I wanted to expand on a thought in my last post where I previously pointed out the confrontational (in a friendly way) aspect of Sharon Davis and Max Pitruzzella’s dance off in the 2006 Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown Solo Charleston Contest.
Admittedly I haven’t watched the video very closely since I first saw it a few years ago. Seeing it again recently in the context of writing my last post made quite a few things jump out at me regarding the back and forth between the two dancers.
I was looking at some of the footage of the preliminary rounds for Solo dance portion of “The Battle” when I spotted something unusual. Check out this clip, starting around 0:32 and the 16 seconds after that. Don’t read any further until you have. I’d like you to have your own reaction before you read mine.
In case you missed it I’m referring to Bobby Bonsey (white shirt, red tie) and his move on Jana Grulichova (red shirt and black vest). If you did miss it then go back and watch it again. I’ll still be here when you're done.
I don’t know about anyone else out there, but I’m going to say up that I think that Bobby’s move on Jana was inappropriate.
I’m not sure what they’re relationship to each other is (dance partners, friends, whatever) But even if they know each other, or if it’s pre-planned, I still don’t think it’s something that should happen in a dance competition.
Aside from being kinda creepy, there’s still the matter of the use of direct contact and partnered lead and follow in a solo contest.
It’s one thing to play off of one another through visual cues or mini-challenges (E.g. I do a move, then you do it better), but by consenting to following something physically led on you, you’re basically submitting to another dancer. That's exactly the opposite impression you want to make in a competition.
Check out the 2008 Camp Jitterbug Solo Charleston contest towards the end of the dance off (which starts at 3:50) between Sharon Davis and Carl Nelson.
At 6:01 Sharon links with Carl’s arm and basically takes over. It’s a close contest up until then, but for me, that’s a make or break point that helps Sharon win 1st place.
Interestingly enough Sharon is a good one to watch for a lesson on when not to get involved head to head. Check out the semi-final and final rounds of the 2006 Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown Solo Charleston contest.
The all skate starts at about 6:56. Watch the dynamic between Sharon and Max Pitruzella, the dancer with his injured arm tucked beneath his shirt.
Max spends a lot of time getting into Sharon’s space, trying to bait her into going one-on-one, but Sharon deftly avoids him. She engages him only when she has to during the beginning of the dance off when there are only two of them, but is able to slip away towards the end. You can call it fear, but in this case I think it’s smart because going directly head-to-head with Max would play to his strength as a more aggressive dancer.
In modern day b-boy and b-girl battles, there’s an informal rule that dancers should avoid making contact with each other. This probably stems from the fact that these things tend to get uber-competitive. Contact can easily be interpreted as aggressive and quickly escalate into something that could get out of hand.
We’re a much smaller community so that’s less likely, but I still think it’s a good thing to discourage because of everyone’s primary background with partner dance. It becomes too easy to fall back on that dynamic. A solo dance competition isn’t how well you work with a partner, it’s about how you stand on your own.
However you don’t want to completely ignore everyone else either. Watch Chance Bushman, (5th dancer, wearing jeans & a short sleeve shirt) in the ULHS 2005 Solo Charleston semi-final (ignore the title on the video).
He doesn’t pay very much attention to the dancers before or after him. Between that and looking down through most of his shines, he's a black hole sucking all the energy out of the contest, threatening to collapse the universe around him.
In this same competition keep an eye out for Frida Segerdahl (the second dancer) throughout the comp as she follows the first dancer, Angela Andrews . In each of her spotlights, she takes a move that Angela before, and cranks it up to 11.
Some great things can happen just by paying attention to what's going on around you.
At least in my opinion. Anyone else have an opinion about how appropriate or inappropriate different kinds of contact are in a solo contest?
And just to show that I'm not picking on Bobby, here's a fun example of him making contact with dancers in a good way.
(Special thanks to Ann Mony whose video suggestions for this post were much better than my original picks even if I used them for completely different reasons)
The thing I noticed the most is that these finalists rarely fall back on the Charleston basic. Instead they make use of a wide variety of jazz steps which they employ with varying degrees of emphasis.
I’ve always found it difficult to watch contests with multiple people dancing at once. I recently discovered that when a solo dancer starts into basic Charleston, my attention wanders elsewhere. This occurs even when I’m watching a contest on video multiple times, trying to concentrate on one dancer.
