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The Big Apple

December 14, 2011, 3:49 pm
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big apple night club
The dance that eventually became known as the Big Apple is speculated to have been created in the early 1930s by African American youth dancing at the Big Apple Club, which was at the former House of Peace Synagogue on Park Street in Columbia, South Carolina. The synagogue was converted into a black juke joint called the "Big Apple Night Club.” 

In 1936, three white students from the University of South Carolina – Billy Spivey, Donald Davis, and Harold "Goo-Goo" Wiles – heard the music coming from the juke joint as they were driving by.Even though it was very usual for whites to go into a black club, the three asked the club's owner, Frank "Fat Sam" Boyd, if they could enter. Skip Davis, the son of Donald Davis, said that "Fat Sam" made two conditions: They had to pay twenty five cents each and they had to sit in the balcony. During the next few months, the white students brought more friends to the night club to watch the black dancers. The white students became so fascinated with the dance that, in order to prevent the music from stopping, they would toss coins down to the black dancers below them when the dancers ran out of money. "We had a lot of nickels with us because it took a nickel to play a song. If the music stopped and the people on the floor didn't have any money, we didn't get any more dancing. We had to feed the Nickelodeon", recalls Harold E. Ross, who often visited the club and was 18 years old at the time.

The white dancers eventually called the dance the black dancers did the "Big Apple", after the night club where they first saw it.Ross commented that "We always did the best we could to imitate the steps we saw. But we called it the Little Apple. We didn't feel like we should copy the Big Apple, so we called it that." 
 
Rise in popularity (1937-1938)

During the summer of 1937, the students from the University of South Carolina started dancing the Big Apple at the Pavilion in Myrtle Beach.Betty Wood (née Henderson), a dancer who helped revive the Big Apple in the 1990s, first saw the dance there, and six months later she won a dance contest and become nicknamed "Big Apple Betty." The news of the new dance craze spread to New York, and a New York talent agent, Gay Foster, traveled to the Carolinas to audition dancers for a show at the Roxy Theater, the world's second-largest theater at that time. Eight couples were chosen for the show, including Wood, Spivey, and Davis, to perform the Big Apple during a three-week engagement that began on September 3, 1937.They performed six shows a day to sold-out audiences and greatly contributed to the dance's popularity. After the engagement at the Roxy, the group became known as "Billy Spivey's Big Apple Dancers" and toured the country for six months.


Arthur Murray, a dance instructor and entrepreneur, had two dance studios in New York in 1936. After seeing the Big Apple dancers at the Roxy in September 1937, Murray incorporated the Big Apple into his swing dance syllabus. Due to the popularity of the Big Apple and other popular dances such as the Conga, Murray started to offer franchises in 1937. By 1938, there were franchises in several major cities, including Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. The company continued to grow to over 200 Arthur Murray dance studios throughout the world by 2003 [on the Life Magazine photo above Arthur Murray can be seen on a chair at the back calling out the formations]. This is a link to a video on YouTube with the short film The Big Apple with the Arthur Murray "Shag" Dancers where you can see how the original Big Apple probably looked like. Dance arrangement and direction by Arthur Murray himself! It's very interesting and rare and hope nobody removes it. Unfortunately, for some reason I cannot post it in here.

frankie manning in the middle
In the fall of 1937, four couples from Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, a Lindy Hop performance group based at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York, traveled to Hollywood, California, to perform a Lindy Hop sequence for a Judy Garland movie called Everybody Sings. Soon after arriving in California, Herbert "Whitey" White, the manager for the group, sent a telegram to Frankie Manning, the lead dancer for the group, about the new dance craze in New York City called the Big Apple. Manning had never seen the dance before but based on the description of the dance in the telegram, he choreographed a Big Apple routine for the group. Since the dance was based on combining jazz steps that the Lindy hoppers were already familiar with, such as Truckin', the Suzie-Q, and Boogies, the group quickly learned the new steps. They performed their Big Apple routine for Everybody Sing, but the dance scene was eventually cut due to a dispute between the director and Whitey over the dance group's not receiving a break in the filming schedule. 

Frankie Manning remembers: "Whitey asked me to make up a big apple routine for the Lindy hoppers, so I got to work. At first, as I read the letter and tried visualizing the movements, I thought, What the hell is he talking about? Then I began playing some music and actually doing the steps. I used Count Basie's "John's Idea," initially, but then I switched to "One O'Clock Jump" because it was a little slower and more swinging" (Manning & Millman 143).

This is "John's Idea":


And here's Count Basie & his Orchestra performing "One O'Clock Jump" live for the 1943 film Reveille with Beverly.


When the group returned to Harlem, Manning taught his Big Apple version to other dancers in Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, before ever having seen the version done by the Big Apple dancers at the Roxy. Whitey's Lindy Hoppers would dance the Big Apple mixed with Lindy Hop at the Savoy Ballroom until interest in the dance died out.


Later in 1939, the group performed a Big Apple sequence for the movie Keep Punching,which has been recreated by Lindy hop performance groups since the 1990s. 


[Check out my post entitled "Tranky Doo" for a video from The Spirit Moves documentary that includes the Big Apple routine]. 

Frankie Manning notes: "People think that the big apple in Keep Punching is my original routine, but it's not, although it's similar to what we did in Everybody Sing. Actually, I've never re-created the first version of the big apple exactly, but the majority of the steps from it are still done. They form a solid base for the many different versions I've made over the years" (Manning & Millman 147).

The song heard on Keep Punching was re-recorded by The Solomon Douglas Swingtet and is called "Big Apple Contest". You can find it in their album Swingmatism from 2006.

By the end of 1937, the Big Apple had become a national dance craze.  On December 20, 1937, Life featured the Big Apple in a four-page photo spread and the magazine predicted that 1937 would be remembered as the year of the Big Apple.



The moves of the Big Apple are frequently used in Lindy Hop. This is also used as a warm up before Lindy Hop classes. Note that the moves are very 8-count centered, like tap dance. That is, they almost all start on count 8.

Here's a clip from Judy Pritchett's documentary Dancing the Big Apple 1937: African Americans Inspire a National Craze which explores the Big Apple dance in the context of American history:


Sources: 
1. The text in black comes from Wikipedia: Big Apple (dance) 
2. The text in red comes from Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop by F. Manning & C.R. Millman.
3. The photo of the Big Apple night club I found here: barnesrarte360.blogspot.com 
4. The photo of white youth dancing as well as the Arthur Murray photo and the Life Magazine article photo I found here:http://collegiateshag.com/photos.html
5. The photo with Frankie Manning I found in several places on the internet.
6. The last photo with the title "Lesson 4" I found in pixelnaiad's photostream and it's most probably a spread from one of Arthur Murray's dance instruction manuals.
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A very Swinging, Vintage Christmas

December 25, 2011, 4:02 am
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A non-encyclopedic post this time; a more personal post recapping my Christmas...

© spread [spread on Facebook]
I hope my friend Zoie does not mind me using this photo of hers, but I just love this deer reminding me of my ‘80s childhood. The photo belongs to her upcoming project SpreadGallery [not allowed to say more]. I hope the project goes great, that it makes her very happy and that it brings her some much needed money...
 
Swinging with the Athens Lindy Hoppers again and again...


Our teachers are completely nuts and wonderful! Watch them here:
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/uooqR0tVzyHtOD6y?cmpid=ey_url

Christmas Party / Athens Lindy Hop [Mariangela, Nefeli, Alex],photo © Athena Liaskou
Attending Past Tense Vintage & Crafts bazaar...chatting with the lovely Swell Dame [http://swelldamesparlour.blogspot.com]...buying some of La Boom’s creations for friends close to my heart [http://laboomeria.blogspot.com]. I need to note that the artist is as wonderful as her art.


Going through my mom’s old photos to find something winter-y or Christmacy for Les Broderies Anglaises''Winter Wonderland' photo contest and coming across such fabulous vintage photos from a trip in Vienna back in 1971...the one on the right is the one I entered in the contest and was one of the winning photos...!!

