We’re at a pretty quiet time in the Lindy Hop world as there are no major or minor events happening until Lindy Focus and Snowball right after Christmas. This is probably a good time to get caught up on your online Lindy reading. The Lindy blogosphere is surprisingly larger than you think. When I started this post I thought I was just going to describe a handful of sites, but once I was done compiling URL’s I came up with over 50.
Favorite Performances of the Year-Couple Routines
Technically from 2008, but right before the New Year. This performance was so awesome that they got asked to do it all over the place in 2009. Brilliantly funny, combined with great dancing. I like this clip especially because of the reactions of the judges especially Nina Gilkenson and Juan Villafane reflecting everyone’s complete surprise and delight in seeing this the first time. Click here to get a better view of their facial expressions from a performance from Lindyfest in Houston.
Lindy Hop and the Future Historical Record
Kelly Porter, a dancer out in Seattle, WA, is going forward with an idea that is long overdue. She is encouraging people to talk to their older relatives about life and dancing in the early half of the 20th century and is creating a web site designed for anyone to share this information. The site is called Jazz Era Voices, http://www.jazzeravoices.org/
AIR pt. 15: Yin & Yang
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.