Old School Routines

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.
-- Saul Alinsky

Monday, September 10, 2001
One year ago: New Battery
Three years ago: Praise and Blame
Four years ago: Curious Mixture

I got on the phone this morning, waited throught a long time on hold, and finally checked with nwlink's tech support -- where was the IP address and other info we needed for DSL at the new place? Oops -- their records said they'd emailed me, but I'd certainly never received it. The woman dictated the info for me, and said she'd email it again. Huzzah! Jack was eager to work on this all day, so I went off to Capitol Hill.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

I'd helped Jack's daughter H--- find out where and when the local Civil Air Patrol meetings are held, so she and Jack went off to that this evening. I was able to get out dancing! I'd heard about a workshop being taught by Viola Spencer and Jonathan Garrigues, sponsored by the Savoy Swing Club, billed as Old School Routines. I've taken class from both of them many times before, and I think they are good teachers.

There were about five couples at the beginning of class. For some reason, the jazzercise class held in that space beforehand doesn't believe in opening the windows, so we went around and opened them up (well, Alexis did most of it). I was surprised to see a big group, six or eight folks, come in after a few minutes. They were obviously not swing dancers yet (shoes, clothes). The guy who brought them realized the class wasn't appropriate for them in a few minutes, so they took off (and returned later).

Too bad there were people in the class who were in over their heads, also. But the two leads who were lost kept trying, which I give them credit for.

I understood why Viola wanted to teach the class. Changing styles in lindy hop have meant that there's a repertory of steps that used to be commonly known, that aren't taught or danced that much now. Two reasons they've passed out of favor: They are suited to music that isn't played as much (mid to up-tempo swing, but not super fast), and a lot of them aren't strictly lead-and-follow. But put too many steps in your dancing that aren't lead-and-follow, and soon you are in the middle of choreography, which I try to stay away from.

So Jonathan and Viola were teaching routines, which was disclosed in the class name. I should have paid more attention to that, but oh, well, I was there and enjoyed the class. I did okay on the footwork variation (that type of thing is tough for me!) called "slip-slops". The things that the leads had to do were tougher to learn, I think, and they'd prepared too much material to be covered in one hour-and-a-half session.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

I had fun at the dance afterwards. One of the guys who'd been in the class told me he'd only been doing the lindy hop for two months! I danced with Kevin, a cute young guy from Vancouver B.C, and asked him if he ever read the delphi forum for lindy in that city. "Never! I stay far away from it!" he exclaimed. There's been a recent dispute there, and he wanted to avoid it.