Team Results (and Video!) from Dayton Smackdown 2011

The 4th annual Dayton Swing Smackdown took place over the weekend in the adorable historic town of Miamisburg, Ohio.  The team competition included 64 dancers in 8 teams who have been working in their spare time, between classes and jobs, to put together fantastic and entertaining routines!  This is an enormous feat and congratulations to everyone for putting on a great show!

The team competition had 2 parts, one was the choreographed full team piece, the other (with lesser weight on final scores) was the Strictly, where each team elected one or two couples to improvise to fast and medium tempo music.

Results were:

1st Place: Team SwingColumbus

2nd Place (and also taking home the Collegiate Cup!): University of Dayton Swing Club

3rd Place: Ann Arbor

The videos:

SwingColumbus

1st Place

University of Dayton Swing Club
2nd Place

Ann Arbor

3rd Place

The Ohio State University Jitterbucks



The Ohio University 'Everyone Wants to be a Bobcat'
(music was yoinked by YouTube - thanks Warner Music Group!)



Miami University - Miami Swingers



Miami University - Red Hawks




Lexington, Kentucky - Rhythm Cats

March 5, 2011 History of Blues Lecture and Performance from Chris Thomas King

The Jazz Academy is hosting a free lecture that sounds perfect for you Lindy Hoppers who are into blues dancing!  Chris Thomas King is a talented blues guitarist and singer who grew up in Louisiana and is very much a blues historian (see Smithsonian video below).  He appeared in the move 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' in the role of real life blues singer Tommy Johnson, depicted as a hitchhiker who claims to have sold his soul to the devil.  He has continued to act in and score music for film, including the Ray Charles biopic 'Ray'.  Mr. King will be giving a lecture/workshop in the afternoon and performing in the evening on Saturday, March 5.  

Blues Roots workshop with Chris Thomas King
Registration Fee: Free
Saturday, March 5, 2011, 2:00 pm

Workshop Description:

Chris Thomas King will introduce the roots of blues and jazz, including New Orleans jazz and delta slide guitar. King will discuss and perform some early forms on acoustic guitar and harmonica, then connect those forms and rhythms with contemporary musical styles, including pop and hip-hop. There will be lots of time at the end of the workshop for questions and discussion.



Join Chris Thomas King that evening at 8:00 pm in the Lincoln Theatre as part of the Inside Track concert series. For tickets and information click here or call 614.469.0939.  Tickets are $25 and $30.  Columbus band (soon to be national!) The Floorwalkers will also perform.

COLUMBUS ALIVE/INSIDE TRACK HAPPY HOUR EVENT: Columbus Alive will also host a post-concert happy hour event at Black Creek Bistro (51 Parsons Avenue in Olde Towne East) immediately following the concert featuring dinner and drink specials including a signature concoction created especially for the Chris Thomas King concert.

SwingColumbus to Perform in ‘Jukebox Review’ fundraiser for Honor Flight

Dancers from Team SwingColumbus are excited be doing the Lindy Hop on stage with a big band as part of a musical celebration fundraiser for WWII vets.  Honor Flight is a national organization with regional chapters whose mission is to fly veterans to Washington D.C. to see the WWII memorial.  The Columbus chapter of Honor Flight holds an annual variety show fundraiser.   This year will be SwingColumbus' second time performing in the show.

It is pretty expensive to make these flights happen.  To support Honor Flight, you can donate, host a fundraiser, or become a volunteer.  A variety of people volunteer for everything from administrative tasks, to piloting a flight, to accompanying veterans on the trips. 

Or, of course, you can attend the variety show on February 13th!

SwingColumbus is thrilled to be supporting this worthy cause!

Event Info:

Jukebox Revue

featuring local and regional talent performing music from the Big Band era.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 at 2 p.m.
Westerville Central High School, 7118 Mount Royal Ave., Westerville

Music from the Big Band era, featuring the swingin’ sounds of The Continentals Band, 7 year-old piano prodigy Gavin George, and Award-winning accordionist Joe Natoli. Lots of fun and surprises!

