12/8 Hot Club of Durham Dance – Son of Blues
We had such a great turnout to our blues themed Hot Club last month that we thought we would do it again. So now you have yet another opportunity to blues dance while Dance Blues Friday is on hiatus. Kristy will be back with us, but we will be changing up the lesson and house DJ. It will be tons of fun.
Tuesday 12/08/2009
Hot Club of Durham Swing Dance (Directions)
7pm: Lesson–Slow Lindy
8-11pm: Dancing!
Lesson – Slow Lindy – Starts at 7 pm
With those classy cats, Joe & Rebecca
Ever wonder what the heck to do when the tempos slow down? You don’t have to learn a new dance, nor do you have to revert back to the uncomfortable swaying that characterized your middle school slow dances. In fact, you can do the Lindy Hop you know and love at even the slowest tempos. In this class we’ll cover technique to dust off your slow lindy: e.g. control, balance, play, and “milking it”. Whether you’ve been dancing for years or know only some basic lindy hop (either 6 or 8-ct), this class will be appropriate for you.
Still my favorite clip of slow lindy hop…
DJs Start at 8pm
Kristy Milliken – Our featured DJ for the night wowed you last time. She’s an experienced Blues and Swing DJ. She is multi-talented, multi-faceted, multi-tasking and multi-plied. She is guaranteed to keep you on the floor for multi-ple dances!
Rebecca Brightly – Our house DJ has been testing the bluesy waters by teaching and dancing it. Now she’s going to DJ blues for her first time ever. I’m not sure what to expect, but I expect it to be good.
info@hotclubofdurham.com
http://hotclubofdurham.com
919-627-8678
Filed under: Events
Lindy Focus Pass for Sale – $99
Folks, this is a deal you don’t want to pass up if you’re still thinking of going to Lindy Focus. Hell, you don’t want to pass on Lindy Focus at all if you can help it. A friend of ours is unable to go and would like to sell her pass. Please contact hepcatjenn@gmail.com if you’re interested!
Filed under: Events, Uncategorized, Updates | Tags: Iron Chef, Shim Sham, Swing Dance
You will eat lots of desserts.
You will eat lots of desserts.
It’s Iron Chef: Hot Club time!
This week, 5 dessert-creating competitors battle for your vote of favorite dish. What’s at stake? A $20 gift certificate to Hot Club! Our bakers for the first Iron Chef: Hot Club are:
- Justin Pascual
- Theophan Thomas
- Jo Anna Wiersma
- Rick Collier
- Rachel Redler
Who will win? Only you can decide. Oh yeah, we’re also hosting a dance.
Tuesday 11/24
Hot Club of Durham Swing Dance (Directions)
7pm: Beginner Lesson: Shim Sham!
8-11pm: Dancing!
Shim Sham–Last week (and the week before, and possibly the week before that), you may have noticed us dancing solo choreography every time a certain song comes on (or sometimes even a random song). If you think we look silly, and you want to join us next time this happens, come at 7pm for the lesson, and we’ll teach you. Here’s some folks dancing the Shim Sham for Frankie Manning on Youtube. (The largest Shim Sham was danced by over 1000 people in May at Frankie’s 95th Birthday Festival!)
Deejays–Ken Hanson will be our featured DJ & Joe Jackson will start us off and close the night as our house DJ.
http://hotclubofdurham.com
info@hotclubofdurham.com
919-627-8678
DURHAM, NC–In response to recent 2012 disaster porn coming out in theaters, the Hot Club of Durham announced plans today for world domination of lindy hop by the year 2012.
“The Mayans had it slightly wrong. It’s not going to be the end of the world,” said marketing coordinator Joseph Jackson, “Merely the beginning of a new era in which lindy hop is the primary social outlet for all people of all nations.”
