As we’re getting ready for the big event this fall, we are reminded of what great local support we have here in New Orleans. Its wonderful to be able to showcase the talents of the international swing dance community to New Orleans, and showcase New Orleans to the international swing dance community. Much of our ability to do this is thanks to generous staff of The French Market. They have been so good to us.  And we’re grateful for our ongoing relationship with them.

Thanks to Chris Waddington for this article he wrote for us on the event’s presence in the French Quarter and at The French Market.  What a great guy.  And a great article!  We completely forgot to put this on the blog last year. Better late than never.  Enjoy!

http://www.nola.com/festivals/index.ssf/2012/09/swing_dancers_fly_high_to_live.html#incart_more_entertainment 

Photos by Babs Evangelista Photography

Tickets for the 2013 event are on sale now at http://www.lindyshowdown.net

The thing that struck me the very first time I visited New Orleans, was how clear it was that I was in the birthplace of jazz. You are constantly reminded: buskers everywhere, music pouring off Frenchman and Bourbon Streets, kids in open lots with marching bands, street-corner and front-porch jams; second lines for funerals, weddings, social clubs, charitable drives and any of the panoply of local ceremonies deemed occasion enough to get drunk and carouse publicly. Jazz is a living culture in New Orleans, not part of a bygone “vintage” era. It mixes freely with soul, funk, blues, zydeco, roots music, country, bluegrass and R&B, creating new sounds that can sometimes only be described as “New Orleans music.” That culture, with its constant insistence on the primacy of live entertainment is what makes NOLA one-of-a-kind— perhaps my favorite city in the US. Where else do you go that jazz is the neighborhood music? Where it still informs the collective identity of nearly everyone who lives there?

That said, to those used to dancing at lindy hop competitions and dance camps— where everything is catered to dancers and swinging out— New Orleans’ jazz clubs can occasionally seem unfulfilling if you are not prepared to love them for what they are good at, forget some ways in which they are unlike the dance events you may be used to, and learn how to participate as locals do. Truly, I would sacrifice most trips to most lindy hop events for an evening or two on a bar stool at the Spotted Cat or DBA with a decent band in the offing. You can have the most fun in these places if you know what you are getting into. So read on, dancers, for a few friendly tips on how I (a “lindy hopper”) almost always have an obscenely good time in NOLA’s jazz bars.

1.) Let go of the notion of swinging out to every song, then let go of the notion of dancing to about half of the songs. Space will not be abundant, so do not spend the night lamenting it. Sit, listen, have a drink, chat with someone, watch a few of the badasses show off on the bandstand and the dance floor. Wait for a song that is so good that you cannot imagine sitting still for it … then have a dance. If everyone tries to dance at once it’s a melee, and an ugly one. If people informally ‘take turns’ by sitting out a few songs, it works out more often than not.

So what to do when you are not dancing? Well, I am sometimes confused as to why many lindy hop enthusiasts seem not to enjoy just watching good live jazz, since it’s such compelling performance up close. I would rather watch a sweating soloist pour his guts into his instrument, see what he (or she) really has to say, than to dance over it sometimes. So try it out if you don’t do it very often, or for very long— try watching jazz— you will experience a lot of emotion and interaction that is easy to miss from the dance floor. You will see the ‘good stuff’ coming and get excited about it, like a soloist standing up, ready to take down the house; or the band leader starting to check in with his players’ eyes to let them know they’re gonna play down the chorus one more time … really hard. Or maybe you get up in front and decide to show off a little— if you’re any good the musicians pay attention, maybe someone with an instrument gets whipped up on account of the steps you’re doing. That is fun you just cannot have with your iPod.

2.) Be aware that you are walking into two businesses when you go to the club: music and bar/restaurant. Just like with any other business, staying for a long time and failing to buy anything is considered somewhat bad form. So first, buy drinks or a meal. Don’t want alcohol? That’s fine. Have a Coke, several Cokes, nobody will mind. Not thirsty? Buy a drink for a friend or for some unfortunate soul looking in need of bourbon— you might meet some interesting folks that way. Then, when the band plays something so awesome that it nearly shatters your face with joy, go toss $5 in their tip jar to let them know you dug it. If you really really really dug it, then maybe buy their CD.

