First Swingout

I would send her, at nine years old, to a boarding-school, in order to learn a little ingenuity and artifice: then, sir, she would have a supercilious knowledge in accounts, and, as she grew up, I would have her instructed in geometry, that she might know something of the contagious countries...
-- Richard Sheridan, Mrs. Malaprop in "The Rivals"

Thursday, September 20, 2001
One year ago: Microfiber

I drove Jack's daughter H---- to her second lindy hop class tonight. I'd forgotten (if I ever knew) that tonight was a "DJ Talent Search" night; four or so folks would do a half-hour session of DJing in the after-class dance.

This second class of the series was a vital one! But I guess they all are, if you want to learn enough to actually lindy hop in five one-hour classes. But this is the class where "Cat Daddy" Chris and teaching partner Maren get these students to actually do a swingout, the basic pattern of the dance. When this happened, the folks who were waiting in the raised area near the door broke out into applause. Chris and Maren have done well at introducing concepts of leading and following early in the learning process, which I think is an improvement from when I started learning.

While I was waiting for class to be done, I chatted with Levi, a long-time dance buddy that I hadn't run into lately. He warned me that he was recovering from a broken right arm, which made me slightly nervous when dancing with him later.

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I was pleased to get a chance to introduce H--- to Meighan and Marie, two dancers that run the Seattle Swing discussion board on delphi.com. H--- also got asked to dance by some leads who know how to dance, which must have been an interesting sensation, and differs from struggling with beginning leaders who are in her class.

I believe it was coincidence that all the guest DJs were named Lee (almost): Leighpez (college student originally from Hawaii), my old buddy Levi, Mr. Lee from Olympia, and my friend Marie (if you pronounce it "Mah-lee"). Too bad we didn't stay to hear Marie DJ, but H---- was definitely getting tired by that time.