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oyceterI haven't been to swing for about two or three weeks -- I went out yesterday night and felt like I had completely forgotten how to dance! I didn't stay too long; I was tired and wanted to curl up with rats, and it's sort of embarrassing that so little dancing made my hips sore.
But today someone from swing emailed out that a swing band would be playing at a local outdoors mall for free! It's part of an outdoors summer jazz concert series, so it wasn't officially a dance. Some people from the dance community went anyway, and we commandeered a little spot by the very side and back of the stage, and people were out there, lindy hopping in the hot summer air.
There was actually a pretty big audience for the band, which was great, and it was so funny, standing there and dancing with no preparation, the wrong shoes, a giant crowd of people who probably thought we were nuts, and having tons of fun anyway. I nearly kicked off my flip-flops just to dance in my bare feet, but decided that swiveling and twirling and jumping around on the mall concrete would probably be just as painful as trying to dance with the flip-flops on.
I didn't dance that much; it was 90-some degrees outside today, we were right out in the sun, I had the wrong shoes, and I had forgotten to bring water. But I watched other people dancing: an impromptu shim-sham line to super fast music, the swing teacher from a local swing place just kicking out steps to the riffs in the music and playing off her partner's cues, people doing Charleston together with legs flying every which way. And afterward, an older woman came up to the swing teacher and said that she had been watching, so happy to see people dancing the things she had danced back in high school years and years ago.
So You Think You Can Dance
And now, I have been fully sucked into the world of reality TV! I had resisted for years and years until my sister told me about this show last year -- I caught about half of it, and this year I have been obsessively watching everything so far.
I also snobbily note that it is different from Dancing with the Stars, which I don't watch because I can tell that the professional dancers are dancing circles around the celebrities. I mean, I am sure they improve, but still. I can tell that things are choreographed around their weak points.
I love So You Think You Can Dance because I love watching the dancers, I love watching people who have been doing this since they were two and also people who learned it through improv and teaching themselves. I love seeing how different dancers from different genres adapt to learning entirely new styles, and I love love love love the choreography most of the time. This week had a totally Fosse-esque number, the women in black wigs and sixties waistless minidresses, the guys in the skinny black pants and white shoes, everyone moving together like one giant organism, hands and arms waving about like snappy antennae. Except... it was Fosse done to hip hop! So awesome!
And there was another routine done as hobos a la Charlie Chaplin to music from Triplets of Belleville!
So far I have no idea who is who yet. I watched auditions, but it's hard to tell after people are winnowed out a little because everyone is so good at what they do. Really, it seems the hardest part is learning all the other styles. It's interesting watching after I've danced for a bit, even though I'm still not very good. But now, I have a better idea of just how different the styles feel on your body and how hard it is to adjust to that. I don't even do anything that different, just a little ballroom added on top of swing and only rarely. But even so, even with the whole partner thing still there, the posture and the style is so different: upright with straight posture instead of deep down in the knees, the graceful smooth dips in height of waltz, the jackknife turns and hip swivels of Latin, less of the crazy improvisation of swing. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have to learn a complicated hip-hop or contemporary routine.
Oh! And I was excited because there were lindy hoppers who made the cut to Las Vegas! They didn't make it to the final twenty, but still! They were awesome and doing Charleston and everything! I am desperately hoping for a lindy routine at some point, though I love all the other dances as well.
Anyway, there will probably be more dance geekery to come, which is probably of interest only to me, but oh well.
ETA: Oh! I forgot to add that the racial breakdown of the show is really interesting. The ten men are almost all POC, but the women are almost all white. Actually, I think all the women except one are white, except I am not sure. I suspect some of it is because of the popularity of b-boying, at least from what I saw of auditions. There are fewer b-girls. Also, I think very few Asians this year, only one if I can remember.
Also also, the swing scene around here is largely white and Asian (I think the clubbing scene is more diverse); I wonder if that's true elsewhere or if it's a California thing.
ETA2: added links to routines
But today someone from swing emailed out that a swing band would be playing at a local outdoors mall for free! It's part of an outdoors summer jazz concert series, so it wasn't officially a dance. Some people from the dance community went anyway, and we commandeered a little spot by the very side and back of the stage, and people were out there, lindy hopping in the hot summer air.
