What is Lindy in the Park anyway?

The August !0 contribution explain a lot about LITP, but here are some more crucial details. It’s not an exclusive club. It’s a free public event consisting of dancers willing to dance on concrete in exchange for the joy of showing off before strangers in the gorgeous setting of Golden Gate Park. This is such a great idea that it has inspired other Lindy in the Park events in various parks all over the world, but we were the first! If you want to join us, you can find directions on www.lindyinthepark.com. You know we were the first to have gotten that URL! Here’s my trick for spinning on concrete: I went to Tap Plastics ( a favorite haunt of my art school days) and told the clerk that I wanted a kind of plastic that I could glue to the soles of a pair of shoes that would let me dance on a sidewalk without sticking to it. I walked off with a big sheet of plastic and a tube of barge cement. I sacrificed a pair of shoes to LITP and slapped a piece of the stuff on the soles. As it wears out, I just add another piece. The first sheet of plastic, about $10 worth, lasted me about 9 years. When I finally used it up and went back I found the same piece costs about $40 now. Plastic is a petroleum product. Share it with a friend!

What is Lindy in the Park anyway? For that matter, what’s Lindy?

This question came up in conversation with one of the few people who reads my BLOG, so I thought it might be a good idea to answer it. Lindy was the dance that followed the Charleston, a street dance originating in Harlem in response to the new jazz music of the late twenties and early thirties. A complex jazz dance, it was constantly changing as dancers challenged each other to come up with new moves. It was popular until after the war when the music changed and the dancing along with it. About 20 years ago, a few people in various parts of the world became interested in the dance and went to New York to see if anyone was still alive who could teach it to them. A group of Swedes found Al Mins and a young couple from Pasadena found Frankie Manning, both members of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers whose antics can be found on vintage celluloid. Mins died about a year later, but Frankie, at 92, is still around inspiring people everywhere he goes. That was the beginning of the revival of the Lindy craze. Lindy is now popular again in many places, one of the top locals being our own San Francisco. Next I’ll answer the LITP question. Stay tuned!

Dance Camps or gardens?

I just booked myself into an English country garden tour for next spring. I've always wanted to do this and now is the time because I'm no longer spending the month of July in Sweden. For 8 years in a row I attended the Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden for 4 weeks every summer. Some of those years I spent the 3rd week at the Bergen Dance Camp in Norway. I was there to study Boogie Woogie, a European swing dance I fell in love with and hoped to bring to America. Unable to find a partner willing to put the time and effort into learning it, I finally gave up on that dream and decided to just go for the fun of it. But two years ago Bergen folded it's camp, the dollar is in the toilet and Herrang finally got too crowded and too expensive for me. So I won't get to watch Axel, the beautiful son of my best friends in Sweden, grow up each year, and no more boogie fixes, but I'll finally get to see the famous Chelsea gardens. And I'll get to meet the two children who have been added to the family of my friends in London since I last saw them. There are other things in life besides dance, even for me!

The Amazing Bonnie dances in the Park.

My sister came for a visit last week and accompanied me to Lindy in the Park. A good East Coast Swing dancer and a natural follower, Bonnie danced with the lindy hoppers all afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed herself. East coast swing is an easy dance and Lindy is a complex one, but most dancers who can lead lindy can easily lead East Coast Swing. Although it can be intimidating, I encourage jitterbug dancers to dance with the Lindy crowd. It's a friendly crowd, fun to watch, and inspiring! Just ask Bonnie!