Teaching Follows to Swing Dance

Chris and I have had a couple opportunities to teach Balboa and Lindy Hop recently, and we've gotten very gratifying feedback on how well we teach together as a team - especially how much we work with the follows in class. Chris gets as much credit for this as me, because he's very conscientious about making sure the follows have material to work on. I'm just a loudmouth and make sure I get heard in class. :)

Photo courtesy of Dave Welch at Photos With Class

Because of the nice response from our students, I've been thinking lately about our teaching partnership. Of course, we aren't perfect and are always trying to improve on this ourselves, but these are the major points I see as critical in giving the follows an equal education.

1) Stop seeing the follow as the less important member of the team. To teach follows effectively, both the leads and the follows must respect how important their role is in partner dancing. If both teachers model this behavior and outlook, the students will hopefully feel the same way.
Something as simple as the leader-instructor introducing the follows' styling, and showing genuine enthusiasm for spending time on the topic in class, will help balance the roles.

2) Spend enough time preparing - together. The follow-instructor must be clear on the class material in order to participate in actually teaching, not just dancing. I suspect that when the follow-instructor isn't contributing to teaching, it's usually because she doesn't know what the leader-instructor is going to demonstrate next. She's trying to figure it out along with the class.

3) While planning, pay attention to whether the moves are lead-centric or follow-centric. Try to balance the material with different moves or additional styling.

4) Teach the Skills needed when following. This might include where to hold your arms, position your weight, or different footwork that makes a move easier. This is especially important to remember when teaching Advanced classes - teaching the nuances of Following Skills changes an Advanced class from "a bunch of choreography I can never use after I leave class" to "now I'm a better follow!".

5) Sometimes a class will be at a completely different level than the material planned. So go with it! Even though you're teaching off the top of your head, still try to address the reasons why you make certain choices as a follow, not just the mechanics of how to execute the move.

What other techniques do you find helpful for effective teaching of both roles in partner dances? As a student, what do you find helpful, or dislike?

Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout 2013

After years of not traveling further than San Francisco, all of a sudden last year Chris and I decided to leave our bubble and start traveling to dance events - I left one job with over 2 weeks of vacation time saved up and realized that not using it was the dumbest thing ever (yes, they paid me out, but it wasn't worth it). We've been invited to teach at several out-of-state events in this last year, and we love teaching, meeting new people and seeing a few sights, so we're trying to take advantage of as many opportunities as we can. And now that we're meeting people who live all over the world, we need to keep traveling so that we can see (and dance!) with them.

Last weekend we went to snowy Denver for Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout. Now, Chris and I were both born and raised in Southern California, and we are NOT built for snow. I went to college in Iowa, but that was 10 years ago now (yikes!) and it was a small town and small campus so I didn't have to deal with a car. So of course the first time we venture out to Denver, the town is hit with the biggest snowstorm of the season!

We were prepared for cold weather, but I forgot how darn WET snow is. I SO did not bring the right shoes - I only had one pair of flats with me. 7-Eleven bags to the rescue!

But that said, we still had a great time! RMBB is a fab event - we always had it on our list of events to go to, sooner or later. The music is great, the venues are pretty, and good/NICE dancers always turn out. We taught two classes (advanced Balboa and LA Lindy Hop) and I was in 2 contests - just the right amount of obligations for a fun weekend away. (Teaching and competing *are* fun, but sometimes you don't want to keep an eye on the clock.)

Here is video footage from the two contests I was in - enjoy!

Open Strictly Balboa - 

Chris & Beth, 1st Place

(For my family members who only want to watch our spotlight, that starts at 9:52 ;)

Invitational Jack & Jill -

randomly paired with Andreas Olsen, from Sweden, whom I met only the previous night!

(Andreas and my spotlight starts at 5:08)

Big thanks to David Bradford for the video footage and for the great dance we had! :)

Cal Bal Classic 2013

The weekend before last was the California Balboa Classic, a new Balboa event in Los Angeles with classes and dances. Originally intended as a small event for locals, word about this one spread like wildfire and the workshops sold out within a week or two, even after an entire extra class track was added! And people even flew in from other states! I'm SO excited about this new event - I've felt for a long time that LA needs a dedicated Balboa event, and I'm so glad that the response was so good.