Expect the return of the Big Band sounds, great performances from local and regional artists and a few surprises. “Bob Hope had the right idea with the USO tours,” said David Colley, a Westerville resident who volunteers on the Honor Flight committee. “We’ve adopted that vision of bringing that era back and being entertained by that classic variety-show format. This event is going to be a lot of fun for a great cause, and help the vets of WWII in our area who so deserve to take the Honor Flight for their day of honor.”

Tickets are $20 general admission and $10 senior, child or veteran. World War II veterans are admitted free of charge but will need to obtain a ticket in advance. Tickets can be puchased in advance in a number of ways:

• in person at Westerville City Hall
• by phone: (614) 839-0189
• by mail: Westerville Honor Flight Committee, 1260 Autumn Park Ct, Westerville, OH 43081
• web: via PayPal from the Westerville Honor Flight Website

In 2007, WOSU Columbus followed an Honor Flight group to DC and created this fantastic video:

Upcoming Swingin' Tuesdays thru March 2011

We've got lots of bands booked for the next 2 months at the Shrunken Head!  We've been having loads of fun dancing every week and seeing people's mad skills getting ... madder... every week!  The bands keep telling us how much fun it is to play a gig where they are truly appreciated and not just background music!  Thanks to everyone who's been swinging out every Tuesday!

Here's the lineup for the next 2 months of DJs and Bands.  The DJ listed is also the dance instructor for that week.

• 2/1/2011    John Vermeullen   (jazz and big band standards) plus DJ Aleks
• 2/8/2011    The X Rockers  (rockabilly swing) plus  DJ Mandy
• 2/15/2011    Makeshifts  (rockabilly, and ELVIS!!!  oh ELVIS!!!)  plus  DJ Erwin
• 2/22/2011    Silky Ray 4 tet   (jump blues)  plus DJ Mark
• 3/1/2011    Jon Coleman (jazz standards, Rat Pack)   - plus DJ Aleks
• 3/8/2011    MARDI GRAS PARTY with Chief Johnny Lonesome  (New Orleans piano blues a la Dr. John)  plus DJ Mandy
• 3/15/2011    Don Norman Band (swingy blues)  plus DJ Erwin
• 3/22/2011    School Night Jump with Jacob Reed  (jazz standards) plus DJ Mark

Be sure to mark March 8th on your calendar - we're having a Mardi Gras party!  Chief Johnny is bringing his umpteenth Mardi Gras celebration to US!  It will be a special New Orleans themed evening, with special menu items and some audience participation surprises! 

Go to our website for more info about Swingin' Tuesdays at The Shrunken Head!

Jazz Academy Spring Semester 2011

SwingColumbus is a community partner for the Jazz Arts Group's Jazz Academy.  They offer all kinds of awesome jazz classes, workshops, and seminars for people of all ages and experience levels.   We think they're a fantastic organization that's helping keep jazz alive and relevant!

The Jazz Academy is taking registrations now for Spring Semester and if you are a member of SwingColumbus you can get discounted tuition!  Contact the Jazz Academy for more information.  This week is the last week to register before the deadline for minimum enrollment to be met.  Classes that don't get enough students will be canceled.

Here's the Spring lineup:

The Jazz Arts Group of Columbus offers a stellar line-up of music making opportunities at the Jazz Academy to engage all ages and interests including clinics and workshops with Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter-composer Dave Douglas, blues guitarist Chris Thomas King, the Columbus Music Co-op and more.

Nationally acclaimed music educator Bradley Sowash offers piano basics in Creative Chords II and group piano lessons in Creative Chords IV. If guitar is more your style,Tim Cummiskey gives you the opportunity to advance your guitar skills with Intermediate to Advanced Guitar Concepts and Chords & Scales to Progressions. Led by Rachel Sepulveda, Vocal Ensemble explores the rewarding journey of singing in harmony with friends in a joyful and supportive environment. Central City Recording's Live Recording Session teaches you the basics – from running Pro Tools™ to setting up a live recording session – then applies what you've learned by setting up a live recording session for the Vocal Ensemble class at the Jazz Academy. And Jumpin' JaKs (Jazz & Kids) will give preschoolers, ages 3-5, the opportunity to explore American music in all of its forms.

