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.

For one, he has the music in his bones, and musical ideas come to him naturally given his wide vocabulary in Lindy Hop, Charleston, Solo Jazz and West Coast Swing. He has spent countless hours working on his dancing and watching every dance video he can get his hands on, and this training coupled with his natural musical ability allows him to instantly compose moves to fit the music. As well, he’s intensely serious about musical selection, scouring jazz music databases in search of the hot recording that will inspire his next choreography. “If the song’s not hot enough, no choreography”. This idea was echoed in Bethany Powell’s interview.

Working with Max was also stressful, because he does not need to practice his routines frequently - so it’s up to his partners to keep up. On this particular choreography, we spent a total of three hours and change together (choreography and practice). Since I’m the type of person who needs to run a routine repeatedly to memorize it, I ended up showing Max’s part to my friend Marie Ndiaye and we secretly practiced it on the side. I’m glad it worked out okay.

One criticism I have heard from the grapevine is that some people don’t like Max’s attitude. My opinion on the matter? I think he’s just a guy who likes to dance, and who has character strengths and weaknesses like any human being, and that like everyone else, he’s shy around strangers. Maybe the façade he acts out in public makes people assume that he is unfriendly or has “attitude”, but in reality, he is just a normal guy with fears and insecurities like the rest of us. Note: don’t quote me on this, as I don’t think I’ll ever get him to admit it, but he’s a really cool guy when you get to know him.

In any case, I don’t think we can question his dedication to the dance. He’s defined his own signature style within the community, and is forging new ground in Lindy Hop, as are we all. As Andy Reid and Nina Gilkenson said so well in a masters class at Camp Jitterbug, “we are the dance”, and it’s crucial that we realize that each of us is a living representation of Lindy Hop, of vernacular jazz dancing, and that we should live up to it. Max is doing his part in spreading the Lindy love.

Max Pitruzzella and Annie Trudeau will be teaching next March at The Great Southwest Lindyfest in Houston, Texas. They are the principal choreographers and artistic directors at Studio88swing in Montreal and also compete with their team from all around the world, Ninjammerz.

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