 
Winning a double invitation for Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums @ Half Note Jazz Club and attending with my fellow lindy hopper Roly ‘Flapper’. We enjoyed them very much!!


Finally, making this huge Christmas present to myself. All original recordings from the '30s, '40s and '50s. I am listening to them all day long - a big thanx to my friend Hector for suggesting them to me.


I hope we all have a happy new year with lots of joy, love and health!!! [jobs and money would not be such a bad idea either...] Swing you out there!!!!!
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Illustrating the Jazz Era [John Held Jr.]

January 9, 2012, 8:43 am
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If ever an artist's work so consummately defined a particular era, it was that of the Roaring Twenties illustrator John Held, Jr. (January 10, 1889 – March 2, 1958), whose creations both set the standard for-and gently ribbed-a generation. More than any other artist of his time, Held expressed in his pictures the bold spirit of the Jazz Age. It was a time of bustling commerce, booming enterprises, and engaging recreation. Society's elite were dining at Sardi's, the adventurous were doing the Charleston and the Shimmy in dance marathons, and the flapper was in full vogue, out and about in pursuit of a good time. Chronicling it all, for magazine readers coast-to-coast, was John Held, Jr. [1]
 
 
One of the best known magazine illustrators of the 1920s, Held created cheerful art showing his characters dancing, motoring and engaging in fun-filled activities. The drawings, especially his archetypical flapper illustrations, defined the flapper era so well that many people are familiar with Held's work today. [2]



While his drawings were published in such publications as Life and Judge, it was his work for the fledgling magazine "The New Yorker" that established Held in the eyes of the nation. His depictions of Betty Coed, the prototypical "flapper" (along with her gentleman friend, Joe College), became the quintessential definition of the decade's "flaming youth." [1]


Readers of "Harper's Bazaar,""Redbook," and "Vanity Fair" would be hard-pressed to avoid Held's ubiquitous depictions of the Jazz Age's high-living college crowd. The characters' contemporaries got a real kick out of Held's creations, and parents of the younger generation turned to these illustrations for a clearer understanding of their children. [1]


Sources:

[1] http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa364.htm
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Held,_Jr.

Here's a very thorough article about John Held Jr. with many illustrations:
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Illustrating the Jazz Era [Jim Flora]

January 9, 2012, 10:59 am
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James (Jim) Flora is best-known for his wild jazz and classical album covers for ColumbiaRecords (late 1940s) and RCA Victor (1950s). He authored and illustrated 17 popular children's books and flourished for decades as a magazine illustrator. Few realize, however, that Flora (1914-1998) was also a prolific fine artist with a devilish sense of humor and a flair for juxtaposing playfulness, absurdityand violence. Cute - and deadly.


Flora's album covers pulsed with angular hepcats bearing funnel-tapered noses and shark-fin chins who fingered cockeyed pianosand honked lollipop-hued horns. Yet this childlike exuberance was subverted by a tinge of the diabolic. Flora wreaked havoc with the laws of physics, conjuring flying musicians, levitating instruments, and wobblydimensional perspectives.
 
 
Taking liberties with human anatomy, he drew bonded bodies and misshapen heads, while inking ghoulish skin tints and grafting mutant appendages. He was not averse to pigmenting jazz legends Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa like bedspread patterns. On some Flora figures, three legs and five arms were standard equipment, with spare eyeballsoptional. His rarely seen fine artworks reflect the same comic yet disturbingqualities. "He was a monster," said artist and Floraphile JD King. So were many of his creations.


All text and illustrations come from this wonderful site dedicated to his art: www.jimflora.com
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Fox Trot

February 5, 2012, 9:27 am
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The foxtrotis a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is 4/4 instead of 3/4 time. Dancing the slow foxtrot well takes a high level of technical expertise as well as a lot of dance experience and physical skill. Developed in the 1920's, the foxtrot reached its height of popularity in the 1930's, and is today a favourite of many dedicated dancers.

The exact origin of the name of the dance is unclear, although one theory is that took its name from its popularizer, the vaudeville actor Harry Fox.

Two sources credit African American dancers as the source of the Fox Trot: Vernon Castle himself, and then dance teacher Betty Lee. Castle saw the dance, which "had been danced by negroes, to his personal knowledge, for fifteen years," at "a certain exclusive colored club".

The dance was premiered in 1914, quickly catching the eye of the husband and wife duo Vernon and Irene Castle, who lent the dance its signature grace and style.

 
At its inception, the foxtrot was originally danced to ragtime. Today, the dance is customarily accompanied by the same big band music to which swing is also danced.

From the late teens through the 1940s, the foxtrot was certainly the most popular fast dance and the vast majority of records issued during these years were foxtrots. The waltz and tango, while popular, never overtook the foxtrot. Even the popularity of the lindy hop in the 1940s did not affect the foxtrot's popularity, since it could be danced to the same records used to accompany the lindy hop.

When rock and roll first emerged in the early 1950s, record companies were uncertain as to what style of dance would be most applicable to the music. Notably, Decca Records initially labeled its rock and roll releases as "foxtrots", most notably "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets. Since that recording, by some estimates, went on to sell more than 25 million copies, "Rock Around the Clock" could be considered the biggest-selling "foxtrot" of all time.


Today I listened to Wingy Manone [originally Mannone - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingy_Manone] for the first time on Penelope's Sunday radio show [http://www.republicradio.gr] and while searching for his music on the internet I realized that all his songs were listed as Fox Trot, even the ones that were encouraging the listeners to "swing it", hence the post about foxtrot. Here's Swing, Brother, Swing!


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NICK WILLIAMS & NINA GILKENSON WORKSHOP

February 17, 2012, 3:44 pm
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Vaudeville

May 13, 2012, 3:20 pm
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Grand Theatre in Buffalo, NY around 1900
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies.

You can read more about Vaudeville here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaudeville
or if you are the visual type you can watch this two-part documentary film on YouTube:



The photo is taken from this site http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/easton/vaudeville/vaudevillemain.html where you can find lots of interesting information about vaudeville but also watch original films and listen to original tunes.

Other interesting sites: 
http://cinephilefix.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/film-history-from-vaudeville-houses-to-deluxe-theaters/[about Vaudeville Houses] 

Don't miss the Vaudeville Revue organized by the Athens Lindy Hop on June 16, 2012.

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Prohibition [USA, 1919-1933]

May 17, 2012, 11:56 am
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Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the legal act of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol and alcoholic beverages.

Prohibition was a major reform movement in the United States of America from the 1840s into the 1920s, and was sponsored by evangelical Protestant churches, especially the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Disciples and Congregationalists. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874, and the Prohibition Party were major players until the early 20th century, when the movement was taken over by the Anti-Saloon League. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union [believed that Prohibition] would protect families, women and children from the effects of abuse of alcohol. By using pressure politics on legislators, the Anti-Saloon League achieved the goal of nationwide prohibition during World War I, emphasizing the need to destroy the political corruption of the saloons, the political power of the German-based brewing industry, and the need to reduce domestic violence in the home.

Prohibition was instituted with ratification of the Eighteenth Amendmentto the United States Constitution on January 16, 1919, which prohibited the "...manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States..." Congress passed the "Volstead Act" on October 28, 1919, to enforce the law, but most large cities were uninterested in enforcing the legislation, leaving an understaffed federal service to go after bootleggers. [1] Three separate Federal Agencies were to enforce the Volstead Act: a) the United States Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement, b) the US Treasury Department IRS Bureau of Prohibition and c) the US Department of Justice Bureau of Prohibition [2]



Nationwide Prohibition in the United States began on January 17, 1920 and focused on the manufacture and sale of alcohol [1]…one anomaly of the Act as worded was that it did not actually prohibit the consumption of alcohol; many people actually stockpiled wines and liquors for their own use in the latter part of 1919 before sales of alcohol became illegal the following January.
 