Other course offerings include Rock Ensemble with Dennis Hodges, All Ears – Using Your Ears in Drum Set Performance with Cedric Easton and Ryan Jewell, Digital Composition & Recording with James Allison and Practical Music Theory with Stan Smith. Spring session will also include workshops as part of our "Cool School" workshop series.

SwingColumbus 2010, the Year in Review

2010 has been a big year for SwingColumbus!  We've helped grow our scene locally and regionally, our performance team reached new heights, and we made our major events bigger and better!  Below are just some of the milestones we reached this year:

The Local Scene

• Completed our first full year of our weekly lesson series Swingology
• Started the weekly Swingin' Tuesdays at the Shrunken Head (now 6 months strong!)
• Helped students at Otterbein University start a swing dance club
• Hosted a swing summit of organizers from scenes in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan
• Expanded the SwingColumbus Executive Board from 5 to 7 members to encompass the added roles that come with expanding our event and lesson offerings
• Raised money and collected 42 pounds of food for the Mid Ohio Food Bank at our annual holiday party

Major Events

• CBUS Lindy and Blues Exchange - we delivered another solid exchange (our 5th!), slightly bigger than past years, with a fabulous Saturday afternoon cookout
• Rocktober - expanded to about 250 registrants, added new competitions, added a third lessons track, and moved to a hotel setting!

Team SwingColumbus

• Added aerials to our repertoire for the first time!
• 2nd Place at Dayton Swing Smackdown (darn you Hoosier Hot Shots!)
• Competed against teams from the US, Sweden, France, and Canada at the International Lindy Hop Championships in Washington, DC  Watch Video
• 1st Place at Swing, IN in Indianapolis 
• Performed for Ohio Dance at the Ohio Statehouse, Honor Flight Columbus, OSU Arts Initiative, Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society, Comfest, and the Ohio Arts Council

Thanks to everyone who made 2010 so great!  We're scheming to make 2011 even better!

Christina's Pittstop Report!

Lots of dancers from Columbus and other nearby scenes headed out last weekend to the 10th annual Pittstop Lindy Exchange in Pittsburgh, PA, November 19-21, 2010.  One of our Columbus regulars was kind enough to offer up her experience at the event so you can hear what you missed and get excited for next year! 


Christina's Pittstop Trip Report

This past weekend, I went to my first but the tenth annual Pittstop Lindy Hop.  And it blew my mind.

www.pittstoplindyhop.com

Pittstop is a lindy exchange, which is a type of event that’s basically just dancing all weekend.  There are no classes, but there are dances Friday evening and late night; Saturday afternoon, evening, and late night; and Sunday afternoon.  Exchanges are held specifically for out of town dancers to come and partake of the dancing in the host city, and to make friends with people from other scenes.  I’ve been dancing socially for a few years, but I just started attending this type of event within the last year.  And I hadn’t been to anything as big as Pittstop, so I was really looking forward to it. 

Immediately upon reaching the Friday evening dance venue, our group was swarmed with hugs and greetings. The lovely registration table ladies wanted to know if a bus had just arrived, because our arrival coincided with several other groups from Ohio and the lobby was a bit of a tornado. The actual Friday evening dance was a bit of a blur, but I do know that I spent more time dancing than standing around. (A note on dancing at exchanges: there are usually more follows than leads, so I did do a lot of asking people to dance, but never all weekend was I flat out turned down for a dance.  Sometimes you’ll get deferred, but the leads are overwhelmingly gracious and mindful of who they’ve promised dances to.)

Friday late night was when we really started throwing down.  And so did everybody else. The band played lots of lindy and some blues, and in a smaller room the DJ was a spinning slower stuff and some blues. I had my first dances with the incredible Baltimore crew.  Our group closed out the late night, with the music getting killed around 4:30am, before heading out to our host’s house to crash, all 11 people that were staying there (Thanks, Jay and parents!).