If you are there for several hours then repeat this process a few times. A good rule of thumb is to tip and/or buy a drink for each set played. If this seems like a large investment, keep in mind that both those who assume the risk of running live music venues (a huge financial risk that often does not pay off) and the performers themselves are usually walking home with little more than your tips and some booze-sales between them. If the bar is packed and happy all night it means little to nothing if the clientele isn’t paying much to be there. Thus, the easiest way to have a good time in these places is to be a good patron amongst other good patrons … and be assured, the band and bar-staff will notice either way, so it’s easy to choose to have them excited to see you rather than bummed to be entertaining a cheap crowd. Everyone is happier that way, so encourage your friends to be good patrons, too.

3.) Be open to changing the way you dance to fit the space, instead of being worried that there is not enough space to dance the way you normally would. Necessity is the mother of invention— so it was with balboa, a mutated form of shag created at least in part by the demands of a packed dance floor. If you watch the partnered dancers who live in New Orleans at one of these venues, you can see a bit of a local dance-style that has a lot to do with things being crowded. People play with their feet and foot-rhythms a lot. When you cannot move much, you tend to keep it close and keep it under you. This often has the effect of inventing new patterns and basic steps that you can return to over and over again— so get your shuffle on.

People used to dancing in these spaces are also good with floorcraft, which is to say “not bumping into people and things.” Little patches of space for a swingout or something bigger will emerge on the dance floor, and if you are not prepared to maneuver into and out of them as they open and close, you will either be constantly pinned or constantly plowing into everything. How to prevent this? Just with common sense. Be aware of your surroundings, look in the direction you are about to go before going (or sending anyone else). You get better at it with practice in extremely close spaces. This goes for those following a dance as well as leading— if you can see that your partner is about to bump into someone at least try to save them by saying something or trying to hold them back a little. Do be sure never to get in the band’s or bar-staff’s way with your dancing, though. If you do stomp or bump someone, just take a second to say “I’m sorry,” and mean it. Most such sins are easily enough forgiven and forgotten.

The world that gave us lindy hop, charleston, slow drag … all of the many dances celebrated by ULHS … was in its heyday a thriving and diverse live-jazz-and-dance culture of revues, floor shows, small nite clubs, variety acts, music halls, hole-in-the-walls, ballrooms, brothels, whiskey-scows and riverboats dotted across the US. I would contend that the combined culture of social dance, jazz and entrepreneurship that grew out of those places is alive and well in New Orleans, surviving with a strength that has proven difficult to maintain almost anywhere else. This is not to suggest that going to a jazz club there is a step back in time, because it is not anachronism (and who would want the 1930’s back wholesale, anyway?). Rather it’s a place where that culture, its rhythms and social customs never wholly faded as they did in so many American cities after jazz transitioned to be almost entirely a form of concert music. In New Orleans it kept on. It kept evolving, and it kept bodies moving in the streets and clubs. As such, I think it offers a chance for dancers to participate in a living local jazz culture which embodies everything we claim to love: the collective enthusiasm of good live performance, improvisation, the practice of social dance as a joyful custom that brings diverse groups of people together. If you look at New Orleans this way, it is hard to object that the floors may be sticky or too crowded, that there is a line for the bar, or that you are reluctant to part with your money. None of these things seem enough to warrant staying away, or even to warrant much fuss at all when held in comparison to the elation you get in return for just sitting on a bar stool, buying a drink, and opening your eyes and ears.

About the author:
Kelly can name the clarinetist on all of your grandmother’s jazz 78’s, dance a mean charleston, transliterate poorly into standard Arabic, pour elaborate designs in a cup of coffee, excavate the dead. She climb trees, interprets stratigraphic diagrams, plays a tiny banjo, and reads loved ones to sleep from thousands of miles away. Kelly resides in Seattle, Washington and is one of the few featured DJs at The New Orleans Swing Dance Festival & The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown.

According to the always well researched and articulated Jerry Almonte, Lindy Showdown makes the cut as producing two of the “Five Holy $#&%! Moments That Changed Modern Lindy Hop”. Read the article at the link above.

Saturday June 9th, The New Orleans Swing Dance Festival & The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown hosted the SWING DANCE STAGE in Dutch Alley at The Creole Tomato Festival. We offered free swing dance lessons throughout the day, selected the best dance bands for social dancing, and hosted the first ever Dutch Alley Dance-Off, a free-to-enter swing dance contest with a $100 cash prize.

