When asked, Fred Astaire liked to describe his dancing as an “outlaw style” because he didn’t want to be confined or limited.[1] However, competitions by their nature tend to do exactly that due to the narrow focus on winning rather than creative expression. That pressure tends to curb intellectual and creative honesty as Lucy Dunne talked about after NADC 2002. Compounding this problem is the fact that the majority of performance opportunities available in the Lindy Hop community were mostly limited to the competition events.[2]
Nina Gilkenson: Hipstress of Rhythm
I like Nina Gilkenson. I think that should be a shirt.
You may have heard that she’s a good dancer. That rumor, like all others, is absolutely true.
You may have even heard that she belly dances. There is actual video evidence of that. Here is a clip of Nina and Naomi’s (I like her too) belly dancing debut in the Cabaret division at ALHC 2002.
Weekly Video Highlights: 2009 Killer Diller Weekend
Seattle seems to have it going on all year round. Here are videos from their just completed Killer Diller Weekend featuring Naomi Uyama and Skye Humphries. Vids courtesy of the omnipotent floridave1.
Solomon Douglas and The US Army Blues in DC Dec. 5 & 6
Another fine weekend of live swing music here in DC is in the books. On Saturday, The Washington Swing Dance Committee hosted The Solomon Douglas Swingtet at Glen Echo Park.
The knock on Solomon over the years has been that his bands could be very inconsistent. This was usually due to having an inconsistent line up of musicians from gig to gig. He would typically travel alone and recruit local musicians from each city. Often times first meeting, rehearsing and playing with them all in one day.
Decade of Domination
While we’re on the topic of Jordan and Tatiana, can I say that after watching tons of footage of them this week that I can’t be more impressed by a pair of dancers who can be so good yet get even better over time? I’ll wrap up this week's side trip through West Coast Swing territory with an overview of probably one of the most dominant couples in any partnered dance genre.
WCS OCD: Jordan and Tatiana in 2009
I made a few offhanded observations in my US Open post about Tatiana Mollman and Jordan Frisbee’s winning performance in the Classic division this year to Coldplay’s “Viva LaVida.” They took the unorthodox (for West Coast Swing at least) approach of performing a routine they’ve been doing for most of the year instead of performing a new one. I thought I’d put those theories to the test by watching every YouTube example of this routine that I could find. See what I do for you?
US Open Swing Dance Championships 2009 Reactions
Yet another event I didn’t go to that I can comment thanks to the generosity of the interwebs. First off, I'm impressed. Leave it to the westies to get results and videos online the very next morning after the this year's US Open Swing Dance Championships ended.
We didn’t send any Lindy Hoppers this year, but DC still represented big time with the DC Hand Dancers winning the Strictly Swing Challenge. That contest caps the entire event, pitting the winners of all the Strictly divisions (West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Hand Dance, and Shag) up against each other.
Video Spotlight: Grenoble Swing Dance Festival 2009
YouTube-ite Vinnie38710 has posted some quality videos from this past Grenoble Swing Dance Festival which occurred November 13-15. Here's a couple nice teacher demo's. Check out Vinnie's YouTube page for more videos of this and other events. Nina Gilkenson & Todd Yannacone
Trust
Note: The last entry of this mini-trilogy originally written this a year ago for an art project by my friend Sandy Yin, the blogger of "A Brief List of Rules." I try not to get too personal on this blog, but some things should be shared. Updated to add: I just noticed that this is my 100th post on this blog and I don't think I could have picked a better one. Thanks for reading!
I have a very interesting relationship with Akemi Kinukawa. I consider her one of my closest friends, yet we don’t speak to one another very much. In fact, I can probably estimate with some confidence that we’ve actually spent more time dancing together than we have talking.
Copasetic
Note: Just re-posting more old Facebook notes just so I have all my stuff in one place. This is also part of an art project by my friend Sandy Yin, the author of the blog "A Brief List of Rules." She gave me good feedback and I was going to re-work it, but I edited it to fix a couple of things. It's just a vignette. An example of a story that is much more interesting in your head than it is when you decide to write it down. It seems very mundane, but for some reason these events just stick with me.
The Yehoodi 6th Anniversary in 2004 was an incredible event. The Great Day In Lindy photo shoot; The Basie Ball; music featuring surviving members of the Count Basie Orchestra; the last American Hellzapoppin contest; the surprise performance of the Mama Lu Parks Dancers; honors for some of our forbearers. Awe inspiring and epic from start to finish. But honestly, that was all just background for what I really remember from that weekend.