One2Swing Daily

Rest in peace, Frankie

2009-04-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

Frankie Manning, May 26, 1914 - April 27, 2009. Rest in peace, Frankie.

Last night our Lindy team had an engagement party for two of our teammates, Cliff and Alanna. We started playing some games and it got really really silly and I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard or had that much fun. And I found it amusing on the way home how many of our teammates changed their facebook status to say how they don't recall the last time they had laughed so hard.

It's been a rough six months (actually really probably a rough two years) for me personally and yet here I was able to let loose and laugh so hard. Sheri said the same and added that it was interesting to think that we may not have met all these wonderful people and had such an awesome time tonight if it weren't for Lindy Hop and who knows where Lindy Hop would be if it weren't for Frankie.

Sheri and I had already heard about Frankie's health and it was so strange and yet maybe even fitting that on the day where I was already sad hearing about his health and on the day his health took a turn for the worst, it was the same day we spend with a bunch of folks we met through Lindy and I was able to let go so much and laugh so hard.

I guess my point is, maybe I'm just being irrational after getting so few hours of sleep waiting to hear more news, sending thoughts and prayers, and just contemplating .... but for some reason it's hard to feel sad ..because everytime I think of Frankie all these images come up of his infectious smile and youthful, tireless, and carefree energy.

And maybe it was that day since I was thinking so much of him and I kept seeing these images of him just laughing and just being so carefree that it really helped me to let go that night.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks Frankie.

This is one of my favorite photos. It's from ALHC 2008. Most of our team had never traveled outside of So.Cal for events before .. we weren't able to take the whole team but we took half the team and we were all very very excited to get their photo taken with Frankie.

Frankie Manning with One2Swing Jitterbugs, ALHC 2008

Ben: "I will always remember your infections smile and I will always be thankful for your tireless energy. You brought so much to so many lives and to this dance you dearly love so much. Thank you Frankie. Rest in peace. And though you will be missed, you will happily live forever in every swingout."

Sheri: "I cannot describe how grateful I am to Frankie Manning...our legendary ambassador of Lindy hop. He inspired so many and brought so much joy and happiness to this world in his almost 95 years. May he rest peacefully knowing his legacy will live on through all of us."

http://frankiemanning.com
http://frankie95.com

Becoming a Ninja!

2009-03-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Short version of this article:

Become a Ninja! Why? So that the "Ancient Wisdom of the Ninja" words I will impart to you will have its fullest impact and will change your life for the better.

Not-as-Short version of this article

Kennly bought me these funny Dashboard Ninjas. They're very cool, and I'm not just saying that because I don't want to suffer the wrath of Kennly's fist!

On the back of the packaging for these Dashboard Ninjas are written 14 sayings which constitute the "Ancient Wisdom of the Ninja".

Yeah and so Sheri is a cleaning madwoman today and we are cleaning like mad and we can't figure out what to do with this packaging since it's funny, but it's also a candidate for the trash.

I thought I should just write these Anicient words of wisdom down somewhere and figured, heck, I'll write it here for all the world to share in these wise words of the Ninja!

Why a Ninja?

Okay, besides being able to partake full understanding of the Ancient Wisdom, there are other great reasons to be a Ninja:

Reason 1: Phrases of the Ninja

So we started a dance team about a year ago .... the One2Swing Jitterbugs

http://one2swing.com/jitterbugs (original messy page)

http://one2swingjitterbugs.com (the new page coming soon which will be... VERAAY NAHHCEE!)

We are together a lot whether it's practice or going out to eat or what not. The "Ninja" phrases started soon after the team formed. If a glass of water falls while we are out eating and the person gets out of the way, then someone will inevitably say "fast like Ninja!". Or ... if the person doesn't get out of the way, someone probably will say "oooh not so fast like Ninja"

So of course you now must incorporate using these phrases into your everyday lives. Not only fun, but also you will find that your cool factor definitely will go up a few notches .. (like a Ninja!)

Reason 2: Fighting Skills of the Ninja

Though there are many fighting skills of the Ninja, three come in handy to swing dancers as seen in our Ninjas appearances in the introduction of our "Kung Fu Fighting/Bugle Call Rag" routine:

Yes, the song is Kung Fu Fighting, but we borrowed heavily from Ninja culture for our fighting styles... and so by becoming a Ninja you too can:

1) Ballerina properly
2) Take advantage of your black outfits and assist others to "mystically" fight (including helping them shoot fireballs out of their butts)
3) Dance the Macarena with style!

These Ninja fighting skills alone make it worthwhile to be a Ninja.

Reason 3: Wardrobe of the Ninja

Tearaway suits... do you even need another reason? (pssst!! I would ping Quinn about this since he made them all)

Check out the introduction of the tearaway Ninja suit at our practice:

Ancient Wisdom of the Ninja

BEHOLD!!

Until next time we meet ....

Fifth Annual Gift Giving Guide

2008-12-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays! It's that time of year again!

So this is my second article of the year. I've now gone to twice a year. Wowzers.. And I really meant to write more, especially after a nice compliment I got on the competition article "Improvement Through Competition".

Yup I really meant to, and then life got and stayed busy.

But now holiday season rolls around and I definitely wanted to write another gift giving guide. So here I am!!!

I took a quick peek back at the previous years gift suggestions. I had listed some ideas for gifts for swing dancers like music, posters, books, magazines, websites, lessons, etc. Lots of great and practical and inexpensive ideas!

This year I wanted to think of something different. I wanted to think of a special theme this year. And I didn't have to look far.

All I had to see is that I wrote TWO articles this year (ONLY TWO!) and realized I could definitely do some research on some time-saving gifts. Things to save time. Things to clear the clutter. Things to organize. Multi-functional things.

Yup, that'd be a good way to go..

Because seeing my two articles, I'm like thinking, "It would have been nice to have more time to write." And then "Hey, what about time saving gifts!" or even "Hey, how about gifts to unclutter your lives more!" (Sheri would like that one).

So voila! This year's theme is multi-functional and/or time saving gifts ... Gifts that buy you time! And a few of course I need to have that swing dance tie in ... so presenting:

"Gifts that buy time ...for your Lindy Hopping friend! (Or Crazy Sysadmin Computer Geek Friend ... that would be me)"

And here we go! Seven of them this year!

7. The Shower Genius Waterproof Notepad
Price Range: $20 to $40

Website Link

A great time saving device! Who doesn't like a nice hot shower? Especially after a night of dancing or a day of workshops or both! But don't you get a lot of good ideas after workshops? Or dancing? Lots of brainstorms? So what do you do? You leave the shower, write it down, get back in the shower, get yelled out by wifey for dripping water everywhere not to mention your notes will be illegible from the wet and running ink?

NO MORE!

Introducing the Shower Genius Waterproof Notepad!

Nothing fancy ... just a pad of paper and a pencil. But the paper is made of special material that is waterproof (you can write on it when its submerged in water! A little shower won't hurt it at all)

So start recording all those great dance moves you think of in the shower!

6. The Will Return Clock
Price Range: $10

Website Link

Okay so this doesn't quite buy you time ... but it's almost just as good. Especially if you're in my line of work where people are coming up and bugging you all day for help.

You see, this is an actual WORKING clock. So what do you think about setting it say twenty minutes fast? That way you can take your laptop and work in a conference room, set out the clock, and people will come by and see you will return in, say, 20 minutes. They come back an hour later and see that you will return in ...yup you guessed it .. 20 minutes! They will think they JUST missed you again!

How rad is that? And now you can work without interrupt and really focus and get LOTS of work done!! (Or take a nap .. still productive!)

GENIUS!!!

5. The SteriPen
Price Range: $100

Website Link

Okay this is kind of cool. We as swing dancers need water ... we CRAVE water. But sometimes the water coming out of the fountain ain't looking that pretty. And come on, do you really trust a water fountain installed outside a bathroom that changes water pressure whenever a toilet flushes?

Well, this small, portable object PURIFIES YOUR WATER! Forget "Don't Drink The Water" signs forever. This handheld water purifier uses UV light to destroy 99.9999% of bacteria and viruses and protozoa and other nasty little things to make your drinking water pure and delicious!

You want to talk about convenience and saving time? This little baby saves you time from lugging around water and even more time since you won't be sick from drinking bad water. Utilize your newfound time to keep dancing, keep rocking, and maybe keep writing website articles!

4. The Bumper Dumper
Price Range: $70

Website Link

Trying to drive away to that all-important event or exchange? Or just driving around in LA traffic every night of the week to go dancing in LA or OC? And thereby always getting caught in traffic?

All this is really tough .. especially when you get to the venue and really want to dance but have to hit the bathroom.

WELL NO MORE! No making special rest break stops ... not with the Bumper Dumper! Just pull over and take your break. Or heck if you're caught in super rush hour, the car is probably moving slow enough that your passengers can just head outside for a quick break.

Convenient, ingenious, and a time saver on the road!

3. The Head Spa
Price Range: $50

Website Link

Massage is always good. Good for the muscles and the joints. And what about massaging the brain? Don't forget that either. Keep those brainwaves flowing freely to come up with great new moves and be super productive at work!

But sometimes it's hard to make time to go get a massage. And those home massagers can be pretty rough to use sometime, like those chair massagers. What if you want to walk around? You're stuck in that chair.

Well, now there's the Head Spa! Wear it around your head and enjoy acupressure massage simulating the sensation of hundreds of fingers simultaneously massaging your scalp. All the while giving you freedom to get up, walk around, and do whatever!

AND if you're like me and you look good in hats, this is an extra bonus. Look at how stylish this Head Spa looks! Talk about your futuristic fashion statement!

2. Duct Tape Wallet
Price Range: $15

Website Link

Okay, not sure how this would save you time or be multi-functional, but how frickin cool is a wallet made out of duct tape?

Talk about DURABLE!

And come to think about it now, I suppose that would save you time because you'd never have to worry about going and buying a new wallet! Look at that .. rationalization on the fly!

1. The Safe Bedside Table
Price Range: ??

Website Link

Okay you're probably wondering how this saves you time?

Well, first it saves you clutter and gives you peace of mind. Check it out... I keep a big whiffle ball bat behind the bedroom door. You never know when the nasties will invade your home and you'll need protection. But

1) The whiffle ball bat is extra clutter.
2) If some nasties come through the door, are you really going to be able to get to the door and get the bat?

Well, worry no more. Check out the Safe Bedside Table!

Functionally, it's a gorgeous wooden bedside table for you to use. But should an intruder come in, it doubles as a bat AND a shield! So check it:

1) It's not clutter ...it's a bedside table! Functional! Pretty!
2) If the nasties come through the door, your bat and shield are at your bedside table
3) It includes a freaking shield! Hit them but they can't hit you back!!

This is just a prototype by a UK designer. Hopefully he will put it in production soon or you can email him and ask him for a custom made model. Because can you really put a price on your peace of mind?

Plus it's just freaking cool!

That's it for this year!

Don't forget to peruse the previous years (where the gifts are actually what I would call a lot more practical and less silly than this year's list).

Peruse those previous guides here:
2004 Gift Giving Guide (12/27/2004)
2005 Gift Giving Guide (12/11/2005)
2006 Gift Giving Guide (12/12/2006)
2007 Gift Giving Guide (12/19/2007)

Have a great holiday season!!

The Rise And Fall Of The Green Badge

2008-05-18T23:14:00.001-07:00

Sheri and I just returned from teaching at the Boogie-Baeren Whitsun swing camp in Munich, Germany. (http://boogie-baeren.de/seminar/). We had an awesome time and I will write more about traveling to Germany in a separate article.

This article is about our wonderful Green Badges we got at the camp. All the attendees of the camp got badges. I believe the students had blue badges and the staff had white badges though I don't quite recall exactly. What I do recall is that we, the camp teachers, had the almighty Green Badges.

So whenever we wanted any water or snacks to help us get through the day, we only needed to go to the vending desks and show our badges and the staff would fulfill our wishes right away!!

How awesome!!

Unfortunately, I got a little too accustomed to life with the "Green Badge" and upon returning home ... well, let's just say my adjustment back to normal life had its little bumps.

After a week, I have just about weaned myself totally off of the Green Badge .. Though today I did have one little hiccup.

oh well ...

Thanks to Pauline and Roy for taking photos!! And to Officer Sandoval of the South Pasadena Police for being a good sport!

Fourth Annual Gift Giving Guide

2007-12-19T16:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays! It's that time of year again!

Considering how busy we've been (workshops, lessons, dances, and a team!) I didn't think I'd get this out but I am definitely one who thrives under pressure.

So here we go with my five gift suggestions for this season!

5. Music
Price Range: $1 to $40

Why of course! And our recommendations for this year are ANY of the cds put out by two favorite bands: Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five AND The Boilermaker Jazz Band.

Jonathan Stout has put together a small band and an orchestra that has become a favorite of many on the west coast. His CDs also have bpms (beats per minute) listed by each track! Over on the east coast, the Boilermaker Jazz Band is hot and well known everywhere for their energy and for their talent. You can't lose with cds from either of these guys. PLUS you can buy individual tracks online!! Check out each band's website for more info:

Campus Five: http://www.campusfive.com
Boilermaker Jazz Band: http://www.boilermakerjazzband.com

4. Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop
Price Range: $30

The autobiography of the man himself. A good read and a keepsake. And if you look around you can buy autographied copies as well. And by the way in his mid-90's, Frankie still travels all the time so you can get the autograph yourself in person too!

Amazon link: http://one2swing.com/links/frankiemanningbook.html

3. Facebook For Dummies
Price Range: $15

Speaking of books ...

Two years ago I had mentioned as a gift helping them out with their own little space of internet (for example I helped Debbie get set up on Myspace). And now along comes Facebook. Wow this thing is SUPER confusing. I don't understand it at all. And of course thus comes: "Facebook for Dummies".

A treat for anyone, but yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of "yeah i could use this ... "

And by the way, my thoughts about facebook are neatly summed up in this Youtube video. Plus I love accents. (The fact that his name is Ben is just coincidence)

So if you have a friend that you want to buy a gift for and they are interested in Facebook, this is definitely one of those "i wouldn't buy it for myself but yeah i love that someone got it for me" type of gifts!

Amazon Link: http://one2swing.com/links/facebookfordummies.html

2. The Office Season Three
Price Range: $40 to $50

Okay, now this REALLY is a shameless plug for me ... so if you have any friends out there who are like me (hmm such as me , you know that they (and I) LOVE "The Office". This show is hilarious. And even if they don't like "The Office", chances are:

1) They can return it and will appreciate yo uspent $40 to $60 on them
2) They will know someone who LIKES "The Office" and can give it to them
3) You will open it up one day and watch it anyway and fall in love with "The Office" (much like how Chi bought me and Sheri "The West Wing" seasons one and two and after four months we opened it and watched it AND LOVED IT

Amazon link: http://one2swing.com/links/theofficeseason3.html

1. Shock Ball
Price Range: $15

For the person who has everything, I bet they don't have this.

