After my last post (Swingology), I had some people ask about dancing in old cartoons. I forget that not everyone has seen Disney’s “All the Cats Join In”. In my opinion, this is the greatest of all the old cartoons that feature clips of dancing. So I did a quick search and was surprised to find the video in its entirety on YouTube. So here it is:

All the Cats Join In - 1946

From my understanding, the animators used real dancers of the day to model the movements of the animated characters. Next time I’m DJing, feel free to request the song… I’ll even play the version with the sound effects in it.

Katnip Kollege - 1938

Cute! Some cartoon dancing with some distinctive styling of the day… the truckin’ finger… some peckin’… solid!

Some good friends of ours, Joe and Tabitha, recently popped up on YouTube from a recent swing jam in DC. Some of you may recognize them. For those of you who don’t, Joe and Tabitha were a staple in the Orlando scene for years and got their start dancing here. Since, jobs and life have taken them north, but it’s really good to see some recent video of them cutting up the dance floor!

FYI… the other couple is DC’s own Tom and Debra.

Bring your special someone… or meet your new special someone! …and dance the night away!

On February 9th, we’ll be featuring our annual Valentine Swing Dance! This is usually one of the biggest dances of the year so it’s sure to be a great time! The night kicks off with the beginner swing dance lesson (8 to 9pm), followed by a night of great music and dancing. The evening will feature a special simple Jack & Jill dance contest! Don’t have a special someone? That’s okay, this format is designed to pair you up with someone. That’s right, we’re drawing names from the hat-o-love (whatever that is) to try to find a perfect match on the dance floor. The audience will be the judge. Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 leads and top 3 follows. If you want to compete, be sure to arrive early and sign up at the door. It’s free to enter. The contest is limited to the first 15 leads and 15 follows that sign up at the door. It is scheduled to start between 10pm and 10:30. There may even be a few extra surprises, so you don’t want to miss this night! Click here for dance details.

On February 24th we’ll be starting a new set of six week series classes. This time around, we’ll be offering our most popular class, the Lindy Hop Series. This class starts with the basic and introduces technique and connection concepts by teaching core moves. It progresses step by step from the six count basic into the eight count. It’s designed to give you a solid foundation in the dance. This class tends to fill in advance, so early registration is encouraged. We’ll also be offering the six week Balboa Series Class. This is the perfect dance to both look and dance smooth from slow to even the fastest of tempos. The class will start from the beginning and take you through all the essentials of the dance.

At long last, we are done filming the new review DVDs for our series classes! Time to celebrate! It’s a project that we have been meaning to do for a long time and have finally had the extra time to do it. After four days, almost ten hours of footage, and a number of retakes, it’s a wrap. Now it’s on to the editing process.

We originally filmed the review DVD to our Lindy Hop class and our beginner lesson several years ago. Feedback on them has been overwhelmingly positive. However, as classes expanded, we had numerous requests for review DVDs on our other classes. The beginner lesson DVD didn’t closely match the new 6 Count Swing Dance Series and the Lindy Hop class material has evolved slightly over the last few years. So now with the new filming, we’ll soon have review DVDs for almost all of our series classes. The only exception will be intermediate and advanced classes. We rotate the material in those classes which makes recording a set review nearly impossible. However, we are looking to tape more impromptu videos for those.

Look for the new DVDs to be available in our upcoming 2008 classes. We hope to have the first ones available for our January classes by the second or third week of class. If you were in a past class that didn’t have a review DVD, keep an eye on the site to see when they are ready.

The last few days have been exhausting, but we’re excited to see the outcome of the work! Oh… and I would much rather be teaching in front of a class instead of a camera… it’s just not the same!!!

Did you meet your special someone on the dance floor? At a dance? Maybe even in a dance class? We want to hear from you! Tell us your story! With the Valentine dance just around the corner we’re looking to hear from couples who met through dancing. We may even select quotes from your story to appear on the web site… or maybe even at the dance! A select few submissions may even be selected to win prizes at the Valentine dance on February 9th!

Send us your “how we met via dancing” story to info@flyinfootwork.com. Please include both your names and your home town. The earlier you can send in your submission the better!