In a 215 page document released online, Hot Club describes plans for eventual world takeover. According to this document, the process is divided into three phases. Phase I, Underground Lindy Hop Assimilation by Key Technophiles, has been underway for the past decade and is nearing completion. “We have 90% assimilation by IT professionals in the United States alone, and almost 70% in other key countries around the world,” said Jackson. Phase II, Guerrilla Assault on Internet Media, has been building steadily for the past several years and will reach the tipping point in mid-2011. According to the document, Phase III, The Spread of Lindy Hop Reality Television, will be all but inevitable after this point, and will ensure the dominance of lindy hop over all other forms of socialization.
“We expect people to be lindy hopping uncontrollably in the streets. At first it will be mass hysteria, but we believe the people will eventually become accustomed to their new need to gyrate to swing-era jazz music,” said Nicole Deinert, lead organizer. “Bars and music venues will be converted to dance havens, and “swingout” will finally be added to the dictionary.”
It is unclear exactly how each of the phases will be accomplished. Much of the 215 page online document was comprised of seemingly unrelated Youtube videos. “Yeah, we started writing about all these big plans, but then it just devolved into the three of us drooling over videos of Skye and Frida for hours on end,” said Rebecca Brightly, Hot Club’s head lackey. “We also came up with some pretty cool names for reality TV shows. Lindy Hop Boss, Dancing Without the Stars, and Jam Survivor are some of my favorites.” The document includes 23 pages of potential names for lindy hop reality shows.
The White House appeared to have a positive reaction to the news Friday morning. In a public statement, President Obama cryptically said that “2012 could be a very good year.”
“We are most encouraged by his statement of support,” said Deinert.
More plans will be announced later in the month, when Hot Club pulls itself away from Youtube.com long enough to talk about them.
Using Your Lats in Swing Dancing
Let’s talk lats! The full name of the muscle in question is the latissimus dorsi (see figure 1). The full importance of using the lats properly is probably unparalleled in dancing lindy hop. It gives you greater control and connection, improving your ability to lead and follow almost instantly. As a beginner or intermediate dancer, how many times in a private lessons or classes has your teacher said, “Don’t let your shoulder out!” And how many times have you thought to yourself, “How the heck do I do that??”
Whether you’ve figured out the whole shoulder alignment thing or not, I’ll explain the structure and function of the lats as they pertain to lindy hop. Then you’ll dance better and get hurt less. And then you can tell your friends, because good memes should travel far and wide. Continue reading
And Why YOU Need to Dance in Other Scenes
To break it down, the Triangle has a “dance scene” (lindy hop-wise), one of many in the state, region, nation, and world. The local dance style in a scene is homogeneous to a certain extent, depending on the number and level of dance teachers in the area, styles taught, and the amount of mixing our dancers do with the wide world of lindy hop.
By mixing with other dance scenes, the following can happen:
(a) You have hella lotta fun;
(b) Your dancing improves;
(c) You bring excitement and new ideas back to your home scene;
(d) Your enthusiasm is catching. Dancers everywhere rejoice.
On the national spectrum, I’d peg the Triangle as a beginner/intermediate level scene on average. There are some advanced dancers here, but put bluntly, we are not a destination of choice for lindy hoppers from other cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, or DC. On the other hand, these are all cities I’ve traveled to in the past year.
A Personal Story
I began swing dancing locally one dreary January and quickly became interested in lindy hop. Watching people in the front left corner of the Durham Armory fascinated me. After many months of lindy hop classes, Continue reading
ULHS Hits and Misses
Rebecca Brightly’s “humbler” opinion
This will be no surprise to anyone who’s already asked, but I had a fantastic time at Showdown this year (my second). I went first in 2006 when the whole thing took place in one ballroom and all this amazing competition and dancing was happening (e.g. this video, the ’06 fast dancing comp, now famous amongst lindy hoppers). This year, the event was spread out all over the French Quarter of New Orleans, giving us dancers a chance to really soak in the surrounding culture in all its authenticity. First the misses, because there weren’t many…
Misses
Did I get enough powdered sugar with my beignets?