Photograph via Corbis.

The introduction of alcohol prohibition and its subsequent enforcement in law was a hotly debated issue. The contemporary prohibitionists ("dries") labeled this as the "Noble Experiment"and presented it as a victory for public morals and health. The consumption of alcohol overall went down and remained below pre-Prohibition levels long after the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed. Anti-prohibitionists ("wets") criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant and Catholic everyday life. Effective enforcement of the alcohol ban during the Prohibition Era proved to be very difficult and led to widespread flouting of the law. The lack of a solid popular consensus for the ban resulted in the growth of vast criminal organizations, including the modern American Mafia, and various other criminal cliques. Widespread disrespect of the law also generated rampant corruption among politicians and within police forces. [2]


The sale of alcohol was illegal, but alcoholic drinks were still widely available. People also kept private bars to serve their guests. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada, overland, by sea along both ocean coasts, and via the Great Lakes. Legal and illegal home brewing was popular during Prohibition. "Malt and hop" stores popped up across the country and some former breweries turned to selling malt extract syrup, ostensibly for baking and "beverage" purposes. [1]


Chicago became a haven for Prohibition dodgers during the time known as the "Roaring Twenties". Many of Chicago's most notorious gangsters, including Al Capone and his enemy Bugs Moran, made millions of dollars through illegal alcohol sales. By the end of the decade Capone controlled all 10,000 speakeasies in Chicago and ruled the bootlegging business from Canada to Florida. Numerous other crimes, including theft and murder, were directly linked to criminal activities in Chicago and elsewhere in violation of prohibition. [2] 

A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, was an establishment that illegally sold alcoholic beverages.

 








The term “bootlegging” came into use in the 1880s, when it referred to the practice of hiding flasks of illegal liquor inside boots.



 


Prohibition became increasingly unpopular during the Great Depression. The repeal movement was started by a wealthy Republican, Pauline Sabin, who said that prohibition should be repealed because it made the US a nation of hypocrites and undermined its respect for the rule of law. Her fellow Republicans were put in office by the "drys" and, even though they eagerly partook in consumption of alcoholic beverages at her parties, in public they presented themselves as opposing the repeal of prohibition, lest they be thrown out of office by the dry voting blocks. 


This hypocrisy and the fact that women led the prohibition movement convinced her to start the organization that eventually led to the repeal of prohibition. When her fellow Republicans would not support her efforts, she went to the Democrats, who changed from drys led by conservative Democrats and Catholics to supporting repeal led by liberal politicians such as La Guardia and Franklin Roosevelt. She, and they, emphasized that repeal would generate enormous sums of much needed tax revenue, and weaken the base of organized crime.
 

The Repeal of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933. By its terms, states were allowed to set their own laws for the control of alcohol. The organized Prohibition movement was dead nationwide, but survived for a while in a few southern and border states. [1]

Sources:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States


ca. 1925 Photograph via Corbis
photos from Google Images and The New Yorker's article "We Wanted Beer" 

Viewing material:

Documentary on Prohibition


Brian De Palma's The Untouchables [1987]
 

Billy Wilder's Some Like it Hot [1959]

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Western Swing

May 19, 2012, 1:18 pm
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Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands.It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 40s until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 led to its decline.

The movement was an outgrowth of jazz,and similarities with Gypsy jazz are often noted. The music is an amalgamation of rural, cowboy, polka, folk, Dixieland jazz and blues blended with swing;and played by a hot string band often augmented with drums, saxophones, pianos and, notably, the steel guitar.The electrically amplified stringed instruments, especially the steel guitar, give the music a distinctive sound.Later incarnations have also included overtones of bebop.

Western swing differs in several ways from the music played by the nationally popular horn-driven big swing bands of the same era. In Western bands—even the fully orchestrated bands—vocals and other instruments followed the fiddle's lead. Additionally, although popular horn bands tended to arrange and score their music, most Western bands improvised freely, either by soloists or collectively.


Prominent groups during the peak of Western swing's popularity included The Light Crust Doughboys, Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys,Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, and Spade Cooley and His Orchestra. Contemporary groups include Asleep at the Wheel and The Hot Club of Cowtown.

According to legendary guitarist Merle Travis, "Western swing is nothing more than a group of talented country boys, unschooled in music, but playing the music they feel, beating a solid two-four rhythm to the harmonies that buzz around their brains. When it escapes in all its musical glory, my friend, you have Western swing."

More about the origins and evolution of western swing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_swing
http://www.return2style.de/duesenberg/artikel/amiwests.htm
http://www.roughstock.com/history/western-swing
 
Some tunes from the prominent groups of the genre:




  

A little addition of mine to YouTube because I like this track:

 
You can read more about this track here Keep a-knockin' and then listen to another, more famous, cover of this song - it's not swing, but it sure rocks!!


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Ragtime

May 27, 2012, 3:52 am
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Ragtime (alternatively spelled rag-time)is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918.Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm.It began as dance music in the red-light districts of African American communities in St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published as popular sheet music for piano. Ernest Hogan was an innovator and key pioneer who helped develop the musical genre. Hogan is also credited for coining the term Ragtime. 

The ragtime composer Scott Joplin became famous through the publication in 1899 of the "Maple Leaf Rag" and a string of ragtime hits that followed, although he was later forgotten by all but a small, dedicated community of ragtime aficionados until the major ragtime revival in the early 1970s.  For at least 12 years after its publication, the "Maple Leaf Rag" heavily influenced subsequent ragtime composers with its melody lines, harmonic progressions or metric patterns.

Here’s the "Maple Leaf Rag" with Scott Joplin himself on the piano:


And here’s a more 'Roaring 20s' cover of the song by Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks as it appears on the soundtrack of the TV series Boardwalk Empire. 


Jelly Roll Morton
Ragtime was one of the main influences on the early development of jazz (along with the blues). Some artists, like Jelly Roll Morton, were present and performed both ragtime and jazz styles during the period the two genres overlapped. Jazz largely surpassed ragtime in mainstream popularity in the early 1920s, although ragtime compositions continue to be written up to the present, and periodic revivals of popular interest in ragtime occurred in the 1950s and the 1970s.

The heyday of ragtime predated the widespread availability of sound recording. Like classical music, and unlike jazz, classical ragtime was and is primarily a written tradition, being distributed in sheet music rather than through recordings or by imitation of live performances. Ragtime music was also distributed via piano rolls for player pianos.

Ragtime also served as the roots for stride piano, a more improvisational piano style popular in the 1920s and 1930s. A true master of stride piano was of course my beloved Fats Waller - you can check my relevant post: Fats WallerElements of ragtime found their way into much of the American popular music of the early 20th century.

In addition, classical composers were influenced by the form with, for example, Igor Stravinsky's solo piano work Piano-Rag-Music from 1919, and Claude Debussy's Golliwogg's Cakewalk (from the 1908 Piano Suite Children's Corner), and General Lavine (from his Preludes).Stravinsky also included a ragtime in his theater piece L'histoire du soldat (1918).


For more details about ragtime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragtime
For more information about Scott Joplin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Joplin
About the 'Maple Leaf Rag': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_Leaf_Rag
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Swing & Swim III

June 5, 2012, 5:09 am
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Swing & Swim III - Our Teachers

June 13, 2012, 5:06 am
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Swing &Swim is the name of the Lindy Hop Summer Camp in Greece, organized for a third consecutive year by Lindy Hop Greece.This year Lindy Hop Greece with the cooperation of the Frankie Manning Legacy Fund paid tribute to Frankie Manning and his Legacy with a lecture about the history of Swing Jazz dance and music by Lennart Westerlund (a legend himself), a show tribute to Frankie, but mainly with lindy hop workshops taught by those who were taught by Frankie Manning himself. Our teachers brought to us the spirit of Frankie Manning by teaching us his dance routines and his style, but also by sharing with us their personal stories about Frankie. 

