Last week’s answer
Which modern Lindy Hop team originally performed to “The Last Jump (To End All Jumps)” by Charlie Barnet? Bonus question: which team got people talking by choreographing and performing to the same song a year later?

ANSWER: Silver Shadows performed to the song “The Last Jump (To End All Jumps)” by Charlie Barnet at the American Lindy Hop Championships in Stamford, CT in 2006. They also performed it at the US OPEN that year in Anaheim, CA. Ninjammerz performed a choreography mixing the slower Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra’s “Happy Go Lucky Local” and the faster “The Last Jump” during the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown in St. Paul, MN in 2007.

Congrats to Breanna for guessing the right answer. Andrew and Alain, I totally agree with both of you - that performance was magical. At the end of the routine in the video, you can see Carl and I rise up to our feet (we are slightly to the right of the center)… I remember us both being so energized and inspired by the moment. It still gives me giddy shivers when I think about it.

This Week’s Tuesday Dance Trivia Question: Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?

Complete the last sentence. In August 1921, the widely read (about 6 million subscribers) and highly influential Ladies’ Home Journal published an article by music professor Anne Shaw Faulkner titled “Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation.”

“Jazz disorganizes all regular laws and order… it is harmful and dangerous, and its influence is wholly bad… Jazz originally was the accompaniement of the voodoo dancer, stimulating the half-crazed barbarians to the vilest deeds. The weird chant, accompanied by the syncopated rhythm of the voodoo invokers, has also been employed by other barbaric people to stimulate brutality and sensuality. That it has a demoralizing effect upon human brain has been demonstrated by many scientists… the effect of jazz on the normal brain produces an atrophied condition on the brain cells of conception, until very frequently those under the demoralizing influence of the persistent use of syncopation combined with inharmonic partial tones are actually incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, right and wrong.

Such music has become __________________.

Know the answer? Let everyone know and comment.

Filed Under: Dance Trivia | Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Today our Song of the Week DJ is Kate Hedin, partner to our resident “extreme” writer Bobby White, balboa expert, professional violist and all around lovely lady.

Artist: Benny Goodman
Song: Caprice Xxiv Paganini
Year: 1941
Album: 1941, Vol. 3

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Why I like it:

In a time in our lindy hopping lives when early jazz and “chunk-ca-chunk” music is so popular, I find my self drawn more and more to the old classic sound of big bands. Benny Goodman was definitely the first band that really grabbed me when I started dancing, so I guess his sound holds a special place in my heart.

I remember very specifically when I heard this piece (Caprice Xxiv Paganini) for the first time. While dancing at the Boston Tea Party in ‘05 or ’06, I heard this song blast through the speakers, and I can still see myself running up to the DJ booth after that dance, desperate to see what recording had just played. For me, the theme of that piece is something so familiar and so distinctive that I would recognize it anywhere. The main melody of Benny Goodman’s piece comes from a very famous classical work for solo violin by Niccolo Paganini. (Included below) Many of you may know that my “other life” is one of classical music. I have been playing the viola for over 20 years now, and received both my bachelors and masters degrees in viola performance. (www.katehedin.com) I still get a thrill when my two passions cross paths. This song by Benny Goodman is a brilliant example.

Piece: Caprice No. 24, for solo violin
Composer: Niccolo Paganini
Artist: Itzhak Perlman

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Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) was both a pillar of violin virtuosity and composer who wrote pieces that showed off the technical mastery of which he was capable. His 24th caprice is probably his most famous work, and its theme has been used by over 35 other composers, including Benny Goodman, as a spring board for their own theme-and-variation compositions.

In the Goodman song, the full band plays the opening chorus: an energetic swung version of Paganini’s theme. Then Benny comes in with his solo, his own chilled variation of this theme. Each soloist thereafter variates the melody in their own way, leading a slow-driving crescendo to the final culmination: a recapitulation of the original theme in the final chorus with full band. For me, the fact that Benny Goodman not only wrote a piece that was a intellectual throw-back to one of the milestones of classical music, but also managed to make it swing so hard with that driving sound he does so well – well, it just baffles and amazes me.