- The beignets at Cafe du Monde. Sorry, but the beignets at Rue Cler in downtown Durham are superb by comparison!
- The fact that I missed Saturday afternoon to do clothing shopping with Joe. It needed to happen, but I missed a lot of THIS. Bad!!
- Hm. Floor was strangely slick Saturday night at the WWII Museum.
- I did NOT buy any music from the bands. What the heck was I thinking?
- And finally, the burlesque show actually had too much nudity for my tastes. Hard to believe, right??
Hits
- The music was pretty much the best ever, anywhere. Ever. The Loose Marbles essentially made my weekend.
- Dancing and listening to the bands on the street. I want them on the streets of Durham. Now.
- The Creole Queen riverboat–we searched for a while to actually find it, gathering up other confused lindy hoppers along the way. It was super HOT inside when the dancing got going, and balancing on a moving boat was certainly a challenge for my vertigo-inclined body. But hell, we were on a paddleboat on the Mississippi, listening to New Orleans style jazz! Besides, we could get some air simply by going upstairs and hanging over the railing.
- Browsing the Wax Museum on Friday at the dance, and the WWII Museum Saturday. Huge model planes hung over the dance floor.
- The House of Blues on Sunday was another unique venue I really enjoyed. The dance floor was lower than the surrounding floor, and I loved that it wasn’t all shiny and new. Like most of the French Quarter, much of the original architecture is apparently intact.
- Preservation Hall. The band plays, people cycle in and out. And it’s amazing. If you visit and have to miss something, don’t miss Preservation Hall.
- Taking a couple sips of an energy drink on Saturday and Sunday. I’d normally crash without the chemical enhancement, but I was able to stay up till 6am both days for dancing and other mayhem.
- Dancing in random bars on Frenchmen and meeting lots of new friends.
- Soaking up the culture of the place; walking around to check out restaurants, galleries, and shops.
- Fritzel’s late-night dances. So, the place was definitely not large enough to host the 350 dancers that attended ULHS. But I thought the atmosphere was pretty incredible. Perhaps two floors of small dance spaces crowded with sweaty people doesn’t sound that great to you, but if those sweaty people are great dancers, and the band is tearing it up, and you can walk out onto the balcony for fresh air and to watch people walk by until 4am, you might change your mind.
- Sharing a hotel room with Joe, Carolyn, and Naomi (now from Seattle). Searching for Steve, Joyce, and Sarah (not with much luck, but I had fun trying to pick other Durham dancers out of the crowd).
- Cafe Bamboo, a 100% vegetarian spot on Esplanade. This was the day I overstuffed myself and couldn’t eat for 7 hours.
Late night dancing at Fritzel's.
Let’s leave this list at 12. I didn’t take many pictures; I wanted to experience rather than document it. Mission accomplished. I’ll be going next year for sure, and quite likely I’ll drag you along. So prepare yourself–you’ve got one year.
Because we’re stronger together than we are apart, Must Dance Swing will be under the wing of the Hot Club of Durham starting in November. You may have seen our new oversized postcards with numerous pictures of Hot Club & MDS events in the community. With this merger, we endeavor to create and support a stronger, more vibrant community of swing dancers in Durham and surrounding areas. The values of each organization are mirrored in the other, namely:
- A commitment to the social well-being of the individual and extended group of dancers (this means fun),
- Support for continuing study of dancing and opportunities for performance (this means passion),
- Encouraging dancers to travel outside their comfort zone–literally–by attending regional and national swing dance events (this means challenge and connection to the larger community).
Hot Club of Durham, now with classes AND dances!
What will change? Information on the Must Dance Swing website will be moved to the Hot Club website. Soon you’ll be able to register and pay online for your classes. If you pay by check, you’ll make it out to “Durham Swing Dance LLC” instead of Rebecca Brightly.
