#1: News and Views '09/'10 #4 Author: Allen Hall, Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:53 pm — News and views from the Hall LindyJazzMobile
‘09/’10 Installment # 4
DRIVE, DANCE, REPEAT ¬
Table of Contents:
1 American Lindy Hop Championships
2. Lindy in Baltimore.
3. Dancing in D.C.
4. Endorphin Afterglow
5. Poll: Who is the swingingest Jazz Pianist?
6. Previews of Coming Attractions
AMERICAN LINDY HOP CHAMPIONSHIPS
This is either the 12TH ALHC, and I give ALHC boss, Paulette Brockington, great credit as she had the courage to be the first to throw an annual national championship event strictly for Lindy Hoppers.
However, a bit of history is in order. The first annual event to claim putative “national” cred as an event to crown USA champs in LH was the “American Swing Dance Championships”, a NYC event which drew few Lindy Hoppers from west of the Appalachians, mostly because there were so few of them. The ASDC was a hybrid event for WCSers and LHers, and perhaps others—I never went—way too much looking; way too little dancing. Paulette, who has always held her event in the east, gets credit for trying to draw dancers from the entire country by encouraingregional competitions for entry into the “American (only American citizens allowed) Lindy Hop Showcase” competitive event, and that worked……for a while. It has since been in decline, and I don’t think the event was held this year. After Paulette loosened the plug for pure America-wide LH championships with avowed national scope, we then got a “National Jitterbug Championships” in L.A., an “International Lindy Hop Championships” in D.C., but no annual World Lindy Hop Championships held in the original Land o’ Lindy. See, the name “World Lindy Hop Championship” is the legal property of the “World Rock ‘N’ Roll Federation” (don’t ask, I don’t know and few others do) which is now headquartered in Bosnia (you are free to sense disbelief). But, what the hell, is not “International” a synonym for “World”? What’s next? How’s about a “Global Lindy Hop Championships”, or a “Universal Lindy Hop Championships”, even though “Universal” connotes that LHers from the Moon, Mars and beyond are eligible to compete. Do I like this proliferation of national/international level LH championships? Hell yes, and if you build it maybe they will come…so, by all means, they should persevere, and if the dancers stop coming, they fold. The dancer consumer is and should be king. And, since there is no national LH governing body-- and let us give thanks for that--there is no Daddy Rabbit deep-pockets to help sustain any particular favored national LH event—and let us give thanks too for that. The ALHC and others may well be on the cusp of a LH ennui/H1N1/recession Darwinian moment, where the fit will survive, and the rest fade into fond memory.
A death-knell Nostradamus I ain’t, but if Paulette doesn’t find a way to pump some hot promotional juice into the ALHC, I have grave doubts it can survive in its present format. Truly, I hope it does survive, even though this year the ALHC would be better named the “Canadian Lindy Hop Championships.” Had no Canadians come, the ALHC would have been an artistic, competitive and financial disaster. A few international LH heavy-hitters were here, and I mean a “few”. The Canadians fielded the bulk of competitors including a bunch of teams—I lost count how many--and two teams had 7 couples each, and they were all GOOD teams and all GOOD dancers. Think about that. Anyway anything as engaging and fun as LH is hard to keep confined to the house—and who would want to? Still, I used to complain about WLHC being held outside the USA, as we had more LHers in the USA as could be found in the rest of the world. Now, I am not so sure. With LH stable in Europe, growing in South America and blossoming mightily in Asia, the dance has become international, but, not pan-continental, as African LHers are nowhere to be found. You are free to sense irony here, since it was African-Americans who gave us this dance.
We had heard that ALHC attendance numbers have been steadily down, but that didn’t prepare us for what we experienced this weekend. The Thursday 9PM pre-dance was reported to have drawn—are you ready for this—4 dancers. Rudy had the gut-ache woes that day, and so, we missed attending—what a blessing to avoid 2.5 hours of driving and a bitter dance disappointment. This is not an inexpensive event for social dancers evening Fri, dance tixs were $35 and $40 for Sat, but we wanted to come, in part, to see our out-east Lindy pals we had not seen for many years. That part worked out fine, And, bad news can be good news. Often times a major competitive LH event shorts prime-time floor-time for social dancers (who is us), but since several competitive flights were cancelled due to insufficient entrants, there was ample social dance time both nights. Rudy and I must have had fun both nights, because we drove home sweaty-wet, and physically spent.