Like the hams we are, Chris and I entered the Open Balboa and Swing contest - "Balboa" and "Swing" here referring to their 1930s & 40s meanings where Balboa was only closed (chest-to-chest) position, and Swing is anything that separates from your partner.  I had a TON of fun with this contest - there were several rounds where we were told to demonstrate musicality, showmanship, etc. A lot of Balboa contests tend to emphasize one end of the spectrum or the other, but it was nice to have both in this one.  I just hope it didn't go on too long for the audience!

Here are the videos I could find - they're linked from Facebook instead of YouTube, so I hope they work for you.

Open Balboa & Swing Classic Finals - Warm-up

Open Balboa & Swing Classic Finals - Chris & Beth Spotlight

Open Balboa & Swing Classic Finals - Fast Battle

And finally, Chris and I got to take home these GORGEOUS glass trophies! First Place, and the couple featured in the photo are 2 of our dance heroes, Hal and Betty. We stole several of their moves for the Fast Battle, and I will proudly display this in honor of them and all of our old-timers.

International Lindy Hop Championships - Live Streaming

This weekend is the International Lindy Hop Championships in Washington D.C. - after only 4 years running, it has quickly established itself as one of the premier swing events. 

Yehoodi is hosting a live streaming feed for the evening competitions, so if you're interested in seeing what's currently happening in the world of swing dancing, check it out!

Click to Watch the International Lindy Hop Championships, hosted by Yehoodi

Buena Vista Street - Grand Re-Opening!

This post is overdue but fun, so only slight apologies for the delay! ;)

After long anticipation, Disney's California Adventure opened its newly retrofied Buena Vista Street and Carsland on June 15th, and the day before they closed the park for final preparations and a private party for press and employees. To add some fun to the street inspired by Los Angeles in the 1920's & 30's, Chris & I joined some friends in dancing to Dean Mora's Modern Rhythmists. So much fun to be there at the re-opening of Buena Vista Street, dancing to LA's best and most authentic early jazz band!

Chip & Dale dancing the Charleston

Dancers en route to California Adventure

Twilight on Buena Vista Street

Dean Mora introducing his Modern Rhythmists

Chris and I joined dancers from Pasadena Ballroom Dance 

and the Hollywood Hotshots for the event

Hollywood Hotshots Minn Vo & Stefanie Klausman performing "Campus Capers"

After the first band set I changed outfits and got a quick photo with the Red Car Trolley. 

So neat to see this bit of LA history recreated!

Chip (or is it Dale?) dancing with some visitors.

With Katie, Hollywood Hotshot and fellow FIDM graduate!

Pluto getting down!

Another Maharaja Costume

Since we're talking Majaraja costumes, I thought I'd share one I made for myself a few years ago. (oh, no, I just checked and it was in 2008...that was a long time ago already!!)

The Friday night theme at Camp Hollywood was Maharaja -- Chris wore a tuxedo (inspired by Hal), and I made a "1940's does Arabian Nights" playsuit - you know, like how all the costumes in period movies of the 30's & 40's look more like contemporary fashions with only a slight nod to the past. That's what I was going for.

Again, this is a rayon fabric for good swish. The skirt is a long panel that's gathered with box pleats into the waistband, and I put butterfly sleeves on the top for ease of movement.

These photos are from the Amateur Balboa contest - we got first place that year. It was also probably the best hair day of my entire life, and I like to think that had a little to do with winning. ;)

Photos by Lisa Johnson

Maharaja Costume

A few months ago, Balboa & Lindy Hop champion Laura Keat contacted me to ask if I would be interested in making a costume for a new routine she was working on. As a rule I don't sew for other people (I don't even hem Chris's pants, he has to take them to the cleaners), but this was a special project that I was very interested in working on.

On Saturday night at All Balboa Weekend, Laura and her dance partner, Jeremy Otth, performed Hal & Betty Takier's "Maharaja", a musical short from 1943. This is one of only a few clips we have of LA Swing from the 30's & 40's, and this one is a wild ride - the energy and enthusiasm combined with their street dance technique has been hugely influential to modern balboa dancers. In honor of Hal's recent passing, Jeremy & Laura wanted to represent this in their recreation.

Inspiration: 40's Playsuit

Inspiration: High-flying skirt!

I worked with Laura to create a 40's playsuit like the one Betty wears in Maharaja - unfortunately most of the footage we have is pretty blown out and details are hard to see, but that gave us some creative license in the design. For the top and the skirt I used a rayon twill, lined with a rayon satin (I've got a bit of a love affair with the drape and flow of rayon - perfect for swishy skirts!)