An extreme version of the old "Hot Potato" game, this ball emits little shocks at random times! And if you're a swing dancer, you know that late at night after a hard night of dancing (or ..well..anyway) usually two things happen:

1) you're in the mood for trying lots of crazy moves, flips, and aerials (usually ending in some sort of injury)
2) you're in the mood for some crazy fast paced board games

Now solve both problems: play board games that will possibly injure you! (or at least give you a shock!)

Think Geek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/91b8/

That's this year's gift giving guide. For more gift giving ideas, see the previous two articles I've written:

Some Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend (12/27/2004)
More Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend (12/11/2005)
Third Annual Gift Giving Guide for Swing Dancers (12/12/2006)

Enjoy!

Sock Puppet Theatre # 2

2007-11-06T18:47:00.000-08:00

There is a Jamba Juice close to us that I frequent for breakfast. They usually have some interesting books on display including one which I ended up purchasing: "Instant Karma" which is filled with great little ideas to instantly boost your karma.

The one I turned to today said: "take time to play" ... I'm not sure how that turned into doing another edition of "Sock Puppet Theatre" but it did!

Presenting...

Sock Puppet Theatre # 2

(And by-the-by, sock puppeting can be very cleansing and I highly recommend it!)

Enjoy!

p.s. You can check out the first edition here:

Sock Puppet Theatre # 1 (a.k.a. Happy Birthday!)

Sometimes 7 Out Of 10 Is Just What I Need

2007-08-28T03:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Sheri and I decided to be couch potatoes. We just wanted some well-needed rest after a few months of non-stop work and dance. We love watching movies so we ended up renting 10 to 12 movies total from Wednesday to Sunday.

Now, if you're like us, deciding on which movies to rent (even if you are renting 10 to 12 of them) can be a difficult thing to do - especially amongst multiple people. Fortunately we have the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) movie rankings to help us. For those not familiar with IMDB, amongst many of its features are thousands and thousands of user comments and rankings (from to 1 to 10) of every move you could think of and then some. And as my phone is enabled with internet access, we have the luxury of checking IMDB rankings while in the video store to help us figure out what to rent.

Now the thing with IMDB rankings is you have to be wary of the IMDB collective mindset. Movies that tend to be at the top (7.5 and above) are sometimes not the movies Sheri and I care to see at that point in time. IMDB ratings tend to favor artsy, meaningful, thought provoking, and even life changing movies, such as:

The Shawshank Redemption (9.2)
The Godfather (9.1)

which are the two highest rated movies on IMDB.

Don't get me wrong now. We love many of those 7.5+ "high quality" movies. It's just sometimes we need to let loose and laugh without having to think. (No think-ee too much-ee). And many of the movies that allow us this privilege tend to be ranked in the lower 5.5 to 7.5 range. For example:

Rat Race (6.3) (screwball comedy genre)
EuroTrip (6.3) (high school hormonal comedy genre)
Forget Paris (6.1) (light romantic comedy genre)
Dude, Where's My Car? (4.7) not-sure-what comedy genre

I think you get the idea.

-----8<----- cut and paste -----8<-----
My point is that sometimes we all have enough to think about already when it comes to real life. Once in awhile it's nice to take a break from doing things like worrying about correct and incorrect and all the gray areas in between, or perhaps worrying about how things should and should not be done, especially in vague situations where much can be left open to interpretation (moral, ethical, and so on).

(wow that's a run-on sentence)

These 5.5 to 7.5 type movies ... they may have bits of imperfect acting, imperfect dialog, and yes even holes in the plot ... but if you can let go of wanting 100% of everything to be 100% right, you'll find that these movies, even though imperfect, are extremely fun and enjoyable as well.
-----8<----- cut and paste -----8<-----

And that is why we find that some of our less thought-provoking favorite movies have a tendency to be in that lower range. So I figured as a service I would list some of our favorite non-top-range movies for the next time you're looking to give your brain a little break.

But before I do ... there is a reason I'm writing this article. And surprise, surprise: it's really not to give movie recommendations. It has to do more with swing dancing and a private lesson we recently had with two folks.

The gentleman that was in the lesson is a spirited and friendly guy. He is constantly working very hard on improving his level of dancing. He's had lessons with us before and you could see that he was chomping at the bit for us to lay into him everything he needs to work on.

The lady (first time with us) is a bit more on the shy side. And she definitely looked fearful, nervous, and not so anxious for the impending doomsayers (that's me and Sheri) to strike her down with our harsh critiques. (In reality, she was a fabulous sport and did her best throughout the whole lesson as we gave her suggestions).

We began the lesson by playing different songs and watching them dance. Though their technique was fairly solid, everything looked just a bit too tense, hectic, and stiff. And every so often they would slip up and miss a connection and would not be able to gracefully recover from it.

It was at that point that Sheri and I told them that they just needed to relax, have fun, and pretend that they were having a regular social dance.

(And having been in many private lessons ourselves, don't you HATE when teachers tell you that? I mean come on! As if I can really do that with them glaring at me ... sheesh!).

*Ahem*

Anyway, this went on for about three more songs with continued struggling and not much improvement in the awkwardness. And at that point I didn't even know if they were even hearing the music anymore. So we interrupted and told them that despite having pretty good lead/follow technique and knowing a variety of patterns and moves, it still didn't look quite like dancing. And thus followed one of our most helpful tips:

"Here's something for you to try: For this next song, just think one thing over and over:

There is no wrong or right. There's just having fun.

So dance, have fun, do whatever. And keep repeating to yourself:

Whatever I do, it's not wrong or right. It's just having fun."

And .. wow... HUGE difference! You could immediately see both of them relax (especially the guy since that is one of his bigger challenges). And they danced the song. There weren't necessarily a lot of fancy moves. On the technical and styling scales the dance wouldn't necessarily be a 7.5+ type of dance (especially because of a few slipups). But it looked relaxed, fun, and even inspired (even with the slipups!)

So my point is: well, first off.. that I lied. Actually that's not my point, more a clarification because of course there is right and wrong. There is step-step and triple-step. There is rhythm, timing, steps, decent lead/follow technique and it wouldn't hurt to have a list of moves and stylings in your arsenal. At all levels, we encourage people to continue to improve technique and learn patterns (that includes us! Sheri and I also continue to take lessons and learn!)

-----8<----- cut and paste -----8<-----
My point is that sometimes we all have enough to think about already when it comes to our own dancing. Once in awhile it's nice to take a break from doing things like worrying about correct and incorrect and all the gray areas in between, or perhaps worrying about how things should and should not be done, especially in vague situations where much can be left open to interpretation (when leads should lead in, what follows should be doing when left out there by the guy, and so on).

(wow that's a run-on sentence)

These 5.5 to 7.5 type dances ... they may have bits of imperfect technique, imperfect styling, and yes even holes in the connection ... but if you can let go of wanting 100% of everything to be 100% right, you'll find that these dances, even though imperfect, are extremely fun and enjoyable as well.
-----8<----- cut and paste -----8<-----

So hey, don't unleash your entire move arsenal in a single dance (leads). No need to execute all of the greatest styling moves ever in one song (follows). Once in awhile just forget about attempting to do these things 100% correct and instead, for a few songs, just repeat to yourself: "There is no wrong or right, there's just having fun." and see what happens.

p.s. and if you think this is basically a rehash of the "Ahhh ... Just Screw It!" article but told in a different way ... well, you'd be right.

Thanks for reading, and in conclusion: here is a short list of those favorite movies. My original "short" list had 100 movies on it (wow!) so I've managed to arbitrarily cut down the list to half that size.

Remember, these movies aren't necessarily masterpieces when it comes to acting, dialog, or even preserving a plot. Some of them aren't even necessarily that funny. But we've noticed if you can let go enough they are all quite enjoyable! Have fun (both dancing and watching movies!)

"Sometimes 7 Out Of 10 Is Just What I Need" Movie List:

About A Boy (7.4)
American Pie (6.8)
The Brady Bunch Movie (5.4)
Bring It On (5.9)
Bring It On III "All Or Nothing" (5.7)
Coming To America (6.7)
Cool Runnings (6.3)
The Cutting Edge (6.4)
Daddy Day Care (5.6)
Dodgeball (6.6)
Dude, Where's My Car? (4.7)
Eurotrip (6.3)
Fever Pitch (6.5)
Forget Paris (6.1)
50 First Dates (6.8)
Happy Gilmore (6.8)
Hitch (6.8)
Just Like Heaven (6.8)
Kindergarten Cop (5.7)
Legally Blonde (6.3)
Liar Liar (6.5)
The Longest Yard (2005) (6.2)
Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (6.6)
Miracle (7.5)
Miss Congeniality (6.1)
Must Love Dogs (5.9)
My Cousin Vinny (7.2)
Rat Race (6.3)
The Replacements (6.1)
Rush Hour (6.7)
Rush Hour 2 (6.4)
Ruthless People (6.8)
Shaolin Soccer (7.3)
Showtime (5.3)
Sleepless In Seattle (6.6)
Soapdish (6.0)
Strictly Ballroom (7.1)
Sweet Home Alabama (5.8)
There's Something About Mary (7.1)
Tommy Boy (6.6)
Trading Places (7.3)
Two Weeks Notice (5.7)
The Waterboy (5.5)
You've Got Mail (6.2)
Zoolander (6.2)

Plus two honorable mentions which are two of our most favorite movies. They get honorable mention because they ended up "falling" into that 7.5+ range.

Singin' In The Rain (8.4)
When Harry Met Sally (7.6)

See you next time!

Dance Lists: Doing The Math

2007-05-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Just about everyone has a "dance list" - a list of people you want to or need to dance with that night. I love all the little things we say to each other too:

"Save me a dance later!"
"Put me on your dance list!"

Swing dancing definitely is a great way to have fun and meet people.

Which got me thinking about these "Dance Lists" and I started to do some math. I don't really want to discuss implications of the math as I'd rather let you as a reader draw your own interesting conclusions (believe me there are quite a few to be had).

So here's my math.

Disclaimer:
Of course I had to make some assumptions - they are based on what I've seen and experienced. I encourage you to throw in your own numbers to see how they change and see what it means to you.

So on an average swing night:

Assumptions:

You are there for 2.25 hours (9:45 to 12midnight for example), or in minutes that would be 135 minutes.
The average song length is 3 minutes.
Out of every five songs played, you dance three of them.
You dance an average of two songs per person. (Some people you dance with once, some you dance with three times, etc.)
If you have a regular partner, include one person you will dance six to seven songs with.

"Doing The Math" Summary

"At The Dance" Duration: 2.25 hours
Total Number of Songs Played: 45
Total Number of Songs Danced: 27
Average Songs per Partner: 2
Average Songs per Regular Partner: 6 to 7
Dance List Number (no regular partner): 14 different people
Dance List Number (with regular partner): 10 different people (excluding your partner)

So on a given "average" night you will dance with between ten and fourteen different people. These numbers really get interesting with different factors and assumptions. What if you are at the dance for a much shorter time (or much longer time)? What if you have a few different "favorite" dancers you dance four to six songs with?

Pretty interesting, no?

Sock Puppet Theatre # 1 (a.k.a. Happy Birthday!)

2007-03-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Three years now for this little piece of internet writing space of mine. Seems like just recently I was starting on it. Maybe that's because 2006 went by very quickly. Considering:

2004: 35 articles (starting in March of 2004!) - wow that was like three or four a month!
2005: 18 articles
2006: 5 articles (!!!!)
2007: 1 article so far (but it's a good one!)

By the way: if you know me well you'll see my lack of articles is directly proportional to job happiness i.e. my job before LowerMyBills I was churning those puppies out!

And it's not like there's a lack of ideas either. I have quite a few on the backburner not to mention a few good suggestions too (keep those coming!). It's just a lack of time. But since I need to get an article out (you know three year birthday and all)and don't have too much time to develop fully any of the current article ideas I have, I'm going to draw inspiration from a favorite song/music video of mine which is the "Three Little Pigs" by Green Jelly.

To paraphrase:

"A writer with no talent can at least amuse people with a stupid puppet show."

Ta-Daaaa! My first (and last?) episode of sock puppet theatre!

(press only once. may take time to load)

Hope you enjoyed it!

(I suppose the time it took me to do the animation I could have probably developed one of those article ideas on the backburner but aw heck - sock puppets are cool!)

Improvement Through Competition

2007-02-14T15:30:00.008-08:00

There has been a bit of a buzz lately here in Los Angeles about competing - something that has been missing now for about five years. I personally am glad to see it. Competition is one of the most effective ways to improve the general dancing community as a whole.

In the late 1990's there was a very competitive atmosphere in Los Angeles. Competitions were held monthly, sometimes weekly, all throughout Los Angeles. During this time dancers would drive themselves to improve and one-up each other. Not to mention the constant jam circles where couples would challenge themselves to throw their best into the ring. This era started to disappear in 2000 and was for the most part gone shortly after.

Whether it is the cause or not, we have seen a correlation of no major movement from the amateur level to pro level for dancers in Los Angeles. So yes, I am definitely happy to see this competition buzz - I am looking forward to seeing a improvement as a whole in the level of dancing in Los Angeles.

In the below article I will outline three general reasons competitions can help a scene and then from there what you can do (and what we did) to get things rolling.

1. WHY COMPETITION: Learning From Mistakes

"Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder."
-Nancy Lopez, Golf Legend

Any successful professional (business, sports, etc.) will tell you: the more risks you take, the more mistakes you will make. The more mistakes you make, the more opportunity you have to learn.

This is no different for dancing. And what better stage to take risks and make mistakes than in a competition? A mistake on the social dance floor - not many people will care - most will laugh (maybe even your partner who's arm is twisted behind her back).

A mistake in a competition - that's a bit of a risk. A mistake in a competition where you are in the spotlight - yeah wow that's flirting strongly with public embarrassment! Which will be caught on video! And uploaded on YouTube for the enjoyment of many people for years to come!

And it's that environment which really helps us improve - moreso than just taking lessons and going out dancing. And what's helpful is both the preparation to not make mistakes in a contest combined with learning from the mistakes you will eventually make in a contest despite your preparations to not make those mistakes in contests.

I'll pause so you can absorb all that.

In fact, if you ever come over to our home look for the two blue pom-poms on our trophy case. These are keepsakes from a competition where we were extremely disappointed in our performance - it's a good reminder for ourselves to keep learning and keep growing.

"I've been first, and I've been last - probably last more times than first - and you just take it and learn from it."
-Sylvia Sykes, Swing Dance Competitor, Teacher, Judge, and inspiration

2. WHY COMPETITION: Nature of the Beast.

"Competition ... is the incentive to progress."
-Herbert Hoover, President of the United States

It's no secret that pitting one person against the other gets the juices flowing, gets the stakes up, and gets both parties to improve past the other. Both parties know they must continually improve to keep up with each other. That is why competition works.

BUT ...

"Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people."
-David Sarnoff, Radio and Television Pioneer

The one thing to watch for: unhealthy versus healthy competition.

Yes competition can be bad depending on the stakes and the attitude - the higher the stakes, the more cutthroat it is. So even if it improves the product (in this case: our dancing), perhaps it will bring out the worst in people as well. Los Angeles at one time was known for great dancing but bad attitudes.

