Swing THIS!

The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities.
-- Daniel Day Lewis

Friday, February 26, 1999
One year ago: Relieved

Tonight was the second anniversary party at the Century Ballroom. Hallie has really worked hard (as a partner at first, as a sole proprietor since the middle of last year) to build the business and make it a fun place. Bravo!

Tonight was also the debut of Swing THIS! in "Eight to the Bar." The group is a new performance troupe comprising eight or nine of the best dancers in town (in my opinion, because they are my friends and teachers). They've been rehearsing for months, and have put together a choreographed show with costumes and lighting and all. This will be happening every other Friday for the next four months.

I was curious to see how they were going to work this, so I got to the ballroom in plenty of time. Since I wasn't eating dinner, I got a table right on the dance floor. I hadn't made arrangements for anyone to join me, but I felt sure that I could get some dance buddies to sit with me, which indeed did happen. I think I ended up with five or seven people at "my" table, including Joe Ross, "Up and" Adam, Anne Livingstone, and others. The room was pretty filled up by the time the show was supposed to start, thank heaven. They even delayed a few minutes because there were people lined up at the door, trying to pay their money -- there's a bit of a bottleneck there.

I was surprised to see my buddy Darren Holloway! We'd been talking in email about what it might take for him to jumpstart the lindy and swing scene in Calgary, but if he told me he was coming to Seattle, I forgot it. I don't know if it was seeing the Century when we went dancing last April that got him started in this direction, but I know he had a great time at Swing Out Northwest as well. He told me that he'd been in several hours of private lessons with Greg during the day, and he has more lessons scheduled tomorrow and Sunday with other teachers. Exhausting! but he'll be better able to help other beginning dancers back at his home.

Finally the show started. It was great! There was a good variety of numbers -- different styles of dancing and music, all linked by a taped old-time radio narration that started with Lindbergh flying over the Atlantic. That's how the Lindy Hop got its name; a reporter asked one of the early Harlem dancers what the dance was that he was doing in a contest, and he called it the Lindy Hop because Lindy was all over the news. Media tie-ins aren't new, at all.

The dancers were Hallie and Loviça, "Cat Daddy" Chris and Hep Jen, Stacey, Steve, Allison, and Benjamin. I see this as the beginning of great things for them!

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After the show, the tables that were actually on the dance floor were cleared away, and Hallie taught a beginning dance lesson. She's indefatigable! Then Casey MacGill and the Spirits of Rhythm played. That's the band that played New Year's Eve at Swing Out Northwest, the dance camp I went to over the holidays. I really do like their style! I bought their new CD at the First Friday dance a few weeks ago, and I've been listening to it a lot!

My friend Mike Wendt and I finally crossed paths, and I got a copy of the CD-ROM that he's put together, of all the pictures that he and Hyper Dan and I took at dance camp. I'll put a few of the best in a dance album on a satellite website.

I had a good time dancing, but either because there was a shortage of leads, or because I was slightly fatigued and didn't work as hard to find partners as I might have, I sat out a few more dances than I'd have liked to. I stayed until the end of the evening, though, and had a lot of fun, of course.