Bill and I make the Eldergivers photo gallery

A pitch for the eldergivers project arrived in the mail with a photo gallery of the event. The last picture is a great shot of the two of us steaming up the dance floor. The following caption accompanied the picture: “As the evening drew to a close, a couple of unidentified dancers took to the floor to swing and sway to the gypsy jazz of the Golden Gate Hot Club. A few elder artists were just about leave to return to their facilities but stayed to watch this graceful duo, putting an unexpected cap on a lovely event.”

Dancing at the Elder Arts show

Last year I was sent an invitation to an event at the DeYoung Museum featuring the art from a program that teaches art to seniors. A swing band was playing, so I made arrangements to go with one of my favorite dance partners, Bill Swindle. No sooner did we make our arrangements than we were disinvited. “Oops,” said the disinvitation, “It never occurred to us that all the people we invited would actually accept, and we don’t have room for all of you, so you can’t come after all. Sorry about that.” This year another invite came in the mail for the same event, same band, but this time it was at Moscone Center and they didn’t even check our invitations at the door. The space was so huge, anyone could come and everyone would fit. The elder artists were definitely grooving to the music, but we were the only ones dancing. Many people thought we had been hired as part of the entertainment, and the band really appreciated us. Musicians play much better when they’re appreciated. Early in the evening, a woman came up to us and asked if she could have a dance. As I watched Bill dancing with her, I could tell that while she was rusty, she clearing had been a proficient dancer at one time, so I cut in half way through and finished the dance with her. “Thank you!” she said as she departed, “You made my day.”

Dance Camps vs exchanges

I just sent in my registration for Swingout Northwest, a swing camp that takes place every other year during the week between Christmas and New Year's. It's a good time for me because I don't usually see a big demand for dance lessons that week. (This year, however, I may miss a gig now that I'm performing with the Tinamania show.) Two years ago I noticed a serious decline in the skill level of the students. Four years ago, an intermediate Balboa class meant you had to have the basics down cold or you were lost. At the last camp, intermediate Bal students were people who had just taken beginning Bal the day before. There were no advance students, to say the least. Discussing the phenomenon with Sylvia Sykes, she said she thought it was due to the popularity of Lindy Exchanges. A lindy exchange is a custom we started several years ago when a bunch of dancers from SF went to Chicago and stayed in the homes of the local dance community. We returned the favor, and a trend began. Now exchanges happen all over the world. You can go to another place and dance, with no instruction and a lot less money so a lot of people are going to exchanges instead of camps. Now I feel like a real old timer, reminiscing about the old days, but here I go anyway. In the early days of the Lindy Hop revival, there was a lot of emphasis on learning the dance, getting better and better, experiencing new teachers from far off places, etc. I have to agree with Sylvia that along with the popularity of Lindy Exchanges, has come an increase in sloppy dancing. I'll be interested to see if this year brings a change for the better, particularly in Balboa. For those of you confused by the terminology, Bal is a dance from the swing era usually dance to very fast music. It's a difficult dance, but not physically tiring. There has been considerable renewed interest in it in this area in the last couple of years so I'm hoping that interest will show up at Swingout Northwest. Stay tuned!