Fortunately, in the great scheme of things, our recreational swing dancing scene rarely reaches that level of competition and if it does, it does not stay there for an extended amount of time. Have you ever seen a showcase (choreography) competitions where a couple makes a mistake and still pushes through to the end to the cheers of the crowd? Perhaps you've seen two couples competing against each other one moment and the next moment in the hallway giving each other tips?

For most, swing dancing is a recreation, not a life or death decision. As a result, the community as a whole is very supportive of everyone so we not only have an atmosphere of competition but more importantly an atmosphere of sportsmanship which makes it good for our cooperative soul. That attitude is key: the goal here is not to just bring out the best in our product (our dancing) but also bring out the best in people as well.

3. WHY COMPETITION: Inspiration

A handful of years ago, if you would have asked me to run a marathon .. I would have said "yeah right!". I never would have even considered it possible. I was just a recreational runner. Marathon runners were those really skinny men and women you saw in the Olympics running miles and miles looking like they were still just warming up. My problem was limited exposure - just what I saw on television.

It wasn't until I saw a marathon for myself in person that it really struck me. What I saw: as the hours passed I saw a person of every body type pass before me. I could stand in any room in the world and every person I saw in that room I could match them up to a body type of someone I saw in the marathon. Some of them looked pained, some of them looked happy, etc ... but they were all doing it. They were running a marathon.

Which then begs: "If they can, what's stopping me?"

That to me is inspiration.

After that I really wanted to run a marathon. I did my studying, my preparation, and two years later I ran my first marathon (and if you know me, you know I'm the crier of the family - yup I cried here too at mile 25 when it hit me that I was about to accomplish something two years in the making).

Coming back to competitions - they are good just not for competitors but for spectators also. There have been times even after we did poorly and we knew we wouldn't even place that people would come up to tell us how much they enjoyed watching us dance and now they really are excited to learn. Any level of dancer (pro or amateur) can find inspiration watching any level of competition (pro or amateur). That is another key thing which is great about competitions and why I am excited for the new buzz in Los Angeles for competitions.

Okay, so how do I do it?

Here are your steps (not dance steps, list of instructions type steps).

Now keep in mind, dancing can be broken down into the three T's: Technique, Timing, and Teamwork. At a beginning level, this means lead-follow connection, staying on time with the music, and looking like a couple - dancing with each other as a couple. As you get more advanced these take on new meaning: Technique could mean difficulty level (aerials, difficult patterns). Timing could be interpretation of music. Teamwork could mean each partner taking the other to a new level and accomplishing more together than separately (one person not overpowering the other).

Competitions are no different. When it comes to judging, it comes down to the three T's. And to do better in competition generally means to to do better with your three T's. And judges are there to judge you on your three T's.

With that in mind, a five-step formula:

1. Watch competitions live
Watching them live is so much different than on the internet or on video. And take the time to be inspired.

2. Judge competitions
Even if you are not an official judge, you can mock judge. Take your own notes on who you would place first, second, and third. Make sure you can back it up. And if you can, compare notes with an actual judge to see how you fared. Or talk to an actual judge and ask them how they would have placed couples and why. A business mentor of mine once said that being able to critique others should give you the ability to critique yourself.

3. Compete!
There's preparation and there's contest experience. There is no substitute for either. Preparation in itself will help you get better because you have a goal to shoot for. If you have access to a teacher or coach (or judge), get them to help you and give you advice. One very "young" local couple (dancing nine months) decided to do the most recent LindyGroove contest (January 2007) and in the weeks of preparation before the contest they improved leaps and bounds! (It helped they had access to three coaches in me, Sheri, and Tise).

For contest experience: there is no substitute for putting yourself out there. It's like a muscle that needs to be trained. Imagine working out once a year and expecting results versus working out weekly to get results. In the Los Angeles heyday that is why having monthly and weekly competitions brought out so much in people. For the last few years that has not been around - many local dancers only competed once a year (Camp Hollywood), perhaps two or three times a year (SwingPit and Paladino's). So how do you remedy that?

So here is a checklist for you:
* compete in your local competitions. If you do not have any regular local competitions, offer your services to your local venue to organize competitions on a regular basis.
* compete in your not-as-local competitions. Fortunately, there are a lot of dance scenes close by for us LA/OC: San Diego, Santa Barbara, Nevada, Northern California, etc.
* compete in your way-not-local competitions. There are tons... I'm saying tons! Seattle, Utah, Idaho, Texas, etc. etc. The East Coast has a few more then the West Coast too. Keep your eyes open!

Take a look at the top amateur dancers (many of them could hold their own in pro contests) and you'll probably see that they do all three of the above many times over during the course of the year. This not just keeps them in preparation mode year round but also keeps their "contest" muscle trained.

One very important and overlooked part of contest preparation is the competitor's meeting. Besides making sure you know the rules and format of the competition, the judges will tell you how the competition will be judged! The head judge usually sits in and tells you "Look, the judges are going to look for this, this, and this". And the competitor's meeting is a place for you to ask for clarification on judging criteria.

A second important and overlooked part of competing: choreography! Do a choreographed piece and perform or compete with it. Choreography is forcing yourself to do something to specific music. It really exercises that part of your brain and that part of your dancing that wants to execute to music. Choreography is a great way to increase musicality in your dancing.

4. Get feedback
The first few competitions we went to were Melinda Comeau's events "Jitterbug Jam" and "Swing By The Sea". Bless her for having "Judges Feedback" time actually set aside in the schedule. We asked what that was for and she said, "In case competitors want to talk to the judges." We thought this was awesome! Had we not had that exposure we probably never would have known we could do this. I'm betting many competitors today probably do not know they can do this. So we are blessed to have had that right there from the beginning and every competition after that (even up until now) we still get feedback from many judges.

Now what do you ask judges?

One common question: "What do I need to do to win?" - it's a good question and gives you insight more into how a competition is judged and gives you an idea of how to compete.

The better question to improve your dancing technique: "What do I need to do to get better?"

Because judges are judging you on your three T's, so they can now give you critique on your three T's. In our most recent advanced competition/performance workshop we did a surprise mock competition and gave "judges feedback" to each person. For many that was the most valuable material in the workshop. So don't be afraid to do this.

Now be prepared because there are many times when the judges may not remember you dancing (judging contests can be quite a blur) so don't take offense to that. Most every judge will still have valuable feedback. One time I listened to a judge's feedback to a competitor and it went like this:

"Well, I don't quite remember you. And I see I placed you in the bottom half. The way I judge is I look for X and Y. If you have it you are in the top half. If I don't remember you or did not place you it is most likely because you didn't have X and Y. So maybe you need to improve X and Y and here are my suggestions for that. "

That's still some awesome feedback to improve your dancing.

And don't neglect feedback on your choreography - judges may tell you that there were too many tricks, not enough of this, too much of that - and pay attention because there are great ways to apply this feedback to your social dancing.

And most importantly: RESPECT THE FEEDBACK. Do not argue with the judge. If you want criticism you have to take it. We've heard times when a judge was saying something like "I didn't see X and Y" and the competitor said "No no.. I did X and Y" and it the discussion would heat up, almost as if the competitor was trying to argue his way back into a placement of some sort. The contest is over and the judge is just telling you "Hey, this is what I saw .. maybe you danced differently the other minute and a half I wasn't watching you but this is what I saw." So be respectful to the judges feedback and you will get the best feedback.

5. Put it into Practice

Have you ever seen competitors or dancers that year after year still look the same? They could either not be getting feedback or getting feedback but taking it for granted. Either way their dance is not improving (or it is but at a slower rate than it could be)

Here's a neat story: We saw Sylvia Sykes at Bobby Mcgee's over the weekend. I was talking to her and she had said how happy she was to be there because many of the people that got her to where she is today were in that room. At that point I gave her a huge thanks because her feedback was instrumental in getting us to our current spot in dancing. During our "early years" we would bug her often for feedback, taking huge chunks of her time. And she was always very open to talking with us. So I told her this past weekend we'd always be grateful for that. And then she said something interesting:

"You know, I just showed you a door. I show lots of people lots of doors. A lot them don't go through the door. You guys went through the door."
-Sylvia Sykes, still our inspiration

First, of course that was a great compliment. Second, and more applicably to what I'm writing today, the takeaway is that if you're going to go to all this trouble to practice, compete, AND get feedback, for gosh sake put it into practice.

Do all of this and you will see a great evolution in your dance.

In closing ....

Competitions are great! Get involved and see yourself improve!

And for you locals, I will keep this URL updated with competitions local (and non-local) for you to keep your eye on:

http://one2swing.com/competitions.php

Happy Dancing and HAPPY COMPETING!

Third Annual Gift Giving Guide for Swing Dancers

2006-12-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Time for the third installment of gift giving ideas for your Lindy Hopping/Swing Dancing fiend ..err ..friend. Shall we get to it?

Here are five gift ideas in order of least expensive to most expensive.

5. Consumable Care Package
Price Range: $1 to $40

Here's a list of stuff which is essential for getting us through any type of competition weekend. What better way to say you care for your friend then give them a bunch of stuff so they can go hardcore at their next event?

Smart Water (for your hydration needs)
Vitamin Water (for your sport drink needs)
Airborne (push off that cold)
Extra Polar Ice Gum (strooong stuff!)
Muscle Milk (for your protein needs when you don't have time or are too nervous to eat)
Clif Z-Bars (handy snack size sport nutrition bars)

Bundle it up in a basket from Michael's Craft stores and your friend is good to go!

4. Mildred Hatry Dancing Poster
Price Range: $20 (plus or minus)

Great poster from the Mildred Hatry gallery with great energy exuding from it. You can find this poster in many places. We do most of our poster shipping at Art.Com as their prices are reasonable and they often have discounts and deals (30% off, free shipping, things like that).

3. That's Entertainment DVD Collection
Price Range: $25 to $40

This is a great four dvd collection documenting the history of the MGM musical from the late 1920's through the 1950's with lots of great clips with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and many more! Lots of great singing and dancing so if you're a fan of the MGM musical (as many swing dancers are) this will be an awesome gift!

Do a search on Amazon or Ebay for "That's Entertainment DVD Collection" and find some good prices new and used!

2. Dance Shoes!!
Price Range: $40 to $100

And what person could not use a new pair of dance shoes? From the athletic and comfortable to the dressy, there is a great number of ideas here.

The best place to go is Dance Store with dressy and casual for both guys and gals. And they have a great liberal return policy too.

We also buy regular good old tennis shoes (Girls: Saucony and Keds, Guys: Addidas and Nike) from a shoe discount warehouse and then getting them resoled with soft leather/suede. If you're in our area, for shoe resoling we always recommend Arthur over at Compton's Shoe Repair:

Compton's Shoe Repairing
265 E Orange Grove Ave
Burbank, CA 91502
(818) 848 6201

Just tell him Ben and Sheri sent you to get your shoes fixed for swing dancing and he'll take care of you.

1. Nicholas Sisters private lessons
Price Range: $100 (plus or minus)

Swing dancing lessons are one thing - what about tap lessons? Great way to learn syncopations and footwork.

What about tap lessons from the granddaughters of Fayard Nicholas? Meet Nicole and Cathie Nicholas - they often perform and teach routines from the Nicholas Brothers. Nicole works in Los Angeles. Cathie is currently going to school in Northern California. So if you're in California you can definitely get one of them, sometimes both of them if your'e lucky. What a fun way to learn some tap!

If you're really gung ho about it, I'd suggest havinge them teach you the "Lucky Numbers" routine (we usually have available in our Video Gallery). It's advanced tap so be prepared for a mental workout.

Cost? Depends on how fast you learn. They are reasonably priced for the both of them to do workshops (around $100 an hour). For one of them doing a private lesson, not sure of the cost. If you're interested, I have contact info for Nicole and also their agent Walter. Drop us a line!

AND FINALLY .... a bonus gift giving idea!

I have to throw this one in here. So far I've been proud to say most of the gift ideas are ageless - swing dancing is ageless and so swing dancing related gifts for your friends are as well. I am going to break the mold on this because it's freaking cool ! And a year from now it probably will be like table scraps since technology moves so fast .. but for right now - it is freaking cool!

Bonus Extra Gift Idea. Sony Vaio UX Handtop
Price Range: $1300 to $3000

This one is a doozy - a bit of ch-ching there so yup this is the gift for someone you really love and I mean REALLLLLLLLY LOVE. Such as, well yourself. For example I'd be willing to combine my gift budget for myself for the next six holidays to get this for me for Christmas. (Let's see ... that means no gifts for me on President's Day, my birthday, Valentine's Day, ermm.. my brother's birthday, St. Patrick's Day, and April Fool's Day. Works for me!)

Many of us swing dancers are geeks so odds are you'll like this or have a friend who will which is a great reason to get it for yourself and then show it to that friend of yours. Because this thing runs FULL WINDOWS XP!! A full blown windows OS in your hands. Does this not ROCK?!

There are two models out, the UX 180 (no longer in stores) and the UX 280. The UX 180 you might find used for about $1200. The UX 280 retails at $2000. Here are more details:

OS	full windows XP SP2 (can run tablet and vista also)
Memory	512MB (ux180), 1gig (ux280)
Disk	40gig standard, upgradeable to 80gig or 32gig solid state
CPU	1.2ghz
Other	integrated wireless, bluetooth, fingerprint reader, camera, qwerty keyboard
Accessories	LOTS!! enhanced battery, screen protector, port replicator, external dvd writer, LAN/monitor dongle
Geek Factor	HIGH!! ROCK ON!

And especially if you love traveling to events and want a computer but afraid of taking your laptop to dances and leaving it in the hotel, this thing pops into your backpack sweet as pie.

Two good places to get them:

Dynamism: if you want brand new, go here. They have a lot of leverage and can offer hardware warranty, lifetime software support, and upgrades in hard drivves. Used they have some pretty good prices.

Ebay: For great prices on used units, ebay is the place. $1200 or so for a used UX180.

That's this year's gift giving guide. For more gift giving ideas, see the previous two articles I've written:

Some Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend (12/27/2004)
More Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend (12/11/2005)

Enjoy!

Separated At Birth Part VI: "Camera Hams!"

2006-11-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

With photos taken from our wonderful two week road trip recently to Sving Du Nord and The Paris Swing Festival ... I bring you:

Separated At Birth Part VI: "Camera Hams!"

Gotta love people who really bring it when a camera is pointed at them.

Terry Gardner of TC Swing	Kermit the Frog esp. if his mouth is really wide open!

Hasse Mattson of Hasse and Marie	Sean Hayes a.k.a. Jack from 'Will and Grace'

more to come ....

and make sure to check out:
Separated At Birth Part I
Separated At Birth Part II: "My Favorite Follows"
Separated At Birth Part III: "Rise of the Swedes!!"
Separated At Birth Part IV: "Everyone Looks Like Lennart"
Separated At Birth V: "Guys With Testosterone"

"The Birth of Swing" with Frankie and Norma

2006-10-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

Sheri and I find a lot of inspiration from watching and listening to the "masters" (a.k.a. "the old timers", as many modern swing dancers call them) In fact, when Sheri first saw Jack and Annie dancing (Jack Carey and Annie Hirsch), Sheri immediately said to herself: "I want to be them ... I want that for the rest of my life."

