Artistry In Rhythm Pt. 2: Battle Royale

The first serious public discussion about the dance itself is also probably the community’s most infamous. That would be the debate triggered by Ryan Francois’s opposition to the 1999 World Lindy Hop Championships.

It was the first world championship held in America, held at the height of the dance’s revival, and its possible significance escaped no one. The controversy was over the fact that the championship was operating under the umbrella of the World Rock & Roll Confederation and the perception that they would impose strict regulations upon the contest that would negatively impact the dance and its community. [1]

ILHC 2008 Video Compilations

I did a little compilation of all the good videos for Frankie95, so I thought I’d do the same for last year’s first annual International Lindy Hop Championships videos since the next one is coming up August 27-30. (disclaimer: I’m helping out with the event, and yes, I would like you to come and bring all your friends)

Like the Frankie95 posts, I went through all the multiple videos of the same thing and picked out the videos with the best angles and recording qualities. Unlike the Frankie95 round up, which I did day by day, I’m going to break up the ILHC videos by division. Check out the links below for each one.

Charleston and/or Lindy Hop?

I saw a rough cut of the film at the Frankie Manning’s 95th Birthday Festival a few weeks ago. The amount video footage this guy has put together is astounding. It seems as though that he got his hands on almost every bit of American vernacular jazz dance inspired footage in the past 100 years, of which Lindy hop is a significant part. He’s used that to create a tangible link to pretty much any and every popular dance seen today.

I find this particularly apropos since there’s been some hand wringing about the amount of Charleston used in social Lindy Hop as if those dances emerged separately from each other and the mixing of the two is somehow detrimental to the dance or to dancers in general. Note that this is not about the playing of 2-beat music which is a related, but separate topic.

Artistry In Rhythm Pt. 1: Introduction

I hope to illustrate not only Lindy Hop’s value as artistic expression, but also its value as a way of promoting dialog and creative growth within the community.

Frankie95 Video Round Up-Introduction

I’ve been obsessive compulsively keeping track of videos posted from the Frankie Manning 95^th Birthday Festival. This is mostly because I didn’t get to see a lot of it despite being at all the evening events from before start until after finish. I was looking at the Silver Shadows’ routine and realized that there were 11 videos of it online. I wanted to determine which one got the best view. Then I got even more curious and did the same for the other performance videos, the competitions, etc. until I just compiled a ton of information.

I figured that it would be a shame not to share this stuff, so now everything is compiled into these easy to reference blog posts by day/night.

Click on the links below and enjoy!

Frankie95 Video Blog Introduction

I’ve been obsessively compulsively keeping track of videos posted from the Frankie Manning 95^th Birthday Festival http://www.frankie95.com/index.php. This is mostly because I didn’t get to see a lot of it despite being at all the evening events from before start until after finish.

I was looking at the Silver Shadows’ routine and realized that there were 11 videos of it online. I wanted to determine which one got the best view, and then I looked at the other performance videos, the competitions, etc. until I just compiled a ton of information.

I figured that it would be a shame not to share this stuff, so now everything is compiled into these easy to reference blog posts by day/night.

The official Frankie 95 DVD is being produced as we speak. You can order a copy by going to the Frankie95 website. http://www.frankie95.com/order_dvd.php

Until then , enjoy!

Thursday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie95-video-round-up-thursday/

Friday day http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie95-video-roundup-friday-day/

Friday night http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie-95-video-roundup-friday-night/

Saturday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/frankie95-video-roundup-saturday/

Sunday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/frankie95-video-roundup-sunday/

Monday http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/frankie95-video-roundup-monday/