Frankie95 Lost Prequel: Into the Maelstrom

I came home at about 1:00 am on Monday morning from another musically brilliant DCLX weekend. Somewhere along the way I decided that it would be pointless to go to sleep since I had to be at the train station by 5:00 am to catch a ride up to New York City. Luckily(?) I was able to get about two and a half hours of sleep on the train before I got into the city a little before 9:00 am.

It took me a little while to get my bearings and head over to the direction of the Manhattan Center where most of Frankie's 95th birthday celebration will be held. That only took me about 4 minutes after leaving Penn Station, it's that convenient. The MC people wouldn't let me wander around on my own, but fortunately the planning committee was already gathering at the diner next door.

A New Day for a New Theme, New Videos, and a New Social Media Account

Just needed a change in scenery as you can tell. Besides the light background is less conspicuous when viewing from work. Not that I would ever do such a thing. Also for your Sunday viewing pleasure, a beautiful and inspirational video created by a dancer from Seattle named Cheryl Crow which I found through the magic of Facebook. She created this for the 2010 Swing/Jazz Dancing Video Contest. Watch it and share with others.

And because sometimes you can't let the Man keep you down, I got an account on Dailymotion.com. I probably won't post there very often, unless its stuff like this that won't go down the YouTubes properly.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xczmwb_tatianna-mollman-skye-humphries-nad_creation

Weekly Video Highlights: SEAjam 2010

I realize I'm a bit behind on these things, but I've been busy and there's a lot of Lindy Awesome out there. This week's videos come all the way from Singapore at SEAJam 2010 run by Sing Lim. Sing Lim is a dancer that I think more people need to know about. Ask people like Nina and Naomi and they'll go on and on about her. In my opinion, she ranks up there with modern Lindy Hop legends like Steven Mitchell, Sylvia Sykes, and Ryan Francois. In fact here's a video of her performing with Ryan in 1993.

Creativity & Competitions

Lots of people took different things out of that thread, but this is what I learned: There's a difference between doing a "swing out" and swinging out.

DCLX 2010 Awesome Juice. Get Some on You.

The thing I love about DCLX (DC Lindy Exchange) is that it’s the kind of event that attracts dancers that appreciate quality live music. So much so that musicians that leave it all on the stage get treated like rock gods. Writing about live music is very hard thing because in the end you have hear it to feel it. I can talk about the Boilermakers burning up their version of “Avalon” or Jonathan Stout & His Campus Five featuring Hilary Alexander (say that three times real fast) cranking the crowd up to a near riot with “Dark Eyes” or the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn breaking everyone’s heart with “Bringing it on Home to Me,” but that’s why events like DCLX exist; to give people a way to connect to something that they can’t otherwise experience.

DCLX 2010 Review

DCLX 2010 was AWE-SOME! Seriously, what else do you need to know?

Fine. I'll update later this week after I get all the awesome juice off of me.

Your Bio Sucks

I don’t think that many people read this blog. At least not many Lindy Hop instructors do. If they did, then they would know better than to put up all of the craptacular instructor bio’s I’ve been looking at lately. One of my first posts on this blog was about dancer bios. I’m in the middle of a little project that has me checking out a ton of Lindy event and dancer websites. I’ll reveal the reason for that in the near future. But as I’m going through all these sites, it’s becoming apparent that people don’t seem to understand the reason for a bio.

Weekly Video Highlights: Savoy Swing Jam 2010

Our friends over in Seattle had a neat event a couple weeks ago called Savoy Swing Jam to showcase their awesome local scene. I spotlighted the J & J finals in a post last week and thought I’d put up the rest to complete the set. In addition to your standard partnered and solo competitions, Savoy Swing Jam also featured a Short Showcase which allowed contestants to perform a 30-60 second routine. A few other place have done something similar in the past including us over at The Jam Cellar. The time limit makes it a little easier for new performers to give it a go without having the pressure of choreographing and performing a whole song. As you’ll see below, a wide variety of pieces were submitted from Katie McLaughlin & Jared Luxemberg’s clever use of Mess Around variations to Michael “Dargoff” Darigol & Carolyn Palma’s staright forward attempt at swinging out to a song that I think clocks in under 340 bpm’s. At a certain point, it just becomes a little impossible to measure such things. Check 'em all out below. It won't take long ;)

Boston Tea Party Swings 2010

The modern Lindy Hop community used to spend a lot of time at West Coast Swing crossover events. The American Swing Dance Championships , The Virginia State Open, North Atlantic Dance Championships, Swingin’ New England, Swing Fling, Summer Hummer, Boogie By The Bay, and of course, The US Open. ASDC ended in 1998. NADC in 2004. Lindy participation in other events has been steadily on the decline to the point where some those events are eliminating Lindy from their schedule altogether; Swingtime In The Rockies being the most recent example. The lone exception has been The Boston Tea Party whose crossover aspect really took off after NADC folded. I used to love going to crossover events when I first started, but this weekend was my first Tea Party.

DCLX Interview & Boston Tea Party Results

My interview with DCLX is up. Check it out here. I'm not so sure about this whole "Wise Learned Person" deal, but I think I can be pretty amusing when the mood strikes me. The event itself is in less than two weeks. Go ahead and register. I'll DJ and you'll have fun. Trust me.

I had a great time up at Boston Tea Party. I'm working on my Boston Tea Party post, which I'll put up within the next day or so. In the meantime, you can check out their website for results from all of the competitions. Congratulations to everyone!