What will stay the same? Same awesome teachers, same sweet classes, same studio location.
What’s next? A LOT of changes are in store for Hot Club. You’ll want to stay tuned in very closely to see what we do next
Who is MDS? Rebecca Brightly has been the sole owner of Must Dance Swing for nearly two years, and has enlisted the help of both Cliff Dyer and Joe Jackson as co-teachers during that time.
Who is Hot Club? Rebecca, Joe, and Nicole Deinert are the owners of Durham Swing Dance, LLC, which runs Hot Club events. Cliff also participates strongly, especially in web affairs.
Filed under: Hawt
As you well know, our first workshop weekend takes place September 25-27 with all local teachers, musicians, organizers, and awesomeness. On our one-year anniversary, we are celebrating what makes the Triangle HAWT. I’d like to give a quick shout out to all our instructors: Abi, Adam, Amber, Chris, other Chris, Cliff, Diane, Holly, Jason, Jeramie, Joe, John, Kat, Kristy, Margaret, Rachel, Rich, Richard, Rob, and moi.
That’s 20 teachers. Um, HOLY COW, you’re probably thinking, how will I get up the courage to ask all of them to dance??
Let’s glaze over that technical difficulty for the moment and focus on a few classes and instructors I’m especially excited about having at our first HotClub Anniversary Weekend Tutuorial. In alphabetical order (by title of class!), those are:
“Conversational Connection” with Jason Sager & Abi Leggette. What an aptly named class! Every time I dance with Jason, it’s definitely a conversation. And not the kind where you’re just talking at each other–the good kind. You know what I mean. One person says something, and the other person replies with ‘Cool! How ’bout this?’ While especially known for their Balboa skillz, Jason & Abi have loads of interesting, intricate Lindy Hop notions to share with you.
“Cool Lindy Hop Moves” with Richard Badu. As his class description states, Richard is one of the quintessential cool cats from the swing revival era. In fact, he was the only cat teaching in Chapel Hill on that fateful day in aught-six I decided to take swing lessons rather than salsa. One thing Richard is known for around here is the ability to make up interesting new moves and combinations. His style is unique, and it will inspire you to find your own.
“Fast Lindy” with Amber and Jeramie Anderson. We’re much happier now that Amber and Jeramie are within shouting distance (thanks for going to PT school, Amber!). What I love about these kids is that they are the type of good dancers who love to dance with (almost literally) anyone. They don’t care how ‘good’ you are, they care how much fun you have. And if anything’s fun, it’s dancing lindy hop fast!
“Solo Blues” with Rachel Redler. The reason I’m psyched about this class is because solo Blues is all about self-expression. I don’t always want to have a conversation with someone else; sometimes I just want to talk. We don’t see enough of Rachel’s teaching in the Triangle. I think it’s clear that this will be a rare opportunity to learn from the lady. If you love blues music, this may be just the ticket to learning to express yourself and get over the ‘omg is anyone watching me??’ fear.
“Things I Learned in Sweden” with Chris Wells. What’s in Sweden, you ask? Herrang, of course! For one month out of the year, this small town is taken over by hords of Lindy Hoppers from the world over who learn all day and dance all night. Chris has been in those hords year after year, throwing cabbages into the air and shooting them. He will teach you this profane wisdom of the Swedes, and it just might change your dancing. Bork.
In all seriousness, however, Chris holds a special place in my heart–the place reserved for favorite leads–due to his creativity, precision, and sheer exuberance. Chris is working on his PhD in Musicology. (I bet you didn’t think that was a real degree, but truthfully, you have to be real smart to get one. I DARE you to ask him a jazz-related question.) We definitely don’t get enough of his teaching and dancing, so it will be to your advantage not to miss this.
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SO, AS I’VE CLEARLY indicated, you simply cannot miss any of our classes. So here is yet another gratuitous registration link. Thanks for listening.
Hot Blog of Durham 