America's Best Dance Crew (Season 4) – MTV Shows Now that season 5 of "So You Think You Can Dance" has finished (congrats, Jeannine!), it's time to move on to my favorite dance show on TV "America's Best Dance Crew." Season 4 kicked off last night on MTV, and the first full episode is already…
Category: Dancing / Music
Quaker Service erupts into dance party! (video)
Here's a really cute music video that has been flying around the Quaker online community, directed by Ben Schiller featuring Quaker musician Jon Watts. Who says Quakers don't dance? I want to go to THAT Meeting for Worship. That said, I wish the content were a bit more accessible to non-Quakers. Rapping about our internal…
Baby Soda Jazz Band in Washington Square Park today (video)
I played hookie from work for an hour to catch the Baby Soda Jazz Band playing in Washington Square Park today. Baby Soda is always a joy to see and almost impossible not to dance to, particularly when they are joined by the inimitable Meschiya Lake of New Orleans on vocals like they were today. …
Cab Calloway + Betty Boop = the swingin-est cartoon ever
Check out this amazing classic cartoon produced by Max Fleischer that features Cab Calloway and his orchestra playing as Betty Boop goes on a very surreal adventure in search of the "Old Man of the Mountain." The whole thing just jumps and shakes and shimmies to the swingin beat from beginning to end. (Via BoingBoing.net)
How you know you’re a lindy hopper
You walk into an elegant social club: chandeliers, leather chairs, paintings of dead white guys everywhere, the works. A full swing orchestra is playing Basie. Around you are a dozen women dressed to the nines in ballgowns and high heels. You think, "This sucks. When will someone who can DANCE get here?" Then you head…
Movits: cool Swedish hip-hop jazz (video)
My friends on Yehoodi have been posting about this Swedish band Movits, who apparently are playing in town this week. I love the sound of this song from their latest album. And gotta give them props for including the Swedish lindy hop troupe the Harlem Hot Shots in the video!
Ken Swift: “We are destroying our bodies to do what we do.”
"We are the hardest working artists in hip-hop because we are literally destroying our bodies to do what we do." – Ken Swift, legendary b-boy, talking about breaking at "Gems" Class, July 2009
5 b-boy crews from 3 continents gather for “Hip Hop Generation Next” at Lincoln Center August 6!
I'm pretty excited about the "Hip Hop Generation Next" event at Lincoln Center on August 6. It's an amazingly dope line-up of crews representing b-boying from all over the world: From New York City and Chicago to South Korea and Sierra Leone, five crews from three continents reinvent hip hop dancing with breathtaking virtuosity, jawdropping…
Frankie 95 Festival DVD set now on sale!
I am happy to announce the exciting news that the much-anticipated official DVD set from the Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival is now on sale! Just $75 for a whopping five-DVD set, here's all the amazing, professionally shot footage that you'll get: Frankie's 95th Birthday Festival Highlights, Hellzapoppin' and Jack & Jill Competitions, Performances, Jams…
Final Night of Midsummer Nights Swing features Dance Contest to honor Frankie Manning!
Tonight Bill Bragin, head organizer of Midsummer Nights Swing at Lincoln Center, announced that on July 25, the final night of the summer dance festival will feature a dance contest to honor the late swing dance legend Frankie Manning! Twenty couples will compete for a season pass for next year's Midsummer Nights Swing, and other…