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 14

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.

I had a strange day the Sunday of my second week of P90X. For no reason I could find, I felt sluggish and spacey. The last thing I wanted to do was workout, but I did it anyway. I took a ton of breaks, drank almost a gallon of water during the workout, and, oddly, did most of the workouts very well. I even finished up with one of the best ab workouts I’ve ever done.

It made me fully realize something about myself that I have noticed in my peripheral vision for awhile, but never stared in the face; What I am capable of and what I think I am capable of are often completely off. And this goes both ways. Some days I feel I will murder a workout, or clean the house, or finish the experimental pop album, and it doesn’t happen. Other days, like this one, all I felt like doing was lying in bed reading all day, but every time I went into a squat, or did a sit-up, I was amazed at how easy it felt and how little it hurt. It makes me think about similar experiences in my dancing, writing, money management, everything. It’s funny how little I know myself.

Also strange: that very night, almost in a row, I drank three glasses of water, one glass of fruit juice, one glass of recovery drink, one glass of sweet tea, and one glass of milk, with no desire to eat food at all. I guess I was dehydrated, but I’m not sure how, as I drank ample amounts of water all weekend. Read more »

Filed Under: Dance Advice | by Robert White | Comments (12)

Last week’s answer
During the ragtime era at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, people started partner-dancing to the new syncopated rhythms and created new dance steps. Ballrooms became playgrounds for grownups, where people did “le pas de l’ours” and “le pas du dindon”. Name five other Animal Dances.

ANSWER: Animal Dances include the Turkey Trot, the Chicken Scratch, the Monkey Glide, the Grizzly Bear, the Bunny Hug, the Fox Trot, the Camel Walk, the Squirrel, the Duck Waddle, the Buzzard Lope and many more. These simple and easy-to-do dances were caricatures of animal movement, and did not require the intricate patterns of 19th century European dances. As Freddie mentioned, you can learn these dances on How to dance through time Vol. II. Dances of the Ragtime Era 1910-1920

Congrats Meghan, Freddie and David for naming five each. And Matt for bringing up Adam Boehmer’s favorite living creature.

This Week’s Tuesday Dance Trivia Question: At what 1937 event was this picture taken?

This photograph was taken in 1937. What type of dance event does it portray?

Know the answer? Let everyone know and comment.

Filed Under: Dance Trivia | by Alain Wong | Comments (2)

This song is brought to you by Seattle transplant Kelly Porter. Kelly is an avid collector of early jazz and blues on ‘78, and is generally recognized as one of the US’s exceptional lindy hop and jazz DJ’s, playing for the most demanding dance audiences throughout North America including those at Showdown, The Rhythmic Arts Festival and on radio.

이 노래는 Seattle 이주민 Kelly Porter 가 소개한다. Kelly는 Early Jazz와 blues on ‘78 의 열광적인 수집가이다. Kelly는 미국에서도 특히 빼어난 Lindy hop, Jazz DJ로 널리 알려져 있고, 북미에서 Showdown 과 RAF, 그리고 라디오에서 같은 가장 말이 많은 청중들에게 DJing 한다.

Band: The John Kirby Sextet
Song: Zooming at the Zombie
Year: 1940
Album: Complete Columbia & RCA Victor Recordings of The John Kirby Sextet: The Biggest Little Band In The Land (Vol. 2) — this is a collection worth buying

Why I like it: Normally I gravitate to late 20’s and early 30’s music with a really loose and playful feel: The Washboard Rhythm Kings, Stuff Smith, early Ellington and the like . . . but this is an example of a late band with a sound just bordering on bop that is totally slamming. John Kirby was known for arrangements with wit and being able to wrangle virtuosic players into a well-honed team. Everything about this song is tight– the arrangement, the playing, the gags– but without being so tight as to give up the breathing room and joy of that earlier frantic style. To me, this is the ideal meeting of the old and new testament of jazz. In fact I love it so much that as of last week my partner and I are choreographing a completely ridiculous piece to it. It makes me want to swing out hard and with all my heart even if I’m tired and broken as all hell. Enjoy.