Saturday we went to all three dances, the afternoon, evening, and late night.  The music just kept getting more awesome, with the Saturday evening dance music provided by the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn.  These guys, and the Boilermaker Jazz Band on Sunday afternoon, were my favorite music of the weekend.  Saturday evening was also “dress to impress” night, and everybody came all fancied up, which was super fun and, with the beautiful ballroom we were dancing in, evocative of a more genteel time.  I usually dress to the minimum level of formality, and am often guilty of prioritizing comfort over swishy for dance clothes, but I decided to go all the way to ‘black tie’ for this, and the result was delightful.  I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten asked to dance that much.  I haven’t taken a census, but I feel like all the ladies in their dresses inspired the leads to step up on the asking for a dance front. 

I think my favorite part of exchanges is dancing with people I’ve never met before.  This weekend I had some absolutely magical first dances.  (Hey there, Baltimore, NYC, Pittsburgh!)  Some of those magical first dances turned into repeated dances over the course of Saturday and Sunday, which is particularly delightful because then you know it’s not just you: the lead had a good time as well.

I was neck deep in a groove by Saturday late night, deeply relaxed and happy and having a wonderful time.  This makes for some of the best dances, with new people and familiar people. I had some of my best dances ever with leads from Columbus at Pittstop, just because dancing for days straight will get you in the zone like nothing else. Another wonderful thing about exchanges is that you get to dance with people with no preconceived “status” attached to them.  I know that I sometimes get self-conscious and dance worse with excellent leads, due to nerves, but when no one has told you this is one of the most sought-after leads in City X or so-and-so is an instructor from such and such an east coast city with a huge dance scene, there are no expectations to meet, only awesome-pie to eat as the dance unfolds.  Blisteringly fast lindy to tempos usually reserved for Balboa and extra-sultry blues are both good ingredients for awesome-pie, in case anyone was wondering.  I could easily gush about the wonderfulness of Saturday’s late night for three more paragraphs.

Sunday afternoon I don’t remember any of the particular songs played but I do remember that I floated in a pool of good feeling about the music all afternoon.  The Boilermakers played a killer-diller, smoked-cat, pickled-hellyeah version of Minor Swing for the jam circle, but, to be honest, I didn’t watch most of the jam circle.  [editor note- this is what a jam circle looks like!]  After having hastily scrambled up on the corner of the stage to get a view, I ended up paying the most attention to the clarinet solos, which induced spontaneous tap-dancing.  I don’t tap dance.  But I did.  And then after the circle broke up, to just adulate the band while they took another round of solos, the whole crowd was stomping on the floor in time and if you stood still you could feel it undulate.  I spent almost the whole afternoon dancing, with very little sitting, trying to wring the most out of every last minute, and when the music ended I almost cried. 

Saying goodbyes turned somewhat lengthy, between promises to see each other soon and spelling of last names and pictures and video-taking.  Leaving was sad.  I wished I was staying longer, but we rolled out of Pittsburgh around 6pm… and lindy bombed a Subway on our way home.  We made it back to Columbus in pretty good time, my carpool buddies dropped me off at home.  I was too high off my weekend to compose anything meaningful for Facebook, though I wanted to say something, so I threw “omg pittstop” up on my wall.  It seemed to sum up my feelings at the time pretty well.  Exchanges are fun but this one was especially fun!  It is fun to carpool to them! And I made new friends!

And I can’t wait for next year!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to Christina for writing that to share with us!

Editor's note: 
Another review: http://taintwhatyoudo.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/pittstop-lindy-hop-x/
Pictures: http://ralf.zenfolio.com/dance/pittstop_lindy_hop_10

History of The Cupcake Aerial

Those who attended Rocktober 2010 here in Columbus, Ohio may have had the chance to learn a crazy aerial from Kevin St. Laurent and Jo Hoffberg, called The Cupcake.  The girl is launched onto the guy's shoulders and he twists to the side to prep before spinning her around his head to the front where he holds her hips against his torso while tipping so her hands smack the floor, then flinging her back up with a slight flip to then drop catch her, pop her to a squatted position, twirl her under one arm and then slam her into a cross-body lunge.