We parked the LindyJazzMobile at the campgrounds for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It’s in the mountains over the Hudson River and, this year, at the moment of the peak of fall color in the surrounding hardwood forests. However, a sign was posted alerting campers that a two male Bears, a female Bear and her two cubs had been recently sighted in the campground. It’s a fact that bears kill more zoo attendants than any other animal. Of course, zoo bears are grumpy in confinement, while bears free in the woods are happy Bears. Do you believe this? Don’t, and so, we restricted trips to the showers and trash dumpster to the daylight hours. It’s also a fact that Bears are always much larger at night.
Friday night there were only 50 dancers in the ballroom early. Only 10 couples competed for the Jack and Jill, 7 couples for Strictly Lindy. The floor (Master Floor?) had a divine surface and was generous in size. We enjoyed the DJed music, and the tempos, and enough illumination, and the many fine dance partners, but the room lacked energy because sometimes there were only a few couples on an expansive floor. Room energy tends feeds off itself, and when a floor is filled, a room heats up with both BTUs and dance elan.
Saturday night drew more dancers (looked to be about 100) and they filled the floor late during open dance. Unfortunately, it had rained hard for 36 hours and the ambient temperature was moderate, and so, the ballroom was warm and humid and the floor got bad sticky. After an hour of dancing, the bottoms of my feet hurt so bad I was ready to go home (just sitting is seldom an option for me). About an hour into the evening, I think they must have turned on the AC and taken “some” water out of the room. Plus, I finally got up the courage to dump some dance wax on the floor in the corner where we were sitting (by the Canadians, of course—we ain’t no dummies), which then became an attractive hot-spot for the best dancers, and, lookie here--lucky us. Rudy and I scored some top partners.
The Strictly Bal flight drew 5 couples, but the Champions Jack and Jill was well-represented by some excellent competitors.
The only live music was the “Harlem Jazz and Blues Band”. They played for both the Fri. and Sat. night dances. The band is an excellent (and I don’t often use that superlative) sextet of a piano/bass/drums rhythm section, a trumpet/trombone/tenor front line, and a good female vocalist. I liked everything about this band; they swung, they played “big” (liken to a Big Band), the soloists were top-drawer, the selections were from the time-honored Lindy Hop Swing Playbook, and their tempos were in the wheelhouse of Lindy, They played for the Champs J&J at 192 BPM, an intelligent tempo which allowed the dancers a full range of their capabilities. When a tempo is too fast, it can severely limit what can be done, even for the best LHers. Agreed, speed is exciting, but it can also be uninteresting enough to become boring. LH competitions should not be how fast you can dance, but how well you can dance. (Sorry to belabor you with my opinions, but, this IS a “News and VIEWS”.) The only thing I didn’t like was that the band started playing for social dancing starting at 11:30 on Fri. and midnight on Sat., but then, that’s just me; I ‘m an Eagle, not an Owl.
Rudy and I feared a Sunday night repeat of the almost empty ballroom on Thursday Night, and so, we passed on a 2.5 hour RT drive for the CHANCE of a enough dancers to make it a proper evening. Turns out we made the right choice as there were reported to be about a dozen social dancers attending.
Would we attend again? Even with its flaws we have always enjoyed the ALHC, and so, we would probably come back, but only if attendance improves.
LINDY IN BALTIMORE
We’re told Baltimore Lindy is on Monday, Thursday and Saturday with good live music the once a month in the Saturday gig. We went to one Monday night. It’s held in a plain white wrapper building with no signage whatsoever, but called “Little Texas” Aha! Has anyone ever been to a C/W dance joint which had a bad floor? We’ve only know of one, and it was not all that bad. Anyway, the sunken floor at Little Texas consisted of 4/8 ft sheets of plywood nailed to a wooden sub-floor, and then,the top wood ply has been patiently almost all worn off by the scooting boots. The result was a wonderfully neglected floor which danced beautifully. The room had all the lighting one might expect in a dungeon—why do they do it? The DJed music was….how shall I put this….unusual, with a 50/50 mixture of Lindy favorites and Pop-Rock. About 60 dancers showed and about 10% of them were experienced LHers. Five bucks, full bar, ample parking, age?. We got in plenty of dancing.