A few random links I've been meaning to share. The first one is a video forwarded to me by Ann Mony who should be debuting a website any day week now. Maybe.
The above performance is by fellow DC dancer Naomi Uyama and Todd Yannacone.
They're performing this week at the Vail International Dance Festival in Colorado.
I also dug up this article about the festival which features a couple quotes from Todd.
Everyone's d doin' it: Lindy Hoppin blogger, Breanna Perry has a cool take on Naomi's performance with her Silver Shadow teammates Nina Gilkenson and Ramona Staffeld.
Completing the Naomi hat trick is an older blog post by a jazz fan who ran into Naomi while she was singing with the Cangelosi Cards earlier this year in New York City.
Onto other non-Naomi related links:
This site posted segments of a documentary about the growth and development of Lindy Hop in Toronto.
Perusing through the bookstore this weekend I stumbled upon a couple interesting books. One is called "Thriving on a Riff: Jazz & Blues Influences in African American Literature and Film" It's a collection of essays including one on minstrelsy images in film. That article devotes several pages to analyzing the Ivie Anderson/Whitey's Lindy Hoppers segment of the movie "Day At The Races."
It puts forth the thesis that certain cuts and close ups subvert the otherwise talented performances on screen.
This reminds me that I've started putting together an Ivie Anderson related post. Keep an eye out for that in the next few weeks.
The other book is a new collection of essays by Amiri Baraka called "Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music (Music of the African Diaspora)"
I was only able to page through it, but did read one essay about a conversation between Baraka and Bill Cosby. They talked mostly about the relationship between jazz and dancing. That's not unusual except that Cosby grew up jammin' to post WWII jazz which many people don't find very danceable. Other than that, their observations are pretty akin to what most Lindy Hoppers would say about music and dance.
I recommend checking out both books if you see them.
There are two main ingredients for to make a Lindy Hop competition significant.
1. Get a lot of good dancers to show up.
2. Put video of it up on the internet ASAP.
This is the reason why I'm posting about an event called Jazz Jam in Stockholm, Sweden. I always thought the scheduling of this event was brilliant. It takes place right after Herrang Dance Camp ends.
Not really a newsflash, but just amusing to see how Camp Hollywood finally gets on the bus, 10 years later. I hear that Ben ans Sherri's teams did very well this past weekend and look forward to seeing more Camp Hollywood clips online.
Minnie’s Moochers both exemplified and popularized various trends in the Lindy Hop community at that time. Those related to the music, the events, and the dance itself. These trends fueled each other through the late 90’s and early 00’s at a time when the modern national Lindy Hop community was coming together and bringing in large number of new dancers because of the increased popularity of Swing around the country. As a result, the community was absorbing ideas at the same time that it was coalescing, and was struggling to reconcile these ideas with what was passed to them from those who came before.
I used to work at the National Museum of the American Indian. There, I met Gerald McMaster, a curator who coined the term “Survivance” for one of the exhibits. The word refers to the process by which Native communities endured though hundreds of years of challenges.
I went to the National Pow Wow hosted by my former employer in 2007. It was an odd experience coming from a different kind of dance community. The most significant one is that Pow Wow's are not just about dancing (social and competition), but they are also equal parts ceremony, marketplace, and family reunion. In that sense it's a much more robust experience than going to a typical Lindy Hop event weekend. I guess I could draw some parallels, but really, matching up a bunch of hobbyists with native communities that are thousands of years old can't really compare.
One of the fun things about being involved with an event like this is getting to see and hear things I wouldn’t normally if I was just another attendee.
This is part of a series of posts gathering up all the choice online footage from the 2008 International Lindy Hop Championships. This year’s ILHC is happening on August 27-30, 2009 and you can register at www.ILHC.com.
Showcase Division
Max Pitruzella & Annie Trudeau-1st Place (above)
Laura Keat & Nick Williams-2nd Place (No video available. Anyone got one?)
Showcase Jo Hoffberg & Kevin St. Laurent-2nd Place
Bethany Powell & Stefan Durham-4th Place
Kim Clever & Dave Frutos
Andrew Thigpen & Erica Deblasio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnPgaVLOAb4
