This is the first part of a two-part feature with World Lindy Hop Champion and Balboa Mastermind Nick Williams. For the second part, Williams, an avid “clip collector” and historian, will take us on a You Tube tour of some of his favorite clips.  First, though, we sat down with Nick over IM to talk about Lindy Hop, Balboa, and the unseen dangers of shooting a commercial.

I’m sitting here (metaphorically speaking) with Nick Williams, champion Swing Dancer.  Let’s do the obligatory ones first…how did you start swing dancing?

NW. I started when I went to college at USC.  My longtime friend knew of a student-run club that offered a 12 week swing course.  We joined and immediately got hooked.  This was in the beginning of 1998. I had seen the movies like “Swing Kids” but never really mad e the connection or realized there was an entire scene with such awesome dances to go along with it. Visalia, where I grew up, wasn’t exactly a hip and happening town, so I had to find these things out when I moved to LA for school.  So I knew very little about jazz at all.

Was there a particular moment when you decided that what you wanted to do for a living was be an incredible swing dancer? Or did it just happen slowly?

NW. Well, I had been going out dancing with my USC friends and never realized there was a “swing scene.” There were so many clubs at that time that had swing nights in LA it was easy to get lost into it. Eventually I realized there was a scene with top dancers and friends that knew each other from club to club. Although I never thought I could be as good as they were. (more…)

Filed Under: Dance Advice, Dancer Interviews, Upcoming Events | Monday, September 29th, 2008

Southern Belle Swing Bash is hosted in Atlanta, GA and is organized by Gina Helfrich and Jaya Dorf.  Similar to the Girl Jam’s hosted throughout the U.S., Southern Belle is a follower-focused event, and is actually the longest running follower-focused event in the U.S. (their tagline – perhaps the world).

This year brought together three exceptional teachers; Ramona Staffeld (NYC), Evita Arce (NYC), and Gina Helfrich (Atlanta).  Tracks were broken into three levels; intermediate, advanced and masters with numbers ranging from fifteen couples in the masters track to forty or fifty in the intermediate and advanced tracks.  The teachers rotated throughout the various tracks teaching both solo and partnered classes.

Guest leads Nathan Bugh (NYC), Patrick Manigault (Atlanta) and myself, Carl Nelson (NYC), accompanied the instructors.  Teni Lopez-Cardenas (Denver) was the special guest follower for the weekend. (more…)

Filed Under: Event Reviews | Friday, September 26th, 2008

Bal Jam (4 stars – out of 5) by Abigail Browning

This year marked the third semiannual Bal Jam, the premier Balboa dance weekend sans workshops.  Run by Bobby White and Kate Hedin, but hosted by the Philly Bal dancers, notably Jenn Scricco, this year proved to be a marked success.  A well-organized event, the strongest ingredients in this Bal Jam weekend were the music, the venues, the caliber of dancers and the addition of the “Afternoon Dance Colloquium.”

Watch David Rehm and Kate Hedin dancing in a milk crate. (video by Kevin J. Voss)

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Filed Under: Dance History, Event Reviews | Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

This past spring, I had the chance to work on a choreography with Max Pitruzzella, an Italian from France now living in Montreal. He’s well-known for wowing crowds with his acrobatic routines with partner Annie Trudeau, but that’s not what comes to mind first when I think of him. Actually, what comes to mind first is one word, and that word is “Badass”. Whether he’s wearing it on a cap, a t-shirt or adding it to the soundtrack of a performance, he has used that term so often that you can’t help but repeat it or revile it.

Here’s the routine that Max and I danced at the Canadian Swing Championships this year.

Filed Under: Dancer Interviews | Friday, September 19th, 2008

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 | Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

We’d like to welcome Bobby White to the Lindybloggers.com writing staff.  Stay tuned for more contributors in the weeks to come.

Author’s Note: Whitey’s Lindy Hopper Al Minns is not often talked about as much these days as much as his mentor, Frankie Manning, or his peer and performance partner Leon James. This essay was composed for the Jam Cellar Almanac as a way to remember Al Minns, and explore why he deserves to be remembered.

First, a little history; and sadly, that’s all we have about Al Minns—a little.*

He was born Jan. 1 in 1920 and died in 1985. As one of the youngest dancers in the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, he quickly excelled to the top team, headed by Frankie Manning. He wasn’t, however, one of the first four leads asked to do the famous choreography for the film “Hellzapoppin.” When one of the couples repeatedly blew off practices, Frankie replaced them with Al Minns and Willa Mae Ricker. Let’s watch it: (Al and Willa Mae are the third couple).

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Filed Under: Dance History | Thursday, September 4th, 2008

I had the chance to interview Michael Faltesek (Mike Faltesek, Falty) via e-mail a while ago.  He will be teaching at Cat’s Corner’s Tenth anniversary in Montreal alongside Stefan and Bethany.

1)  Where and when did you start dancing?

I started dancing in 1997 in Saint Paul, MN at a place called the Wabasha Street Caves.  They have a live big band playing every week, and it was one of the few venues that was all ages as I was only 17 at the time.  I remember that place quite fondly.

2)  What was it about jazz that got you so hooked?

This is a difficult question to answer, as I am still uncovering things about the beauty of jazz all the time.  There are a few things that stand out, however.  Growing up in the 80s and 90s, the popular music on the radio and that my classmates listened to was very manufactured, one dimensional, and not intellectually stimulating.  Jazz was a breathe of fresh air.  Complicated but based on a basic structure of mostly 32 bar or 16 bar choruses, rife with improvisation and playfulness.  It’s the type of music that works its way in through your ears and out through your feet.  It runs the gamut of emotions, but you always walk away feeling much happier after listening.  I also have always preferred acoustic instrumentation to it’s electrified counterpart.  I feel electric music serves to distance the listener from the music, but acoustic music is like a warm hug that just brings you right in and says “There, there.  Did that Big Bad Voodoo Daddy hurt you?”.

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Filed Under: Dancer Interviews | Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008