Fortunately for us, many of the masters are still alive and kicking (literally!). And there are many events all over the world that invite a master or two (or three or four) to come and share their stories.

One such event which Sheri and I attended was the Century Masters event up in Seattle, Washington (August 16-20, 2006). We chose this event because of the extensive guest list: Skip Cunningham, Dawn Hampton, Jeni LeGon, Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Sugar Sullivan (with Barbara Billups), Chester Whitmore, and Chazz Young. What a lineup! It was a weekend full of fun discussions and classes with many of the masters (of both Tap and Lindy Hop).

(By the way the next event is August 15-19, 2007! Mark it!)

To give you a taste of what we experienced, below are excerpts from the "Birth of Swing" forum which was an hour long discussion with Frankie and Norma moderated by Guy Caridi of the Savoy Swing Club in Seattle.

(My notes are a bit messy ... attributions and quotes should be pretty close though)

(Of course to be sure one could always buy the Century Masters DVD if one becomes available ... something I would encourage all of you to do anyway).

Enjoy!

"The Birth of Swing" with Frankie and Norma (excerpts from Ben's notes)

Guy: So there is a question of terms. So let's say "Swing" is a term which refers to music. "Lindy Hop" is a dance done to swing music. And "Jitterbugs" are people who did Lindy Hop. Your thoughts?

Frankie: I don't like the word Jitterbug. I am a (with emphasis) LINDY HOPPER.

(applause).

Frankie: The word "jitterbug" is really just a nickname for Lindy Hop just like "Al" is a nickname for "Alex". You're still the same person. We were doing Lindy Hop and it was other people outside the dance that labeled us "jitterbugs". And I don't like to use nicknames for Lindy Hop.

Norma: Well, I heard it was from when Benny Goodman was playing the Paramount and kids were jumping up and down in the aisles and Benny said "Look at them Jitterbugs". So white kids called it "Jitterbug" and blacks called it "Lindy Hop".

Frankie: I disagree. We had BOTH black AND white Lindy Hoppers. I disagree. Sure that could be what Benny Goodman wanted to call them (Frankie laughs) but he ain't' here now and I am.

(applause and laughter)

Guy: So what about how you both got started in Lindy Hop. The Birth of Jazz was in the 1920's and the dance was the Charleston. The rhythm section then changed from the tuba and banjo to the bass and guitar and so the dance changed?

Frankie: I agree with that. During that period, Charleston came in and went to music that was up and down. The rhythm then changed horizontally. Fletcher Henderson started his band and played the same music but it moved horizontal. So the dancers started moving horizontally.

Norma: I got inspired by how Chorus Girls danced. And Chorus Girls in Harlem started jazz dancing. Leonard Reed fired a chorus girl and saw me dancing and asked me to be one of his Chorus Girls. When it got into the Savoy it became partner dancing.

Frankie: We started at the Renaissance. I would have been 17 then.

Norma: And I would have been 12

Frankie: Wow .. I was five years older than you?

Norma: You STILL are!

(laughter)

Norma: And we put down twenty five cents to see Louis Armstrong. LOUIS ARMSTRONG .. for only twenty five cents! Can you believe it?

Frankie: Ha haaa.. My friends and I never paid the twenty five cents.

Norma: What?! Now how did you do that?

Frankie: (mischievous smile) We just climbed up and snuck through a window on the second or third floor.

(laughter)

Guy: Now that you mention Louis Armstrong, tell me about your favorite bands.

Frankie: Well of course Chick Webb.

Norma: Chick Webb.

Frankie: Teddy Hill .. a lot of great guys came out of Teddy's Band. All the great bands in fact would raid Teddy Hill's band. Like Roy Eldridge. And then Teddy had to find another trumpet player who played like Roy Eldridge and did all these auditions. He finally found another young man by the name of Dizzie Gillespie.

Norma: And Teddy's bands kept getting raided. He eventually gave up his band and ran a club Minton's Playhouse and they had incredible jam sessions. Teddy would invite all his musician friends over and they'd JAM.

Frankie: The defining moment when swing was born is when the bands changed from banjos and tubas to the guitar and bass for the rhythm section. The music changes and the dance follows. . The bass and rhythm in music drives the dance. And by far my favorite rhythm section was Count Basie.

Norma: Basie always said 'Write the music to keep the dancers on the floor'. Basie SET the tempo for great dancing. He made us better dancers.

Frankie: Basie had more rhythm in two notes than most musicians in a whole run of notes!

Norma: Jumpin At The Woodside came out of a jam session at a hotel near the Savoy .. the Woodside Hotel. They would rehearse at the hotel. Guys would just walk in, pick up an instrument, and start playing.

Frankie: Bands in those days - they played for people to dance. And were inspired by the dancers. They'd be like 'That cat is swinging! I want to keep him swinging so I'm going to blow harder!' What changed was later musicians wanted you to listen to them and not dance to them.

Norma: Like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Whooo don't get me started there!

Frankie: The last time I worked was with Dizzie Gillespie in the late 1940's at the Howard Theatre in DC. He had the charts from Basie's band but the rhythm was too heavy. The percussionist was way too heavy and afterwards I said, 'Dizzie - what the F was that?' Dizzie just looked at me and smiled and walked away.

Norma: They changed the rhythm! Charlie Parker PUT us out of business. Put the nail in the coffin. It was good music, but you couldn't dance to it.

Guy: Any other stories about people you saw or listened to?

Norma: I remember one time Louis Armstrong was scheduled to play at the Apollo. This was big so my friends and I all played hooky from school. But something happened to Louis - his lip or something so he wasn't going to show. Instead they introduced someone who'd sing to us that had won the Apollo contest last week. In those days when you won a contest at the Apollo you performed there the next week. And we were so upset we weren't going to see Louis so we all booooeeed. Imagine all these high schoolers booeing this poor young gal .. until she sang and she quieted everyone. The young lady singing was named Ella Fitzgerald

(Ben's note: Interesting story I came across while researching Ella's history: The story goes that Ella Fitzgerald originally entered the Apollo contest intending to dance. But she got so nervous and couldn't move and so the stage manager said "Just do something! Sing or something!" and so she sang... and won)

Norma: Ella was sixteen. The first female vocalist. She really liked Whitey's Lindy Hoppers to travel with too because Ella LOVED playing Hearts and so we would all play cards with her. So we were Ella's favorite group to work with, especially on the road.

Guy: How was traveling on the road in those days?

Norma: Wooooeee it was CROWDED. We would all get packed in this old run down car. And have to travel everywhere. And the car would be rattling everywhere. It was old and we were packed in. And woooww.. yeah it was tough

(laughing)

Frankie: We were spreading Lindy Hop. There was no TV in those times.

Norma: No TV, no films. So we'd drive all over the US, go somewhere, put money in a jukebox and just dance.

Frankie: Those were some times.

Norma: Crowded times with an old car! And the manifold was broken so we couldn't put our feet down because it was too hot!

Frankie: Yeah but .. you know, I wouldn't change a thing.

(applause)

Norma: I'd change that car.

(laughter)

Frankie: Whitey's principles were: Be the best you can be. Do the best you can do. And be meticulous out on that stage.

Norma: He didn't pay us well.

(laughter)

Frankie: The point was ... if you're working a gig and there's only two people, you hit that stage and do your best like they are 200 people.

(applause)

Guy: And with that it looks like we are out of time. Thank you so much Frankie and Norma!

(standing ovation)

"Ahhh ... Just Screw It!"

2006-05-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today on May 3, 2003, Sheri and I tied the wedding knot on a gorgeous (slightly rainy) day at Coyote Hills Country Club in Fullerton, California.

So yes, Happy THREE YEAR Wedding Anniversary to us!

And now to the point of the article (which hopefully you haven't misguessed .. you know me saying it's our anniversary and having the article title be what it is)

To get the full meaning behind this, here's a bit of background for you.

Sheri and I happen to be very practical people. One example is we're practical about money. When it comes to holiday gifts (Christmas, Valentine's, etc) we sometimes feel guilty about buying each other extravagant gifts - so we don't. After all the money could be better put towards home improvement, mortgage payments, car loan payments, school loan payments, our savings, etc.

Another example is time off and travel. Instead of going out of town for our previous wedding anniversaries or anything else, we spend our vacation to teach at out of town events (such as Beantown which occurs in June which is "close enough" to a vacation getaway for our May anniversary)

Like I said ... practical.

In fact one year I remember for Christmas we told each other what we planned on getting each other and that was enough to warm our hearts. Then we went and logged into our ING Direct account and rebalanced our mutual funds.

This one specific holiday I remember I had discussed with her about buying us an iPod or some sort of mp3 player. Just because they're really cool. But of course they have a practical use too ... to hold our music and video clips and things like that.

But did we really need it? It'd be nice, but we didn't really need it.

In fact that's when we started talking about PDAs. Because Sheri's broke and she was using mine. We could get a PDA like an HP iPaq that has a SD card slot. We could put the music on that way and use that as an mp3 player.

Then again ..did we REALLY need a PDA? I was okay without mine. And we could use the money towards something else.

Like I said ... practical.

But not in a bad way necessarily ... It just meant we really didn't think it was a high priority to get these things.

So if you haven't guessed by now, Sheri and I for the last two years have not bought each other a wedding anniversary gift. We've gone out to dinner or something. But not a real gift. And I started thinking a few months ago ... you know it's not a forced holiday like New Year's or Valentine's. It's OUR holiday. It's our wedding anniversary and it should be special as it is our day. So this year we decided to make up for it and buy each other three years worth of anniversary gifts. No more than $10 for each gift.

Looking online, the traditional gifts are as follows:

First Year: Paper
Second Year: Cotton
Third Year: Leather

So yesterday afternoon I started thinking ... paper was easy. Like a wedding card. Cotton is easy - she likes socks. Leather? Well, Sheri likes Coach stuff. But that's way over $10. Usually $80 to $90 for really small accessories (wallets). $120 and more for the handbags. Hmm ... maybe fruit leather? Like fruit roll-ups? She likes that.

And all of the sudden I just thought:

"Ahhh ... Just Screw It!"

Seriously ... why not? I mean sometimes it's okay to throw caution to the wind .. And there are some things in life that shouldn't be taken that seriously anyway. In the grand scheme of things, the $80 to $120 won't break me so ... we'll have fun with it... so really:

"Ahhh ... Just Screw It!"

I decided to get Sheri something at the Coach store.

Coach has a lot of nice things by the way ... including iPod cases (ha ha) in the $40 to $60 range. Although after closer inspection all their iPod cases are for the old iPods, not the new ones. And we didn't have an iPod anyway. So maybe a handbag or something. Backpack. Wallet. You know.

At which point inspiration struck me again.

"Ahhh ... Just Screw It!"

The Apple store was just a few stores down. A quick double check at Coach for their iPod cases .. and yup - they're all outdated. So I got Sheri a gift certificate from Coach. They have some nice side bags that could easily function as iPod carrying cases - you could fit the iPod plus a few accessories in there too. So yeah, the gift certificate would do just fine.

At the Apple store, the new iPods were sleek. Audio and Video. Nice. And dynamic playlists. Rock on! 30gb and 60gb... yes we'll take the 60gb and eventually have family movies on there. Black or white. Okay hmm.... Okay so I'm not throwing all caution to the wind - I don't know if she'll like the black one or the white one. For sure we'd get the 60gig. So another gift certificate for the iPod.

And there you go. At this point I'm about 50 times over our $10 limit.

"Ahhh ... Just Screw It! I'm getting this for my wife."

(Of course I also stopped by Lady Foot Locker to by her some socks).

(Wouldn't you know the socks I picked out when I looked on the back to see how much cotton they had .. they had NONE! Polyster/spandex blend. So yeah she ended up getting two pairs of socks).

Okay back to the story. Of course being clever I gave her the socks first (cotton), followed by a printout of the Coach iPod holder (paper) followed by the gift certificate to get the iPod holder (leather).

"No.. you shouldn't get me this .... it's more than $10!"

(wait until she sees what's next)

"Nah - just get yourself the iPod holder. That's the leather portion of your gift."

(wait for it)

"But we don't have an iPod?"

Ahhh... followed by the Apple gift card with a picture of an iPod on it labeled as "Leather accessory".

Yup ..she was surprised. Elated in fact. Before the "Ben and Sheri Practicality" came in seconds later. Do we need it? We don't really need it ... etc...

At which point I told her my "Ahhh ... Screw it." story and whether she liked it or not that's what her gift was going to be.

Okay I got through about half the story really ... that's as far as she would let me go before she laughed at me and surrendered.

"Okay okay ... I'll take it. I love it! Not so practical, but .. Ahhh ... Just Screw It!"

(by the way, when you see Sheri, make sure to ask about the iPod. I told her I'd tell everyone to ask her about it and she responded, "So you really are going to force me to get this aren't you?"... aren't I a stinker?). And that's the end of the story.

If you've gotten this far, yes there is a point.

"Ahhh ... Just Screw It."

That's what every dancer should tell themselves every once in awhile. That's what dance scenes need to remind themselves of every so often.

It's very easy to get wrapped up and even obsessed with swing dancing - me included for sure. Getting better, going to workshops, learning new things, being afraid to make mistakes - we can easily get way too pratcical and precise about our dancing. And that's a lot of the reason we all hit plateaus in our dancing (what, you thought you were the only one?)

Add to that my theory that a large contingent of dancers you could categorize as shy and inhibited. In fact I used to say that swing dancing was clubbing for the non-clubbing. A way for non-clubbing to go out at night and have fun. Non-clubbing people tend to be more inhibited on a dance floor. And be more worried about messing up and making mistakes.

Again ... it's very easy for us to be very practical and precise about our dancing.

When this comes out in your dancing, it's even worse and gets more frustrating. You might have a great idea for a move, a styling, something you hear in the music, but you only commit to it half way because of your practicality and that makes it come out fudged and half-assed. I know because I've been there many times. I actually am an elected official of half-assed-Ville. (Come visit, enjoy the scenery).

And at that time it behooves us all to remember that it's a dance. Sure it's okay to be practical about it and want to get better, even stress about getting better, but it is a DANCE. And it should ultimately be about having fun. Not about getting things right or wrong.

In other words , from time to time when you feel yourself stressing too much about the dance, give yourself a break and repeat after me:

"Ahhh ... Just Screw It!"

And have some fun!

Dancing With Music (it's not just about the moves!)

2006-01-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

From the title of this article you can pretty much guess where I'm going with this. However, I thought I'd really get into some detail here (VISUAL AIDS VISUAL AIDS) to illustrate this.

This came about when I had showed the Swingin New England "Invitational Lindy" clip of us to our class. Even though this was in a contest, what it is to me is a very captivating social dance - something that everyone can enjoy being a part of (you can hear people laughing in the background and you can see people smiling as they watch us) And for me what makes it captivating is that we had a lot of fun and we made our dance very much a part of the music.

