We mentioned this vintage clip in our Shag class recently. This is a 1937 film of Arthur Murray teaching the Shag. Pay little attention to the… um… “watered down” version of Shag that Arthur is teaching. Of more interest are the couples that come out and do the demo in the middle of the clip. These were the actual Shag dancers of the day and their style and technique are more definitive Shag.

Another fun Shag clip from back in the day was the dance scene from the 1939 movie “Blondie Meets the Boss”. As with lots of the vintage clips, don’t pay attention to the actors, but watch the “extras”. In the swing era, it was customary to hire actual swing dancers as extras in dance scenes.

Still time to join in! Due to the Labor Day Weekend break in our current classes, you can still join in on the second week. If you are interested in catching our Swing Dance or Collegiate Shag series classes, now is your chance! We will be doing a brief review before the next class (on Sept. 12th) so you can get up to speed. If you are interested in joining, please contact us.

The fall series class schedule is set! Starting on October 17th, we will be offering our most popular class, the Lindy Hop series. This class will start from scratch and teach you all the basics and fundamentals of the dance in addition to moves, technique, and style. We will also be offering the Charleston series class as the perfect compliment. This class will start with 20′s style partner Charleston and progress into 30′s style (or Lindy Charleston). It will cover everything from basics to a variety of moves and style. Both classes are great for beginners or experienced dancers looking to learn Lindy Hop and/or Charleston for the first time.

Oddly enough, this clip came up in conversation yesterday. This has to be one of the quirkiest of all the vintage swing dance shorts. This is the best quality version of it I could find online with a quick search, however, I know there are better quality ones floating around out there. I thought I would post it and share.

Oh, I probably should have said this before you hit the play button… warning… this annoying little song will get stuck in your head and drive you up the walls!

We’ll be taking the summer off from teaching group classes. Our teaching schedule will resume sometime in September. We are currently working on setting the dates and classes for that time frame and should have them ready to announce soon. Be sure to check back for the latest news.

In the meantime, if you are looking to get started with swing dancing, we recommend that you go to the beginning lesson before one of the 2nd & 4th Saturday dances. This is a great way to get a head start with dancing. Not to mention, the dances are a ton of fun too! They have some great events scheduled for this summer, so don’t miss out.

Also, we will be available for private lessons during the summer months. While we may be away on occasions, most dates are available, so be sure to contact us for more info and bookings.

Count Basie was still the hottest act around even in 1972. This video proves it:

On this date in 1939, the New York World’s Fair opened. To celebrate, here is some rare early color footage of dancing at the fair. While color was new, portable film recorders did not yet have sound… so we’ll have to enjoy in silence. Note that the world famous and historic Savoy Ballroom had an exhibit.

Just a quick note to let you know that we are working on the schedule and will be announcing our next set of classes shortly. As it looks now, the next series will probably start on May 23rd and will most likely include the ever popular Lindy Hop series class. We’re still in the planning stages, so be sure to check back here soon.

Also note, we’re planning to take a bit of a break this summer, so this will be the last set of series classes until we resume in the fall. That being said, if you are looking to join in on the classes, now is a great time!

Let’s face it, swing and big band music disappeared from the airwaves years ago for most of the country. In Orlando, we use to have a “music of your life” AM station, but that switched formats a while ago. We do have a local jazz station that will occasionally play some swing, but overall, they are a jazz format, not vintage big band and swing. For those of us who love the format, we are left finding other sources.

But wait, isn’t radio dead? We all have iPods now. Why not just use that? Good question. Well, to start, many people may not have extensive swing music collections. For those of us who do, it’s really nice to hear the variety of other people’s collections. Swing is a huge genre and I am always looking for songs and renditions of songs that I have never heard before. I often jot down notes of songs I want to get while listing to various swing stations.

There use to be a good swing/big band music channel on Brighthouse cable. However, I recently flipped over to the channel and found that they altered the format. It’s now something like “sing and swing” and it’s simply horrible. Very little swing and a lot of sleepy show tunes. Not that I am looking for strictly dance music, but the music selection left much to be desired.

