Hepcats!

Wednesday, June 28th:  8:00-9:30 pm; cost, $8; doors open at 7:30 pm.  Blair Crimmins and the Hookers perform at Arts Place, 161 N. Mill St., Lex., KY – a concert taping for a Red Barn Radio production.  More info from Mike Richardson about this event:  I received an email from one of the Red Barn Radio production staff about this event…as noted above, the event is a live concert taping for a Red Barn Radio production.  The event is open to the public and the event is inviting dancers to attend.  I specifically asked about the “dance floor” area and I was assured there would be a dance floor area in front of the band stand/stage (Arts Place has a wooden floor).  I’ve heard this band play before and they are a good band, so if you can make it, come on out on June 28th.

 Saturday, July 8th, 3-6 pm: 2nd Saturday Balboa Practice Session, at College Hill Town Hall, Larch St., Cincy. Calling all Balboa dancers….a chance to practice and dance Balboa! Thanks to Heather Fanska for organizing this event.

o August 4th-6th:  Balast Off!, Huntsville, AL.  A weekend Balboa workshop event, a fun event to attend.  See their web site for info.

o August 11th-13th:  Cincy Hop, Cincy Ohio.  Cincy’s annual Lindy exchange event.

o August 18th-20th:  Great Lakes Balboa Escape, Chicago, IL.  A Balboa weekend workshop event.

o August 24th-27th:  International Lindy Hop Championships, Washington, DC area.  One of the premier Lindy Hop / Balboa weekend workshop events in the swing dance community.

o Saturday, Dec. 9th: Jingle Bal, Cincy.  A one day Balboa workshop with three tracks.  Mike & Mary are scheduled to teach one of the tracks.

Mike & Mary attended the ABW that took place June 8th-11th – – so, how was ABW in 2017?

Hyperbole is rampant and commonplace these days, especially on Facebook, swing dance event promotion, etc…  Words like “awesome”, “incredible”, “amazing”……. are so overused these days they’ve almost lost any real meaning and definition….but….. the ABW event is indeed worthy of high praise! 

2017 was another great year for ABW:  top-notch instructors and classes, good music (both live and DJ’d), and great social dancing and competitions.  My one comment is that I would like to see ABW follow Lindy Focus’ lead and feature big band music for the Friday and/or Saturday night dances – that would really make ABW special!

Bottom line:  you should make plans to attend ABW in 2018!

Why Balboa?  To be a versatile and well rounded swing-era swing dancer, you should learn – and embrace – Balboa!  Some seem to think Balboa is a dance only for when the music gets “too fast” for Lindy Hop; or it’s a dance “those” people do — not true!  Balboa is a very unique dance with it’s own historical development and technical dynamics.  It takes a great deal of technique and feel for the music to properly dance Balboa (especiially at the really fast tempos!).

Contact Mike for more info on Balboa group classes and/or private lessons so you can learn, or keep improving your Balboa!  Also see the Hepcats calendar page for info on upcoming out-of-town Balboa events.

One more item of info about ABW 2017 – Mary won the contest for best dressed at ABW 2017!  Mary wore a beautiful 1930’s gown; she can tell you more about the particulars of the dress if you’re interested.  Well done Mary, especially given there was a lot of competition.  A lot of ABW attendees really get dressed up for the Saturday night dance (which is always nice to see at a swing dance!).

Mike wore his mid 1930’s black double breasted tuxedo with a grey Homburg hat.  First time I’ve worn this suit dancing and it was comfortable to dance in, although it was nice having air conditioning in the ballroom, unlike the vast majority of ballrooms in the 1930’s & 40’s! 

Mike & Mary were proud to sponsor two of the songs for the Chick Webb Project, a project that transcribed c. 31 songs from the Chick Webb library for live performances, the first which was at Lindy Focus on Thursday night, Dec. 29th, 2016!  For the Chick Webb dance, we got to sit in on a rehearsal that afternoon, which was both entertaining and enlightening.  Click here for more info.

Mike & Mary – Report on Lindy Focus (LF).

 What is Lindy Focus (LF)?  As many of you know, LF is an annual event that takes place in Asheville, NC the week between Christmas and New Years.  In addition to workshop classes, competitions and other activities, a definite highlight of the event for 2016 was five nights of swing-era big band music that featured the music of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Chick Webb and Benny Goodman.   Due to family obligations, this past year’s event (Dec. 27-31, 2016) was the first chance we’ve had to attend LF – and we picked a good year!

LF 2016.  We attended for two days/nights, Dec. 29th & 30th.  The Dec. 29th and Dec. 30th nightly dances featured the music of Chick Webb and Benny Goodman, respectively.  The music for both dances was truly exceptional.  The musicians at Lindy Focus did a great job playing the songs in the right style, and at the correct tempo (and maintaining the correct tempo throughout the entire song).  What a treat it was to dance, and listen, to the great swing music of the big band swing-era (instead of the “mayonnaise & white bread” stuff you get from most “big bands” that play these days).

And for those that couldn’t attend the event, here is a link to a You Tube page for the live stream for the Dec. 29th Chick Webb night dance:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV2M7i8pGl4.

In closing, if you get a chance to attend the LF event in the future, do so – especially if LF continues to feature swing-era big band music for the nightly dances!