이 노래를 좋아하는 이유: 보통 나는 20년대 후반에서 30년대 초반의 루즈하면서도 장난스러운 느낌의 음악에 끌린다: The Washboard Rhythm Kings, Stuff Smith, Ellington 의 초기작들 같은 것들… 하지만 이건 후기 밴드, bop과 인접한 사운드화 함께한 밴드의 예이다. John Kirby는 위트있는 편곡으로 유명했고, 대단한 연주자들을 잘 다듬어진 팀으로 조율하는 능력이 있었다. 이 노래는 전체적으로 tight하지만 - 편곡, 연주, 개그 등에서- 숨돌릴 틈도 없이 tight하지는 않고, 초창기의 신나는 스타일의 노래다. 나는 오래된 재즈와 새로운 재즈의 이상적인 만남이라 느꼈다. 사실 난 이 노래가 너무 좋아서 지난 주 쯤에 이 노래에 내 파트너와 함께 터무니 없는 안무를 만들었다. 이 노래는 지독하게 지쳐있을 때 마저도 격렬하게 스윙아웃 하고 싶게 만드는 노래이다. 즐겨보시라.

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And oh my god I forgot the personnel; I am a horrible human being: Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Russell Procope (alto sex), Billie Kyle (piano), John Kirby (bass), William “O’Neill” Spencer (drums)

그리고 맙소사 멤버 소개를 빠트리다니!

Thanks Kelly!

Korean translation by ChangHo Cha (aka zzazang). 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 | by Alain Wong | Comments (1)

This is Peter Strom and Ramona Staffeld’s choreography to honor Frankie at his 95th birthday celebration in NYC, with help from Skye Humphries and Frida Segerdahl. The song used is Savoy by Lucky Millinder on the album “Apollo Jump”. Learn it if you are going to the event, and if you can’t make it, add a video response with you dancing to it. And do spread the word!!!

Check out Peter’s message about the video: Read more »

Filed Under: Upcoming Events | by Alain Wong | Comments (3)

WEEK 1: “Please, do NOT touch my pec.”
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 7

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.

After a week, I’m walking a lot easier than I suspected, though this is only because I’ve taken it easy in these exercises. As a dancer, it’s interesting to see how similar learning work-out moves is to learning solo dance steps; our bodies have to be doing exactly a specific thing in order for us to get the effect we want. A person who has never done these exercises before is going to spend awhile getting the form right, and I would recommend that anyone starting off P90X should go through each workout the first time not worrying about how many push-ups they can do, but simply making sure they’re doing the exercise right. Next week is when I really start pushing myself.

Otherwise, in just one week, I have a noticeable increase in energy (which sucked when I was chained to a desk at work, but was great for when I went out dancing) and even see a little difference in the way I look. The main conflict is still time; some days of the week I only have an hour free time, which used to be relaxation time now and is now used for working out. Though the workouts tend to energize me and help me get through the day, being obliged to do them during free time is a frustration.

WORKOUT BREAK DOWN: CHEST AND BACK
The first workout everyone in P90X does is “Chest and Back.” When you see the infomercials, it’s easy to expect P90X would start off the bat with tons of new fangled moves named after power tools. However, your first P90X experience is almost nothing but nine different kinds of push-ups and pull-ups. But around the time you begin to suspect you’ve been cheated out of your money, you start doing them, and any doubt you had in the quality of the workout leaves.

This is where you start to develop a personal relationship with P90X that no one will be able to take away from you—namely, finding out which exercises you absolutely hate. And everyone‘s different. (For some reason, I love the Dime-bomber push-ups, but can’t stand the inclined push-ups.)
The workout might not show you anything you haven’t done before, but there’s a reason why such exercises have been around since man first got sand kicked in his face.

