by Carl Nelson

The Lindy Focus review will be broken up into two or three separate pieces because there is so much to say about a week long event of such excellence.

Photo courtesy of Terrace Ellis

When it comes to ringing in a New Year for Lindy Hoppers there was no better way this year stateside than going to Lindy Focus in Asheville, NC.

In its seventh year Lindy Focus, once a regional event, has truly cracked the national scene as one of the best camps there is.  With an intensity and camaraderie likened to Herrang without the camping or eternal sunshine Lindy Focus has earned itself an earmark as the camp to kick off a year.

It has earned so much after-event glory from attendees that it has spawned a series of Lindy Focus Favorite Moments/Top Ten notes on Facebook.

To start the organizers of Lindy Focus are Michael Gamble, Jaya Dorf and Sosh Howell and my sincere congratulations and appreciation go out to them.  They ran an exceptionally tight ship, kept it well organized, brought in international talent on both the dance and music front and gave us all a party to remember.

For a taste of Lindy Focus here’s a video from one of our camp meetings.

The Music

The line up of bands for the week of dances was enough to inspire without the additional elements.  The first night was a welcome night with DJs spinning tunes as people arrived in preparation for the start of the camp.

The Boilermaker Jazz Band started off for two nights in a row.  The Boilermakers are a remarkable ensemble with a long history of playing for dancers.  Like a good DJ they change up the tempo and style of tunes to keep dancers on the floor and the mood high.  Interspersed with the occasional wit to lighten the mood and draw a laugh – they really have a show.  Even when their bass broke during a set they kept right on plugging away.  A temporary electric replacement was quickly furnished by Jonathon Carlomagno and a regular upright was provided, thanks to the Russ Wilson Swingtet, by their next set.

Photo courtesy of Terrace Ellis

Christabel and the Jons held down the mid-event night with their particular brand of swing.  Lighter and with a slight country tone, they were nice departure from the classic swinging tones of the Boilermaker Jazz Band.  Their first song of the evening still sticks in my mind.

The Russ Wilson Swingtet played Tuesday night.  While they had a similar vintage look to the Boilermakers they played a variety of songs, of which most were lesser known or heard to dancers.  What they played, they swung hard and mixed a variety of tempos.  An exceptionally danceable band that I had not heard before and look forward to hearing again.

New Years Eve was a night everyone looked forward to with great anticipation for the Firecracker Jazz Band was going to blare (as per the fire horn that joined them on stage) us into the New Year.  I had heard their albums prior to seeing them in person and they easily surpassed my high expectations.  While they played an older pre-swing jazz reminiscent of New Orleans hot jazz they kept it blazing or smoldering whether it was hot and fast or slow and sultry.  There were so many spontaneous jams this last night that it would be difficult for me to count them.

Late nights were broken up into two rooms – the regular swing jazz room and the blues (occasionally soul) room – with both local southeast DJs and national DJs playing till the sun cracked up over the mountains.  DJs were Mike Thibault, Tina Davis, Jerry Almonte, Mike Marcotte, Allen Kerr (recently featured on Song of the Week), Rob Moreland, Bill Spiedel, Abigail Browning, and Michael Gamble.

What were you highlights of the bands and DJs? Let us know and comment.

The Classes

While the bands and DJs kept us dancing late into the night, high quality instruction kept us dancing during the day.

Tracks were split up into five levels from beginner to advanced.  At the start of the camp a two hour placement session managed any placement discrepancies that occurred.  This placement session was more than just a let us watch you dance experience which occurs at most camps.  There were three sections beginning with just warming up and dancing to learning a short series of moves to dancing the California routine to solid uptempo songs (for the level 5 track at least).

After each section the dancers in each track had to get their dance cards signed by the instructors assigned to their level.  This amounted to a brief one-on-one sit down session with each of the attendees after each section where they received feedback from the instructors.  For a placement session this is the best method I’ve seen yet.

I attended a portion of the classes available to those in the level 5 track, of which were broken into 5a and 5b for performance classes and non-performance classes.  Performance classes were routines to be presented during the evening camp meetings.  My favorite class was the first performance class by Mike and Nina which was an inspired classic swing piece with the added wrench of starting swingouts on 7 thrown in there.

Additional non-track elective classes were taught covering balboa, vintage dances, blues, teaching, and various health and wellness topics.  There were also community classes taught by special guests and Lindy Focus teaching alumni.

The instructors at Lindy Focus were Nina Gilkenson, Mike Faltesek, Emily Hoffberg, Juan Villafañe, Kate Hedin, Bobby White, Evita Arce, Nathan Bugh, Kelly Arsenault, Marty Klempner, Todd Yannacone, Laura Glaess, Mike Roberts, Bill Borgida, Dave Madison, Ursula Ledergerber, and Andrew Sutton.

Community and wellness instructors were Becky Peters, Jennifer Cutler, Jennifer Coulombe, Gina Helfrich, Evin Galang, Carl Nelson, Teni Lopez-Cardenas, Marc-Andre Vachon, Sosh Howell, Joanna Lucero, Abigail Browning, and Megan Adair.

If you attended some of the classes and want to give a shout out to the instructors for their classes, comment and let them know.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Lindy Focus review where I’ll cover the amazing performances, competitions and most importantly the atmosphere that made the camp what it is.

Filed Under: Event Reviews | Trackback