Last night was one of those frustrating / inspiring experiences that happens often in Herrang, where you have the most amazing band playing your favorite song, a roomful of the best lindy dancers in the world — and you can't dance.
The Carling Family Band is perhaps the quintessential lindy hop band. They are all incredibly talented musicians and they play some of the hardest swinging tunes ever. They clearly love lindy hoppers and hoofers, inviting them up on stage, calling out people in the audience, and hanging out with us later in the bar. Gunhild, the front person for the band, plays like EVERY instrument, sings beautifully, and taps like a madwoman.
And yet I didn't dance.
First off, I was dead tired from organizing and dancing in a hip-hop open jam for an hour just prior to the concert. Breaking and lindy hop don't mix, kids! Well they do, but my body was wreck after doing both for a couple of hours.
I haven't been feeling well in general, so been operating at about 65-70% overall. I'm trying to avoid the dreaded "Herrang Flu" that takes out hundreds of campers every year.
And even if I had the energy to dance, the dance floor was jam packed with crazy lindy hoppers. It was more of a slam dance than a lindy hop dance, frankly. Luckily, most people are cool about it, but you can only take so many dance collisions before somebody loses a limb or an organ. And I'm a small dude surrounded by giant Swedes and Germans.
Oh did I mention that the dance floor was slick as oil? Somehow powder has been getting on the already very fast ballroom floor in the Folkets Hus, making every move treacherous and every spin an unintential triple.
I am complaining, but honestly I had a really great time just listening to the band and enjoying all the cool performances during the sets. Ronny is a consummate hoofer who just killed it on stage.
He was followed by my friend Jandy from Korea who did a sweet solo charleston thing. She is the funkiest Korean that I know!
Then Gunhild called out Dawn Hampton, and had Dawn rock it out while the horns serenaded her.
Even Gunhild got into it, dancing with Peter Loggins on the dance floor!
Anyway, I think the Carling Family are still around today. And I am so far feeling more energetic. So hoping for more dancing to them tonight!
I was there that week too. That was a great night.
I’d like to comment on the crowdedness of the dance floor. I actually don’t mind it, and in some respects see it as a good thing. There are at least two reasons for this (which are connected to one another).
First, in any creative endeavour, constraints are a good thing. They force you to find novel reactions to situations, which is the essence of creativity and self-expression.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, I find that dancing in a confined space forces me to really *dance* with my partner. No fancy moves, no well-rehearsed swing-out variations, etc. – all of which is cool, but sometimes distracts us from connecting and interacting with our partner. In a confined space, you’re forced to find some other way to do this. Perhaps just walking back and forth a few steps, but in a cool, jazzy way; perhaps some micro-but-musical lead-and-follow. It doesn’t really matter what, so long as it works for the pair of you, as part of a three-minute slide of fun that the two of you are sharing.
It should be said that these things get easier the better I become as a dancer, and I do understand that at some level you do need the space to try stuff out. But once you have the vocabulary to express yourself, space shouldn’t be too much of a problem – and can actually help. What matters far more is having the music to inspire you – and that certainly isn’t a problem with the Carling Family on stage.
“..slide…”?! I meant “slice”.