Congrats Katherine Griffin & Mark Muthersbaugh for taking the 1st place win! Shout out to the the runners up as well, Ryan Hitchin & Kristy Buchanan and Dmitriy Pritykin & Isabelle Guzman. Y’all did an amazing job!  Great dancing all around!

Bands featured in this video are; The Faux Barrio Billionaires, Showarama Hot Trio, and Ben Polcer’s Grinders.

http://www.lindyshowdown.net

There was a time when I had no idea who anyone was in the lindy hop world. I was totally ignorant of the fact that there were different tiers of dancers, instructors, competitions, and judges. I started going to social dances in a small town where everyone danced with everyone despite levels, ability or popularity status. I didn’t own a pair of sueded shoes at the time, and I was totally against wearing Keds… for obvious aesthetic reasons.

It was December of 2009, and I was sitting down at my first lindy hop exchange watching people compete at something called a Jack & Jill. The pro’s were swinging out and swiveling in ways that I had no idea were so amazing because it all kind of looked the same to my untrained eye. I vaguely remember wondering what all the fuss was about, and I figured if I’d seen one tandem Charleston I’d seen them all.

That’s when Chance Bushman showed up. Wearing a pair of faded baggy jeans and a white T-shirt with his long hair pulled back in a ponytail, he definitely stood out. I remember thinking, “Who’s this Dead Head? He obviously didn’t get the memo.”

The scene was full of hipsters, all trying to out-dapper each other. The men looked like clones of Duke Ellington with slicked back hair and high waisted trousers while the ladies were all zipped up in tight pencil skirts showing off classic updo’s.

Despite his appearance, that boy made a serious impression on me that night. What I saw him do went against everything I’d learned thus far. It totally rearranged me. Every cell in my body was on edge, my face felt flushed, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. Not for a second. The guy was like an elegant tornado.

Later my friend Lee turned me on to the video “Hellzapoppin” and a light bulb went off in my head. There was a buzz floating around the event about the “Nola dancers” and how they brought a gritty, more soulful element to the scene, but I couldn’t tell a grit from a shit at that point. I just knew that watching him dance was the craziest thing I’d ever seen. And I wanted more of it.

I had a similar reaction when I met Giselle Anguizola a year later at the same event. During the late night performance everyone sat in a circle as Giselle came out wearing almost nothing but a loincloth made of feathers and a tiny piece of gold fabric covering her chest. After seeing a number of really great performances that made me feel like I had died and gone to musical theater purgatory, this was way off the beaten path.

She did a tribute to Josephine Baker that gave me goose bumps and put an enormous smile on my face. As a former actor, writer, director and co-founder of a classic burlesque troupe, I have enormous respect for this type of performance art. Her movements were precise, strong and captivating. It was cabaret at it’s best.

It should come as no surprise that I moved to New Orleans and that these two people would become fixtures in my new life.

By living and dancing in New Orleans, I definitely gained cool status from the kids back in my old dance scene. I invited a few of them to stay with me for an event called The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown that I had heard about from other locals. For a week we were all crammed in my one room shotgun apartment in the Marigny having this dance experience that transcended everything else in my two years of nerd-filled exchanges and dance camps.

Describing ULHS to someone who is only familiar with the collegiate dance circuit can be difficult. It’s not like other exchanges because it’s not just an immersion into dance culture but an immersion into jazz culture, something that is hard to get from listening to canned music and dancing in a large, spacious ballroom. There are second lines, outdoor dance floors, the most amazing, live, traditional jazz bands you’ve ever heard, and of course, you’re in these intimate venues that reek of the magic and history that define New Orleans.

Not to be a snob about it because there are plenty of those in the dance world, but my point is that the way the event was organized, it made you feel like you were getting the “authentic experience” that travelers yearn for but often can’t find because they don’t know anyone local or they’re not willing to stray off the beaten path. Most people get the fish bowl experience. This was definitely not a fish bowl.

I was going to bed at the crack of dawn and making 4am pit stops at the Café Du Monde with other late night dancers. After dancing for eight hours straight, there was a certain delirium that washed over me every night. Even though my body should have collapsed from exhaustion, the music would inspire my legs to keep going. I had so much dopamine and serotonin floating through my veins I could have opened a blood bank for bliss junkies.

