Summer Swing Revival
- Author: JT Editor
- Posted on: Wednesday July 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM
- Filed under: exclusive, swing dance, lindy hop, lincoln center, sf, la, dance, gabi porter, music
Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the nation's addiction to the TV show, Dancing with the Stars. Whatever it is, swing dancing - and all the sweat, syncopation, and steps that come with it - appears to be experiencing a serious revival this summer all over the US.
In Los Angeles, they are romantically recreating the historic ballroom La Monica Ballroom on Santa Monica’s Pier to host a swing dance celebration this September, featuring the frisky musicians The Squirrel Nut Zippers.
In San Francisco, Swing Dancing just recently became officially legal in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park after cops shooed away 200 under-ground Lindy Hoppers early July and then hundreds of dancers sent in letters of complaint in rebellion. Thus, on any given Sunday, you can see dancers jump and jive under the trees again.
Meanwhile, in the city that never sleeps, NYC, the final week of Midnight Summer Swing at the Lincoln Center is in full….er...swing this week. Mixing Blues to Cumbia, the short festival enables New Yorkers are free to let their hair down and their bodies loose.
These pictures all from the second night of the Ponderosa Stomp with Deke Dickerson. Deke brought a host of rockabilly legends up on stage with him, including The Collins Kids.
Photographer Gabi Porter observed "You don't go to Midsummer Night Swing and NOT dance, and I love the mixture of people in comfy sneakers (and black socks) and people in their dancing shoes, and young and old people letting loose. It's like you pay your modest admission fee to leave your inhibitions and your reservations at the gate. And I LOVE the lady with her wheelchair and her tambourine."
(Psst Fact of Day: The lindy was name after Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 “hop” across the Atlantic.)
Woman in her wheelchair, with tambourine in the front.
You feel like joining the trend?
You can shape up on your dance skills from taking lessons from Dancetv.com or Learning2dance.com. Hell you can even take a dance cruise (http://www.letsdancevacations.com.) Also, Youtube has an unusually dense resource for swing dance moves.
Any of you guys outside of the US noticed a similar dance revival?
PSST The Swing action photos were captured by NY-based photographer Gabi Porter
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