You can learn more about the teacher of our teachers here: Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop or check out my relevant post Frankie Manning [1914-2009].

In Greece we have a saying that when translated very loosely goes something like this: “what you end up learning depends on the teachers you’ve got” («Με όποιον δάσκαλο καθήσεις τέτοια γράμματα θα μάθεις»). I believe that my 17 lindy hop classmates and I that attended Swing & Swim III are very lucky to have had two very good teachers at our school in Athens, the Athens Lindy Hop, teaching us for the last nine months and preparing us for a lindy hop workshop of international standards. I think we would have made them very proud! However, I can now say that we are truly blessed to have met six more incredible teachers at the camp that gave us a suitcase full of new lindy hop knowledge to bring back with us in Athens. They were expert dancers and expert teachers, the second one for me being the absolute essential in a workshop. They were patient, welcoming, good spirited and a true joy to spend hours with in the sometimes intolerable Greek heat. A big thank you from all of us!!!

Meet our (fantastic) teachers:

from left to right: Daniel, Jo, Åsa, Lennart, Kevin, eWa, Hanna & Mattias

Lennart Westerlund [Sweden]

photo: ©Sebastian Tingkaer
Lennart is one of the fathers of the Lindy Hop revival which started way back in the 1980s[Toronto Lindy Hop - Lennart bio]. Lennart started to dance Swedish style jitterbug at Lasse Kühlers dance school in 1980 and became a member of recently formed Swedish Swing Society in 1981. In the early years he competed frequently at different places around Sweden and he also spent lots of hours dancing socially. Around this period of time he furthermore became a member of the board of above mentioned society and was also an active part of organizing the very first Herräng Dance Camp in August 1982. After getting his first impressions of African-American swing dancing in 1983 he was hooked and turned into becoming one of the pioneers of the first modern revival of lindy hoppin'. 

In 1984 he travelled to New York to meet and study with the late Savoy dancer Albert Minns, whom he later on the same year also invited to Stockholm for teaching and lectures. After mister Minns' visit Lennart together with a few dance friends formed Swedish swing dance company The Rhythm Hot Shots (later Harlem Hot Shots) in 1985 and started to study old film clips to learn more about not only the lindy hop but also the charleston, tap, acrobatics and other things related to the African-American swing dance tradition. Gradually these studies lead to that the company started to perform and teach and later on also to become professional. In 1986 Lennart got in contact with Frank Manning and in 1987 mister Manning was for the very first time invited to Stockholm to work with the company.

When The Rhythm Hot Shots started to receive some international recognition during the early 90s, Lennart was one of the main dancers. The company travelled extensively throughout the decade and was among a handful of other dancers and organizers an active part of bringing the dance back into some kind of limelight. At the same time as being a dancer in the troupe, Lennart also started to do lots of administration (especially for the Herräng Dance Camp which The Rhythm Hot Shots had become an active part of back in 1989), research, film productions et cetera. In year 2000 he was a part of introducing the lindy hop to Russian dancers and in 2004 he opened swing dance studio Chicago in central Stockholm.

Lennart recently left the Harlem Hot Shots but he still travels teaching on an international basis and occasionally performs. During the Swedish summers he is one of the main characters and workers at the Herräng Dance Camp and for the rest of the year he is seriously involved in the Chicago dance studio project www.chicago75.se
from Lennart's lecture about the history of Lindy Hop @ Swing & Swim III

More about Lennart: http://www.centurymasters.com/b_lennart_westerlund.html


eWa Burak [Sweden]

eWa (nicknamed by Frankie "W") came into lindy hoppin' in the fall of 1986 after doing an audition for The Rhythm Hot Shots (now Harlem Hot Shots). At the time, she did not have any experience with African-American dancing, but her background as a gymnast helped her to very fast become a most skilful acrobatic lindy hop performer. Her repertoire gradually grew during the later part of the 80s and early 90s also to include lots of authentic jazz, charleston and some tap. In 1989 she teamed up with Lennart Westerlund and they continued to perform the lindy hop together until eWa reduced her dancing in the mid 90s.

eWa worked with The Rhythm Hot Shots for about 10 exciting years (1986 - 1996) and during this periode she was one of the leading dancers of the troupe. When international workshops started to appear in the early 90s, eWa was one of the most in demand teachers/performers and she travelled all over the world both giving lessons and performing on stage. Her strong and honest stage personality combined with her robust and athletic dance style positioned her at the time as one of the leading lindy dancers in the scene.

eWa is nowadays living in Virginia (USA) and Knivsta (Sweden) with her husband and two kids. She has left the performance side of the lindy hop but is still active as a teacher. For many years eWa was one of the organizers of the Herräng Dance Camp and she has always been closely connected to the camp and has been teaching at this event every year (excluding 2008) since 1989 [Herräng - eWa Burak bio]

eWa & Lennart at Swing and Swim III [photo © Maria Chatzilia]


Hanna Lundmark[Sweden]

Hanna Lundmark is a sparkling jazzsinger, musical performer and a mesmerazing dancer with lots of charisma and skills. She first competed in track and field but switched to lindy hop in 1997. She graduated from the three-year professional dancers program at Ballet Academy of Stockholm in 2006. She spent the summer of 2009 touring with the famous Robert Wells´s show "Rhapsody in rock". 

In April 2010 Hanna danced lindy hop in "the last bounce", a show with the streetdance-company "Bounce"[Herräng - Hanna Lundmark bio].



Mattias Lundmark[Sweden]

Mattias is both a dancer, a teacher, a choreographer and a producer. He is just as successful as he is versatile and he has been dancing lindy hop since 1991. He choreographed for the comeback of "Singing in the rain" with Roine Söderlundh. During april 2010 Mattias performed lindy hop in "The Last Bounce", a show with the streetdance-company "Bounce" [Herräng - Mattias Lundmark bio]

More about Mattias:http://mandh.se/en/MattiasLundmark


Hanna & Mattias

Hanna and Mattias became dance partners in 2004 and are known for their great spirit, passion and knowledge. They joined The Rhythm Hot Shots, that later became Harlem Hot Shots, in the late 90´s. Until 2007 they performed and taught all over the world with the group and were seen in Swedish, German and American television in different commercials and shows.

They master many styles of performing and have worked in modern pieces like ”Rhythm instrument” in Hamburg and ”Passion” at Wallman´s in Copenhagen. They also produce their own shows, like ”Swing sing fling” and ”Rhythm of life”.

Hanna and Mattias are the organizers of the Swingkids and Swingteens camp during the first two weeks of Herräng.

More about Hanna and Mattias:http://mandh.se/en/HannaMattias/Biography

Åsa Heedman [Sweden]

Before her joining The Rhytm Hot Shots in 1997, Åsa Palm-Heedman was an enthusiast of Afro-Cuban dance. She bring tremendous movement from this style to her lindy hop and solo jazz dance. Through her near – decade long envolvement with the most famous swing performance troupe in the world, Åsa has not only an authentic style of jazz movement but also an adept, clear and attentive teaching approach that is appreciate worldwide. She is rightly celebrated for her preformance dancing, but it is in her social dancing, when she can simply enjoy the music, her partner and what they can do together, that she is truly mesmerizing.

 
Daniel Heedman[Sweden]

Was a member of Harlem Hot Shots between 2002 and 2006, partnered up with Åsa in 2004. Has travelled all over world teaching and performing. Additional to this he is one of the organizers of the world faoumous Herräng Dance Camp. As a dancer of tap, jazz, charelston and the lindy hop, Daniel’s presicion and subtlety are exquisite, and every bit as inspiring as the energy and raw, unharnessed joy that shows through in his performance and social dancing.


Åsa & Daniel
 
Åsa and Daniel are two world class dancers, instructors and performers. They have been Lindy hopping for almost 15 years; 8 of those years have been as dance partners. Hailing from Sweden, we’re very excited to welcome them back to Toronto.

