by Alain Wong

For non-Canadians, Quebec can refer to the province of Quebec, Canada’s only pre-dominantly French-speaking population, or the city of Quebec, which is the capital of the province of Quebec. It was established in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain as the colonial outpost for the colony of New France. It’s also the land of poutine (gravy, French fries and cheese curds).

The Québec Swing Rendez-Vous has been a fixture in the Quebec scene for the past four years. Attracting the majority of dancers in the region, as well as out-of-towners, the event grew in size every year since 2006. This year was announced as the last one, as the organizers decided to focus their energy on demanding non-dance careers.

Here’s my look back at four years of swing at the Québec Swing Rendez-Vous.

QSRV 2006

My first time dancing in La Grande Capitale happened at the inaugural Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous. The main venue was the talk of the event - we danced inside La Citadelle de Quebec, a fortified battlement also known as the Gibraltar of America. In addition to being an official Residence for the Governor General of Canada since 1872, it houses an active military garrison. Shaped as a fortified maze with armed guards at the entrance, I had the impression that we were entering a top-secret military complex where scientist experimented with new biochemical weapons on swing dancers!

It was my first live encounter with  Mike Faltesek, who taught at the event with Nina Gilkenson, and I fell in love with both his personal style and the infectious shag dancing by Adam Boehmer and Marcie McCabe. I took a private lesson with both Mike and Marcie, and still remember their advice. From Mike, “do the rock step like you would when you Charleston” and “t’aint what you do, it’s the way that you do it”. From Marcie, “dance in front of a mirror in your bedroom. Dance like no one’s watching and come up with stuff on your own.”

The rest of the teaching lineup included Jason Herron and Julie Ducharme (Balboa) and Solomon Douglas and Laura Glaess (Blues). QSRV had the objective to expose Quebecers to different styles of dance, and they’ve kept this philosophy every year since.

Watch my favorite part of the Saturday night jam (which starts at the 5:27 mark):

QSRV also introduced me to master classes, where it was about returning to the basics and making them hot. My most memorable class was with Adam, who broke down the Charleston basic into four sections, and showed us how to improvise on each one. This started my love affair with Adam - who became my inspiration for all things Charleston.

QSRV 2007

The lineup was slightly different the second year. Mike and Nina were back, as were Adam and Marcie and Jason and Julie. Newcomers included Kelly Porter, Kelly Palmiter and Laura Berger, Dan Amores and Joanna Kassoulides. The main venue was again the Citadelle, with the late night at a cozier venue nearby.

One thing I liked a lot about QSRV was that the organizers took feedback from participants seriously, polling us each year on the teachers, the venues, the classes. The first year, a survey was included in the welcome booklet, and in subsequent years, there was an online survey sent to us after the event. They made an effort each year to improve, and the music and venues got better each year. I was especially impressed by DJ Kelly Porter - she made me discover Willie “the Lion” Smith that year.

This is a demo by Mike and Nina dancing to Ochi Chornya by Wingy Manone during one of the masters’ classes. It’s one of my favorite clips ever. Thank you Catherine Prévost for filming it!

They also introduced dance contests, with a late night Jack and Jill on Friday and a Strictly Lindy on Saturday night. Mélanie Huot-Lavoie and I debuted our dance partnership and performed a routine there, which was intended for the showcase division that was cancelled for lack of participants. I had heard good things about Ann Mony and I’s performance in the JnJ finals which we ended up winning - mainly that we were “on fire” - but unfortunately the official footage that year went corrupt, and they were not able to release a DVD. In retrospect, that’s probably a good thing because some things are better experienced live.

QSRV 2008 - Jamais deux sans trois

Appropriating the French saying “never two without three”, the third edition of QSRV featured a move to the Imperial, a classy show venue. The dance floors provided by Bill Cameron were most welcome, as previous years did not have wood at all venues. The warmth brought about by the professional lighting system of the show venue made the third event a definite improvement over the previous one. Marketing the shows and contests to the open non-dancing public, they were able to sellout the evening dances.

The big entertainment that year came from the Battle of the Cities, dubbed La Bataille des Plaines in reference to the historical battle between French and English in the days of the colonial wars, before the founding of Canada and the United States. It was a spirited three-way contest between Ottawa (led by Byron Alley and Natalia Rueda), Montreal (led by Max Pitruzella, Annie Trudeau, Zack Richard, Maryse Lebeau) and Quebec city (led by Benjamin Ricard and Genevieve Kerouac). Quebec came out victorious, with innovative team sequences that won the crowd. They played the French vs English angle, styled fists in their swing outs, put in high-flying airsteps, and used partners as machine guns and bowling pins. Although Montreal’s team exhibited technically superior choreographies, they did not match Quebec’s ability to draw in the crowd. It reminded me of battles at the US Open and the Boston Tea Party where Lindy Hopper crowd-pleasers trumped over West Coast Swing technique. I’ll try to post a clip of the battle on our Lindybloggers youtube channel when I dig up my copy of the DVD.