My other source recently has been XM radio. Their 40′s station use to be somewhat sleepy. While it was good vintage music, for every one up-tempo song they played, there were about 3 to 5 slow ballads. It was so bad, that I even isolated their pattern. They would never play two up-tempo songs in a row. However, that all seemed to change sometime after the Sirius merger. Now their music mix is quite good and is probably one of the best vintage swing and big band mixes around. The only problem is that I hate paying the ever increasing rates for XM and I worry how long they will keep the format since everyone seems to be targeting stations to the tastes of a certain mainstream market.

The other option, of course, is to go online. I have to admit, the selection is large. Almost too large. The wide selection seems to allow people to focus online stations on certain niches. I’ve seen everything from straight up Lindy Hop dance music to really obscure pre-jazz era music. The problem seems to be finding something good and general. A nice mix of everything. Lately, I have been listening to The 1920′s Radio Network. Despite the name, they play everything from the 20′s through the 40′s. Their music seems to range from recognizable swing era tunes to the very obscure. Maybe not the best mix out there, but overall, enjoyable!

So here is my question to you: What is your swing/big band music source? Know of a good online station? Please feel free to post it in a comment!

After hosting events for upwards of a decade, I can honestly say one thing: Nothing ever runs smoothly. For every event you attend that appears to run like clockwork, there is at least one somebody behind the scenes ripping their hair out. From sound system glitches, to weather problems… restroom “malfunctions”, to miscommunications with staff and venues. You are always fighting a battle with something that threatens to disrupt the event or worse… bring it to a grinding halt.

When I got the message on my phone Saturday from Maria saying there was a double booking for the night and the dance had to be cancelled at the last minute, I could feel her pain. It’s an event organizer’s worst nightmare. What do you do? The only thing you can. You extend an apology, offer to make things right with your audience, and move on. It seems most people I’ve talked to have been very understanding about this glitch. We hope you will be to. If you can, rally the troops and we’ll see you at the next dance on March 13th.

So Maria doesn’t feel so bad… here are a few memorable event glitches that Dawn and I have gone through:

Weather: Yes, we’ve had to cancel a dance at the last minute too. In 2004, Hurricane Charlie was bearing down on Central Florida. Leading up to the weekend, the storm wasn’t supposed to hit Orlando. It wasn’t until Friday afternoon that it changed course leading to a direct hit Friday night. After weathering the storm and accessing the damage at our own house, it suddenly hit us… what about the dance? We made a hair-raising drive across Orlando (with no working stop lights) to check out the situation at the venue. The venue was okay, but there was no power and there was at tree down in the parking lot. We decided to cancel the event. However, since we had no power ourselves and the cell phone network was intermittent at best, we had no way of letting anyone know. The best we could do is post a hand written sign on the venue door. To this day, we have only met two people who ever saw that sign.

Power: I’ve encountered a lot of technical glitches. From missing adaptors to the blue screen of death (why do you think I DJ with a Mac now?), however, there is one technical problem that is almost impossible to overcome… loss of power. One night power to the venue suddenly cut out due to some mild weather overhead. I mean, what do you do? Whistle and hum? How do you prevent something like this? Most portable UPS units will only last for few minutes. Even then, what about lights? Fortunately, the power came back on a few minutes later. Over the course of the night, this happened twice. Five minutes after the dance was over, the power blinked out and stayed out. We had to break down and clean up by pointing our car headlights in the front door.

Venues: There are a few factors in event planning that are out of your control. The venue is one of them and the one that leads to the most issues. Sure, you try to prevent problems by securing contracts, but even then, there are no guarantees. I don’t think I have ever worked with a venue that didn’t have one issue or another over the course of holding events there. As an event coordinator, this one constantly looms over you. From the A/C units undergoing “schedule maintenance” on the night of your event to last minute schedule changes and cancellations, I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times we’ve had to make emergency adjustments due to an issue related to the venue. One venue suddenly changed their close time and informed us during the dance. Another promised to provide food and drink for a special event and reneged the day of the event. The worst? One venue cancelled our booking at the last minute because they had an offer for more money… yes, they even admitted that. Obviously, that ended any future business they got from us.

So in the scheme of things, an over 8 year run at a good quality venue with only one scheduling glitch is pretty darn good! And to Maria… it happens!

Happy Birthday Dawn! Feel free to leave a comment with birthday wishes!