For years they were part of the legendary Harlem Hot Shots (formerly the Rhythm Hot Shots) where they taught and performed across Europe, North America and Asia. Their dedication is to Lindy hop and other dances of the twenties, thirties and forties (like blues, slow drag and charleston).

Frankie Manning is their idol and their goal is to continue spreading Frankie’s style and love of Lindy hop. In 2006 they won the Battle at Jazz Jam in Stockholm.

Daniel and Åsa are said to have super lindy hop powers. Daniel’s swingouts are known to make grown men cry for joy. Åsa’s swivels are stuff of legends and can knock you out cold. Apart they are incredible, together they are better than chocolate [Toronto Lindy Hop - Åsa & Daniel bios]

Jo Hoffberg [USA]

Jo Hoffberg is one of the most celebrated Lindy Hoppers on the global scene today. With her dance partner Kevin St Laurent, she holds 1st place titles at the US Open, Canadian Swing Championships, National Jitterbug Championships, American Lindy Hop Championships, and Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown. She has performed around the world, including at Universal Studios in Japan, and has traveled throughout the USA, Asia, Australia, South American and Europe as a master instructor [The Killer Dillers - Jo bio].

More about Jo: http://johoffberg.com/


Kevin St. Laurent [USA]

Kevin St. Laurent is internationally recognized for his energy and innovation as a Lindy Hop dancer, instructor, performer and choreographer. Over the past decade, Kevin has performed and taught swing dance around the world, across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He holds many major competition titles, and has been a World Lindy Hop Champion, American Lindy Hop Champion, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown Champion and US Open Swing Dance Champion many times over.

His expertise is sought after by both amateur and professional dancers world-wide. Known for his creativity and innovation on the floor, this stems from his command of partner connection and musicality. Admired for his spectacular slides, spins, and high-flying airsteps, he is also a favourite on the social dance-floor
[The Killer Dillers - Kevin bio].

More about Kevin: http://www.kevinstlaurent.com/

Jo & Kevin

Jo and Kevin live and breathe Lindy Hop with their passion for celebrating life through dance. They travel globally teaching and performing dances from the Jazz Era of the 1920's to 1940's. Since their partnership began in 2007 they have taught in 25 Countries across 5 continents including North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Together they hold titles at the International Lindy Hop Championships, European Swing Dance Championships, American Lindy Hop Championship, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, Camp Hollywood and Camp Jitterbug. With clear and humorous instruction, these two creative and versatile dancers will entertain, inspire and help you become the best dancer you can be. They are striving to change the world...one rock step at a time [Herräng - Jo & Kevin bios]

More about Jo & Kevin: www.JoandKevin.com

 
Sakarias Larsson [Sweden]

Sakarias has been swing dancing since the age of 15, only 19 years old he joined the Rhythm Hot Shots that later became the Harlem Hot Shots. Today at the age of 29 he is still performing with the company that is well recognized for it's spectacular shows worldwide. Sakarias has been teaching a lot both internationally and within Sweden. Sakarias masters several dances from the swing era including Lindy Hop, Charleston and Tap.

In Lindy Hop Sakarias together with Frida Segerdahl made it to the finals ”Hellzapoppin” New York (2004 and 2005) and ”The Battle” (2006, 2007), he placed second in the fast and medium Lindy Hop divisions at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2007. As a solo dancer Sakarias has won the Authentic Jazz division at both ”The Battle” and ”Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown” 2007. He also made it through to the finals in the Swedish dance reality TV show ”Floor Filler” where he competed with his swing dancing against other dance styles. He likes to compete for the fun of it but believes that no other person really is to judge a dancer.

He is one of the founders and driving forces behind CHICAGO swing dance studio, which is the most recognized place for swing dancing in Stockholm today. Sakarias believes style is the most important part of swing dancing. [Herräng - Sakarias Larsson bio].

Sakarias teaching us tap @ Swing & Swim III
Here are our teachers performing at Swing & Swim III

from left to right: Jo, Kevin, eWa, Lennart, Hanna, Mattias, Åsa, Daniel,



You can meet our teachers yourself at Herräng Dance Camp 


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One Year Anniversary

November 17, 2012, 6:54 am
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It’s just over a year now since I started learning the Lindy hop, the leader’s part mind you, since we were lacking boys and some of us girls had to volunteer to dance the boy’s part. I haven’t regretted volunteering one bit!! I really enjoy the leader’s part – it’s much more challenging, interesting and jazzy than the girl’s part, so I am still taking classes and seminars as a leader. However, I sometimes feel a bit of an alien because I am not dancing as a follow at all, plus I also get the feeling that sometimes it’s looked down upon for a girl to dance the leader’s part. That’s why last week I took my first class as a follow and hopefully a year from now I won’t be as lousy a follow as I am now….Still, I think I will always be a much better leader.

One year ago I also started this blog as a sort of notebook for myself and others to learn more about the swing era, the music, the fashion, the society. As a one year anniversary present of sorts I bought myself these two books representing two eras (the '20s and the '30s), two different dances (the Charleston and the Lindy Hop), but also two sides of me: the leader part that is often looking to Frankie Manning for styling, and the girl part that is always looking to the Flappers for styling. The '20s and the Flappers I have loved for almost two decades now, who knows why. My obsession with Woody Allen movies and his obsession with the '20s might have something to do with it. In college, I even took an entire seminar on the 1920’s and the 'lost generation' of writers and even wrote a paper on the Flapper herself. As for the '30s and Frankie Manning, I got to learn a lot about them this last year, and hopefully you have learned some things along with me through this blog.

Last night I started reading Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop and I thought that maybe some future posts on this blog might be about various subjects mentioned in the book, with the hope that they will inspire you to go on Amazon and buy the book yourselves. It’s a wonderful edition, beautifully narrated by Manning himself, and I think every Lindy hopper ought to own a copy.

I hope you stay tuned for future posts and if you enjoy the ambiance of this blog, you can also come join My Swing Archives on Facebook for a trip back in the '20s, '30s & '40s.

Swing Heil!!


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House Rent Parties

November 17, 2012, 10:38 am
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According to Wikipedia, “a rent partyis a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music…many notable jazz musicians are associated with rent parties, including pianists Speckled Red, James P. Johnson, Willie "the Lion" Smith, and Fats Waller, although rent parties also featured bands as well.” [1]

Frankie Manning remembers: “…house rent parties…were a way for people to raise money to help pay their landlord. They were held right in someone’s apartment, and you’d pay 25 cents to get in. Once you were inside, you’d have someone playing stride piano and blues for food and tips, pig’s feet and potato salad to eat, bathtub gin for 10 cents a mug…and dancing.” [2] 

Louis Prima explains it all in “House Rent Party Day”. Pay attention to the lyrics! 


“You haven’t seen slow dancing until you’ve been to a house rent party. When people wanted to get funky, they’d do the black bottom, the mess-around, and slow drags – honky-tonk dances, what they did to slower music. If it was a blues number, everybody would be out there shakin’ butt. You’d hear someone say, ‘Turn the lights down low and let the party get started!’ Or, as Fats Waller used to say, ‘Put out the lights and call the law.’” [2] 

No idea if the party on this old video is a house rent party, but it might as well be. The song is "The Joint is Jumpin'" and Fats Waller is on the piano.


"When they played hot music - fast music, ragtime or Charleston-type music – if someone started getting a little wilder than everybody else, the crowd would back up and form a circle. Everybody would stand around clapping for the people in the middle, who would start shining, what we called ‘showing off’.” [2] Manning is referring to the 'jam circles' or 'jamming' - more about them in my post Jam Circle.

© Bettman/Corbis

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_party
[2] F. Manning & C.R. Millman, Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop, 25

Image: Jam circle at the Savoy Ballroom, circa late 1930s. Herbert "Whitey" White encourages Ann Johnson (with leg bent) to enter circle with George Greenidge (facing Ann). Johnny Innis stands to Whitey's left (F. Manning & C.R. Millman, Frankie Manning - Ambassador of Lindy Hop).

