My friend Jerry posts some cool video of the lindy hop group dancing down the streets of Manhattan at the 2008 Dance Parade. Again we had the lovely Swankmobile leading the way, blasting swing music for us to dance to and the crowd to enjoy. We had a nice group of a dozen lindy hoppers, with more picked up along the parade route.
While there were supposedly several thousand dancers registered to participate, the parade seemed more sparsely attended than last year. And the crowds along the parade route were fairly thin. I was less than crazy about having to sprint after the Swankmobile several times because of how we the parade was paced by the marshalls. It’s impossible to run and dance at the same time, despite our best efforts.
After a couple of exhausting hours of dancing in the parade, we met up with the rest of the dance crews in Tomkins Square Park in the East Village for more festivities, free dance lessons and performances. I got in on one of the cyphers (dance circles) with other b-boys, lockers, poppers, crumpers and other random dancers and drunk people. I have to say the music was less than inspiring — pounding house music. It doesn’t make any sense to me why you would have an event that is supposed to feature 31 different styles of dance and yet you blast out only one kind of music.
Despite all the hassles, the parade was a lot of fun. And nice preparation for the fabulous Mermaid Parade in June!
UPDATE 5/19/08: Swifty has just put up his awesome pics from the parade.