Here are the results for the Lindy & Balboa competitions at Boston Tea Party.

Stay tuned for the full review and a picture of the Lindyblogger crew live from Tea Party.

Balboa Jack & Jill

1       Paul Salter & Abigail Browning
2       Jason Platt & Natasha Ouimet
3       Patrick Wall & Nikki Marvin

Novice Lindy Hop Jack & Jill

1       Nathaniel Allen & Ellen Murray
2       Mortimer Gerdon & Alicia Wagner
3       Brian Zimmer & Stephanie Bourque

Intermediate Lindy Hop Jack & Jill

1       Mark Muthersbaugh & Lisa Casper
2       Douglas Van Sant & Amanda Fong
3       William Ewanick & Vicki Grenier

Advanced Lindy Hop Jack & Jill

1       Alain Fragman & Crista Seipp
2       Andrew Thigpen & Natasha Ouimet
3       Carl Nelson & Caroline Rossi

Strictly Balboa

1       Jason Herron & Andree-Anne Tremblay
2       Patrick Szmidt & Natasha Ouimet
3       Davis Thurber & Valerie Salstrom

Strictly Lindy Hop

1       Michael Pedroza & Nikki Marvin
2       Joshua Welter & Melanie Huot-Lavoie
3       Andrew Thigpen & Karen Turman

For full listings of the competition results go to here.

Pardon for the initial error in the Intermediate J&J results.  I blame the lack of sleep that Tea Party brought upon.

Filed Under: Event Reviews | Monday, March 30th, 2009
Tags: balboa, boston tea party, competition, lindy hop, results, swing dance

Song: St. Louis Gal
Album: Maiden Voyage
Artist: Titanic Jazz Band
http://titanicjazzband.com/

A bit about the Titanic Jazz Band.  These guys are a local Dixieland band here in Los Angeles.   These guys are really talented at what they do and have gained quite a loyal following here in the local Dixieland scene.  None of them are what I would call “famous”, not even in the Lindy scene as most Lindy Hoppers that I know of (me included) wouldn’t want to dance to Dixieland the whole night and so these guys don’t get booked for Lindy events. However,  it is fun to dance to a few Dixie tunes every night, when we DJ we usually will pull at least one or two songs from the Titanic CDs to play.

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We first “discovered” them when Ben went shopping at Canterbury’s in Pasadena prowling around for more music.  He saw  Titanic’s “Mostly Jelly” CD in the used bin and took a listen to it.  And he loved it!  He bought it specifically for their version of “Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” (Ben’s favorite version of that song).  Soon after, we purchased their other CD “Maiden Voyage”.  We then found out they were local and attended a few of their performances and even booked them for one of our dances.  These guys are definitely a talented group of musicians!

The song we chose, St Louis Gal,  is our favorite song of theirs.  From a listening and dancing experience, this song builds and ebbs subtly giving the listener (and dancer) quite a fulfilling experience.   Not to mention that St Louis Gal is a very versatile song to dance to.   We find there are so many feels of this song: a bit showy, a bit bluesy, a bit groovy, and a bit Dixie/Ragtime.   Depending on what kind of dancing mood you’re in, you can let the song take you in so many different directions.   And Titanic accomplishes this with just piano and percussion!!  Amazing!  A lot of the time when there are only one or two instruments it seems that the musicians overcompensate and tend to unnecessarily fill up space with notes resulting in a rushed or hectic feeling.  It’s good to see two musicians (Ragtime pianist Robbie Rhodes and percussionist Lloyd Byassee) so secure in their talent and their musical relationship together that they are able to let the music just flow.

We hope you all enjoy our pick.

Thanks Ben and Sheri! Check out their One2Swing’s California Rolls team routine at ALHC last year.

Filed Under: Song of the Week | Monday, March 30th, 2009

Lindybloggers has gone off the deep end of social media and joined up with the Twittersphere.

If a blog post a day or so isn’t enough you can get our feed of favorite video links, dance tweets and more here.

We’ll also be using Twitter to live blog at events starting this weekend with the Boston Tea Party in Danvers, MA.

Follow us on Twitter.

You’ll also notice the new social sharing buttons at the bottom of posts so if you like a post, share it with your friends.

Filed Under: Lindybloggers | Friday, March 27th, 2009
Tags: boston tea party, lindy hop, Lindybloggers, live blogging, social media, swing dance, twitter, twittersphere

Frankie Manning appeals to folks to open up their homes to visitors coming into town for the Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival.

Read what our writers think about Frankie. (more…)

Filed Under: Dance History, Upcoming Events | Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

This past month, swing dance teachers in Denver Colorado teamed up for Swing for the Cause, a special one day workshop at the Denver 1st Presbyterian Church with all proceeds going to The LindyHopper’s Fund.

Participating teachers included Kenny Nelson, Joe DeMers, Nelle Hatley, Heather Ballew, Ford Childs, Delilah Williams, Miranda Longaker, Becky Vigil, Teni Lopez-Cardenas, Andrew Munoz, JJ Weiss, and Davis Thurber.

I asked Danielle Hatley how she came up with the idea:

About 2 months ago, Joe and I were just talking about how we can contribute to the Fund, but we don’t really have any money to donate, so we figured we could donate what we do have: time, energy, knowledge, love of the dance and we just went from there. We’re planning on giving all of the money from “the Colorado dancers” at Southwest Lindyfest (Houston, TX) and hopefully this can be something that a lot of scenes will do.