The question from a student (lead) was how to start practicing dancing with music and having fun in that way.

The two main things to keep in mind:

1) have a lot of fun.

2) hear the music and react to it.

To achieve both, you need to dedicate some "brain power" to the task. This means thinking less about moves so you can relax more (have fun) and also spend more brain resources on hearing the music. You can go a long way to achieving both by reducing the number of moves you do to the ones you know by muscle memory (usually 10 to 15 percent of what you know). Since they are in muscle memory, your dancing will require less thought and you can ease the pressure of your brain.

The Five Move Dance Formula

You can have a really nifty dance by doing just "five moves". Okay, in reality it's not five moves, but five categories of moves. If you happen to know only one move in each category, then it's five moves.

Oh, and four of the categories are what I would call "formations" or moves. There is one category: mess around which is not really formation or move based. It is freestyle based. So for some of you that are less inhibited you have unlimited moves here. For the more shy and inhibited, you may have zero moves at the ready. More on this later.

Since this article really applies more to the intermediate dancer and above, you should already have a good vocabulary of patterns in each category (except possibly the mess around category). So having one or two moves in each category in your muscle memory should not be much of a stretch.

Okay, so here are the five categories along with a flash demo so you can see what I'm talking about. (YAY VISUAL AIDES!) The categories are color-coded to go with one of the visual aids later in this article. The order of the categories is also based on the visual aids later in this article.

Mess around is freestyle dancing which is either the hardest or easiest thing for people to do. No strict formations or steps required though they are helpful for the more advanced stylings such as the "lollie" variation I do in the demo clip before Sheri goes into her fancy footwork. If you have challenges with this one, I'd just try tip-toeing in place for the entire mess around period. Or possibly hopping on one foot. Or walking like a Jurassic Park dinosaur. Do you think I kid you on all these?

Also try different positions for messing around such as open position, closed position, and side-by-side position.

And by the way, I would loosely categorize side by side Charleston into the mess around category.

Make it more advanced: work on getting an advanced level connection (lead/follow). Then when you mess around she can feel your rhythm through the connection and mess around with you. Such as doing lollies, charleston, etc. Also learning jazz dances REALLY helps here such as Dean Collins Shim Sham and The Big Apple. So instead of tip-toeing through it you can do fishtails, shorty georges, apple jacks, etc.

Send outs basically means from closed to open. Most sendouts you see in Lindy land are the eight count send out. I prefer six count send outs ala the "East Coast Swing" outside push turn (which I do in the demo). Basically any way you go from closed to open I would classify here.

Make it more advanced: Practice your connection and timing on turns. Ladies practice balance and centering for turns. In the demo, my basic six-count sendout is an outside push turn. A more advanced sendout would be the pop turn (or inside turn). From there you have a lot of variations such as pop turn free spin, pop turn left hand, pop turn right hand, pop turn reverse turn a.k.a pop turn push turn, shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... that's, that's about it.

Eight count is a basic swing out. And in this category go all the eight count swing out variations like inside turn, outside turn, apache a.k.a. texas tommy, etc.

Make it more advanced: Practice your extension and patience. Your counts "one" and "five" should be prepped by the counts before (eight and four) to make your swingout feel "yummy". Your patience comes in when you let yourself extend all the way out before leading (or being lead) back in. Both of these elements you can see in the demo clip.

Bring to close is what it sounds like ..going from open position to closed position. (It's the reverse of a send out which is going from close to open). So any way which you go from open to close I would classify here. Many people do this with a Lindy Circle (eight count). I again do most of my bring to close in six counts.

I like the bring to close because it sets up the side-by-side mess around.

Make it more advanced: practice doing it in four counts, six counts, eight counts, ten counts, etc. So no matter when you start it, you can add or subtract counts so that when you start your next move (such as a mess around) it will start on count one.

Pull across is also what it sounds like it should be. Basically any move that gets her from one side of you to the other side of you I call a pull across. The most common is a six count underarm turn (like the demo). I also call this a Watch the TV type move. Imagine you're watching a television set and your follow keeps walking in front of you distracting you from what's on television.

Make it more advanced: Use different hands. Add a turn. Have her pass by the back instead of the front. You have a lot of variations you can do here. Right off the bat if you just switch hands you have four variations: (lead's left/follow's right, lead's left/follow's left, lead's right/follow's right, lead's right/follow's left). Practicing good connection in both arms is sufficient. Being ambidextrous helps too!

And that's it!

Those are my five categories.

Now when you dance I don't expect you to try to go through all five moves and think to yourself "okay I've done moves one and three, not a lot of four and five lately so I got to throw those in." If you do that, you go back to thinking too much. The point is more that you don't need a lot of complicated moves to have a really good social dance. It's about having fun and dancing with the music. For me when I'm having fun dancing I tend to need to simplify things so that I can hear the music.

With that in mind, here is the Swingin New England Invitational Lindy clip. I have three versions up here.

The first version is the clip itself. Watch it and see if you can see the five moves/categories in there. Actually, just watch it first like a normal clip and just enjoy it and note how attractive it looks and how handsome I am ... ermm .. or I suppose rather how cute Sheri is. Then watch it again and see if you can see the move categories.

The second version is the clip with a number on the screen letting you know which category I am executing on the screen. So this is here to help you organize your thoughts as to what move I'm doing on screen and what category I'd put it into.

The third version is the clip with a number and subtitle of me telling you outright what category I'd put the move in. Sorry if the captions aren't too readable. I will work on increasing the quality of that and putting up a new version soon.

And as a reminder, here are the five moves/categories:

First Version: Clip only

Second Version: Clip with Category Number

Third Version: Clip with Category Number and Description

In closing what I wanted to illustrate was these steps to improving your dancing with musicality and styling

1) Simplify. We have the five categories of moves here and you need one move in the five "move" categories. Thus the "five move dance" theory.
2) Listen to music. You have brainpower to spare now with your 15% move utilization. Use it to listen to music.
3) Slowly increase your move vocab back up. As you start learning to listen to music, start throwing more moves back in. Also start taking other dances (hip hop or tap) to increase body movement vocabulary. And learn The Big Apple or Dean Collins Shim Sham (or both!) since both dances are chock full of great jazz steps and movements to increase your mess around vocabulary.
4) Have Fun Dance freely. This is also a part of step 3) since dancing freely helps increase your mess around vocabulary. But moreso, this is what I think makes for an inspiring, attractive, and captivating dance. Not just the great technique or moves but that you can visually see a couple in tune with each other and the music. Of course if you think the original clip actually was not that attractive, then maybe this all doesn't apply to you but you still read through the whole article now didn't you?
5) Seriously, have fun! And this needs to be repeated. Also I didn't want to end on the number "four".

Have fun and good luck!

More Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend

2005-12-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

As a followup to last year's article: "Some Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend", here is a new list of five gifts. The cool thing is this time I'm actually writing it before the holidays are here versus last time I wrote it on December 27th. See? Sheri is making a more organized man out of me!

That being said, this article will actually be less organized. I actually organized the gifts into categories last year. This year? Yeah not that organized. I'll just surprise you along the way ... (well, if I don't know what's coming next you shouldn't either).

1. Their Own Little Piece Of Internet
Price Range: TIME to TIME plus $5 to $10 a month

A creative and original gift, and something that is fun to have, especially for swing dancers. The idea came to me because many swing dancers carry around "swing dance cards" (as opposed to business cards) and hand them out with their contact info. And I don't just mean teachers .. I mean everyday dancers. So why not a website too? Or some little carved out space of the internet for them for pics, movie clips, blogs, etc. Definitely helps if you already have your own site, blog, or myspace page already. Here are a few ways to go about it.

myspace.com - if you are familiar with myspace already, then help them set up a myspace page and introduce them to the world of hoarding for comments! If you don't know how to use it, set up an account for yourself, get familiar with it, and then help them set one up also. Great way to spend time together, and myspace makes for a nice "free" website for blogging and uploading a few photos.

typepad.com - a non-free blogger website that has a lot of great features and tools. So pay for a one year subscription for them and let them set it up. Chances are they may procrastinate on getting set up on it so what better way to spend time with your friend then to help them set it up. Choose pictures, backgrounds, etc. For a great example, check out my friend Shannon's page: ShaInLA.

Your Name Here - or create a web site with the domain name of their choice! This is the more expensive and complicated type but definitely one that can be made very personal. Web hosting is pretty cheap these days. You can build out the site you want and host tons of videos, pictures, whatever. Plus, they get to have their own domain name like BenAndSheri.Com or whatever. Yes, ego-stroking is a wonderful thing. Feel free to email me if you need any tips. As an example check out my brother's website which I made for him: www.richiro.net To host his domain I set up an account for him here which is $7.95 a month: mediatemple.net See Figure 1



Figure 1: Some very cool websites

2. Geekswing Gear
Price Range: $7 to $30

For the most fashionable and geeky of swing dance gear, check out this FABULOUS site! Go to Geekswing.com. See Figure 2.



Figure 2: Geekswing Merchandise

(shameless of me, isn't it? )

3. Dance Lessons
Price Range: $30 to $80

For the swing dancing friend, why not buy them some private or group lessons?

For private lessons, just ask your favorite instructor (or his or her favorite instructor) about logistics and then create your own little gift certificate and print it out for them. Private lessons range anywhere between $50 to $80 for most instructors. Not too bad.

Or perhaps a monthly series of group lessons? These generally are anywhere from $30 to $60. And it doesn't necessarily have to be swing! For my birthday a few years ago Sheri bought us some tap lessons which were really fun (she took them with me!). So maybe some Tap, Hip Hop, or Tango (which seems to be the big thing now). See Figure 3

Figure 3: Dancing!

4. December 1998 GQ Magazine
Price Range: $5 to $30

Interestingly this issue has Vince Vaughan from the movie "Swingers" on the cover. But the reason you want to buy this issue is that there is a really awesome article about Frankie Manning including the story of how Erin and Steven sought him out in New York. It's a bit hard to hunt this one down since it's a recent magazine and is usually one that's thrown out in the trash. You can sometimes find it on ebay for around $5. Otherwise you have to hit one of those magazine collector websites and if so you'll have better luck using search terms like "vintage GQ magazines for sale" and then seeing if they sell GQ. Price could be very inflated as I found one for $30, but the article and photos are great. See Figure 4

Figure 4: December 1998 GQ (isn't he dreamy?)

5. Customized Items Online
Price Range: $5 to $30

There are a lot of sites out there now that will let you customize an item at a pretty good cost. Here are two of them:

CustomizedGirl.com - If you specifically want to customize a t-shirt, there are a lot of clothing options at Customized Girl, more than any store I've found.

CafePress.com - probably the most trafficked-website in this arena. Though CafePress lacks a bit in the types of clothing they offer, they make up for it in offering a large number of non-clothing products. You don't have to manufacture the products, just put them in the store online. There is no cost to you! Then just visit your own store and buy the item and voila! You just made a customized item for your friend. Go check it out. You can customize postage stuff, mugs, pillows, lightswitch covers, etc. See Figure 5



Figure 5: Lots of neat stuff!

What to customize it with? Photos of them swing dancing, maybe photos of the old timers dancing (Frankie Manning, Dean Collins, Hal Takier, etc.). Or even just a few phrases or two like "Obsessed Swing Dancer ... and loving it".

Anyway, have fun with it and have a good holiday season!

My Favorite Swing Follows Part II

2005-11-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

In "My Favorite Swing Follows", I gave a quick Top 10 list of my favorite follows at that time.

Interestingly, over time two follows consistently remain on my "Lindy Crush" list and that is Sheri and Debbie Gitt. The rest of the list will rotate every now and then. Okay, just something interesting I noticed.

This time I ended up focusing on follows who may be a bit lesser known. They are fabulous to dance with so keep an eye out for them.

In the previous article I discussed what I thought made a good follow. The short of it is strong connection, creativity, playfulness, and most importantly a big smile to let me know they're having fun (I have such a precious ego!). With that in mind, it's not a big surprise Sheri and Debbie are my two favorite people to dance with.

On with today's list (in no particular order)

Top 5 More Recent Favorite Follows of Swing

1. Mara Jennings (FL):
Mara teaches with her partner Joel Green out in Daytona, Florida. I first saw Mara Jennings at Camp Hollywood/National Jitterbug Championships 2004 where she and Joel won the Amateur Lindy contest with some very clean dancing. We didn't meet though until the last day of CH/NJC. The next time I saw her was at Beantown 2005 and that's when I got to know her a bit more and dance with her. And that's when I found how fabulous a social dancer she was (and is!). Since then, anytime I see her I always try to get in at least a handful of dances with her (most recently Swingin New England 2005). She has great creativity (influenced by other ballroom dances it seems), great connection (slow to medium tempo) and best of all she looks like she is always having the best time no matter whom she is dancing with. Definitely one of my new favorites!

Sukkid and Mara

Joel and Mara

2. Jee-Sun Lee (Korea):
Jee-Sun is a teacher based in Korea. A few months ago (August 2005-ish), two friends of ours, Dan Young and Min-Q Kim, had written me and Sheri to let us know that she would be coming to Los Angeles and if we could host her. One of them also said that Jee-Sun was Korea's best follow so I was quite intrigued. On her way to Los Angeles she made a stop at ALHC 2005 and won 3rd in Classic, 2nd in Advanced J&J, and 1st in Pro-Am! Yes, I became VERY intrigued and when we finally met and danced she instantly became one of my favorites! Personality wise, she is the type that has fun all the time both on and off the dance floor. The best way to describe her is she is a live-action anime character with all the expressions and bubbliness that goes along with that. Basically, it's hard to NOT have fun when she's around. Add to this her great connection (slow to medium-fast) and playfulness and it's not a surprise that just about all the leads at LindyGroove were falling over themselves trying to get to her for a dance. I'm looking forward to dancing with her again, hopefully at CH/NJC 2006!

Jee-Sun, Sheri, and Sun-Hee

Andy and Jee-Sun

3. Heather Eide (CA):
Heather is a dancer and DJ out here in Southern California (woohoo for a local!). Her dancing has improved leaps and bounds the last four or five months in all aspects. She has always been very cheerful and happy to dance with, but her creativity, playfulness, and connection has increased tremendously in recent months, and at all tempos! Most recently I danced with her at the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-A-Thon and it was one of my favorite dances! Looking forward to seeing her compete in 2006.

Jeremy and Heather

Heather just chillin'

4. Tiffiny Wine (CO):
Tiffiny and her partner Dan are growing a heck of a scene out in Denver, CO. I first met Tiffiny at Swingout Northwest 2003. We didn't talk or dance much socially but were in the advanced plus workshop track together so I did get a bit of dancing in with her. Though she seemed quite shy at the time, she gave a very memorable performance at the talent show night as Virgnie Jensen in the teacher skit! Since then, we bump into each other in Southern California quite a bit and usually get a few dances together. We also somehow draw each other a lot in Jack and Jills. To sum up, every dance I've had with her has always been fun for me. She has a great smile and is very playful. I've also noticed that each time I dance with her she keeps getting better. It really didn't hit me until I danced with her recently at the 24 Hour Cancer Dance-A-Thon and had one of my favorite dances of the night. I'm looking forward to dancing with her again as well as seeing her and her partner Dan compete (recently they've also been tearing up the competition scene together).

