And yet another News and Views

[Allen Hall]

News and Views from the Hall Lindymobile

‘04/’05 Installment #4



The 7th Annual American Lindy Hop Championships



General Impressions



After Rudy and I went to the ALHC last year, we decided that our 6 year periodicity was just about right (we also attended the 1st ALHC). Not that we didn’t enjoy ourselves last year, but we are primarily social dance freaks, and there is a so little social dancing during prime time at the ALHC. Am I finding fault? No, after all, the ALHC are championships, which implies competitive dancing is primary. Anyway, family needs, and weather events conspired to keep us in the East this fall, and so, we came back to Stamford CN in October, (really nice time of year), but this time, just to dance—no competing—it makes me too fretful, and besides, my cranky knees have become a nuisance. MEDICAL NOTE: Tylenol is not nearly as effective as Vioxx.

Fortunately there is more open dance this year, as (I am guessing) attendance is down (my guess at dancers in attendance Thurs. 60, Fri. 150, Sat. 225, and Sun. 125). This drop-off has led to fewer couples in competition; by my count, there were 80 pairs entered, two teams and 107 Jack and Jill contestants. Obviously, some dancers competed in more than one event. The continuing decline in attendance has caused some concern about the viability of the ALHC, however, the NYC Basie Centenial/6th Anniversary Yehoodi party in NYC just two weeks ago drew huge, and may have caused a decline in ALHC number, however, many NYC dancers did show up for Saturday night. As well, this weekend, a much beloved California dancer and teacher, Denise Rondano (sp?), was married, and doubtless this kept some CA dancers at home. I, for one, hope the ALHC perseveres. The ALHC has its detractors, and it has some organic organizational flaws, but it was the first named national championship for Lindy Hoppers in America, and, Paulette, in a master-stroke, set up qualifying contests all over the country so couples could advance to the American Showcase finals. This insured attendance by dancers with wide geographic distribution, and also created a national buzz about the event. All that said, the ebb and flow of competition as a driving impetus for Lindy Hop continues, but, if I had to guess, competition is now ebbing. The annual calendar is now jam-packed with purely teaching and social events. Further, if I read the tea-leaves correctly, the continuing exponential rise in College and University Lindy Clubs and dancers continues, but, with a few notable exceptions, the Colleges and Universities usually don’t immediately turn out competitive-level dancers. The Style Wars are history; the Modern Lindy School vs. Traditional School stand-off has lost its edge, even the recent Raw Lindy vs. Clean Lindy controversy is not big, but since Lindy dancers seem willing to join gangs, I sense there is now a growing animosity between the East and West—While 11 of the 20 judges and teachers here are from California, there are very California competitors who came this year. There are less here than I think Denise’s wedding should have drained off. I have no idea what elements of difference there are between Lindy in the East and West. To me, the dancers look, act, dance, and dress alike. Sigh! tribalism and clannishness are human drives, and it is heroes’ roles to overcome those drives. Anyway, the hallway scuttlebutt is that Paulette lost money and may move the event to a less expensive venue—perhaps in Philadelphia. Why not Chicago, it’s centrally located and it’s a big air hub? Stamford CN is far from the easiest place to get to, but the parking was free, and they never ran out of cold water in the dance rooms—those are big pluses.



Clopping



There is a lot of noisy clopping here. I don’t know what else to call the sound of hard heels on the dance floor, but it sounds rather like a stampede of wild horses. Let me guess the reasons. Leaders have been recently taken with toe-and-heel slides and, stylish sliding footwork. Not willing to be left behind, even some of the followers are doing it, but, mainly, I think it is part of the inevitable pea-cocking of a social dance, this, a disorder usually driven by leaders wanting to be more showy—I wouldn’t know any thing about that. Anyway, In order to slide well, you need hard leather heels and crowned hard leather soles. A shoe vender here is doing land-office business selling surprisingly comfortable and inexpensive shoes of this type, and I see many men wearing them, so I expect the thunderous clopping will get worse before it gets any better.