I draped the top and the skirt, and we decided to put buttons down the skirt so that it can fly open for this routine but be not as...revealing for others. :)

Cute, right? Well, get ready to be wowed - they NAILED the routine! Bummed I couldn't be at the event in person, but so glad I got to be part of it anyway!

Jeremy Otth & Laura Keat perform Hal & Betty Takier's "Maharaja" in tribute at the 2012 All Balboa Weekend

Photo by Shannon Sheldon

Photo by Shannon Sheldon

Dancing at Carnation Plaza - Disneyland

Last Saturday we went to Disneyland - this was a bittersweet event because it was the last night of swing dancing at Carnation Plaza. They've had live music and swing dancing there since the late 50's, with top name acts performing like Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, Count Basie and Harry James. Oh, yes, and yours truly - I played at Carnation with my high school band. :)

I never really danced at Disneyland - until we moved recently it was just a little too far away to make buying a pass worthwhile - but Chris started dancing there in the late 90's. It was the first place he saw swing dancing in person, and he started taking lessons because dancing at Disneyland looked like fun. How cool is that?! My first swing dance was in a church basement, and his was at DISNEYLAND!

The regular Disney dancers held an "Aloha" party for Carnation 

on the final night, hence the lei.

With good friends Jacob and Emily (and her Minnie Mouse bow!)

Photo by Richard Takenaga

Chris's "Tie my shoe" move. He didn't trip, i swear! ;)

Photo by Teresa Wyman

Photo by Teresa Wyman

And, while we were there I took advantage of having my hair done and 

had my silhouette cut on Main Street.

Passersby got a kick out of watching the silhouette artist work.

Luckily, it only took about a minute. :)

The final product. She made my nose WAY cuter than real life, and I'm okay with that!

The Rendezvous Cup

I have a confession to make. I like dancing more than I like blogging. :) At costume events, there's always a lot of time for picture taking (which is at least 50% the reason for going. The other 50% is eating tea and cookies). But at a REALLY FUN dance event, it's hard to remember to take pictures. I get wrapped up in the music and people and just forget. So it's embarrassing that after Balboa Rendezvous, I walked away with zero photos.

BUT! We did come away from the event with The Rendezvous Cup this year! :) We have to give it back next year (unless we win again ;) but it'll have our names and some witty saying added for 2012.

Giant thanks to Joel Plys for putting together the 9th Annual Balboa Rendezvous. As I mentioned in a previous post, Chris and I attended as in-class instructors, and we were in the Level 1 classes all day on Saturday, dancing with and working one-on-one with students. For Level 1 there were 8 in-class instructors, which sounded like a lot at first, but it worked really well - the students got a lot of personal attention, and they learned the material much faster. The main instructors were top-notch, and I recommend putting this event on your list if you're interested in Balboa.

And the MUSIC!! Oh my goodness. We're spoiled here in Los Angeles with our fantastic bands and frequent live music, but Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators came down from Seattle and -- holy smokes, they're incredible. Every time I walked into the ballroom I thought a (remastered!) vintage recording was playing. The band's balance was just perfect and the rhythm section felt like the Heartbeat of Balboa. Pop over to their website for a free listen!

And ok, here's a contest photo I dug off Facebook. I guess the back of my head's better than nothing?!

Photo by Douglas LeClair

"I'm Just A Jitterbug"

I've fallen off posting about dancing much in the last couple months, but a recent Facebook conversation reminded me that I've been meaning to post this article originally published in a 1939 Look Magazine. It shows some "behind the scenes" shots of LA swing dancers who were filmed as inspiration for the Walter Lantz cartoon short "I'm Just a Jitterbug".

The footage of dancing was rotoscoped for the cartoon (basically traced), which seems to be looked down on by animators, but it's fun for us dancers, because it's so true to life. Only 2 couples are shown in the Look article, but from watching the footage we know that Ray Hirsch and Patti Lacey were part of this project too, because we see their signature moves in it!

As was unfortunately common in this era, there are racist and derogatory images included in the article and cartoon. I have included them in this entry because I feel strongly that it is inappropriate to cut them and not recognize the bigotry present.

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Human Jitterbugs Are Models...

For Dancing Insects In an Animated Cartoon

Nobody ever knows what a jitterbug will do next. Even those masters of miracles, the Hollywood animated cartoonists, who cam make pigs dance and ducks talk, couldn't figure out the jitterbugs.