Tiffiny Wine

Dan and Tiff

5. Kavita Kaul (England):
All the follows listed thus far are coincidentally follows I have danced with recently. Breaking that trend is Kavita who is just awesome fun! Not sure how else to describe her. I've met up with her the last two Beantowns not to mention she comes to visit So.Cal at least once a year also. Sometimes it's hard to dance with her because she's a) laughing too hard, and b) causing me to laugh too hard as well. Nevertheless, she is also very stylish and very fun (slow to medium tempos) and in general I don't see how anyone could dance with her and not be having fun. Plus there's the great english accent. Even cuss words sound better coming from her mouth .

Jenny, Kavita, and Nathalie

Kavita dancing/laughing with Ben

There's my list. Hope you enjoyed it!

Computer Lesson # 1: Seven Steps To Fixing Your DSL

2005-10-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

Swing dancing is only one of my great passions. Computers is another. I am a full time UNIX system administrator and part-time computer jack-of-all-trades. With that in mind, I figured perhaps putting a few "real-world" accounts of me fixing problems would be a great resource for many of you out there. So here you go. Enjoy!

Problem Background: DSL / internet access is out

We had unplugged the computers and network devices in the back office so we could paint the walls of the room. When we moved the furniture back again and I hooked up the home network our DSL service remained down.

Here is a simple diagram for your reference:



STEP 1: Isolating The Problem
Using the scientific method, take out one variable at a time.

Any one part of the diagram above can be causing the problem. So start by taking out some items in the diagram, testing the configuration, and seeing if it works. It helps to make educated guesses when you can. For example, the wireless router (a.k.a. "router") has had a history of acting up and has not worked as fully advertised. Let's take that out first, giving us:



Sure enough, hooking the computer directly into the modem without having to use the router worked. At this point you can probably start notifying anyone around (for exmaple, your wife) "I'm betting we're going to need a new router".

If you're right, you will score some computer whiz points for having such foresight.

If you're wrong, you will score some computer whiz points for being able to give at least some diagnosis this early on.

WIN WIN BABY!

STEP 2: Prepare Additional Supplies To Help Diagnose And Fix
What's handy to have in a network situation is a handful of cables you know are working

So what we need to do is round up a bunch of cables. Then in the system above which is known to be working (internet is up), take one of the cables out and replace it with a new cable you found. If the internet stays up, we have a working cable!

After this step you should be armed with a good handful (in this case, five) of 10-BASE-T cables which are known to work.

STEP 3: Further Diagnose The Problem (And Fix If Possible)
We now put the offending piece of equipment back in and test ..

Putting the wireless router back in we have



And does it work? No, it does not. So we've isolated the problem to:



Considering that the LEDs on the router are nasty orange and not happy green, I am not hopeful.

To be thorough, which a good computer whiz always is, the next step is to make sure for some wacky reasons the cables are not causing the problems. We have a total of seven cables (two in the diagram plus five in the hand) and two cable placements (left side and right side of router). That gives us a total number of 7 * 6 = 42 different combinations to try.

In the interest of time and perhaps more to the point to not hear your wife say, "FREAK! You're going to try all forty combinations?!" (to which the wrong reply is "It's forty-two, not forty"), we will only try five different combinations.

And sadly in each combination, the router is not happy and has the bad depressing orange lights. So now we know we need to replace the router with a new one.

STEP 4: Milk It. Milk It For What It's Worth
This is an important step as it will help you increase your reputation as a whiz to those around you. Steps may vary but below is a general guideline of what you may expect.

Curse The Evil Piece Of Equipment.
Most effective when people are around, say for example, the wife. Something along the lines like:

"I have been using this brand of network equipment for years with no problems. But this wireless router has been giving me problems .. their quality has slipped. I'm definitely going with [Other Brand] of router next time. They've gotten good reviews and are much more reliable. So we'll need a new router. Probably $100 to $200..."

You now sound like an ace and the people near you will be impressed!

Be Prepared For Others To Suggest Advice.
Such as, oh I don't know, your wife saying

"Well, can't you just shake it or something?"

Take A Moment To Explain To Others (such as, your wife) The Intricacies Of Computer Repair
This comes with experience but if you don't have the experience, just make it up as you go. In this instance, first point out that this "shake it / whack it" fix is pretty good for toner. It can also be helpful for other things with moving parts such as printers, computers, hard drives, etc. Sometimes a good WHACK is exactly what is needed for a piece of equipment to right its course.

And then explain how with network equipment, the proper fix is to not "shake it" but instead to "hokey-pokey" it:

you push the cable in
you pull the cable out
you push the cable in
and you jiggle it all about

From here you can continue to curse the router and tell your wife that you will be purchasing a new router tomorrow.

STEP 5: Remember, She's Your Wife
Seriously, remember ... she's your wife!

So if she hypothetically says something like:

"Buy a new one? Really? Are you sure you can't just shake it?"

Just remember you are married for life to this person and it's easier to just do it, show it doesn't work, and silently know "I Told You So" then to draw it out into a long debate

STEP 6: Make A Last Ditch Repair Effort
It behooves you to make one last effort... to make sure you have not overlooked the tiniest little thing. You can still save the day!

For example, as you are shaking the router to appease your wife *grumble grumble*, it's possible the power cord to the router might pop loose. At this point you can then find that the power cord plugged into the router all this time was actually the power cord for the computer speakers (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!). Of course this power cord would not be powerful enough to power the router, leaving all the ports orange.

At which point you can triumphantly hunt down the proper power cord, plug it in, and watch all the ports come up a happy green!! You have TRIUMPHED!!

STEP 7: Seriously, Don't Gloat
Take it in stride. You are, in fact, the man.

Sure sure, your wife may start to laugh hysterically at you, claiming that "Hey! Shaking the router worked see!" and other jibberish. Yeah, that's fine. Let her have her fun. You still know that at the end of the day it was YOU who fixed the problem. As easy as it would have been to just say "Yeah, we need to buy a new router" you knew to hang in there. You knew you would be able to fix it and save you and your wife $200.

You have thusly earned the right to tell anyone who is still around and interested, "Oh yeaaaahhhhhh" (just like the Macho Man with one pinky in the air).

Tips For Musicality And Styling

2005-09-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

So the last few weeks I have been spending time looking for a new job. This means lots of site interviews, phone interviews, and talking to recruiters.

(By the way I start my new job next week. Feel free to ask me how it's going in a few weeks).

So for phone interviews, some of the tips that recruiters have given me to sound "more appealing" on the phone are quite interesting.

Not to mention a few years ago I also was helping my mother-in-law out with recruiting and sales and came across the same tips in my training on how to sound better over the phone.

And to save a lot of you some trouble, you can also just watch the movie "Boiler Room" a few times too (awesome movie!).

Over the last few days I came up with something interesting. Before we get into that, I need to first share with you four of the more helpful tips of sounding better over the phone:

1. Smile a lot. It comes through on the phone.
Smiling will make you sound more cheerful and happy and fun. Even while talking over the phone (even thought he person can't see you) your body and voice will embody your smile.

2. Act As If
"Acting As If" and really "Believing As If" will result in your body physically reacting stronger. And eventually you won't be "acting" anymore but you will "become" that kind of person.

3. Be Active. Motion Creates Emotion.
By being more active, you will sound more enthused on the phone. In the case of the phone interview, stand up and move around. By moving around a lot you will sound more animated then if you are just sitting down.

4. "In the beginning was the word"
Interesting take on a quote from the bible, but when you vocalize and say things, it's more powerful on the body then just thinking them and your body physically will react stronger.

So Ben, what does this have to do with dancing?

Glad you asked. Do any of these questions sound familiar?

"So yeah what can I do for styling?"

"Can you teach me some musicality?"

"What do I do for those last few counts on the basic?"

"What do I do when the lead leaves me out there .. I hate that ..what do I do? I feel so silly sometimes when he does that."

Musicality and styling is really being more expressive in your dance. The two main points to more musicality and styling are:

1) Practice letting your body be more expressive to music.

2) Relax and have fun .. the less nervous and self-conscious you are, the more relaxed you are, the more you are giving your body and soul a right to just let loose and in return your body and soul will become more expressive.

Yes I know ..easier said than done ... but now we can use the tips above for being expressive on the phone to being expressive with music.

1. Smile a lot. It comes through in your dance.
Smiling will make you sound more cheerful and happy and fun. Even while talking over the phone (even thought he person can't see you) your body and voice will embody your smile.

Well, obviously in dance they will see you smiling. And that in itself is a good thing. But the key is smiling will also be expressed through your body. It will give your body a chance to relax and "do its thing" so to speak.

Not to mention the more you smile, the more you'll have fun, and the more your partner will have fun. And the more he or she will smile. It can be a bit difficult dancing with someone who is too nervous, too self-conscious (or too into themselves) to be enjoying the partnership of the dnace.

For those that know me well, you know this is what I find most attractive in dancers... that they are having a lot of fun. I mean sheesh.. look at Sheri and her smile. We be talking HUGE !!!!!!!!!! ( see Figure 1)

Figure 1: Big Smiles

2. Act As If
"Acting As If" and really "Believing As If" will result in your body physically reacting stronger. And eventually you won't be "acting" anymore but you will "become" that kind of person.

This rule plays into the first rule very well. Act as if you are the most fun dancer in the world, the best dancer in the world, or whatever. More importantly, act as if your partner is an awesome and talented person to dance with. The idea is that the confidence will come through in your dancing and soon enough you will become whatever you were previously acting. Same with your partner.

Now granted if you're "acting as if" you are the best technical dancer in the world, that still won't work without a lot of practice and dedication.

However, if you're "acting as if" you are the most fun dancer ... that is much easier to feel and accomplish. MORE IMPORTANTLY: act as if your partner is the most fun person you've danced with that night. In many cases you'll find that both of you will end up having a fun, enjoyable, and expressive dance. ( see Figure 2)

Figure 2: Expressive Dancing

As an end note on this tip, Frankie Manning himself gives the same advice. He tells the leads when you dance with a lady, you are in love with her for those three minutes and that she is your queen. In other words: act as if you are in love for those three minutes. Act as if she is a queen.

3. Be Active. Motion Creates Emotion.
By being more active, you will sound more enthused on the phone. In the case of the phone interview, stand up and move around. By moving around a lot you will sound more animated then if you are just sitting down.

We take a bit of a different road on this one in that this tip gives us a good way to practice our musicality and styling.

From this tip we developed an exercise we do in many of our "Musicality 99" classes (not quite "Musicality 101" but even more elementary than that ... see?). We have people get up and dance to swing music. By dance, we mean "club dance", like by yourself like you'd do at a club. Or in the shower. Or while driving the car.

The idea is when you simply just dance, you let your body "move" to the music how it wants to, and this is how your body will express itself ..and voila! The first steps of musicality and styling. Not only that but it will also train your ear and body to get in tune with swing music progressions. You can train your body and your mind. Why not spend time training your ears?

So when you are in the shower, or cleaning your domicile, or in the car, put on some swing music and just dance! ( see Figure 3)

Figure 3: Car Bopping

4. "In the beginning was the word"
Interesting take on a quote from the bible, but when you vocalize and say things, it's more powerful on the body then just thinking them and your body physically will react stronger.

This rule can be implemented in two different ways.

One interesting way to implement this is to sing along or hum along OUT LOUD to whatever song you are dancing to. If you have the vocal talent for it, skat along with the music as if your vocal chords are another instrument. As you vocalize out loud, your body will have a stronger expression with the vocalization.

NOTE THAT THIS is something you will want to do mostly off the social dance floor as a way to practice. Meaning do this when you are by yourself in the shower or car (see previous step) OR when you are practicing with a partner. We personally encourage our students in class to do this during class as well. On the dance floor it will more likely than not be a bit annoying to your partner unless you know that partner really well in which case both of you should sing! ( see Figure 4 .. alcohol optional)

Figure 4: Singing Together (and other extra curricular activies)

The second way to interpret this tip (the more common way) is that it is a method to "Act As If". We basically mean positive affirmations here and in conjunction with "Acting As If" you may find some surprisingly good results in helping you be more expressive, relaxed, and fun when you are dancing. And remember to not just "Act As If" you yourself are fun, but if need be "Act As If" your partner is fun and you'll find some great things will happen. ( see Figure 5)

Figure 5: In The Beginning Was The Word

Cheers!
Ben

Fun With Google Part I

2005-09-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Want to kill some time?

By the way, I have been told that the contents of this article may result in an unhealthy amount of consecutive hours on the internet. So beware!

Use Google and enter in "[Your Name] is" and find the results that you like the best. That's how it originated but you can definitely get more creative than that.

Here are a few examples:

Ben is so eager that he has to interrupt and do this part himself. "Oh Mama ..."

ermmm.. i didn't know anyone was watching

Ben is an alien

explains a lot doesn't it?

Ben is this week's download

only the shareware version though

BEN is the result of a close collaboration between the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

yeah but i like to call them "mom" and "dad"

Ben is wearing so much hairspray when he hardly has any hair

yes i do enjoy the baldheaded man spray

And since Sheri isn't around to post for herself:

Sheri is known to the community as a lesbian.

(huh? news to me)

sheri is kewl! sheri is great! sheri is kewler than frosted flakes!

could not have set it better myself

Sheri is now an avid bell collector

well i did complain a few days ago about a ringing in my ears

Sheri is cursing a lot right now

....

Sheri is a knockout!

(well duh!)

Other interesting queries to play with:

"[Your Name] will be"
"I saw [Your Name]"
"[Your Name] said"

etc..

Just beware of spending too much time on the computer. With that I leave you the article below:

Man Dies After 49 Hours of Computer Games

Aug 10, 8:10 AM (ET)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A 28-year-old South Korean man died of exhaustion in an Internet cafe after playing computer games non-stop for 49 hours, South Korean police said Wednesday.

Lee, a resident in the southern city of Taegu who was identified only by his last name, collapsed Friday after having eaten minimally and not sleeping, refusing to leave his keyboard while he played the battle simulation game Starcraft.

Lee was quickly moved to a hospital but died after a few hours, due to what doctors are presuming was a heart attack, police said.

Lee had been fired from his job last month because he kept missing work to play computer games, police said.

Computer games are enormously popular in South Korea, home to professional gamers who earn big money through sponsorships and television stations devoted to broadcasting matches.

A Two Year Journey: Introduction

2005-08-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is the first part in a series of articles basically journaling my thoughts and other details relating to our competitions for the last two years, starting from our return to competition (Camp Hollywood 2003) to our most recent competition (National Jitterbug Championships 2005).

I've had something like this on my mind now for awhile. I first got this article idea at the beginning of this year when someone asked me "how much time do you devote to your dancing?"

(The answer to this question spawned this article, aptly named: How Much Time Do You Devote To Your Dancing?)

