ILHC 2008 Classic division video goodness.
Hip Hop and International Relations Theory
Just wanted to take a moment to point out a few fun yet educational links for all you hip hop fans curious about international relations theory. It starts off with a blog by author, professor, and director of the Institute of Middle East Studies here in DC, Marc Lynch, killing time by with his blog on ForeignPolicy.com entitled "Jay-Z vs the Game: Lessons for the American Primacy Debate." It's a simple yet brilliant explanation of some basic concepts using feuds between various rappers as examples.
ILHC 2008 Video Compilation: Junior & Pro-Am Divisions
ILHC Junior and Pro-Am Division videos here
ILHC 2008 Video Compilation: Open Strictly Lindy Hop
Videos of the ILHC Open Strictly Lindy Hop division found herein
Review: "Frenesi" Routine by Naomi Uyama & Matt Smiley at ALHC 2001
My original intention when I started my Lindy Hop paper a couple of years ago was to talk about some of my favorite routines and why I liked them. Circumstances led me in a slightly different direction which ended up becoming the “Artisry In Rhythm” paper that I’m now posting bit by bit. The routine that I’m going to talk about was done by Naomi Uyama and Matt Smiley both originally from the Washington, DC area. They performed a routine to Artie Shaw’s “Frenesi” at the 2001 American Lindy Hop championships.
ILHC 2008 Video Compilation-Team Division
ILHC Team Division-Come and get it!
ILHC 2008 Video Compilation: Champions' Strictly Lindy Hop
This is part of a series of posts gathering up all the choice online footage from the 2008 International Lindy Hop Championships. This post features the Champions Strictly Lindy Division. This year’s ILHC is happening on August 27-30, 2009 and you can register at www.ILHC.com.
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.