Joanna Lucero is a dancer and performer living Atlanta, GA. She performed as part of a benefit gala for a local preservation society and here is her review of the event. It is great to see these sorts of organizations keeping the dance alive and honoring old timers who helped bring us the dance. -Carl
On September 6th, I and many other Southeast lindy hoppers took part in the Atlanta Jazz Dance Preservation Society’s first annual benefit gala and performance showcase. The AJDPS is the brainchild of Atlanta lindy hoppers Michelle Postles and Nima Farsinejad.
“The Atlanta Jazz Dance Preservation Society is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the preservation of historic jazz dance forms of the early 1900’s through the promotion of performance, live music, dance events, educational community programs and historical archiving.” Last week’s gala honored special guest and jazz legend, Dawn Hampton.

Sosh and Joanna doing a candlestick
Each performance was preceded by a brief introduction by the evening’s MC, Jesse Gearhart, regarding the dance style to be presented, or the composer whose music we were about to hear. There were many styles of jazz dance presented; Black Bottom, 20’s Charleston, Breakaway, Tap, Blues, and of course, Lindy Hop. Some performances were tributes to some of the famed dancers of the past, such as Josephine Baker, Al Minns, Leon James, the Nicholas brothers, and Honi Coles, and some performances were recreations of vintage dance clips well known in the lindy hop community such as “After Seben”, “Day at the Races”, the “Tranky Doo”, and the “Big Apple”. Lastly, there were also many original choreographies performed.
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Filed Under: Dance Community, Event Reviews | by Carl Nelson |