At the time I wanted to create something more extensive (like a blog or journal) which I hoped would be at the least interesting, and perhaps to others relevant and/or inspiring. And perhaps helpful too by passing on competition tips we've gotten from the pros as well as a few tips we've come up with ourselves just from experience.

The main snag, outside of time, was that I never really thought there would be enough interest in something like this to warrant writing all of it down. In fact, I would not be surprised (or take offense) if some of you out there who start reading didn't make it all the way through. I do tend to be quite wordy.

What finally got me motivated to write this was not just our Lindy Showcase win at the most recent 2005 NJCs, but also what followed the next week which was some great (and deep) conversations we've had with lots of people regarding dancing, choreogrpahy, competing, and things of that nature.

So this past week, I've had a bit of time to reflect and gather my thoughts and, well, I suppose we'll see how it goes.

Before I get started, I wanted to mention that the NJC Lindy Showcase competition this year was incredible. We knew we had a great routine, but as far as winning or placing we were in the dark (more details on this later), especially after finding out who some of the other competitors were. The very stiff lineup of pros competing included:

Benjamin Ricard & Genevieve Kerouac (Quebec)
Marty Klempner and Valerie Salstrom (Cleveland)
Joel and Allison Plys (San Diego)
Ben Morris and Doug Silton (Los Angeles)
Vincenzo Fesi & Isabella Gregorio (Italy)
Zack Richard & Maryse Lebeau (Quebec)

All the above dancers are capable on any given day to bring the house down and win a showcase contest.

Another great surprise was Dan Newsome and Tiffiny Wine from Denver. I remember their routine from NJC 2004 which had great elements to it (they did not place). I was looking forward to seeing what they would come up with this year. We weren't able to see their routine (we were preparing for our routine) but heard from many folks it was outstanding. So keep your eye on them too!

Alright. Onward!

First, the "prequel" if you will. Here's a bit of an intro which will take you up to our return to competition.

We both started dancing in 1998 individually and met in mid-1999. With friends encouragement we decided to start competing in 2000.

The year 2000 seemed to fly by and we did much better than we ever thought we'd do. Out of it all, one very important thing we learned that year was to talk to the judges and get their feedback. Sylvia Sykes helped us immensely to that end. Bless Melinda Comeau for setting up judges meetings at her events (Jitterbug Jam and Swing By The Sea). Although sometimes I wonder if Sylvia gets tired of Sheri and I pestering her so much after each contest . Sylvia definitely is a true hero for us because whether or not she is tired of it, she definitely doesn't show it and is always ready to give us feedback.

The other very important thing we did that first year was get into choreography. Up until then we never thought about choreography. We didn't know about "Showcase" divisions or the US Open. We'd never seen competition videos or clips. After all, we had just started competing and to us swing dancing was improvised. It was when we had decided to compete at the 2000 World Lindy Hop Championships that Barbl Kaufer thankfully clued us in that the final fast round of WLHC was expected to be choreographed. So we choreographed something together in two weeks and that was our first brush with routines which definitely added a new dimension to our dancing.

After such a great year in 2000, we thought we were ready to really compete in 2001. We came out ready at Jitterbug Jam 2001 to win and to do well for all of 2001. However, the intensity compounded by personal issues were a bit too much and we did quite poorly all the way through the 2001 National Jitterbug Championships

After NJC 2001 we were done with competitions and ended our very brief foray into the national dance scene. We did attend Camp Hollywood/NJC while retired so we could watch our good friend Jenny Kim compete with the Hollywood Hornets, but outside of that we were basically "retired" and stuck to the local scene.

Then an interesting thing happened. As we sorted our personal issues out we realized what a great relationship we had and started dating in December of 2001. We were officially "boyfriend/girlfriend" in January 2002. Got engaged July 2002. And married May 2003.

Being performers at heart, we decided to choreograph something for our wedding. We definitely felt a bit rusty but had a tremendous amount of fun with it which is what got us into thinking about competing again.

So we started talking about competing. We went to NJC 2003 to watch Jenny and the Hornets compete and I pushed us to compete in the Jitterbug contest just to see how we would feel in front of people again. Sheri wasn't so sure about it. In the end, we did end up competing and BOY did we feel rusty rusty rusty. And nervous. And ..well, it was not a great night for us.

So after some more talking, we finally decided if we were going to return, we'd return in the showcase division giving us time to prepare and have no surprises. And we'd compete at ALHC 2003 (Showcase) and the US Open (Lindy Showcase).

And that's the "intro" (wow much longer than I expected).

Next article will be how we started preparing, choreographing, choosing music, and going over all the tips we'd received from Melinda, from Sylvia, and from others so that we could make as worthy a comeback as possible.

Cheers!
Ben

Trivia #1: Ben and Sheri's First Contest Though we count Jitterbug Jam 2000 as our first contest, we did compete once before that: December 1999 at the Derby. I believe Tip and Holly won. I suspect we finished in last place. We did horribly and I was too nervous.

Trivia #2: Ben's First Contest I did compete twice before that as well. The first time was at the Green Hotel in Pasadena during the summer of 1998 with a friend from school I had not seen in years and we entered on a whim and got fifth place. To be honest we actually sucked .. we sucked enough that about 30 seconds into our dancing the emcee said on the mic "Come on! Let's give them some applause!" ... and he repeated that a few times while we were dancing. Three interesting notes to put you in the right timeline: I had not started Lindy yet. Minn and Alicia won 2nd. Jofflyn and Megan won first.

Trvia #3: Ben's Second Contest For fun my friend Angie Bracinni and I started practicing aerials and later decided to enter one of the "Blast From The Past" contests being held all over Southern California. We entered the one at the Derby and won third place. We were actually quite stoked about this! Who knows .. perhaps we would have entered more contests but a few months later Angie was not able to make it out as much and a new gal stepped into my life. (That would be Sheri).

Trivia #4: "Shout And Feel It" Sheri and I did our first routine (WLHC 2000), to "Shout and Feel It". This also marks the first time I ever edited music. I used SoundForge Pro Version where I worked and was so blown away with it that I bought SoundForge XP (home version) and pretty much use it any time I can find an excuse too.

Trivia #5: Windows NT/XP ding.wav file With "Shout And Feel It", we started our routine right when the music started so I edited in two "beeps" as cues for the music. We have continued to use the same two "beeps" for every contest (except "Footloose" where we started on count five instead of count one). The "beep" sound is from Windows NT/2000/XP and is the "ding.wav" file switched to a higher frequency.

Triva #6: "Rhythm" Our second ever routine, Jitterbug Jam 2001, was done to "Rhythm" and we got second place. We were hoping to win first. Even with the change in routine because Sheri sprained both ankles, it still would have been difficult to beat Nick Williams and Erin Byrne who won first with "All The Cats Join In".

Trivia #7: "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" Our third routine, NJC 2001, was the "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" routine which Shannon Sheldon says started the entire "Ben and Sheri have crazy fun routines" thing. Shannon has told me that routine was the initial inspiration for her and Nick's routines the following year. While I consider that a very nice compliment, I don't know if we're worthy of it. Looking back on the routine: it's cute, has some nice elements, but more than anything I think it was the song choice itself which made it memorable.

And as far as choosing "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", interestingly the inspiration for song choice and choreography had come from watching Tip and Holly's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" routine (Montery "Swing By The Sea" 2001) which no doubt was inspired by Jason Esparza and Tena Morales 2000 ALHC Pro-Am "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" routine

Anyway, the point being, we all are inspired by someone else. And the best places to draw inspiration are from competitions and traveling.

After a lot of So.Cal dancers went to ALHC 2000 you could definitely sense a change in the air for the future of Lindy in Los Angeles.

Trivia #8: "Kitchen Mechanics' Night Out" For our wedding, May 2003, we choreographed to "Kitchen Mechanics' Night Out/Shout And Feel It". (It's in our movie gallery). We choreographed it in two weeks specifically to be performed at our wedding at 10:30pm at night as a "finale". We were not sure what kind of shape we'd be in after a long day of wedding preparation and things like that so you'll see some cleverly disguised "rests" choreographed as us hamming it up.

Separated At Birth V: "Guys With Testosterone"

2005-07-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of "Separated At Birth" thingies floating in my head .. believe you me. I didn't even get my "Separated At Birth: OSDF Style" one out yet featuring Paul and Sharon. So that really was next ... and then Beantown 2005 came.

So during Beantown, Sheri repeatedly kept telling me:

"Doesn't Kenneth look like John Malkovich?"

(This would be Kenneth Norbelie of Kenneth and Helena of Shout N Feel It).

"No not really .. he looks more like Lance."

(This would be LindyGroove Lance).

Plus, I've always maintained that John Malkovich beared more of a resemblance to Adam Vallus out in Detroit. Though come to think of it Mr. Malkovich bears some resemblance to Lance also. I guess that means in a transitive sort of way, if John Malkovich resembles Lance and Lance resembles Kenneth, then John Malkovich sort of resembles Kenneth.

Hmmm...

Well, I don't know about you but perhaps some visual aids would help.

Kenneth Norbelie	LindyGroove Lance

LindyGroove Lance	John Malkovich

which of course means (from Separated At Birth IV)

Kenneth Norbelie	Keenan Ivory Wayans

Oh yeah ... and:

John Malkovich	Adam Vallus

Is it just me? There seems to be an ..ermm... "glaring" attribute they all share. But I think this is better expressed by one of my favorite folk singers Christine Lavin.

"Bald Headed Men" - Christine Lavin "Live At The Cactus Cafe"

Cheers!

Oakland Swing Dance Festival 2005 Journal

2005-05-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

So much to write about, so little time.

So we are more than freshly back from the Oakland Swing Dance Festival 2005 (organized by Paul and Sharon: http://www.paulandsharon.com ). We put up our photo gallery last week-ish. And now here is the OSDF 2005 Journal.

By the way, you can Click Here to visit our OSDF 2005 Photo Gallery.

Overall we had a great time. We always do when we travel ... I'm not sure if that necessarily means if it's because we particularly enjoy traveling for dance or because we're just really easy to entertain. Anyhow ... we had fun and encourage everyone to check it out. Great blend of instruction and social dancing. I would have liked to see the levels kept a bit more in line. That being my only (and minor) complaint, I'd say it's a safe bet we'll be back next year.

Without benefit of the schedule in front of me, here is my (our) OSDF 2005 memoirs:

It started out with something Sheri and I rarely do and that's fly up to Northern California. We figured we'd be a bit too tired Sunday 6pm to drive back. THANK GOODNESS TOO BECAUSE WE WERE WIPED OUT!

Okay so we arrived about early morning, just in time for our hosts to wake up (Steve and Heidi) (who by the way were wonderful hosts!)

Now, we got in to Oakland early to either 1) sleep, or 2) walk around. And of course what do we do? Well, we did get a nice lunch (dim sum!) followed by Sheri getting a nap while I ended up most of the afternoon playing with Heidi's computer and fixing up a few things on it and before you know it dinnertime rolls around.

I also was quite enthused to see a 7-11 within walking distance (I'm a 7-11 junkie!) but for some reason never got around to getting there until the last day.

So after an afternoon of playing on Heidi's computer, Dinner rolled around and I think Heidi cooked for us. One night she cooked, the other night we went out. Anyhow, from what I remember this is the night Heidi made us dinner and it was SUPERB! That gal got some cooking skills. And then we were off to our first OSDF!

We were fortunate to get there in time to attend Dawn Hampton's special session. This is the first time I got a good chance to listen to her and the second time I got to watch her dance. The first time I saw her dance was I believe back at ALHC in 2003 (?). At the time I was impressed with her dancing more because I figured that's quite a lot of movement for someone who is an old-timer.

So either she got better or I am more discerning with my eye ... but in her demo with Manu Smith I was floored. I could visually see the way she was feeling the music in her soul. And saw that even though her movements were small, they were VERY distinctive and subtle yet really clear. I have yet to even perfect being able to make my bigger movements so defined and distinctive, much less making my very small movements so distinctive and soulful. For any of us who have worked on this, you know how really difficult this can be. And here I was watching Dawn and she was just gorgeous.

*sigh*

Then the dance started and though we weren't too inspired to dance, we got to catch up with a few of our No.Cal dancing friends: most notably Bill and Kay. And quite a LindyGroove contingent showed up also. (Not just So.Cal, but "LindyGroove" So.Cal). There was Lance, Vicki, Jen N., Karen S, Debbie (of course), me, Sheri, Shaheed, and Alina. Lance a.k.a. "Mr LindyGroove" was in particularly fine form. The DJ'd music was pretty good. Not great personally for me, but I had a lot of fun. It was good also to see Jason Christodolou (even if I probably misspelled his name). It was definitely good seeing him again and I was looking forward to watching him teach.

What was also fun was seeing performances by some of the various troops in SF including my personal favorite SF Bounce (mostly because of Kay). Kay had introduced me to various members and I really like them a lot, including "The Fabulous Defazzio" (the girl in green on the far right and back) and later Heidi (front in pink). Kevin and Carla's team also performed which was a trip because, well, they all danced and dressed like Kevin and Carla. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I had flashbacks to our wedding when our friends came out wearing "Ben" and "Sheri" masks.

We skipped out on late night and went back home to "sleep early". Of course after getting in our jammies we headed downstairs to say goodnight to Steve and Heidi and ended up staying up an extra two or three hours chatting (I think I fell asleep during part of this), finally hitting the very comfortable guest bed at around 3:30am.

Saturday was a lot of fun... that's why I usually prefer camps over exchanges because of the teaching as well as the dancing. I was disappointed in the level restrictions of the class. The classes were pseudo-tracked in that there were levels assigned to each class but no auditions were needed so class-hopping was okay.

I had heard at previous OSDFs Paul and Sharon were more strict on the levels of the classes. However in doing so the advanced class had too few people. So I was curious how this was going to turn out.

What happened this year was that there was no regulation on who could attend what class. This is definitely a bummer in the classes I was looking forward to for advanced stuff (especially Steven & Virginie advanced classes). I would have been happy even if the classes were relatively advanced (meaning advanced relative to all attendees) but it's just disappointing trying to practice all the great concepts when strict beginners rotate in on a regular basis.

That being said, I hope next year there is some sort of regulation. Either that or else not assign "levels" to the classes. Either way, I still had a lot of fun because I also learn a lot about teaching by watching the great teachers teach. So all in all I was still very happy about the classes.

We took from the fabulous Steven & Virginie, Jason & Sylvia, Elliott and Katrine Balls To The Wall (one of my favorite classes!), and more Jason and Sylvia. We also got a lunch break where we actually did some work together with a few other great folks up there: Steve, Heidi, David Graybill, Debbie, and Nicole (don't remember her last name).

Not to mention it was a really nice day and hangout time was nice. This is one of my favorite pics with three wonderful gals: Natasha, Debbie, and Sheri (Sheri is especially one of my favorite gals

Dinner with Steve and Heidi was excellent again. Followed by a bit of dress up and our second night at OSDF. This time Barbara Morrison was playing and THEY WERE ON FIRE! I haven't felt that inspired to dance for at least a few months. It was awesome and I got plenty of good dances in. Not to mention the other great reason for attending these workshop weekends is having the opportunity to dance with so many of our best dancers and teachers. I was especially looking forward to dancing with Virginie and the incredible Ms. Dawn Hampton.