There was actually a pretty big audience for the band, which was great, and it was so funny, standing there and dancing with no preparation, the wrong shoes, a giant crowd of people who probably thought we were nuts, and having tons of fun anyway. I nearly kicked off my flip-flops just to dance in my bare feet, but decided that swiveling and twirling and jumping around on the mall concrete would probably be just as painful as trying to dance with the flip-flops on.
I didn't dance that much; it was 90-some degrees outside today, we were right out in the sun, I had the wrong shoes, and I had forgotten to bring water. But I watched other people dancing: an impromptu shim-sham line to super fast music, the swing teacher from a local swing place just kicking out steps to the riffs in the music and playing off her partner's cues, people doing Charleston together with legs flying every which way. And afterward, an older woman came up to the swing teacher and said that she had been watching, so happy to see people dancing the things she had danced back in high school years and years ago.
So You Think You Can Dance
And now, I have been fully sucked into the world of reality TV! I had resisted for years and years until my sister told me about this show last year -- I caught about half of it, and this year I have been obsessively watching everything so far.
I also snobbily note that it is different from Dancing with the Stars, which I don't watch because I can tell that the professional dancers are dancing circles around the celebrities. I mean, I am sure they improve, but still. I can tell that things are choreographed around their weak points.
I love So You Think You Can Dance because I love watching the dancers, I love watching people who have been doing this since they were two and also people who learned it through improv and teaching themselves. I love seeing how different dancers from different genres adapt to learning entirely new styles, and I love love love love the choreography most of the time. This week had a totally Fosse-esque number, the women in black wigs and sixties waistless minidresses, the guys in the skinny black pants and white shoes, everyone moving together like one giant organism, hands and arms waving about like snappy antennae. Except... it was Fosse done to hip hop! So awesome!
And there was another routine done as hobos a la Charlie Chaplin to music from Triplets of Belleville!
So far I have no idea who is who yet. I watched auditions, but it's hard to tell after people are winnowed out a little because everyone is so good at what they do. Really, it seems the hardest part is learning all the other styles. It's interesting watching after I've danced for a bit, even though I'm still not very good. But now, I have a better idea of just how different the styles feel on your body and how hard it is to adjust to that. I don't even do anything that different, just a little ballroom added on top of swing and only rarely. But even so, even with the whole partner thing still there, the posture and the style is so different: upright with straight posture instead of deep down in the knees, the graceful smooth dips in height of waltz, the jackknife turns and hip swivels of Latin, less of the crazy improvisation of swing. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have to learn a complicated hip-hop or contemporary routine.
Oh! And I was excited because there were lindy hoppers who made the cut to Las Vegas! They didn't make it to the final twenty, but still! They were awesome and doing Charleston and everything! I am desperately hoping for a lindy routine at some point, though I love all the other dances as well.
Anyway, there will probably be more dance geekery to come, which is probably of interest only to me, but oh well.
ETA: Oh! I forgot to add that the racial breakdown of the show is really interesting. The ten men are almost all POC, but the women are almost all white. Actually, I think all the women except one are white, except I am not sure. I suspect some of it is because of the popularity of b-boying, at least from what I saw of auditions. There are fewer b-girls. Also, I think very few Asians this year, only one if I can remember.
Also also, the swing scene around here is largely white and Asian (I think the clubbing scene is more diverse); I wonder if that's true elsewhere or if it's a California thing.
ETA2: added links to routines
(no subject)
Fri, Jun. 15th, 2007 02:59 pm (UTC)I think my dad feels a little of this; I thought about trying to take him to a swing dance but a) he doesn't dance b) my mom is a lot younger than him and missed out on swing c) I don't actually know swing dancing. My mom said little old ladies kept coming up to him at his high school reunion (I guess 50th?) and wanting to dance with him and she'd tell them 'He doesn't dance', and one of them was all like "Oh but he USED to", all sassy, which I thought was funny.
(no subject)
Sat, Jun. 16th, 2007 05:07 am (UTC)