Quebec city team in battle (photo Alexandra Furminger)

In instruction that year, they brought over new teachers Thomas Blacharz and Alice Mei from Montpellier, France, who became instant crowd favorites. Indeed, their fluency in French allowed them to more easily build rapport with the mainly French-speaking participants. Mickey Fortanasce and Kelly Arsenault taught the Balboa track that year, having won the teaching gig at the previous year’s Canadian Balboa Championships. I did not attend many of the workshops, but the ones I did go to were top-notch.

QSRV 2009 Retour aux sources (Back to the Roots)

Finally the fourth year. As covered in Part One of Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous, the Swing Station show was the highlight of my weekend. I remember talking to Dan Amores, and he was also blown away by the slick professional production. I was so very proud of the dancers, and of Geneviève Kérouac for creating this piece of art. If you haven’t already, go read that post and my interview with Geneviève.

Dancing at the Imperial de Quebec (photo Marc-Antoine Jean)

During the last edition, they scrapped contests that ate up a chunk of social dancing the previous years, and hired one of my local favorites, the Early Jazz Band, for the Friday night dance. I returned as a guest DJ, and for the sake of nostalgia, played an almost identical set to the previous year. Performances during the Saturday night included an explosive super-clean routine by Patrick Schmidt and Natasha Ouimet, as well as a short piece by Max and Annie and a spaz-tastic routine by Kelly Porter and Marcie. Kelly also performed a sultry fan dance and taught an intro to the art of vintage fan dancing with paper plates as props.

Guest teachers that had not previously taught at the event included Dax Hock, Davis Thurber, Sahra Djellal, Olivier Chort. The organizers also created a Quebec All-Star track showcasing local talent featuring Montreal and Quebec City instructors. Alain Fragman and I taught our Les Deux Alains routine from the Cat’s Corner tenth anniversary, and that was cool. I was most impressed by the energy of the two guys right behind us in the video, Jonathan Desroches and Wisit Chantawarang, who were both having so much fun doing it.

I have to say, this year’s edition was the best yet - the formula that they’ve been refining over the past four years was getting closer and closer to perfection. I was happy to see Adam and Marcie teaching again at the event, as they had made such an impression on me that first year, but I also missed Falty and Nina’s presence, as they did not return this year. But all in all, Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous was a great inspiration in our local scene, and it will be missed.

Interview with Nathan

I asked Nathan Shetterley, co-founder of the QSRV, how he felt about these successful past four years.

How did you start dancing?

I actually had an East Coast class in gym in High School, the following summer I took a Charleston and Jitterbug stroll class (which right after I never did again, and I still head straight to the bar anytime I hear the song). I signed up for some Lindy and Balboa classes soon after, but didn’t really get very far.

After going out here and there, I met Deor Orzame, I was in awe of his style and musicality, I didn’t really know what these things were, but I knew he was doing something that everyone else wasn’t. I approached him and instantly made friends with the “scene” in Detroit.

How/who came up with the idea for QSRV?

I actually came up with the idea for the QSRV with Marie Paquet driving home to Quebec from Detroit after a Battle of the Swing Cities. Soon after Vero Paquet joined the team, and unfortunately Marie ended up going to Russia. Vero really brought a solid administration and focus to the project, I don’t think it would have been such a success if she hadn’t joined when she did.

After the second year Marianne Bonnard and Vincent Dufresne joined us for the rest of our ride, they brought a new level of professionalism and composure to the team that allowed us to put on a more mature event in my opinion. Things have always gone pretty smooth since they joined the team.

Where you satisfied with how this last edition turned out?

We were all very pleased with the turn out, and the superb quality of work everyone put in this year. We were especially proud to present Swing Station, they really helped us go out with a bang!

Did you accomplish what you set forth to do 4 years ago when you envisioned this event…,

Yes, but not in the way we thought we would. Our goal has always been to bring dancers together, and encourage creativity and versatility. We expected this to come out in people’s individual dancing, which happened a little, but we really saw this with the explosion of dance events in Quebec City. We are very happy to have helped the scene get to where it is today.

…and what what were the biggest surprises along the way?

There were a few every year, especially the first year. Anyone who saw the 2005 DVD knows this. I would say the biggest surprise was our initial success, the first year we were planning for 100 people to show up, we had 250 full registrations and almost 300 people at our evening dances. We were in awe all weekend, it was a good thing too because we didn’t sleep at all. Everyone’s energy kept us going. Every year it got easier though, we even got to enjoy the event a bit this final year.

Thank you Nathan, Vero, Marianne and Vincent for the past four years. They were good times. And thank you Nathan for giving me permission to post videos online. DVDs including class reviews are available for purchase at http://qsrv.net

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