My dances with Dawn were quite inspiring. At first I thought the reason her movements were kept so small and subtle was because she was fragile (you know, being an old-timer). So as I was leading her to the floor for a dance I was thinking, "Yeah, this will definitely force me to listen to the music" (because I wasn't expecting to do swingouts or turns with someone so fragile and brittle).

Well, first off the dance was just plain fabulous. Dancing with her really made me feel all the subtle movements she was doing and tuned me in better with the music. But the big surprise came when I did a few singouts and WOW she is a STRONG woman. She definitely is not brittle. When I did swingouts with her she really gave me a tremendous amount of connection to the point where I felt like I could do swingouts over 200bpm quite comfortably with her. Her connection was that strong and reactive. Which means that her subtle movements are not a limitation of her physical prowess. Sothough she is capable of the strong connection for big movements she can also somehow keep it small and refined. That really awoke me up to the fact that my body movement is just years behind and there is so much to learn.

*sigh again*

Of course my favorite dancers were with Sheri. Sheri ended up with a really busy night too and she was very much on fire. So sufficed to say we had one of our better nights dancing. And when we dance when both of us are having one of those better nights, it's just PG-13 orgasmic. We even pulled out the Eric-Fenn-Inspired Robot!! (Well, Eric probably would not want his name attached to that... oh well).

Oh, and Heidi was also fabulous to dance with. Interesting thing I realized is those who are really good in Bal or Lindy tend to suffer a bit on the other dance. Even with Sylvia Sykes sometimes I feel like I can tell what she's been teaching more of lately. So one thing I have noticed as I dance with Heidi more is that her Lindy is really consistently good. I'm not a good enough Bal dancer to know if her Bal suffers (I imagine not considering that they teach so much Bal). So I was surprised at how groovy her Lindy could be too. Definitely one of my favorite people to dance with that night. So major props to her although when she and Steve tried to do our robot ... yeah, not even a contest ours is better.

Saturday night we again skipped out on the late night party. We had a lot of fun at the dance and were pretty wiped out and needed to conserve. So again logically that means we get in our jammies, go down to say goodnight to our hosts, and end up on the couch until 3am talking.... (and again this time I crashed during the conversation .. I think for much longer this time). The only thing I remember is everytime waking up and seeing Steve and him asking me, "You sure you don't want to get to bed bud?"

And something about me doing some sort of slap-lead on Heidi's forearm... that was another topic of conversation I was a bit too out of it to remember.

The next morning we did Yoga (wow we are not flexible!) and then I went off to Paul and Sharon's Q&A class which definitely was good. We covered a lot of topics including state of the teaching community, tips on teaching, etc. . It was a nice change to just sit and talk. Paul simply puts it this way: "Yeah, for the first and last class of the day for some reason we seem to schedule SOYA classes (pronounced SOY-YUH) ... that's SOYA as in 'Sit-On-Yo-Ass' classes". Sheri took Virginie's Body Movement class which Sheri thought was simply amazing. Definitely a good start. We also worked during lunch with our team folk (Steve, Heidi, Debbie, David, Nicole). Followed by David and Debbie's "Happy Feet" class! That was something I had been looking forward to also since I knew they would be teaching some Carolina Shag and the class went really well. A lot of people enjoyed it including one woman who said "My feet can't stop moving! They're so happy!".

Oh by the way, as a teacher Debbie got her own parking spot! Cool! (She had no car, but she had a parking spot. I told her she should get a little chair and sit in her spot and have a refreshment or two).

We finished the day with Paul and Sharon's SOYA class in musicality. This was pretty good but I think I was too tired and ended up falling asleep during part of it. Which means I definitely would not have been in shape to take an actual class class. Either way, this was it and we had to rush off to the airport (Heidi took us .. they were definitely the perfect hosts).

And that's the story of OSDF 2005. Overall, again besides my minor complaint on the levels, we had a lot of fun both social dancing and learning and just hanging out with friends. I would definitely go again.

And this time I'll hit the 7-11 a bit more too.

Did I mention that not only was there a 7-11 within walking distance to Steve and Heidi's BUT there was also one right next to the Lake Merritt Dance Center!

HEAVENLY!

Getting Started: A Beginner's Guide

2005-04-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

This article is based on an idea sent to me from one of our former students: a one stop article on how to get started in swing dancing.

Genius I tell you.

So this article is targeted pretty much to totally new beginners. (For the non-totally-new beginners, I tried to throw in a few things for you too).

This article is based on my own experience, observations over the years, and also talking to other teachers and dancers. The steps pretty much are in order, both sequentially and prerequisitely (if that makes any sense).

First, our overall approach is from a social dancing point of view. We teach with the goal for people to be able to socially dance with anyone, feel comfortable, be injury free, and most importantly have fun with themselves, their partners, and the music.

Here we go:

STEP 1: Find Out Where To Go Social Dancing
So you've decided you want to learn how to swing dance? Awesome. Now your first step of course depends on why you are interested. Some people want to take lessons just for fun. Most others want to take the lessons to learn how to dance (which usually means socially). For the former, you can pretty much just skip to the "Find Group Lessons" step. For everyone else, we often recommend that you go social dancing first. The reasons we recommend social dancing:
* Most social dance venues offer a lesson with cover charge.
* You'll get to see and experience what the social swing dance scene is like.
* MOST IMPORTANT: Many venues will have flyers advertising other swing events, lessons, and workshops!

A list of resources on where to go dancing:
Where to go Dancing! (article)
LindyGroove (venue and mailing list)
Southern California Lindy Society (mailing list)
Jive Junction Events Forum (So.Cal discussion board)
Or just contact us.

Two good reasons to take group lessons before going out social dancing deals with comfort level. If you feel comfortable braving the social dance scene first, I recommend it. Otherwise, with group lessons you can:
1: meet other people to go out dancing with
2: have at least the basics down so you will feel more comfortable out on the dance floor.

STEP 2: What To Wear Out Dancing (or in class)
Many dancers will dress quite casually when out social dancing (no shorts). It's a very active activity and so dancers dress for comfort. You will get a range from jeans and tshirt to nice pants and button up shirts to even more formal vintage wear. For your first time be on the safe side:
Guys: slacks, shirt with a collar, shoes with a leather (hard or soft) sole
Gals: slacks or skirt, nice shirt/blouse, comfortable flats. Don't wear shoes that will make too much noise. Also no heels! While you are learning you may be prone to be off balance and as a dancer it sucks to get accidentally spiked in the foot by a high heel.

Step 3: Go Dancing (get people to go with you)! And Take The Lesson!
Many times what keeps people from going is that that person does not want to go alone. Even though it's very easy to go by yourself (and if you do, take the free lesson as it gives you a chance to meet people to dance with later) ... I would say it takes someone quite brave to do so. So hopefully you can get some friends to come with you.

If not, that's one reason to take group lessons first (Step 4). Not so much to learn to dance but to also make some friends in class that you can go social dancing with. The above mentioned (Step 1) avenues for finding places to go social dancing also should give you some resources on finding a few introductory lessons as well.

When you go dancing, definitely take the venue lesson:
* It's free and you'll get to learn the basic.
* You will meet lots of folks as all lessons rotate partners. Later in the night you should feel free to approach someone else in the lesson and ask them to dance or "practice what we learned in the lesson".

Most teachers after the lesson will keep themselves available for questions for the first hour or so after the lesson and during the social dancing. Remember though that they also enjoy social dancing as well so be mindful of this as well. Also, pick up all the flyers that are available and sign up on the venue's mailing list.

Step 4: Take Group Lessons Or Group Workshops
Again there are a few reasons you may want to do this step first. The main reason this is Step 4 is now you have an idea of the dance and know what you want to work on and you are basically hooked!

For this step, we recommend the lessons be done in parallel with your social dancing. This will provide a great learning environment and social environment and give you a chance to practice and make mistakes in a non-threatening environment. At the same time you can practice what you've learned when you go social dancing.

Remember at a weekly dance lesson, the teachers sole purpose here is to teach so you should always feel comfortable asking questions.

If your schedule permits it, go for weekly lessons first instead of a workshop. That will give you time for the information to sink in and also give you time to practice.

Workshops are really good too. Just a word of warning that for some beginners it's a lot of info at one time and you probably will not remember even half of it. If you're going in with that in mind, you should be fine. (Those that don't realize this will start to fret that they won't remember it all).

By the way, even advanced dancers won't remember it all after a workshop. Thus, it's always a good idea to bring a video camera with you so after the lesson or workshop you can videotape what you just learned before you forget it. Some teachers will even let you videotape during the workshop but clarify this with the teacher first before taping!

Step 5: Invest In Some Swing Gear:
Now that you're hooked, get some good durable swing gear for dancing in. By now you should have an idea of what most people wear at which venue (some venues people tend to dress up a bit more).

Bottoms: We tend to wear comfortable pants (not sweats) and jeans for casual dancing. And nicer dance pants for the times we want to dress up more. A good place for dance pants is: The Dance Store. I don't know where Sheri gets all her stuff. I'll have to ask her and update this article later.

Tops: Can't go wrong with venue shirts. Get a shirt at the venue you dance at. I also go for solid color cotton shirts that you'd find at Macy's or Mervyn's. I tend to go for Alfani or Brandini. Also for more interesting shirts check out Old Navy or American Eagle Outfitters. Sheri goes to "teeny-bopper" stores for her shirts. Again I'll get specifics and update this article.

Shoes: For shoes, pretty much all of our "formal" dancing shoes are Aris Allens from The Dance Store. For casual dancing we find tennis shoes. Dancing is a very active activity and tennis shoes provide great foot support. Since tennis shoes have rubber soles, "swing-i-nize" them by getting them resoled in soft leather (either suede or chrome leather). We go to Compton's Shoe Repair in Burbank for our resoling needs. You can pretty much go to any shoe repair store to get this done:

A previous article on resoling shoes:
Shoes, Resoling, and Compton's Shoe Repairing - an article on my favorite place to get my shoes resoled. If you mention "Ben the swing dancer said I could come here and you'd fix my shoes with suede so I can dance in them" he will know what to do and what kind of material to put on your shoe.

Step 6: Buy Some Swing Music
Just about any compilation will be good. More experienced dancers shy away from compilations because of specific needs. Beginners (or beginning music collectors) should start out with a few until they are more familiar with what they like. Below should give you a good variety of music (both for beginning dancing and for simply listening to). My top recommendations (in "must have" order):

Really Swingin'

Frankie Manning approved cd compilation. Great big band favorites with a variety of tempos. Great for listening to, learning from, and to use for teaching. A lot of these tracks will be on other cd compilations and cds so you'll inevitably start buying some artist cds that will have these same tracks. But for a starter cd, if you're going to buy only one cd, this should be it.

BBC Presents 50 Big Band Favorites

BBC Big Band is a modern day big band which has recorded a lot of big band favorites from the 20's through 40's. To be fair, the more experienced dancers/listeners will note the band lacks a bit of "zing" which the really good bands from the past had. Generally speaking, I really like this collection. The sound is definitely clean and above average. Not to mention you get a LOT of tracks (50!) for only $10 to $15. Easy to listen to. Good to practice to. And you definitely cannot beat the price! You can sometimes pick this one up at Best Buy for $10.

By the way this is also the same cd set I recommend for wedding receptions. It's modern sounding so it has a clean sound to it. Also authentic swing music tends to have more zing to it for the dancing which may not be what you want for a wedding. This CD set has some great standards, not too "zingy", and a medium range of tempos which provides a happy but relaxing atmosphere.

As Good As It Gets: Swing

On any other list this would be tied with the Frankie Manning cd. On a list targeted for beginners I recommend this third. This is a great compilation of original big band tracks. The selection is awesome and the variety is awesome. I even heard a Glenn Miller "Bugle Call Rag" which I had not heard before on other cds.
The reason I put it third is because for beginners the "raspy" sound of original big band music may be harder to practice to. But any other list, I would say this is a must-buy.

Indigo Swing: All Aboard

Indigo Swing is a favorite among many teachers for beginning Lindy because of the tempo and overall danceability of the music. The better you get the more you may get bored with the lack of very intricate musicality, but for a beginner and intermediate this cd is very solid.

Steps 7 and 8 are listed here basically because neither are really required for fun social dancing. But if you are feeling stagnant or that you're not improving, or basically Steps 1 through 5 are not satiating you, then the below steps are definitely recommended:

Step 7: Travel!
Get out of your own scene and experience another. It's a great way to greatly improve your social dancing and to break through plateaus or feelings of stagnation. There are a ton of great events you can travel to as you will find out from the first step (mailing list, websites, flyers).

But even without special events, basically wherever you travel there will most likely be some sort of social dancing. Whenever Sheri and I travel for non-dancing reasons we always do a google/yahoo search to see if there is dancing near where we are traveling too.

You can definitely start small. For Los Angeles folk, travel down to Orange County. Or even San Diego or San Francisco.

OC Swing Discussion Board:
http://ocswing.com/forum

Northern California Discussion Board:
http://swingtalk.com

San Diego Discussion Board:
http://swingorama.com

For nationwide/worldwide coverage, Yehoodi is a good discussion board to start with:
Yehoodi - nationwide (and worldwide) swing dance discussion board

If all else fails, you can always contact us and we'll see what we can find out for you.

Step 8: Private Lessons
If you aching for more with your dancing and Steps 1 through 5 (or 1 through 6) this is a great route. It gives you a lot of attention from an instructor. Besides the flyers and mailing lists, one easy way to pick an instructor is to find someone you like to watch. Then ask them if they do private lessons. You'll either get the private lesson from them or else they will refer you to another teacher (probably the teacher who taught them). And you're hooked up!

Hope this has been helpful! Feel free to contact me/us if you have questions or comments on any of the above!

Separated At Birth Part IV: "Everyone Looks Like Lennart"

2005-04-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Separated At Birth Part IV: Does everyone look like Lennart Westerlund? (see article: Separated At Birth Part III)

Lennart Westerlund	LindyGroove Lance

Then again, Lance resembles a lot of folks too ... for example:

LindyGroove Lance	Kennan Ivory Wayans

You know a lot of people don't see that one... seems pretty clear to me .. or else I am just a bit too deranged (though I would refer to it as "great lateral thinking")

Moving on: by the transitive property (yes the math was coming ... saw it from a mile away did you?) where if a = b, and b = c, then a = c, that logically means:

Lennart Westerlund	Keenan Ivory Wayans

You all know that one day Lennart will accidentally bust out into "HomeBoys Shopping Network" mode. Then you'll see exactly how perceptive the "One2Swing: Separated At Birth" research department truly is... ("Mo Lin-day! Mo Lin-day! Mo-Linday!")

Oh, and as the bonus... you know when they say married couples tend to start to resemble each other a bit ? (or is that supposed to be pets?) ... ah well... for your amusement:

Ben	Sheri

Outta here !