You can find Benny Goodman’s rendition of Caprice Xxiv Paganini on Amazon.com.

Filed Under: Dance Community, Song of the Week | Monday, April 6th, 2009

This is the Shim Sham compilation from Montreal for Frankie Week, compiled by Marie N’Diaye. Remember to click HQ (high quality) if you have high speed internet. Enjoy!

And here’s a group picture at Cat’s Corner (taken by Emmanuelle Girard).

Filed Under: Upcoming Events | Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Bobby “Extremely” White is currently doing P90X, a popular 13-week work-out routine. 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 28

Since I have finished the first three weeks, this week is a “recovery week,” which, if you remember, is only called a recovery week to trick you into actually pushing play on the Core Synergistics workout. We’ll talk about that workout in Week 8.

Day 1: Core Synergistics , Day 2: Yoga, Day 3: Stretch, Day 4: Yoga, Day 5: Core Synergistics, Day 6: Kempo (a martial-art type cardio workout), and Day 7: Lying in the fetal position, whimpering (rest day).

As a swing dancer, one of the hardest things to do is keep up the P90X workout schedule during a workshop weekend. When was the last time you had an hour and a half a day at an event to workout, let alone felt like doing so, between the eight hours of classes and five hours of dancing a day?

When it finally is time to workout, you usually have to pass up meals or invitations with friends—friends you never get to spend a lot of quality time with because you spend most workshop weekends either in class or at a dance. Or, you have to wake up early, which means you either have no sleep or you have to miss a bunch of a dance in order to get sleep, neither of which is good if you’re a hired teacher hoping to impress.

That said, one of the things I’m proudest of in P90X is how I’ve kept with it at long work weekends. This means that the second I arrive, I have to find time and a six by six piece of floor. My luggage now is quickly filled with a yoga mat, fitness bands, push-up bars, and sneakers.  (One weekend I forgot to pack sneakers, and so I had to do my workout in the living room of a crowded house wearing old man socks and loafers. You have to quickly not get embarrassed about working out in front of your friends or strangers).

Workout breakdown: YOGA-X

After twenty Downward Dogs (with push ups) into the Yoga-X workout, you start to wonder if your workout is going to be nothing but an hour and a half of discomfort. But, the Downward dogs, triangle poses, warrior threes, and twisting prayer poses only last for about 50 minutes of the workout. The rest are balance exercises, which are fun as hell (for me, anyway), stretching, and, of course, a Tony Horton Ab Yoga workout.

The romantic in me imagined that Yoga would be a peaceful, calming experience where I could mediatate and loose stress, but in reality, I have a few leftover traces of my 12-year-old ADD, and the sheer length of this program makes it really hard for me to enjoy it.  When I really work hard in this workout, I have to take breaks three or four times, which push the already long experience into almost 2 hours of time. And most of that two hours is holding a tricky position for many seconds and breathing. (more…)

Filed Under: Dance Advice | Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

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

ANSWER: Kid Ory recorded the first two titles by a Black New Orleans jazz band (”Ory’s Creole Trombone” and “Society Blues”) under the band title of Spike’s Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra - also known as Kid Ory’s Original Creole Jazz Band.

Thank you Freddie for this source. Congrats to Amy, James and Freddie for all guessing the right answer. Thanks also to James for naming the first band to make a jazz recording (without regard to race) in New Orleans, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (in 1917).

This Week’s Tuesday Dance Trivia Question: Modern Lindy Hop dance teams and performance groups

Which modern Lindy Hop team originally performed to “The Last Jump (To End All Jumps)” by Charlie Barnet? Bonus question: which team got people talking by choreographing and performing to the same song a year later?

Know the answer? Let everyone know and comment.

Filed Under: Dance Trivia | Wednesday, April 1st, 2009