People come to this dance for all kinds of reasons. A common one is often escapism; dancing as a chance to get away from it all. Modern life can be filled with a lot of superficial interactions both online and in person. Social dance gives you an opportunity to for a kind of real and intimate one on one interaction that you can’t find almost anywhere else-at least not without getting tested before or after.
Follow This
In the mean time I thought I’d point out the cross blog conflagration over Bobby White’s ill worded analogy about following. (btw, how’s that MFA program working out for you, dude? Just kidding) It triggered a lot of thoughtful and interesting responses. It’s cool to go through them if only to see how well connected the Lindy blogosphere is these days. Go Team!!
Favorite Videos 2010 Blues & Balboa
Last stop. My top favorites will go up some time next week after I get home. Until then, I wish everyone a Happy New Year!!
Favorite Videos 2010: Solo Jazz
A bit of a misnomer since most of these are done in groups, but I trust that you get the idea. You can tell I’ve been doing these all at once because my descriptions are getting shorter, but at least a lot of these performances speak for themselves.
Favorite Videos 2010 Other Dancing
This is a combination of dances that don’t quite fit any of the traditional jazz dances done by Lindy, Balboa, or Blues dancers. They’re either more modern or they are a combination of several influences into something new. I wish there was a term for that . . .
Favorite Video 2010 Lindy Hop Couple Routines
The reason why there are so many posts is because there was so much good dancing that I had to break them up to keep each update from being too long. This post is a good example of how that's still a problem, but at least it's a good problem to have. That’s why I had to break out a separate post for my favorite of favorites which will come out right after the New Year.
Favorite Videos 2010: Music
Just a note: This blog is going on automatic for the next week. There should be a post every day Monday through Thursday with the rest of my favorite videos. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to check it while I’m at home or at Lindy Focus next week, but feel free to leave a comment and I’ll reply whenever I can.
Northeast Girl Jam 2010 Mable Lee with the Boilermaker Jazz Band
The people who organized Northeast Girl Jam did a great service by giving people the opportunity learn and be entertained by the legendary Mabel Lee. Here she sings with the Boilermaker Jazz Band who once again demonstrate their versatility and virtuosity.
Snowball 2009 - Gordon Webster Sextet - Down By The Riverside
One of the good trends that has developed over the past few years is the growing relationship between dancers and musicians. Here’s the godfather of Lindy Hop, Steven Mitchell, channeling a bit of James Brown alongside a couple other dances, Malcolm Holt and Naomi Uyama tearing it up with Gordon Webster’s band over at the last Snowball.
ILHC 2010 Jonathan Stout & His Campus 5
Yeah, I know it’s my video. I’m biased that way. Just before this jam broke out, I checked my clock and knew Jonathan was going to end with a hot one. I figured that someone would film the jam, so I set up in front of the band. I always wanted to get footage of a great dance band like Jonathan’s during a jam.
And just for comparison’s sake, the jam itself.
ILHC 2010 LED Talks Preview
It was the time of your life and you know it.
Uptown Swing Class Review Peter Strom & Stacia Martin
Best use of music to make an instructional point.
Wherever you are and who ever you are, have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and/or a wonderful holiday. Good luck and God Bless. Take care, fare well, and all that Jazz. I hope to meet you on the dance floor sometime soon in the coming year.
Favorite Videos 2010: Lindy Hop Teams
Just a word about wording. The title means what it says, says what it means. This is just stuff that I like, and is by no means meant to be any sort of definitive compilation of the year's best performances. I like dancing, and I don't always have a good reason for stuff I like more than others. The intro is here and social dance highlights are here.
Favorite Videos 2010: Social Lindy Hop
This is the way it'll work: I'm posting videos under a bunch of different categories, and then I'll post my overall favorites last which will be right after the New Year. The overall ones won't be listed with the rest. I'm using the term social very broadly here since I'm including a couple of competitions, but I didn't feel like breaking them out into their own category. Most of this is improvised Lindy Hop though.
Favorite Performances 2010: Introduction
There really is no method to my favoriting madness. The actual dancing in a video doesn't necessarily have to be good for me to like it. Given the volume of videos I see, I tend to appreciate effort more than execution. Random things will often jump out at me in a clip that have nothing to do with dancing. I’ll even favorite videos of dancing I don’t like if only to watch it later to make sure I don’t. I have some vague hope that I would help compile some sort of sociological/anthropological/psychological study/historical record of our scene. Until then I’ll have to settle for “Hey look! This is eff’n kewl!” along with the occasional wardrobe malfunction and people falling down.