Swinging for the Cause in Denver for The Lindyhopper’s Fund
by Alain Wong
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:
I’ve never been to Colorado. How would you describe the dance scene there? And would you say there’s a Denver style of dancing?
I think the Denver scene is wonderful! Honestly! We have a healthy number of dancers in each skill level, really caring instructors and organizers who work well together to promote their own and each other’s activities, dancing 5 nights a week in or close to Denver, a few successful National events, and a variety of dance subgroups (lindy hoppers, blues dancers, bal dancers and some west coast swing) that have their own activities as well as mixing with the whole.
I don’t know if I would be able to describe the Denver style as easily as I could recognize other scenes’ styles…you never think you have an accent yourself , but I’ve been told that we’re more bouncy. Probably true, we love the pulse here! There seems to be a divergence of our styles in the last year or two and we’re all developing our own personal styles although we continue to trade ideas and foster creativity with each other. We’re probably also known as a team-scene. We have a lot of dance teams in Colorado: various college teams that put routines together for the Intercollegiate Battle every year and help foster an influx of early twenty-somethings into our scene, a bal practice group that has really encouraged enthusiasm and interest for balboa, two teams that Joe and I coach that are designed to help dancers progress quickly, learn about our dances and their history and hopefully become the good-stuff within our scene. So, yes we are big on the teams in Denver, and they all seem to have nice influences on our community.
I see that you and Joe are coming out with new instructional DVDs. Did you rely on them much when you started dancing?
Not really, although I might have if I had known they were out there and could be really helpful. These days Lindy Hop seems to be much more mainstream and tech-savvy than when I was learning. YouTube is amazing (and addicting) and the internet and videos are a great learning tool that are more readily available than they used to be.
You’ve been invited to teach and perform at Blues, Lindy Hop and crossover events around the States. Apart from the dance style, do you find something distinct about each community, or are the people and social interactions similar across the board?
I think it’s difficult to say considering most of the time that we travel it’s for weekend events. During these weekends, there are so many dancers from everywhere, special dances, venues, bands, and deejays, so it’s probably not indicative of how the community normally is. What is obviously common across the board is a love and appreciation of dance & music, which is always an inspiration regardless of how common it is.
What speaks to you about the the Lindy Hopper’s Fund, and why does it inspire you to support and fundraise for it?
Plain and simple, the Fund is a great way to give back to the dancers that have given us so much. We wouldn’t have a dance, or at least the dance that we have without their love for it, let alone the inspiration, motivation, material, stories, history, movies, etc that they’ve selflessly contributed, the least we can do is say thank you.
Thanks Nelle! You can find her at joeandnelle.com. Visit http://www.LindyHoppersFund.com to learn more on how you can contribute.