For further reading:
http://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.gr/2007/01/rent-parties.html
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Swingin' with Frankie

December 9, 2012, 1:46 pm
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In the book Frankie Manning – Ambassador of Lindy Hop I came across the titles of many swing tunes, some of which I had never heard before. In honor of Frankie, and as a way of celebrating my 20th Swing Mix on 8tracks.com I decided to make a mix of 8 tunes that Frankie used to dance to. Follow the link Swing Mix #20 or press play on the Swing Mix #20 player on the right side of this blog. 

Below, in book (not track)order, are the excerpts in which the songs (in bold) are mentioned and some YouTube videos with songs that are mentioned but do not appear in my mix.

#1Savoy Lindy hoppers liked dancing to fast tunes (like Chick Webb’s “Clap Hands! Here Come Charley,” flag wavers as he called them, which meant crowd pleasers), but not all the time, so orchestras didn’t play fast numbers all night. Dancers today like doing jam circles to “Sing, Sing, Sing,” but we never jammed to music like that. We didn’t even like “Sing, Sing, Sing.” There was too much drum. I’d dance to a fast tune if it was swinging and I liked it. Otherwise, I’d sit it out. (70)

#2In late 1934 Frankie Manning and his then partner Hilda Morris got to perform at the Apollo Theater as part of a revue and ended up working with Duke Ellington and his band who were on the bill for that week. Frankie remembers: Now, we used to go see Duke all the time at the Apollo and the Harlem Opera House, and we loved his music, but there wasn’t anything I’d heard that was all that danceable. It was fantastic music, and it was exotic – we used to call it jungle music – but his band just didn’t work for the Lindy hoppers. This was 1934, so it was before he came out with all those swing tunes like “Jack the Bear,” “Cotton Tail,” “In a Mellotone,” and “Take the ‘A’ Train.” I’d been listening to “Black and Tan Fantasy,” “Mood Indigo,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and all this other beautiful music, but nothing that was swinging. Finally, Ellington said, “We have a tune called ‘Stompy Jones.’ Would you like to hear it?” I said, “I’ve never heard of it, but just play it and we’ll dance.” So Hilda and I performed the whole week to “Stompy Jones,” which worked just fine (84). 

Here's Ellington's famous "Take the 'A' Train" from the film Reveille with Beverly from 1943:



#3…the tune we always used in contests was “Christopher Columbus.” But earlier in the evening, Chick [Webb] had played “Down South Camp Meeting,” which is this real swingy tune. If you heard it, you’d dance to it. I had found that I could catch all these little breaks in the music, so I said, “How about ‘Down South Camp Meeting’?” “You got it," he said. “What tempo do you want?” “Something about right here,” I said, snapping my fingers. That little humpbacked man up there on the drums hit off the tempo, and those cats started swinging! (99)


#4 Soon after I introduced the first air step, I was at the Savoy dancing to Jimmie Lunceford’s “Posin’,” either while he was rehearsing in the afternoon or during one of those battle of the bands. As I’ve said, I used to like to catch breaks in the music, and “Posin’”, which he had just come out with, had a nice stop rhythm to it. Each time Willie Smith sang “Evvv-ry-bod-y pose!” and the music stopped, I would freeze my body, then begin dancing again when the band started up after holding for eight counts. Nobody else was doing that, but I did it with my partner because I was so in tune with the music” (103).

#5 In March 1936, we had a two - or three - week run at the Roxy Theater, the first time there for a group of Whitey’s dancers….Around this time, truckin’ was the new vogue, and everybody was doing it. A song titled “Truckin’” had recently come out that went something like, “They had to have something new, a dance to do, up here in Harlem – so, someone started truckin’. To truck, your feet shuffle right, left, right, left with the right side of your body leading as you move diagonally forward, and your right hand shakes while your index finger points up in the air. People said truckin’ was a dance, but it was really just one step, like the black bottom or the Suzie-Q. Whitey was always trying to add the latest dances into the Lindy to make it more exciting and more marketable. In order to make a routine for the stage out of any of these movements, you had to put them with other jazz steps or the Lindy hop. We went into the Roxy as truckers, according to the program, but we just mixed it into our Lindy solos, so the audience would say, “Yeah, they truckin’” (114).The version of "Truckin'" I included in my mix is by Duke Ellington with vocals by Ivie Anderson. Fats Waller's version, however, I have to admit is my favorite:


#6Frankie recalls when he and Whitey’s Lindy hoppers toured with Cab Calloway back in 1937. At Cab’s first rehearsal for the tour…he asked if I had sheet music, which I didn't. Since I was supposed to know what I was doing by then, and every act was supposed to have its own music, I told him I would bring it the next day. That evening, I ran out and bought the music of Benny Goodman’s “Jam Session,” then stayed up all night listening to the record while I followed along. I couldn’t read the notes, but I counted everything out, visualizing the steps I wanted the Lindy hoppers to do. Sometimes I got up and actually did the movements. The next day, I told Cab I wanted so many choruses of thirty-two bars each of this section, so many of that section (I wanted to make the music longer), then jump back to this spot, and finish it out. Cab was laughing because, as I know now, “Jam Session” is in sixteen-bar choruses (130).  

#7 Later that spring I worked with Count Basie for the first time. I had been listening to Chick Webb since I first began going to the Savoy, but by early 1937 some of us were turning into Basie-ites. To me, Basie swung more than any band out there....Nowadays, whenever I hear Basie, it always makes me want to dance. Some of my favorite songs for dancing are "Shiny Stockings" and "Moten Swing." If I want to show off, I use "Jumpin' at the Woodside" or "Every Tub" (132-133). Of "Moten Swing" there are many Basie versions on YouTube. I am guessing this is probably closest to the version that Frankie would have danced to. I wanted to add it to my mix but 8tracks regulations do not allow you to add more than two tracks by each artist. 


#8"John's Idea" is a very swinging tune by Count Basie that Frankie used initially in order to choreograph his version of the Big Apple routine back in 1937. Frankie says: Whitey asked me to make up a big apple routine for the Lindy hoppers, so I got to work. At first, as I read the letter and tried visualizing the movements, I thought, What the hell is he talking about? Then I began playing some music and actually doing the steps. I used Count Basie's "John's Idea," initially, but then I switched to "One O'Clock Jump" because it was a little slower and more swinging" (143). [see also my post The Big Apple]
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Balboa

January 9, 2013, 4:01 am
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Image by © Bettman/Corbis [Stock Photo ID: BE034426]
The original Balboa dance is a form of swing dance that started as early as 1915 and gained in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s.

Balboa came from Southern California during the 1920s and increased in popularity until World War II. Balboa is named for the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California, where the dance was invented.    

It is danced primarily in close embrace, and is led with a full body connection. The art of Balboa is in the subtle communication between the lead and follow, including weight shifts, which most viewers cannot see. As a result, Balboa is considered more of a "dancer's dance" than a "spectator's dance". Its exact origins are obscure, especially as most of the original Balboa dancers have since died. 

The dance was originally a response to overcrowded ballrooms where the swing-out or breakaway (a move popular in Lindy Hop at the time) was often difficult, if not actually banned by the venue. Balboa is often perceived as a restrained or introverted dance, with most movement occurring below the knees; however, part of its appeal is its variations on turns and twirls that allow the lead to show off his partner's legs—an effect that is heightened when the follow is wearing an effective skirt and high heels.

Modern Balboa dancers sometimes distinguish between two types of Balboa, "Pure Balboa" and "Bal-Swing." In Pure Balboa, dancers stay in close embrace for almost the entire time, their torsos touching, doing variations based on footwork, turning as a couple and moving as a couple. Bal-Swing, in contrast, incorporates movements in which there is more space between the partners and thus more latitude for dynamic movements, including turns for one or both partners, and so forth.