ENDORPHIN AFTERGLOW
Is there such a thing? I suspect there is. The day after a vigorous night of Hoppin’ my muscles are sore and my weight-bearing joints are ouchy, BUT, otherwise, I have a day-long delightful feeling of well-being--one which only seems to appear after exercise. Am I dreaming this? Am I weird? Does anyone else experience this? Comments please.
LINDY IN D. C.
As promised, if you include Baltimore, which is just up the I-95, Lindy Hopping can be 7 nights a week, and with beaucoup venues, usually more than one every night, and with both live and DJed music. We will be here a week, but we do need some days of rest.
We made Wed. nite night at Nick’s to a pretty good blues/rockabilly quintet of singer, guitar, harp, bass and drums. The good-sized hard floor is oak parquet over concrete but the surface was divine. Attending was a big crowd of assorted swing dancers, but then, D.C. has always had the rep as a swing dance potpourri with Easties (East Coast Swing dancers), Westies, Lindy Hoppers, Carolina Shaggers, Boppers and two flavors of Hand Dancers mixing it up in some venues e.g. Nicks. Wed. is swing night at Nick’s but live music is only booked about once a month. Easy parking, full bar, age?, $10 cover for live music, and either it was too damned dark, or I am periodically going blind.
Thursday was a day of rest, but there are 4 venues listed in for LHing.
Friday we went to the Chevy Chase Ballroom for live music. The Hula Monsters played. They are an energetic fun jump/swing/rockabilly/western swing/R&R quartet of two guitars, bass/harmonica, drums. The venue is a second story ballroom on Wisconsin Ave NW. The wall to wall old maple floor is in great condition, About 50 dancers showed up, with, and this is characteristic of D.C., a wide spread of age of the dancers. $15 and parking behind the ballroom.
Saturday we attended a dance at the elegant, historic, warmly and adequately lighted (Just thought I would throw that in) Glen Echo Spanish Ballroom with music (Oh! lucky us) by Lindy Hopper favorite, The Boilermaker Jazz Band, featuring (Oh! lucky us) LH champ and charmer, Naomi Uyama, on vocals. The BJB is an excellent swinging sextet of clarinet, trombone, rhythm banjo, piano bass and drums, with sterling jazz musicianship throughout. About 400 dancers attended this dance which is a twice monthly live music Saturday night dance. $15 with adequate but distant parking and only a GPS can get you there, but don[‘t count on it. Only the Dallas Sammons Center is more difficult to get to.
Sunday there are two venues for LHing, but our day off.
Monday, another day off for us, but there is DJed dancing at the Chevy Chase Ballroom, plus two other venues.
Tuesday you have the choice of a DJed dance at “Jam Cellar” (we went), or a live music dance at the beautiful Clarendon Ballroom. The regular Tues. Jam Cellar dance is now more aptly named “Jam Mansion” as it moved from its subterranean digs to the stately Josephine Butler Parks Center. The second story ballroom has a hardwood floor with a fast surface, and the event has plenty of very experienced dancers—the best aggregation we have found in D.C. The Jam Cellar seems to be a cooperative venture run by the competition/teacher LHers in D,C. I liked the DJed music, tempos and illumination. 9:30—midnight FFI go to www.thejamcellar.com
For complete information on D.C. Lindy Hopping a good calendar is found on www.jitterbuzz.com
POLL: WHO, IN YOUR OPINION, IS THE SWINGINGIST JAZZ PIANIST?
I will post the poll results in a later “News and Views”
PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS
1. Lindy Hopping in Williamsburg VA
2. Lindy Hopping in Durham and Ashville NC
3. Lindy Hopping in Columbia SC
4. Lindy Hopping in Charleston SC
5. Maybe even Lindy Hopping in Savannah GA, if you can imagine that improbability.
Allen Hall, Lindy Hopper
November 7, 2009, in Sunny Durham NC
