Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
Lots of folks have already shared what their experience was like at ILHC 2022. But I haven’t heard much talk about why this event was a game-changer: it centered the Black roots of lindy hop. After two decades of dancing lindy hop, the 2022 International Lindy Hop Championships was the first major lindy hop event…
I’m incredibly excited to share with you this wonderful video produced by KQED Arts on lindy hop and its African American cultural roots, featuring Columbus-based dancers Tyedric Hill and Shannon Varner. Plus a bunch of other dancers you will probably recognize! Special thanks to Tena Morales and the rest of the International Lindy Hop Championships…
On Tuesday I got back from one of the best trips to New York City ever. There’s a lot to recap, so here we go: Skating All Over NYC I was honestly most looking forward to finally getting to skate in NYC. Twenty years ago, I visited often the skate circle in Central Park and…
Last Friday, Manu and I walked into an elegant, empty ballroom in Times Square, NYC. “You know where we are, right?” Manu asks me. “The Edison Ballroom?” I reply. “Naw, dude. This is the Supper Club.” I stop in my tracks as it hits me where I’m standing. We’re in the $%^&ing Supper Club! For…
“One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes–I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life.” Frank O’hara, 1957 Source
[Cross posted to Yehoodi.com] Earlier this month, one of the original Yehoodites, Anne Bernstein, (aka “Caledonia” on the message boards) passed away, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Anne was a Brooklyn-based lindy hopper, cartoonist, and television writer. I only knew Anne Bernstein a little. Anne was part of the mob of lindy hop…
My friend Albert Boulanger brought this awesome factoid to my attention: to compete with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in the 1939, the Golden Gate Ballroom also featured roller-skating. Can you imagine getting to lindy hop AND rollerskate in the same lavish ballroom? Sigh. SOURCE: The Birth of Bebop, By Scott DeVeaux · 1997
So way back in 2008, my friend Amy Winn convinced me to go with her to check out the Dreamland roller rink in Coney Island. I think it was a fundraiser because it was threatened with closure? I was blown away by the artistry of the rhythm skaters we saw. Here’s a bit of footage…
I wrote this 25 years ago. It feels as relevant as ever. ROOSEVELT ISLAND May 1995 Come to the window, the work can wait.See the craggy line where the water meetsThe shores of Roosevelt Island,Isn’t the tide higher than it was a day ago?Global warming, you say, glibly. I think of my homeland: 7,000 islandsThat…
Hanging with swing friends back in the day. The “Khakis Swing” Gap Ad is twenty years old. Woah. I’ve been reminiscing about what it was like to dance in the midst of the “neo-swing” era. I started lindy hopping around 1997 in New York City. I remember taking my first class with my friend Denise…