The Swing Movement

[Snookie]

Wow, how cool to be on the ground floor like that. Thanks for sharing.

Even back in the original swing era, though, there was a riff between those who wanted their music sweet and those who wanted it hot. The jitterbugs who wanted fast music were frustrated back then, too. Even more frustrated, I think. It is odd, though, that with modern dj'ing we've gotten used to hearing the same style of music over and over and over all night.

 

[Fletch]

Some places dancers don 't want it fast OR slow.

I remember talking to a guy with a lindy group and sending him some mp3s of my band (which played all original 1929-37 charts). He responded by telling me we didn't really play swing. "Your hot numbers are too fast for us - we can't show off our moves. The rest is so slow it's tame."

Turned out they wanted everything about the same tempo as In the Mood. Every. Friggn. THING. [huh] *grumble*

 

[dhermann1]

A lot of Swing dancers only know one style of dancing, and that's ALL they want to do. A really ludicrous thing is to see a Swing dancer try to Lindy to 1920's music, the type thet requires a Peabody or a Charleston or a 2 step. Really STOOOOPID.

 

[Fletch]

It's aaaaallll about the dancing these days. Used to be "dancing" stood for a much more rounded experience - music, attire, refreshment, relaxation, music, the promise of romance, the whole "night out" thing...Now it's just another sport.

Did I mention music?

 

[Paisley]

My swing dance uniform is a feminine t-shirt and a cotton skirt. A skirt flows well and t-shirts are easy to clean and replace. They don't bind and the tail doesn't come out from my skirt, since I don't tuck them in.

I have a quirk that doesn't allow me to dance, or even read my dance notes, if I'm wearing unattractive clothes. Apparently this is a rare quirk.

However, if a dance club insisted that dancers wear the clothes of their great-grandparents, it wouldn't stay open for long.

 

[Paisley]

A lot of Swing dancers only know one style of dancing, and that's ALL they want to do. A really ludicrous thing is to see a Swing dancer try to Lindy to 1920's music, the type thet requires a Peabody or a Charleston or a 2 step. Really STOOOOPID.

Even stupider looking is bopping around during a smooth, sensitive song.

 

[Viola]

Well, my boyfriend and I have four left feet between us, but we were thinking it could be fun to try to learn to dance together (both of us being *so* horrible its not like one person is going, "geez, I'm really being held back, here..." ) but we like to dress vintage. Well, as vintage as we can...we're newbies AND "economically challenged."

So I guess our shambling, uncoordinated selves will be the bane of the dancefloor. lol

At least if any of you see us you'll be able to pick us out.

 

[Paisley]

Hey, check out my thread on Learning to Dance.

Good luck, Viola!

 

[skyvue]

My wife and I are talking about learning to dance, too, but I'd very much want to learn a few styles, so we could dance the appropriate steps to the music of the 1920s, '30s and '40s.

As for the supposed swing music of the 1990s and early 2000s -- feh. It was much closer to jump blues and rockabilly than swing. Not that I don't like rockabilly and jump blues -- I very much do. But it bugged the heck out of me that it was mistakenly dubbed swing a few years back.

Bands that play the old music accurately, though -- like Mora's Modern Rhythmists and Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five in Southern California and Max Raabe and His Orchestra out of Germany -- those I can get behind.

I'd love to develop some dance chops and have the chance to spend an evening swinging and swaying to the Raabe Orchestra.

 

[Tigerstail05]

Are There any Swing clubs Southern Caliofornia?

Im really curious about finding a good swing club in southern Cali. If anybody knows where to go or how to find one I would be interested.

Thanks

 

[Viola]

Hey, check out my thread on Learning to Dance.

Good luck, Viola!

Ooh, thanks, Paisley. That's a great thread.

Now, I know a lot of girls can dance in heels, and I want to learn how to too, but would it look desperately silly if I tried to do something vintage-ish looking in Keds to start?

 

[Paisley]

Not at all. In fact, it's funny you should mention Keds; that's a pretty common choice of shoe. If they are too sticky on the floor, a temporary solution is to put some duct tape on the bottoms. (Good luck getting it off, though.)

 

[Snookie]

Im really curious about finding a good swing club in southern Cali. If anybody knows where to go or how to find one I would be interested.

Thanks

We've got a bunch. The Derby on Sundays has the best atmosphere, LindyGroove on Thursdays is the most popular (although I don't go b/c I can't stand the music), and PBDA on Saturdays hires decent bands sometimes, and teaches good beginning lessons. Send me a PM if you need more info.

 

[Snookie]

A lot of Swing dancers only know one style of dancing, and that's ALL they want to do. A really ludicrous thing is to see a Swing dancer try to Lindy to 1920's music, the type thet requires a Peabody or a Charleston or a 2 step. Really STOOOOPID.

How about dancers who can only Charleston to a great swing song? Music has gotten so fast these days that most folks can only Charleston or Balboa...the triple-step is disappearing...

I think your version bugs me more, though. Just too, too anachronistic.