"When the jitterbug craze hit the country," says Cartoon Producer Walter Lantz, "we started out to make a jitterbug cartoon. But after making many hundreds of drawings, we realized it was impossible to follow the intricate steps conceived by these dizzy dancers unless we could work from actual jitterbugs in action."

So Lantz rounded up jitterbug teams, turned them loose in front of a camera, then had animators study them on the movie screen. Even then, the timing problem was too difficult. Finally, each frame of action was projected and a tracing was made of it. Animators then drew the cartoon bugs over the tracings of the dancing teams.

Some of the human models and the cartoon scenes they inspired for "I'm Just a Jitterbug" are shown here. The cartoon required 12,000 individual drawings, but it takes only seven minutes to show it on the screen.

Grandpa and Grandma Bug act as silly as human beings.

(Dancers are Roy Damron and Snookie Bishop)

The Bugs Get a Lesson in swing from Mary Herron and Jack Conlogue.

"Snookie" Bishop and Roy Damron demonstrate for the bug cartoonists.

This is the Way the bugs do it after Roy and "Snookie" have shown them how.

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And here's the final version of the cartoon! 

Funny thing is, I don't see any of the images from the magazine in the cartoon.

"I'm Just a Jitterbug" (1939)

Because I like to see the unedited version myself, I've included the complete magazine pages below.

Camp Hollywood 2011 - Balboa

This past weekend was the 14th annual Camp Hollywood, and as usual we packed up the car and drove 20 minutes to the LAX Marriott hotel for our "big" summer getaway. Hey, a couple days off work? I'll take it.

Out of all the swing dance weekend camps, Camp Hollywood is particularly dear to me. Not only is it the biggest swing event in the region, and is kind of a "family reunion" with longtime friends whom we don't get to see much, but it's also the camp where I first learned sugar pushes and swivels, took my first Balboa lesson, and saw Groovie Movie and Buck Privates for the first time. Way back in 1998, when I was a senior in high school. Without a doubt, that weekend changed my life.

This year Chris and I competed in Balboa, and won 2nd place (congrats to Jacob and Valerie for beating us again! ;) We were watching footage this morning at 4am when we got home, and I was particularly excited about how we danced in the prelims - I couldn't remember much about this dance after it happened, so I was surprised at how much I like it! 

Camp Hollywood 2011 Balboa Prelims

(I'm unfortunately blanking on the name of the guy who filmed and was awesome enough to pass us a copy)

And for those who are wondering, I'm wearing the trousers I made from Wearing History 30's Trousers pattern (blogged about here). I got so many compliments on them that I must make more soon! 

LOOK Ma - More Dancing!

Here's the final installment from the Swing Issue of LOOK Magazine - September 27, 1938.

I wonder what happened with the photo contest - heck, I'd enter for $50 in today's money!

 [In the previous post] are the four basic movements in the LOOK Hop, a new swing dance created by vivacious Rita Rio, whose popular all-girl swing band has made a hit in movies, on the radio and in ballrooms.

Rita says much of the fun in dancing the LOOK Hop lies in working out additional steps after mastering the "L," double O" and the "K". [Below] she and her partner, Bill Furrow, demonstrate other steps.

LOOK will pay $50 to the amateur submitting the best set of pictures showing a couple doing the LOOK Hop.

"Gettin' in the mood," Rita calls this. So far, so good; it's easy.

"The cuddle and coo" is an easy one, too, but from here on the steps get more complicated.

Allee-oop, and hang on tight; if the boy friend is husky, this is all right.

This looks as if it takes practice, but it also looks like lot of fun.

The secret of success in this "step" is for the girl to hold on.

In the spirit of the dance, now both partners take a look. You may go on from here.

How to Do the LOOK Hop

Rita Rio is back! This time she teaches you to dance the LOOK Hop. 

I dare you to try this at the next dance you go to!

Band Leader Rita Rio Introduces the LOOK Hop - Try It

From Look Magazine, September 27, 1938

They Face, one arm overhead, one arm out, forming "L". For 8 counts continue basic step: Jump with toes in, knees together, slightly bent; jump on toes, feet apart, knees straight.

Continuing basic step, girl turns back to partner as feet are apart, and both form an "O" with arms, the man's to the right, the girl's to the left.

As Toes are turned in on basic step, man drops arm in circle over partner's head. Girl's arms form "O" in front. Continue, reversing arms from side to side 8 times.

Girl Continues with back to boy, both standing on right foot, left leg extended to side, knee straight, right arm over head, left arm extended diagonally from shoulder to form "K". Hop on right foot in circle for 8 counts.