I met the most amazing dancers from all over the world and my dancing improved tenfold. Peter, a lead from England, had the most charming gap in his teeth, and whenever he smiled I knew it was sincere. He danced me around like I was Ginger Rogers, and for the first time in my dancing career someone told me I was a “delightful” follow. Another lead from Korea was small and unassuming, but when he asked me to dance a blues number with him, I probably blushed for thirty minutes afterward.

Every time I saw Amy Johnson, I had perma-grin. I would thank her profusely, maybe even a little too profusely, and she would just smile back knowingly and say something like, “Glad you’re having fun.”

On the night of Showdown, the big competition and crescendo of the event, there was so much electricity in the air you could hear the buzz. I raced to the second floor of Generations Hall to get a good spot on the balcony that overlooked the dance floor.

The competition was stiff. Every team danced as if their souls were on the line. The crowd was a living organism, fueling both the dancers and the musicians. It was like one big sound and movement orgy except that everyone kept their clothes on, including Chance who wore slacks, a button down shirt and a tie. He obviously got the memo this time.

We watched in nervous anticipation to see who would bring home the title. It was a tight match, as William and Maeva met Chance and Giselle for the final round. I held my breath as each team duked it out on the dance floor.

William & Maeva practiced their routine several times for the Variety show that I was in earlier that week. I became familiar with their repertoire of stylish and polished movements throughout the week. I had heard rumors about what amazing dancers they were, but watching them in action was like watching the Olympics. They didn’t make mistakes. Ever. And if they did, nobody knew unless they started bickering in French.

I’ve probably watched Chance and Giselle busk on Royal Street more times than I can count. I’ve also taken several of their classes and danced socially with them so I am extremely familiar with their dancing. They both live and breathe traditional jazz, and their style is relaxed and casual. But like the music, what looks easy is actually quite difficult and takes a lot of skill. Good dancers can make anything look like a cakewalk.

After they returned from their summer residency last year, I noticed something different in both of them. They carried themselves with a new energy, as though they had each experienced a shift in consciousness that translated into their movements. I’ve noticed before that when artists have this shift, it rearranges everything inside of them and makes room for a creative surge.

When the Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010, Darren Sharper said, “Man this is unbelievable, I don’t know of anyone who gave us a chance, but when you get here, anyone can win.” Like the Saints, Giselle and Chance had all of us Nola Jitterbugs praying for them. They just needed to get there… the rest was a matter of letting themselves shine.

I was holding hands with my friend Tesek when it happened. I think everyone in the room knew it too- the moment when Chance and Giselle took the title.

When Amy announced the winners the whole room exploded. Tesek and I hugged each other with tears in our eyes. I’d never felt anything like it. These were our teachers. They had been drilling us about dedication, perseverance and the importance of keeping tradition, and they did it with a joyful and generous spirit that is so typical of New Orleans. It wasn’t strange at all that their victory felt like ours as well.

Afterward, I happened to see Giselle taking a moment outside to get some air. She grabbed my hand and pulled me along as she met Chance and our friend Alessandro around the corner. I stood quietly as they relayed the experience.

Chance looked at Giselle with an earnest expression and said, “G, that was you. Laura told me before the contest to let you shine. And you really did. We won, G. We did it.”

Of all the moments in life, the ones that take your breath away are the ones you remember. I remember feeling my breath suspended as I witnessed this lovely moment of truth between my friends, and it humbled me.

Two and a half years ago, I had no idea that my life would take such a meaningful turn as the result of music and dance. But now I can’t imagine it any other way. Since moving to New Orleans, I’ve been blessed with the ability to indulge in creative expression with some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. I know that when I am an old woman, I will not look back on this time with regret for not making more money, not being more successful or buying more things.

I will look back and know that I was a part of a golden era that celebrated the rebirth of a city and that I, too, lived and breathed this wonderful thing called jazz.

*Written by Isabelle Guzman.

**Isabelle has been an enthusiastic blogger and swing dancer since 2009. She moved to New Orleans in the spring of 2011 where she enjoys lollygagging and perfecting the art of making soup. She is also a licensed massage therapist and clinical herbalist. For services and general info check out her website: www.isabelleguzman.com

The New Orleans Swing Dance Festival & The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown - Sept 27th- Oct 1st 2012 - Tickets are on sale now! http://www.lindyshowdown.net