The word "blogger" embarrasses me as I write something just every few months. Hardly a blogger but since I am on a plane to Australia.. I have time!
So my fiancé Laura and I went up to Leeds for a little get away weekend recently. The arcades and shopping were great but we coincided our weekend away to support Alex Parker and the night he was managing as part of the Leeds University swing dancers. I left the dance completely inspired and it reminded and enforced my vision about what I want for our amazing London Swing Patrol dancers.
This is what I loved about the evening in Leeds:
First of all it had a really friendly vibe. People smiled as you walked past them and people were not only dancing -they were on the sides having a laugh. Was this because it was in the friendly North? I wasn't sure but I was super impressed by the leadership and how they conducted themselves. I watched as they greeted, shook hands, thanked people for coming and took beginners for dances. Any scene is shaped by the leadership.. and this was a positive energy that I loved being in the presence of. It reinforced that our teacher training should always talk about leadership as that is the role our teachers play in so many ways. I see any senior dancer at a social night as a leader. NO it doesn't mean you have to dance with new strangers all night.. but wouldn't it be great if we all made a commitment to ask some newer dancers for a dance at each event.
The jam session was long, entertaining and full of thrills and spills. The dancers were queueing up to jump in and people were grabbing anybody randomly. It was a really organic jam session, and I saw arrange of beginners and top kids involved and it was awesome in terms of raw energy and passion. Some flashy moves and lifts were attempted and not everything was executed as planned.. but that was what made it so cool. Dancers just having a crack with no pressure to be perfect and no concerns in the world that anyone would care. This is how a jam session should be so if you read this and are a new dancer.. a jam session awaits you. Talking to the team up there I learnt later that Cat Foley teaches what a jam session is really early on so it's part of the learning culture for beginners. I love that.
The tranky doo.. did anyone in the room NOT know it when Dipsy Doodle came on? It was a rare sight to see so many jump up for this. Was a cool moment.
The first band was tight and the second group offered variety, dance floor brilliant and seeing friendly faces from Sheffield, Nottingham, Durham, and so forth was great.
So it steeled my resolve to ensure our social nights have a certain openness and friendliness and that jam sessions are accessible for all and more than anything.. fun! They may not get a million hits on YouTube.. but it will be great for those actually in attendance. As scenes develop so along comes the preciousness.. I have seen it a few times. So let's look out for the new kids and make sure they feel like the y are in the bubble and not on the outside looking in.
If you have read this far.. I am amazed so thanks.
Scottie :)
read, digested, seconded!
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xx
Here's a thing: My impression is that scenes like Leeds, Edinburgh and Cambridge are really grass-roots and community-driven. That might be because the University is a big part of the scene in both cities, or maybe just that they're relatively new and small.
ReplyDeleteIn London by contrast, the scene is dominated by competing swing businesses* - people who have taken the plunge and made a career around dancing. One side-effect of this is that the scene **as a whole** doesn't (and can't? shouldn't?) have any real leaders. It also perhaps means that when there are Pros around, everyone else finds it easier to defer any leadership duties to them.
I think when you compare scenes, I suspect that a lot of differences can be traced back to the Pro/Am balance.
All in all an interesting post. My first camp was FSOS in Leeds. I hope to see more of your writings in future.
Cheers
D
p.s. My (also intermittent) blog is at http://duncangmstuart.co.uk/blog/
* For the record I don't personally see anything wrong with this at all: I think it's inevitable given the maturity of the scene, the number of actual and potential dancers, and the high cost of dancing space. Grass-roots lindy does exist in London, but it tends to be rare, fragile and temporary.
Good point Scottie, it's easy to forget the new dancers in an established scene, but new people are what makes a scene vibrant and it's important to remember why we dance - for fun! And because it's sociable, therefore we meet new people. Thanks for the reminder :)
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