Workout Song: I have a workout playlist, and put it on random every time I work out. Often, a great song will come on at a time when I need inspiration. For this workout, Adrenaline! by the Roots came on when I was dreading a hated set of push-ups and half way through the song I was ready to tackle anything.

The Next Day, my pecs hurt really bad. Now, my girlfriend has this way of randomly poking me, because she never had a sibling, and for some reason she chose MULTIPLE times to poke me hard in the pec despite my screams of pain and her promise that she forgot and wouldn’t do it again. I can only assume it’s because the workout made my pecs bulge in such a muscular way that her natural animalistic desire to touch my incredible body expressed themselves subconsciously in this fashion. Either that or she was getting back at me for leaving a basket of clean laundry on the floor for two weeks.

It’s still there. Read more »

Filed Under: Dance Advice | by Robert White | Comments (6)
Tags: exercise, fitness, p90x

Last week’s answer
Quote from civil rights leader Malcolm X, “All the other dancers would form a big ‘U’ with the band at the open end. The girls (…) would slip over to the sidelines and change from high heels into low white
sneakers” (from The Autobiography of Malcolm X). What is Malcolm “X” Little referring to?

ANSWER: Malcolm X is referring to a typical competition among Lindy Hoppers, in what we refer to as jam-style format today (or jam circle). The omitted text reads “The girls who intended to compete would slip over to the sidelines and change from high heels into low white sneakers. In competition they could never survive in heels”.

Congrats Tammy for guessing part of the answer.

This Week’s Tuesday Dance Trivia Question: Ragtime era and the animal dances

During the ragtime era at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, people started partner-dancing to the new syncopated rhythms and created new dance steps. Ballrooms became playgrounds for grownups, where people did “le pas de l’ours” and “le pas du dindon”. Name five other Animal Dances.

Know the answer? Let everyone know and comment.

Filed Under: Dance Trivia | by Alain Wong | Comments (8)

This song of the week is brought to you by Dax Hock, fellow Ninja and partner in crime of last week’s contributor Max. He and dance partner Alice Mei are world travelers, teaching next in Italy, Slovenia, France, Russia and Finland. Visit the wonderfully illustrated Dax and Alice website.

Where does Ninja-Max find all this good music? Well as it has been pointed out, I love music with the BoomChakka. Driving rhythm is the heart of my dancing but Rhythm ALONE doesn’t make great swing. Every heart must have a soul, and that is the X-factor… the undeniable feel that is harnessed in certain old swing tracks. Something that makes your body just want to do some luscious lindy hop– this is what I am talking about!

Musicians: Freddy Taylor & His Swing Men from Harlem
Song: Blue Drag
Album: Viper Mad Blues: 25 Songs of Dope and Depravity

The song I would like to share is called Blue Drag, by Freddy Taylor & His Swing Men From Harlem. Why is this so good for Lindy Hop? Well it somehow encompasses the ridiculously laid-back and cozy feel of good swing over a sweet chunking rhythm that gets you dancing, not to hard, but just right. Music is there to inspire so I hope you all have a chance to give this song a social dancing go.

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Also, for those of you who play music, you can find the sheet music for a version of blue drag in the Django Fake book.  Once you dance to it, take the next step and learn to play it, then share the love.
Read more »

Filed Under: Song of the Week | by Alain Wong | Comments (1)

Dear Casey is a satirical twist on the advice columns found in news media. During the past months, we introduced her column through archived articles from WhiteHeat. It’s now time to send in your questions - please do so at casey@lindybloggers.com

Dear Casey,

Lately, I’ve been reading about dancers moving to greener pastures for dancing. Specifically, there have been two threads on Yehoodi with people chiming in about “Pick up and move for dancing” and the “Next big dance scene“.

Many people say that Seattle is the top destination to move to. Since you live in Seattle, I thought I’d ask you for your opinion. What do you think about this discussion, and would you recommend that dancers move to a better dance scene in order to improve?