Since I have never been to Denver, I took the opportunity to ask Nelle a few more questions about her and the scene:
(more…)

Filed Under: Dance Community, Event Reviews | Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Last week’s answer
March 12 to 22, 2009 has been dubbed Frankie Week. What is Frankie Week?

ANSWER: Frankie Week is intended to allow Frankie Manning fans from all over the world (whether or not they are attending the actual Festival) to celebrate Frankie’s 95th birthday by honoring him in a number of special ways: (1) a Global Shim Sham, (2) a Birthday Card for Frankie, (3) by spreading the Lindy Love, and by (4) fundraising for a birthday greeting. All details can be found on Frankie95.com

And yes Lucy, I agree - it’s also “what you feel when you watch the man dance… his rhythms, syncopations, his grace.” Thank you to you and Jesse for the answer.

This Week’s Tuesday Dance Trivia Question: First recorded black jazz band from New Orleans

During the Roaring 20’s, which black jazz band originating from New Orleans was the first to make recordings?

Know the answer? Let everyone know and comment.

Filed Under: Dance Trivia | Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

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Joe Venuti was born on a ship on the way to the USA from Italy and became, in many circles, THE great jazz violinist. Eddie Lang (who was also known as Blind Willie Dunn) was a boyhood friend of Venuti, and was the first great jazz guitarist.

Inspired by Stefan Durham and Bethany Powell’s routine to Stuff Smith’s My Blue Heaven, I looked for other Swing songs that included a violin and stumbled upon this album. Joe Venuti’s violin is teamed up with Eddie Lang’s guitar playing to create a very original version of Dinah. This song makes me dance as if I was floating on air, yet still maintains the bounce of Swing. You can’t help it but to be really happy after hearing this song.

You can find Dinah by Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang as an mp3 on Amazon.com.

Thanks Alain!

Browse past songs of the week. If you are interested in submitting your own pick, email us at info@lindybloggers.com

Filed Under: Song of the Week | Monday, March 23rd, 2009

We apologize for the weird characters and missing information on the website. We are experiencing technical difficulties and are working on it. In the meantime, happy Frankie Week!

Filed Under: Lindybloggers | Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

P-LINDY-X: Extreme P90X journal
By Bobby “extremely” White

Bobby is currently doing P90X, a popular work-out routine that has become sort of a fad among Lindy Instructors. Each week, he’ll give an update on how the workout is going, explain one of the 12 exercises, and review the best and worst foods he’s eating for the protein regimen.

DAY 21

For the first three weeks, the P90X workout is this:
Day 1: Chest and Back, Day 2: Plyometrics (jumping), Day 3: Shoulders and Arms, Day 4: Yoga, Day 5: Legs and back, Day 6: Kempo (a martial-art type cardio workout), and Day 7: Lying in the fetal position, whimpering (rest day). On Days 1, 3, and 5, there is an additional Ab workout.

Now that the Week 2 energy boost has left as quickly as it came, my body is suddenly realizing what I’m putting it through. Almost every day a body part is sore, and if I don’t get eight hours of sleep, I feel beyond terrible. The five regiments of protein a day, though obviously making my performance better, are also having adverse side effects, and my girlfriend, having a sensitive nose, cannot stand to be around me for an hour or two after eating a protein bar.

It’s a tough line to walk well—you have to work hard to get the maximum results from the workout, but if you work too hard, you can’t walk the next day or you get injured and have to stop the regimen. My left arm got tweaked in a concentrated curl, and it hurt to swing-out for a week. I injured a toe (It wasn’t started by P90X, but the workout didn’t help it) and so that’s currently making life difficult. It is, coincidentally, the perfect time for a recovery week, which is happening next week. Maybe it’s planned that way?

Workout breakdown: SHOULDERS AND ARMS

Mid-week brings a welcome change of pace from the first two workouts, which give the entire body a rough beating. Shoulders and arms concentrates on the smaller muscles (guess which ones), which means the workout is less of a chore and less soreness the next day. The workout goes through five sets of exercises that target, in order, shoulders, biceps, and triceps. So there’s a ton of curls, chair dips, and exercises that work well with the fitness bands.

As Tony Horton repeats several times in the DVD, the arms start at the shoulders. “Of course, Tony,” I said. “Dur.” But when I thought about it more, and did the workout, I had a hit my-head-moment. In thinking of getting in shape for throwing women around, I envisioned in my head strong thighs and biceps; but that’s wrong. The real answer is strong thighs and shoulders. And biceps. And calves. And back. Everything, really. Anyway, ever since that realization, I look forward to this workout in getting to my goals.

Workout Song: “Outsiders” by Franz Ferdinand. This song helps me out in every workout, but is especially helpful when I do moves I dislike, like Chair dips. (more…)

Filed Under: Dance Advice | Thursday, March 19th, 2009
Tags: franz ferdinand, outsiders, p90x, tony horton, weight lifting

Last week’s answer
This photograph was taken in 1937. What type of dance event does it portray?

ANSWER: two couples remaining after a 5-month dance marathon. Photo by Bernard Hoffman

Congrats Ann for getting the answer.

This Week’s Tuesday Dance Trivia Question: Frankie Week

March 12 to 22, 2009 has been dubbed Frankie Week. What is Frankie Week?

Know the answer? Let everyone know and comment.

Filed Under: Dance Trivia, Upcoming Events | Tuesday, March 17th, 2009