Saturday, May 24th: For the first time ever at Whirl & Twirl, we’ll be featuring a big band! Harlem Madness is a 10-11 piece band that focuses primarily on hot jazz of the Harlem Renaissance. The band draws their inspiration and material from greats like Duke Ellington, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Cab Calloway, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Paul Howard, and the Casa Loma Orchestra just to name a few. From the up tempo to soulful swingin’ slower rhythms, there is something for everyone. Certainly a night not to miss! To complete the theme of the evening, everyone who shows up dressed from the era will get a ticket for a chance to win some great prizes (including an iPod Shuffle)! Click here for more info

I found this article  online this morning when I came into work and thought it was definitely worth sharing. It’s all about Django Reinhardt, his music, his origins, and how he lived his life. If you’ve never listened to or heard a Django song, you are really missing something. His music is quite upbeat and “plucky” as they reference in this article. I’m such a huge fan of 30’s hot jazz…..it literally inspires me to do things on the floor style wise that I wouldn’t otherwise do. And Django’s music falls smack dab in the middle of that category (30’s hot jazz) for me. So take a few minutes when you have time and check out some of his music  (iTunes link) to see what you’ve been missing!

I put together the following song selections as a practice playlist for those learning swing and Lindy Hop for the first time. I know it tends to be a rather eclectic mix, but the goal was to pick some songs (available on iTunes) that have solid rhythms that are good for beginners and those in the learning process. I sorted them on increasing beats per minute (BMP) so you can start slow and build up in tempos. Given that as you get better, you can go much faster… but if you are looking for a “pushin’-the-tempos” playlist… well, I’ll build that later.

Artist & Name (iTunes Link)	BPM
Fats Domino - Blue Monday	102
Robbie Williams - Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me	103
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Blue Angel	107
Indigo Swing - My Baby Just Cares for Me	111
Dion - The Wanderer	114
Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Williams - Smack Dab in the Middle	114
Amos Milburn - One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer	117
Wilbert Harrison - Kansas City	118
Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - G.I. Jive	120
Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five - Comes Love	123
The Andrews Sisters - The Lady from 29 Palms	124
Cab Calloway - Hey Now, Hey Now	124
Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - Big Fine Daddy	125
Indigo Swing - How Lucky Can One Guy Be?	129
Peggy Lee - The Boy from Ipanema	131
Kermit Ruffins - Can’t Take My Baby Nowhere	132
Roy Eldrige & Gene Krupa & His Orchestra featuring Anita O’Day - “Murder”, He Says	135
Indigo Swing - Red Light!	135
Peggy Lee - Fever	137
Count Basie - Shiny Stockings	141
Tommy Dorsey - Easy Does It	151
Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - Honey Pie	155
Lionel Hampton - Beulah’s Boogie	157

So, Rob and I went flying recently on a Friday night with a fellow dancer/friend who has a pilot’s license. As the afternoon passed by, I got more and more nervous and excited about what was coming up that evening. You see, I don’t necessarily have a fear of flying so much as a healthy respect for heights and aviation. Before a year ago, I had never been in anything smaller than a 25 person prop commuter plane and that wasn’t bad at all. Last year Rob and I got to ride in a 1925 biplane that seated 4 passengers and that was excitedly “gripping” (referring to my white knuckles), but quite nice once I relaxed and remembered to breathe.

So I wasn’t sure what riding in a 4 person Cessna plane would be like. As we watched our friend do the pre-flight check that the FAA requires of licensed pilots, I kept thinking that I just wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into and should I go through with it. It’s not like I can just bail once we get up there and I don’t like it ya know. But I decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t let my fears stop me from enjoying life in different ways. And I’ve always had dreams of flying like a bird and how cool it would be. But even with my interest and bravado, I almost bailed like twice. But I persevered and got in, strapped in, and prepared myself for the experience.

It’s not like I’m afraid that we’ll fall out of the sky mind you, it’s more the feeling of fragility that comes with being in a small craft that is easily pushed around by winds. So it’s like driving in a truly 3D environment where you have the added element of physics affecting your stability from all angles, instead of just gravity as in a car. So we go and take off into the wind which caused us to have lift quite easily and quickly… and away we went. The wind did bump us around during the hour that we were in the sky flying all over Orlando and even Disney. But it’s not like we were hitting air pockets and falling 50ft or anything. Our friend Joshua did a GREAT job of keeping things smooth and easy going for me. He did do a few things that literally left my stomach in my throat. Like one maneuver called a parabola (the bell curve from statistics class… anyone… anyone?) where he points the nose up and then brings it down like going over a hill. Yikes that really got my stomach up in my throat (notice the look on my face).