 

[Paisley]

Just the other night, my best guy friend was complaining that the DJ was playing nothing but fast music. (The DJ is good about playing requests, though.) I love to fast lindy, but as you said, not everyone can do it. The slower songs let you do some great styling.

 

[reetpleat]

Just the other night, my best guy friend was complaining that the DJ was playing nothing but fast music. (The DJ is good about playing requests, though.) I love to fast lindy, but as you said, not everyone can do it. The slower songs let you do some great styling.

My pet peeve is two fold. Firstly, so many dancers can't do a swing out at anything above mid tempo. they just don't have a sense of the physics, and their swing out is not right. But I ca nunderstand why dancers think that fast tempos lindy is hard. They do because they are mistaken in thinking (having been taught) that all lindy is based on constant ehght count swing outs. If yo uwatch film from back in the day, at high tempo, it was a cool mixed bag of lots of stuff with only a few swing outs at at time. Who could last that long otherwise?

But mid tempo lindy allows for more general swingouts with variations on the theme. Nice for relaxing.

But there comes a tempo tha is just too slow and trying to do lindy to that, or even worse, charleston kicks, looks ridiculous to me. If you are having trouble keeping your balance and not falling over, you are doing it too slow. Those are the songs where you take a lady in your arms and have a little chat.

 

[reetpleat]

Just the other night, my best guy friend was complaining that the DJ was playing nothing but fast music. (The DJ is good about playing requests, though.) I love to fast lindy, but as you said, not everyone can do it. The slower songs let you do some great styling.

I hate it when people think that lindy is a certain tempo or balboa is a certain tempo etc. They say, this song is a bal song because it is so fast. Back in the day, lindy dancers danced lindy to everything, shag ,balboa or whatever dancers danced it to all mid or fast tempo songs.

 

[reetpleat]

I saw and liked a lot of the neo swing bands, but have a few issues with them. One is, they were not laying down such a good dance tempo. They always had a rock drummer who layed down a heavy rock beat. Okay for messing around east coast swing, but to do lindy took a certain amount of ignoring the actual rhythm.

Another issue for me was more aesthetic. Especially when they moved to the cheesy zoot suits and such. i have always like the traditional bands who wore gret vintage stuff. Some of my best clients in San Francisco.

But my biggest peeve was how they would have interviews and talk about how they "rocked up swing" or put a little punk rock attitude into it etc.

Well, if all you know is glenn Miller, fine. But I would have to say black and white musicians in Harlem playing in clubs populated by socialites slumming, drug adicts, drugdealers, pimps, gangsters, numbers runners, and who knows what other kinds of underworld characters, have a lot more cache to me than some kid from the suburbs who used to play in a punk band and had a mohawk, then thinks he can somehow improve on swing. Swing, in it's day was every bit as avante garde and cool as any punk rock. More so in my book.

 

[reetpleat]

Wow, how cool to be on the ground floor like that. Thanks for sharing.

Even back in the original swing era, though, there was a riff between those who wanted their music sweet and those who wanted it hot. The jitterbugs who wanted fast music were frustrated back then, too. Even more frustrated, I think. It is odd, though, that with modern dj'ing we've gotten used to hearing the same style of music over and over and over all night.

Well, there were sweet bands and hot bands, but even the hot bands had slower songs. the hard core dancers would just take a break.

But I would almost say the opposite as far as djs. Back in the day, you heard one band do the same songs over and over, often for years at a dance hall or two week engagements. What we are now used to is hearing a wide array of music from many different eras and styles at one time. I find it a little disconcerting. I much prefer to see a vintage band play a vintage typical songbook. Some fast some mid and some slow. But all in the same style and band.

 

[reetpleat]

Some places dancers don 't want it fast OR slow.

I remember talking to a guy with a lindy group and sending him some mp3s of my band (which played all original 1929-37 charts). He responded by telling me we didn't really play swing. "Your hot numbers are too fast for us - we can't show off our moves. The rest is so slow it's tame."

Turned out they wanted everything about the same tempo as In the Mood. Every. Friggn. THING. [huh] *grumble*

There is a film clip in which glenn Miller plays in the mood. the whole floor is closed position, stepping back and forth. It is not really much of a traditional lindy number. It swings nicely, but a bit too slow for many of the other stuff that makes up lindy such as charleston kicks. This whole idea of showing off your moves is a modern one. The old dancers had style as they danced fast. How they were able to actually show some flair at the same time as keeping up was what separated them from the mediocre dancers. In old harlem footage, often the girl is just barely keeping up. But you can easily tell the ones who could and could even look damn good doing it. They wre the ones repeatedly pulled into the jam sesions by different guys. To all the old great dnacers, dancing is what you did and style was how you do it. SOmetimes modern dancers put style first a little too much. Your band would surely be appreciated in LA or where true traditional dancers congregate. Dean More was/is one of the most populare bands with the serious dancers. He claims his stuff is often pre swing. I don't agree as it depends on how you define the swing era. But his music is the music of the period in which Lindy was invented and developed.