Bal-Swing: originally known as just “Swing” or sometimes “Randy Swing” in newspaper articles of the time; Bal-Swing is an eccentric dance unlike Balboa, which allows for improvisation. This dance style came from Charleston, and its earliest known use was a contest in Venice Beach in 1932.

Here's a funny short film from 1943 called "Maharaja" featuring a couple (Hal & Betty Takier) doing the Balboa or Bal-Swing along with other swing moves.


Balboa is a contemporary of Lindy Hop, so comparisons are hard to avoid. Both dances evolved at the same time with the same swing music. Both are considered evolutionary descendants of Charleston. Balboa has also typically been recognized as a regional dance done in Southern California whereas Lindy Hop was more widespread nationally, but that is no longer the case among modern swing dancers: today, most consider Balboa and Bal-swing legitimate forms of swing dance. Both Bal-Swing and Lindy Hop would have been considered dances done by jitterbugs during the 1930s and ‘40s, unlike Balboa, which was done by more mature dancers who wanted to avoid the Jitterbugs’ energetic and eccentric floor work.

“As soon as you start attracting attention to yourself, you [are] not doing Balboa anymore.” [original Balboa dancer’s quote]

Balboa is danced to a wide variety of tempos. Because the basic step takes up such a small space, Balboa can be danced to fast music (over 300 beats per minute). Balboa is also danced to slow music (under 100 beats per minute), which allows more time for intricate footwork and variations.

"Swingin' in the Promised Land" from 1938 is a really wonderful tune for Balboa which I discovered here: http://shuffleprojects.com/2012/edgar-hayes-swingin-in-the-promised-land


For more songs suited for Balboa: http://shuffleprojects.com/tag/balboa/

Communication through subtle weight shifts and body language is essential. The dancers stand close, touching upper front outer sides of torsos along outer edge of pectoral muscle and ribcage. Sometimes the connection extends down to knees, depending on the degree of room needed for specific variations within pure balboa. Height difference between partners can cause the connection to vary considerably. They are offset by about 1/4 of their body width, creating a slight "V" between their torsos and allowing the feet and legs to offset to a greater degree than in ballroom styles. The balboa follower often dances in heels to get the proper "forward" connection. This can be misinterpreted however. The follower still has her own weight. Foot balance is neutral with slightly more pressure on the ball of the feet for the follow, but generally across the entire foot for the lead.


The original caption for the photo on the top is: 9/8/1938 – Venice, CA: Swinging in the sandtime…on the sandy beach of Venice, CA, the jitterbugs have foregathered to put on one of the world’s greatest swing jamborees. Some of the best in the country have entered in the California championships for all classes of jittery jitterbugs. Something, however, tells me that these dancers are actually doing the Balboa or the Bal-Swing and not actually the Jitterbug. And here's a video [no audio] where you can actually see the dancers of the photo dancing. Great find whoever posted this on YouTube! I hope they don't remove it.


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Art Deco vs. Art Nouveau

January 17, 2013, 4:09 am
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Alphonse Mucha, "Princezna Hyacinta", 1911
Personally, I’ve always been a huge fan of Art Nouveau, probably because I grew up in a house decorated with Alphonse Mucha posters [Mucha was the “father” of Art Nouveau]. I love the flowery, flowing, asymmetrical patterns in Art Nouveau architecture and design and how they try to blend in with the natural surroundings. I mean look at these examples!! 

Casa Battló, restored by Gaudí, Barcelona
La Fermette Marbeau, Paris

[images: Tiffany Studios Double Poinsettia table lamp, blog.chasenantiques.com / 
Hector Guimard furniture / Door by architect Emile André]

Chrysler Building © Bettmann/CORBIS
Art Nouveau, however, was a style popular from 1890 to 1910 and unfortunately it did not coincide with my favorite decade in fashion, which was the 1920’s and which was defined by another movement called Art Deco. During the 1920's, in the same way the flappers reacted to the austerity of the previous generation’s morals and fashion, so did Art Deco artists react to the flowery, ornamental, nature loving, romantic style of their predecessors. Art Deco was all about angles, symmetry and geometry; it celebrated machinery and technology; it used aluminum, stainless steel, chrome and plastic. One of the most famous Art Deco buildings and one that absolutely fascinates me is the Chrysler Buildingin New York, designed by architect William Van Alen. However, I cannot say that I am a big fan of Art Deco in general. 

Art Deco was a movement in the decorative arts, design and architecture that originated in the 1920s in France and developed into a major style in western Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s.   

Deco emerged from the Interwar period when rapid industrialization was transforming culture, therefore it's not surprising that one of its major attributes was an embrace of technology. Deco drew inspiration from Machine Age and streamline technologies,such as modern aviation, electric lighting, radio, ocean liners and skyscrapers.Art Deco also came to represent luxury, glamour and exuberance, especially in the United States which were booming materially, if not spiritually...

Chrysler Building Entrance
Inspiration also came from abroad. During the 1920s, the ability for long-distance travel and the consequent encounter with foreign cultures, but also the popularity of archeology due to excavations in Pompeii and Troy and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, influenced artists and designers who used motifs from other cultures than their own - ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Asia, Mesoamerica, and Oceania. Here are some fetching pieces of jewellery with evident influences...


[images: Pendant Brooch, Charlton 1925, Christie's / Egyptian revival comb, circa 1923 / No information / Aquamarine Pendant, 1930s 1stdibs.com]
 
Deco was also influenced by Cubism, Constructivism, Functionalism, Modernism, and Futurism, but while most of these design movements have political or philosophical beginnings or intentions, art deco was purely decorative.


[images: Parkview Square, Singapore © Harry Tan / Carbide and Carbon Building, Chicago Illinois © Terence Faircloth]
 
Art Deco was a globally popular style and influenced many areas of design, including industrial design, interior design... 


...fashion and jewelry... 


[images: Erté / evening dress, 1928 from the Minnesota Historical Society]

...as well as the visual arts such as painting, graphic artsand film. Fritz Lang's Metropolis is one such example. You can read more about it in the post ‘Metropolis'– A Future of the Past.

 
"The austerities imposed by World War II caused Art Deco to decline in popularity."In the States, society had already entered an era of Great Depression after the stock market crash in 1929 and the Art Deco style "was perceived by many as inappropriately luxurious." No wonder...

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_deco
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36505/Art-Deco
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/art-deco.html

More about the distinction: Art Nouveau & Art Deco For Noobs…more about Art Nouveau: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau more about Alphonse Mucha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha, Mucha Foundation, Mucha Museum Images: http://artnouveauanddeco.tumblr.com/

My Art Deco Board:Pinterest / Art Deco
My Art Nouveau Board: Pinterest / Art Nouveau 
My '20s Fashion Board: Pinterest / '20s Fashion
 
'Metropolis' poster: http://www.uow.edu.au/~morgan/Metroja.htm
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'Metropolis' - A future of the Past

January 17, 2013, 4:09 am
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In 1925, while F. Scott Fitzgerald was getting the now famous “The Great Gatsby” published in the States, in Europe, the wife of a German director was having visions of the future and the husband began shooting a very bizarre film. Two years later, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh was making his famous non-stop flight from the United States to Europe and Shorty Snowden was naming this crazy dance he had been doing, the “Lindy Hop”, after Lindbergh’s “Hop” over the Atlantic; in Europe, Fritz Lang was having his premiere. 

The futuristic Metropolis, set in 2026, a future which is future even for us, opened in Berlin impressing the audience but leaving most critics of the time rather unimpressed. In Wikipedia, I read something quite interesting regarding the film’s reception. Apparently, Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels was impressed by the film saying that "the political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labor, to begin their historical mission." 
 
