41–We begin to discuss the different roles of organizers and advanced dancers in a swing community.

10:42–Jerry Almonte stands in a corner, smiling wryly.

10:46–Meeting flow is slightly interrupted when a Jam Cellar community member accidentally unplugs Andy's respirator.

10:47–Jam Cellar community member makes a salsa pun. We all have a good laugh, except for Andy, who looks coldly at Lee.

10:50– Meeting forced back on track to the discussion of advanced dancer's roles in a community.

10:53–Gretta drops the F-bomb when discussing wedding dress shopping.

11:14–Andy's hospital room-mate chimes in, suggesting that, though advanced dancers should realize they make beginning dancers better and happier, putting a sense of obligation to someone's hobby would be off-putting to anyone. And beginning dancers should realize that some advanced dancers are simply mean people, and those dancers should not be given another thought. He concludes by asking Andy if he's got any crank.

11:32–In discussing the success of the music at The Jam Cellar, Gretta drops the C-bomb, the P-bomb, and the Q-Bomb.

11:40–Bobby concludes on the note that the meeting's main goal was to have everyone feel like Jam Cellar was more of a community, hopefully convincing people well enough to disguise the meeting's real goal of getting more volunteers.

11:41–Jerry Almonte stands in a corner, nodding knowingly.

11:53–Meeting members all return upstairs to the Jam Cellar, where DJ Allen Kerr, in front of an empty dance floor, weeps.

11:55–The Salsa Incident story is told to Allen, complete with full-body reenactment action, even the part with the roller chair. Allen cheers up and plays one last incredible song.

The next town hall meeting will take place in six months.