Itching to move,
Seattle Fanboy
Read more »

Filed Under: Dance Advice, Dear Casey, Travel Advice | by Casey Schneider | Comments (12)

By Bobby “Extremely” White

PROLOGUE

“Fuck You, Tony Horton.”

I rarely cuss outside of airports, so you know I mean it. But whether I can help it or not, this is the phrase I’ll say, in my head at least, every day for 90 days. When I’ve done 80 push-ups in an hour and it’s time to do 10 more with one arm, I’ll say it.  After I have touched the floor in a squat and exploded into the air for the fifteenth time out of thirty in a 30-second-timed exercise, I’ll yell it. And when I’ve finished the final lunge exercise and can’t stand up in the shower, I’ll mention it to the cat.

Who is this Tony Horton? Aside from being a tight, bumpy pile of dyed-hair and tank tops, an ageless 50-year-old who takes being prickishly annoying to such an extreme that it often reaches a rare flavor of charismatic, he’s a professional trainer who’s developed several popular work out series. Most of them are the kind they have infomercials for at 3 in the morning in hotel rooms. His masterpiece, however, is a 12-disk set of sand-kicking sadomasochism called P90X. It is the Moby Dick of workouts.

I first learned about P90X when I noticed that my friend, professional swing dancer Nick Williams, had transformed from your generic out-of-shape American guy into a ripped Clydesdale horse over a period of six months. Read more »

Filed Under: Dance Advice, Trends | by Robert White | Comments (18)
Tags: exercise, Nick Williams, p90x, personal training, tony horton

Last week’s answer
Name the jazz standard that is also the name of a dance. Bonus: name the creators of this dance. Super bonus: name the team that performed to this jazz tune at the American Lindy Hop Championships.

ANSWER: The jazz standard is Carioca. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performed a choreographed dance to the song in the movie Flying Down to Rio (1933), which was the first time the two were paired together for a movie. The Carioca was essentially a stylized ballroom version of the Samba, mixed with Maxixe, Foxtrot, Rumba and Tap. There has been debate as to whether this was a new dance at all, but following the success of the movie, people wanted to learn it, and so dance instructors started teaching “The Carioca”. The distinctive feature of the dance, as seen in the clip, is the partners’ touching of foreheads.

Connexion Crew performed a team choreography to Artie Shaw’s recording of Carioca at ALHC 2007. There were 17 couples in that choreography - I think it’s probably the modern day record, surpassing both Mad Dog and this past year’s Team Canada in sheer numbers!

Thank you Martynas, Sam, Freddie, David and Srikanth for commenting. Charleston, Truckin’ and Ballin’ the Jack are all dances that are also the names of songs. Srikanth, thank you for your thorough list of guesses - all excellent ones!

I myself did not know that Ballin’ the Jack was a dance, so for those of you out there who likewise had never heard of the dance, watch a clip of Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Polly Bergen singing and dancing in the movie That’s My Boy (1951). Here’s how Peter Loggins learned Ballin’ the Jack: “Ladies and Gents we’d like to do just one or two more steps for you. You step back, ball the jack, shimmy shimmy , chicken scratch, fall off the log, and turn around, do a little break and then you Truck on down…” (you can find the thread on DanceHistory.org, including a clip of Hal Takier showing the Ray Rand Swingers’ version of Ballin’ the Jack)

This Week’s Tuesday Dance Trivia Question: Quote from Malcolm X

Quote from civil rights leader Malcolm X, “All the other dancers would form a big ‘U’ with the band at the open end. The girls (…) would slip over to the sidelines and change from high heels into low white
sneakers” (from The Autobiography of Malcolm X). What is Malcolm “X” Little referring to?

Know the answer? Let everyone know and comment.

Filed Under: Dance Trivia | by Alain Wong | Comments (4)