Thursday Night



It featured three sets of music by, jazz pianist, Paul Tillotson and his “Love Trio”. Tillotson is one of the main reasons why we are here. He has been touted as the heir apparent to Gene Harris, and there is no way I am going to let pass a chance to put my eye, ear and feet to this guy. Turns out, he isn’t Gene Harris reincarnate, but many years of study with Gene has left Paul imprinted with Gene’s rolling thunder left hand, and Gene’s two-handed ability to create almost unbearable levels of musical energy. I’m getting the chills just thinking about this. The Love Trio is his regular guys of a bass player, Michael Merritt, who is a Gibraltar of ‘time’, and an exciting drummer, James Wormworth, who is a bit too busy for my tastes, however, the emotional interplay of these three guys was marvelous to behold. Sensing he had a receptive and dance-engaged audience, Tillotson pulled all the stops. Every number was a production, with surprises galore, unusual rhythm breaks, retards, and even an accelerated passage, alternated pianissimo and fortissimo passages, and the very Gene Harris-like elaborate tags. To be honest, half the 60 or so dancers who showed were puzzled, and, perhaps, put off by this unorthodox dance band, but the other half was discerning enough to appreciate top quality jazz, and they were on top of the band, either standing by the bandstand and screaming encouragement, or dancing in their faces, daring the trio to put them off their dance with the changing music. For me, this was a challenge I cherish, and rarely get. Tillotson’s job, as I’m sure he saw it, was to play the best and most energetic music he knows, and hope that the dancers liked it. No worry there, and he obviously likes playing for dancers, as he has already gigged at Lindy Groove in LA, and plans on going back to record a live CD for dancers. After the third set, Tillotson played four (count ‘em, “four”) encores. Feature that.

I had a chance to speak with Tillotson after the last set. He is typical of most all jazz players of enormous talent, and ability born of the desire to study and practice like their very life depended on it, he is humble and intelligent. When we asked him how we could find out where he is playing, he confessed he is too dumb and busy to create a website, but he told Rudy and me to call him at home to find out where he is playing. Tillotson doesn’t have Gene Harris’ delicious ability to swing the Blues, and thus give me a clinical case of the willy shivers, but Tillotson, who is in his middle 30s, is more a disciple of unusual rhythms. I can forgive him almost anything, this included, as he too can swing, and he will do it.

Words to live by; “when the music is really good, DO NOT GO HOME.” We were at the dance for five and half hours, and got to bed at 3:30AM, and Oh! Baby! were we ever dragging the next day.

By the way, this was one of my best days ever, three sets of dancing to Paul Tillotson, and my beloved St. Louis Cardinals won the National League baseball Pennant. Go, Redbirds!



Friday Night



Let me put in a good word for the DJs, as two of the best are sharing most of the duties this weekend, Rayned Wiles and Jessie Minor. Both are experienced; both have a good ear for the energy and rhythmic insistence dancers need; both run the tempos up and down; both watch the floor; and both are sure enough of their taste to occasionally experiment. I just love it, when I hear something new to love.

The approximately 2,800 sq ft of floor is Bill Cameron’s home-made, and it will be plenty enough for this weekend. The floor has a good surface, and I have never caught and edge on it, but the surface was a little tighter this year than I remember if from last year.

Rudy and I stayed for four hours, and I’m guessing that we logged over two hours on the floor in between competitions.

Hey! the Champion’s Strictly Lindy was a gasser, three fast tunes for jam format, and the 10 pairs flat out emptied their dance bags of all their “A” moves while their on the floor, with some amazing athletic tricks. A jam format means you get a 16 bar solo to throw down your best stuff, and thus, in essence, dare the next pair, "can you top it?” It is a judge’s nightmare, but the crowd loves it.



Saturday Night



We slept in and blew off the Saturday afternoon sessions. Hadda do it, as we are camped at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 60 miles from the ALHC hotel. I watched the 1st game of the World Series in the hotel lounge that night, but got in plenty of dancing before and after the game.

The Harlem Blues and Jazz band played late sets. They were supposed to start at midnight (excuse me, but people DO have to sleep), but it turned out they didn’t start until 1 AM; as the promised piano was missing. I make that a major demerit for the ALHC. The band is composed of old but good players. It is a three horn septet plus a singer. The horns were fine trumpet, trombone and tenor players, and all could solo, albeit the tenor player’s tone was dead. The bass player must have been Ray Brown’s twin brother; he couldn’t look any more like him, or maybe they disinterred Ray for this gig. The band played a good book of dance favorites at reasonable tempos, but the singer was miced so loud you could not hear the band, and that was very unfortunate as her phrasing was so jazz unorthodox, you had to listen carefully for the bass to find the rhythm, that’s when you could hear it. Why, please tell me why, don’t sound guys go out in front to listen to what the audience is hearing? I had to go tell him, “take the singers’ mic down a lot, we can’t hear the band.” The band put no energy into the music. I don’t know if they were miffed at being required to sit on the stand for a long time waiting for a piano or because they are just old and tired, and it was late at night.

In what I thought was a welcome touch, there were late night rooms open for fast music and slow music. Rudy and I poked out heads into both before we left at 2 AM. The lights in the slow room were so dim you couldn’t see what the people were doing—probably just as well. I was tempted to holler in at the 6 or so pairs on the floor, “Shame on you. I know whatchu up to, and I’m gonna tell yo mommas.” There were only 2 couples on the floor in the well-lighted fast music room. We got to sleep at 4AM.