Later in an interview, Lang, maybe because of the Nazi Party's fascination with the film, said that he was in fact dissatisfied with the result.In Lang’s own words: "The main thesis was Mrs. Von Harbou's [his wife's], but I am at least 50 percent responsible because I did it. I was not so politically minded in those days as I am now. You cannot make a social-conscious picture in which you say that the intermediary between the hand and the brain is the heart. I mean, that's a fairy tale – definitely. But I was very interested in machines. Anyway, I didn't like the picture – thought it was silly and stupid…” (from an interview with Peter Bogdanovich in Who The Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors, published in 1998). His wife who had written the script “became a passionate member of the Nazi Party in 1933" and Lang divorced her the following year.
 
Regardless of the film's socio-political naiveté and questionable political messages, Metropolis is, still, one of the greatest examples of German Expressionism and one of the first futuristic, science-fiction films in film history which would influence many artists and film-makers to come. A small note: Metropolis is not a movie celebrating machines and technology since one of its major themes is the worker's enslavement by the machines and the film's villain is a female robot. Still, the film remains one of the most awe inspiring visualizations of the Machine Age!


The appearance of the city in Metropolis is strongly influenced by the Art Deco movement, and it was born "...one evening in October 1924...whilst [Lang was] gazing out at the flickering, neon-lit New York skyline from a vantage point on board the ship which had brought him and fellow UFA officials to America. That skyscraper-dominated skyline would come to define progress and the city of the future. Its adoption by Lang as a central motif for his film was indeed prophetic"(http://www.uow.edu.au/~morgan/metroa.htm). Describing his first impressions of the city, Lang said that "the buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize" (Wikipedia).

Lower Manhattan Skyline in the 1920s at Night © E.O. Hoppé/CORBIS
You can find everything you need to know about the film in this exceptional electronic archive: Metropolis Film Archive 2011.The posters & the still come from the same site. 



DJ Fellow Hopper will be hosting a Metropolis inspired swing event 
@ Floral on Saturday, January 26, 2013 
taking us back to a time when the futurecould still inspire awe...
 
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the A to Z Swing Song List

March 12, 2013, 3:01 am
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Inspired by Veit Hailperin’s (aka Dr. Jazz) post “A Jazz Song Alphabet”, Christian Bossert (aka DJ CHRiSBE) created a wonderful series of Jazz Song Alphabet Lists by various Swing DJs on his superb site “Swing DJ Resources”.Even though I am not actually a DJ myself, he was sweet enough to host my own list as well: Jazz Song Alphabet Vol.4Now you can also find my list on the blog of the originator of the Jazz Song Alphabet, Dr Jazz: A Jazz Song Alphabet by DJ Maria 

Alreet - Gene Krupa & His Orchestra
Boo Woo - Harry James And The Boogie Woogie Trio 
Charleston - Enoch Light & the Charleston City All Stars
Diga Diga Doo - Rex Stewart & the Ellingtonians
Everybody Loves My Baby - Glenn Miller & his Orchestra
Fractious Fingering - Fats Waller 
Get Your Boots Laced, Papa - Woody Herman
Hotter than 'Ell - Fletcher Henderson & his Orchestra
I’d Love to Take Orders from you – Mildred Bailey
Just You, Just Me - Red Norvo & his Orchestra
Krazy Kapers - The Chocolate Dandies
Let's Misbehave - Irving Aaronson & his Commanders
My Woman - Al Bowlly with Lew Stone and his Monseigneur Band
Nosey Joe - Bull Moose Jackson
Old Man Mose - Louis Armstrong
Perfidia - Benny Goodman with Helen Forrest
Queen Isabelle – Cab Calloway & his Orchestra
Ring 'Dem Bells - Duke Ellington & his Orchestra
Splanky - Count Basie & his Orchestra
That's A Plenty - Louisiana Rhythm Kings
Undecided - Chick Webb & his Orchestra feat. Ella Fitzgerald
Vol Vistu Gaily Star - Tommy Dorsey & Clambake 7
Who stole the lock - Jack Bland & his Rhythmakers
X Y Z - Earl "Fatha" Hines
You've Got Me Voodoo'd - Charlie Barnet & his Orchestra
Zig Zag - Casa Loma Orchestra

You can listen to my list on 8tracks: Swing Mix #30 [The Alphabet Mix] or simply press play on the 8tracks player on the right hand side of this blog. I hope you enjoy and that you get inspired to create your own list. It’s really fun! 

I urge you to visit Christian’s site for more lists and more inspiration. I am sure you’ll also enjoy his series “DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week”. Also do check out Christian’s other site Shuffle Projects and if you are on Facebook you can follow him there: DJ CHRiSBE on Facebook.

Image: Swing Session with Jazz Band, 1920s© Bettmann/CORBIS [Stock Photo ID: BE003362]
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Ali & Katja

April 19, 2013, 8:38 am
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This blog has always been more of a notebook of Lindy Hop history and Swing music with a few exceptions when it came to sharing with whoever reads this, special experiences, like being taught the Lindy hop by exceptional teachers. This is one such exception. 

Two weeks ago my fellow Lindy hoppers and I had the privilege to be taught by a couple of very unique teachers and I promised I would make a special mention on my blog. I have been very busy with work and only now do I find the time, but it’s never too late to say good things about people who really deserve them. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we had one of the finest Lindy Hop workshops in our short dancing education history, since almost all of my classmates had the same positive reactions. Ali & Katja who were invited to Athens, Greece by a group of dedicated fellow Lindy Hoppers, were pleasant, funny, helpful, precise when it came to explaining, and exceptional in teaching us technique. My personal experience in most workshops is that I am taught interesting moves but I somehow seem to forget them within a week’s time. I'm thinking now that it's probably because we are not always taught technique so the moves we learn sort of lack the ground that will keep them rooted in our heads. With Ali & Katja, however, who persist on technique, and so skillfully inject it in you, the moves they teach become the unavoidable result of their technique. Now you may like their technique and you may not; that's personal taste. However, it seems to me that in the context of a workshop maybe it's not that important to be taught a bunch of moves, but to be taught HOW to move.

It was not an easy workshop for us Intermediates because technique is the hardest to master and as is the case in all workshops we were working in a fast tempo. However, not once did I feel that we were hurried to complete a predetermined schedule without having absorbed the material first, and that, I think, has to do with the expertise of the teachers who know how to structure a workshop, who know where to persist, who know how much to convey and in what way; who know how to teach. Period. And I have immense respect for good teachers; because there are a lot of talented dancers out there, but few talented teachers. 

For me being a good teacher, apart from skill has got a lot to do with respecting your students and by respecting I mean approaching them not from a place of authority but from a place of fellowship and genuine desire to share your knowledge. Ali & Katja are very accessible in that sense. I felt that they were two of our friends who had come to impart their knowledge, instead of two big shots that have come to 'bless' us with their talent; and I liked that. The workshop's title was "a non-profit workshop for the community by the community" and I really got a sense of community during this workshop, partly thanks to the organizers and partly thanks to our teachers. 

I would definitely recommend taking a workshop with Ali & Katja and I would not think twice before taking another workshop with them myself! You can hire them for a workshop at their web site http://swingstep.tv/ and you can follow them on Facebook: Ali&Katja on Facebook

See them in action here: 


I like their simple, smooth, elastic dancing style…those polymers sure work ;)

Here you can see them dancing with students at a special evening organized in the context of the workshop. Live performance by The Speakeasies Swing Band (the best Greek swing band, as far as I am concerned) and video by our dedicated swing events photographer Athena Liaskou.


I asked Ali & Katja if I could share the class recaps on the internet and they said it was fine by them, so here are my two videos from the Intermediate Level: 



Also, here are links to the two videos of the Advanced Level shared on YouTube by a fellow hopper: Ali & Katja Advanced Day 1, Ali & Katja Advanced Day 2

A big thank you to Ali & Katja and a big thank you to our organizers Avgoustinos, Vassia, Orestis, Venia, Fotis, Nicoleta, Kanellina, Maria, Christophe for making this one of the most fulfilling Lindy workshops so far. Hope you have more planned for the future...See you on the dancefloor! 

Photos © Athena Liaskou
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