It’s March 2020, and everything has changed in the last couple of weeks.  Many dance teachers and musicians are struggling to find a way to re-invent ways to make money, and this blog is here to help you do that.  It’s going to be some time before social dancing is “social” again, and it’s even going to be a different thing when it does start happen again.  Distance learning and teleconferencing is having a moment, and even after this whole thing is behind us, students are going to be receptive to (and even want) more remote learning opportunities.    I’m very fortunate to have income from a d ..read more

Having a dance floor in your home is probably one of the best things you can do for your dancing.  To be able to go into your studio for 20-30 minutes and work something out when the inspiration strikes is a huge luxury, and one that can propel your skill to new levels.  I’ve built just about every style of dance floor imaginable – basements, garages, extra rooms, outbuildings — and I hopefully I can give some insight into my budgeting, building, and decision making below.  This is intended to be a guide to help you understand the steps in the process, and is intended to be purely informationa ..read more

Dancing and drinking are quite the pair. There are so many reasons to drink in the social realm of dancing. First, there is the responsibility we all need to take for sustaining the venues who pay the musicians we love, and in turn pay the musicians who  learn our musical form when there are other more profitable things they could be doing with their life.  Without money, swing scenes cannot sustain.  Buying a drink for yourself or a friend at a live music event is not just a way to keep from looking like a cheapskate, it’s a crucial part of our economic ecosystem. If you get something of valu ..read more

Our deep connection to music One of my favorite memories of DJing included playing the song above.  I had my reservations about playing it… after all, it doesn’t chunk or drive along like some songs. On the other hand, I think it inspires a solid dance, and well, I like it.  An older gent came up to the DJ booth, and with a tear in his eye, he said “You’re playing the sweet jazz”. I found a song that brought meaningful memories to life for him.  Chances are that he had a longer history with music like that than I… and that maybe he grew up in a time or a household that valued this music more ..read more

(header photo of Indigo Swing and Brian Setzer, by John Ambrosino of City Rat Photo) I recently read a little pop culture missive about the swing revival in the 90s.  While the article had some good information, it didn’t capture (for me) what it was like to be there.  It was a different time.  A naive time.  But, it was absolutely exhilarating, intoxicating and probably the most excitement around the dances of the swing era since they were first invented.  For some people (like myself), swing was an instant match to what we were looking for in life.  It was decidedly grassroots, the vibe was ..read more

So you want to fall in love with jazz. Maybe you’ve always thought of jazz as being a being too free form, or maybe it’s just been a tempo backdrop for Lindy Hop, or maybe you are getting into DJ’ing.  Here’s my tips for taking your relationship with this amazing music one step further.  1) Listen to high fidelity music, often and preferably classic When I first started dancing, I couldn’t even find the “1” of the music. It took a while, but I was able to find the one at least 99% of the time a few months later. A few years later when I first started learning about music, I was a complete be ..read more

“The best cartoon wins”.  -Swing The Documentary There’s a lot of truth in these words for competitors and performers alike.  You have to look the part, be endowed with the traits of the quintessential jitterbug, and you have to become an expression — writ large — of the feeling given by the music you are dancing to.  In this blog entry, I’d like to explore how dancer can use art, specifically animation and illustration for the purpose of inspiring ourselves and embodying the character of the music and the spirit of the Jitterbug. Our individuality as dancers is only as good as our own ideas ..read more

The attempt of this blog is to bring a little clarity to the various naming conventions around dances of the swing era. Often when starting out, there’s confusion around the names of dances, which is understandable, since there are cross-pollinating influences in jazz dance, just as there is in music.  What maybe be called one thing in their city is called something different in another city, or that dances are named differently by different teachers. There’s also a few very dated swing dance websites out there as well that don’t do much to alleviate this confusion. I will concentrate on dance ..read more

This blog installment isn’t for everyone.  This is for the people who now, or sometimes feel like the swing scene isn’t great to them, or for them, at least for some period of time.  People who love dancing but get burned out on the politics, the hypocrisy, the groupthink or just the pettiness of some people. When a person leaves the swing scene for a period of time, or forever, often only their close friends know why.  There is no data for scene organizers to look at.  There is no exit interview.  There is no single reason why people leave, and that makes it hard to fix things. I suspect th ..read more

Dan and Jenna Applegarth I love airsteps.  They were one of the first things that inspired me.  It was one of the first things I was good at in dancing, and there is something very satisfying about the roar of a crowd when you hit a big trick and everyone goes wild.  But there is the flip side too.  Aerials are dangerous.  Every single time you do one, there is a new floor surface to deal with, new timing, a new set of assumptions and variables to deal with.  Every partner is different, and when you add the element of performing on stage or to live music, it can be a lot of variables ..read more