After we got to “buzz” the Disney attractions at 3,000 feet, we proceeded back to the executive airport where the landing was really neat and we even saw a HUGE bald eagle at the edge of a pond on the way back to the tarmac. I survived and even had fun. And Rob even had the foresight to snap a few pictures of all of us (and me) while flying…so enjoy those.

Starting Sunday, June 15th: The summer series class schedule has been set! In the next rotation will be the ever popular Lindy Hop Series Class. This class will take you from scratch and show you all the ins and outs of Lindy Hop. In addition, we’ll be offering the Charleston Series Class. This will start out with 20’s style partner Charleston and move into side-by-side and front-back Charleston; all the while showing you how to integrate it into your swing dancing. Both classes are open to dancers of all levels. Classes tend to fill in advance, so be sure to reserve your spot soon!

On Saturday, May 10th: Flyin’ Footwork has teamed up with DJ Natch to take you on a trip down memory lane as we track back 10 years of local history. There will be a decade’s worth of favorite swing tunes to spin for your dancing inspiration. But that’s not all… you’ll see the best (and maybe the worst) photos and videos of the last ten years projected on the big screen. Oh… and don’t miss the feature video presentation starting at 10:30.

As always, the dance starts out with a beginner swing dance lesson at 8pm. Dancing is from 9pm to midnight. All ages are welcome and admission is only $6. Click here for more information on the dance and click here for more info on the event.

We’ve posted some of the “shapshots” of our vacation online. You can check them out on our travels gallery. We’ll be posting some of the more “artistic” photographs we took later on. It takes a bit to process through them all.

So many times we have traveled only to come home with few shots with both Dawn and I in them seeing we’re usually the ones behind the camera… so special thanks goes out to Maria for getting the shots of us together! 

We’re back in town from our travels in the wilderness of the west. We’re catching up on everything right now, but we’ll have the photos online soon. We’ll also have the photos from the last dance online soon too.

Photo by Maria McKee-Gandy

Saturday, May 24th: For the first time ever at Whirl & Twirl, we’ll be featuring a big band! Echoes of the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom, Roseland and Small’s Paradise. These were the clubs and dance halls where jive thrived. Now Kid Dutch presents Harlem Madness to bring it all back! Harlem Madness(tm) is a 9-11 piece band that focuses primarily on hot jazz of the Harlem Renaissance. The list of bands active in New York during this time (the 1920’s and 30’s) reads like a who’s who of jazz history and covers all regions of the country: Duke Ellington, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Cab Calloway, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Paul Howard, and the Casa Loma Orchestra just to name a few. Harlem Madness draws their inspiration and material from these groups. They use original orchestrations from the period, along with period instruments and mutes. The band brings this vital and joyous part of American heritage to life for dancing and for listening audiences. From the up tempo to soulful swingin’ slower rhythms, there is something for everyone. Certainly a night not to miss! To complete the theme of the evening, everyone who shows up dressed from the era will get a ticket for a chance to win some great prizes! There will be a beginner dance lesson from 8 to 9pm with the band taking stage right after and playing all the way till midnight. Special event admission is $12.

Sunday, May 25th: The Tampa/Orlando city exchange is once again in effect for Memorial Day weekend! After the invasion of Tampa dancers on Saturday night, we encourage everyone to return the favor and head down to Zendah Grotto in Tampa for their annual 40’s style USO dance. More details are coming in on the night, but this dance is always a blast and the Swing Gang always keeps the dance floor full of energy. Keep an eye out here for more updates.

It’s not an easy task finding new dance venues as it’s often a trial and error process. Due to continued and varied problems with the Elks Lodge, we’ve decided to discontinue dances there. It’s one thing for the venue to be difficult for the event coordinators to deal with. However, it’s completely unacceptable when venue staff’s attitudes and rude behavior is directed towards our guests. We sincerely apologize to anyone who encountered this.

We would like to thank everyone who came out! While the night was short lived, the great energy and good crowd made it really fun to put on. Thank you for your support! This is just a setback, so be sure to keep an eye out here for future announcements. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you at the 2nd & 4th Saturday dances.