P.S. The Cardinals lost, and my life is ruined.



Sunday Afternoon



Many of the dancers were sleep deprived and/or dance wasted, so we had to carefully assess how much dance candy was left in a prospective partner’s dance jar before asking for a dance. I scored one dance in which I almost had to carry the woman for 3 minutes. Her eyes were often closed, but that was not a sign of my sublime leading; I think she just dozed off.

After the awards ceremony was over, we hurried home so I could watch baseball.

I didn’t see all of the evening competitions, but, for me, the outstanding pair danced in the Fast Dance comps on Sunday. They were from NYC. Dressed in vintage ‘20’s, they danced to ‘20s music in a routine composed of the Peabody, ‘20s Charleston and other nifty older dance elements. It was not so much that they were unusual, but they were really good, dancing with both style and élan, they captivated the audience and got the biggest standing-O I heard that weekend. See, I know how hard it is to do the Flying Lindy and do it well, but when an audience sees it done well over and over, they becomes jaded, and along comes something new, fresh and really good, and the audience goes crazy.

The awards ceremony was an hour late, and indeed many of the weekend events were quite late. I really hate that, and I find it almost unforgivable since there was so much slack in the program due to fewer competitors showing up.

P.P.S. the Cardinals lost again—I told Rudy to hide the knives.



Editorial Comments



Many of the instructors and judges competed this weekend. Part of the reason for this, I surmise, was because there were often not enough pairs to fill out a competitive category, and so, some pressure was brought to bear on instructors and judges to compete. BUT, I have mixed feelings about amateurs having to compete against professionals, and especially against those hired to teach at the same event.
I have major misgivings about judges competing in the same event at which they are hired to judge. I am not implying there was impropriety at the ALHC, and I strongly doubt it, but the mere impression that some collusion back-scratching by judges took place could have a devastating effect on the reputation of an event. It wasn’t too long ago that the leadership of the U.S. Open was completely undone by monkeying-around with competitive results.
All too often, competitive Lindy Hoppers lose their taste for social dance; I have said the same thing about dancers who elevate to teaching. This weekend, competitive dancers where often found sitting in small groups on the rug in the hall outside the ballroom. Perhaps the profound thrill of competing overwhelms the lesser thrill of social dance, or perhaps competitive dancers and social dancers are just different people. Almost all good dancers start out as intense social dancers, but once they become successfully competitive-tested they often move on to teach or become completely competitive, and then seem to lose much interest in social dance.
I will know Lindy Hop has lost its inferiority complex/combative outlaw mentality, when it begins to offer championships in WCS and Carolina Shag competitions at competitive Lindy Hop events. I think Lindy Hop is now strong and secure enough to no longer fear that the WCS and SHAG viruses will infect its young with de-segregation dance-wanderlust. WCS and Carolina Shag events has opened their arms to social and competitive Lindy Hoppers, in Atlanta California, Chicago and the Northeast. I think it’s time.


A Profile in Courage



Craig Hutchinson has ALS, and the disease has robbed him of his once considerable ability as a swing dancer. He now battles a gait problem, and he has little control of one leg. For many years Craig has been the Washington D.C. prime mover for swing dance in all its protean manifestations. His competitive events have been both dance eclectic and well attended. Craig is some kind of brain (theoretical mathematician, or the like), and he once published a huge work naming and diagramming all the possible moves which could be done in swing dance. I could not understand a bit of it, which probably says volumes about my intellectual capacity compared to his. Craig is not personally outgoing, and I once referred to him in jest as “his eminence gris”. I am now ashamed of that, as, this weekend, Craig entered the Senior competition, and though his footwork was painfully difficult, he got through the routine, and, for his courage, he received a standing ovation. It was richly deserved for his contributions to swing dance. He may be soon gone, but his imprinteur on Washington D.C. swing dance will live on for a long time, as I think he is one of only a few people in swing dance who is a uniter, while there are too many who are dividers, and, I am ashamed to confess, that I have been a divider.



Summary



Rudy and I had a great time. Half the live music was superb, and we enjoyed all of the DJed music. There was plenty of floor, and the surface was very nice. There were plenty of really top-notch dancers available for partners, and since the number of competitive dancers was down, there was more ‘tweener open dance time.



Info Tidbit



If in Baltimore, and ya wanna dance, go to the Avalon Studio,15 Mellor Ave. on Thursday night 8:30-11:30 (blues hour 10:30 to 11:30), and the same place on the 2nd Saturday of the month to a live band.

FFI go to www.baltimoreswing.org



Yesterday we drove from West Point NY to Dayton Ohio, 665 miles in 13 hours. Dumb!



Allen Hall

October 26, 2004 and back in Mom’s backyard.