If your head is spinning at this point, allow me to simply demonstrate with a video:



It's kind of amazing.  Perfect this one and you'll have everyone impressed, including Grandma!  

Kevin and Jo explained a little of the history of The Cupcake during the classes, but Jo just posted on her blog about it with video so you can see the complete line from So You Think You Can Dance, to Jeremy and Laura at Camp Hollywood, to Kevin and Jo at Lindy Focus and the origin of the 'cupcake' name.  Go read about it on Jazz it up with Jo

Nov 14 Hot Jazz Concert and Food Drive

The Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society announced in their November newsletter that it's fall harvest time!  SwingColumbus dancers have been supporting these concerts for several years and the bands are so talented and a delight whether you're dancing or sitting.  They're so kind to give us ample dance floor space in front of the stage so we can enjoy the music with every muscle in our bodies!

Team SwingColumbus and The Lindyroos will be performing during two of the band breaks! (most likely at 5pm and 6pm) 

From the November COHJS newsletter:


FALL HARVEST TIME!
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1:00 - 7:00 PM
The Makoy Center (in the Burgundy Room) 5462 CENTER ST., HILLIARD, OH
Drinks and snacks will be for sale.

Join us and mix with good friends, relatives, fellow jazz fans, swing dancers and great musicians at Makoy Center for the 2010 edition of COHJS's annual FALL HARVEST OF BANDS AND HOLIDAY CHARITY EVENT as we toast the onset of year-end festivities and simultaneously offer the opportunity to spread good cheer among the less fortunate via charitable food donations.  Rejoining us in this worthy endeavor, as they have with such distinction in previous Harvests, will be these ever-popular Traditional Jazz bands :

Dave Greer's CLASSIC JAZZ STOMPERS, Dayton
Ray Heitger's CAKEWALKIN' JASS BAND, Toledo
The NORTH SIDE JAZZ BAND, from right here in Columbus

BAND SET SCHEDULE:
North Side Jazz Band - 1:00 & 4:00 pm
Classic Jazz Stompers - 2:00 & 5:00 pm
Cakewalkin' Jass Band - 3:00 & 6:00 pm

COHJS MEMBERS - $15;  NON-MEMBERS - $20;  DANCE CLUB MEMBERS - $10

The dual purposes of your COHJS Fall Harvest of Bands AND Holiday Charity Event are to present an entertaining program packed with Our Kind of Music to our membership and the Central Ohio community, while at the same time recognizing a desire to help the less fortunate in our area, particularly at the holiday season. This year we urgently request that our attendees bring the at least 2 non-perishable food items which we then contribute to a charity soup kitchen in the spirit of the holiday and to help us all discharge our charitable responsibilities as in years past.

Lindy Hop in Toy Story

Thanks to our friends on Facebook for tipping us off to this Pixar animation short that contains some classic Lindy Hop moves between the Toy Story characters Jessie and Woody:



According to the blog "Bleeding Cool" this short "was made to play in the intermission of the Toy Story and Toy Story 2 3D double feature that played a year or so ago" in theaters.  I do love how fitting the rag dolls are for the shape of Lindy Hop with it's yo-yo like patterns bringing partners away and toward each other.

The source for this sequence seems to be Todd Yannacone and (my hero) Frida Segerdahl dancing during the 2006 Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown back when it was in Minneapolis (now held in New Orleans).  Watch the very first couple in this video and look for the 'baby carry' position at about 50 seconds in.



Now I don't know the back story on this, but I doubt Todd and Frida ever even knew about this. Contrast that with another Toy Story dance sequence and surely these dancers and choreographers and musicians were paid and recognized for this...



Hey Pixar - hire our Lindy Hoppers!