A day with Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

My random life in London

The day I met Magneto! One thing I love about London is the random gigs and opportunities you get. My latest random adventure was getting to spend an afternoon as an extra on the set of a new Sherlock Holmes film called Mr. Holmes. It’s a feature film set to be released next year and stars Ian McKellan as the legendary Sherlock Holmes. The film is based on the novel A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin, and will be centered around the retired detective, aged 93 in this film, who is grappling with an old unresolved mystery, while facing the decline of his memory and deductive prowess.

I got to meet Ian McKellan himself. He was really lovely chatting with us extras, and even offered us lollies. In the film, I’ll be hugging a lady farewell (Melanie) who I open the door for and as she steps on the train. The date is 1947 and its fun dressing up in the fashion of an era. I have the smallest role in the world but fun to be involved.

Overall, it was a great experience and a nice break from the crazy world of Lindy Hop that I’m so immersed in at present.

Thanks again to Bernadette Cumento. 

A weekend with Jean Veloz in London.

An incredible weekend with Jean Veloz

It’s been just a little over a week since our epic Jean Veloz weekend and we’re still on a high from it. For those of you who may not know who Jean Veloz is, she is a legend of Hollywood style Lindy and the only original Hollywood style dancer for the 1940s still alive and teaching. At the time Jean came to London she was 90 years old.

I met Jean Veloz years ago in Washington DC at a camp that used to exist called Groovie Movie. I met Jean a few times after that and then again in 2013 at Camp Hollywood and that’s when I decided that it would be fantastic if the London Lindy community had the opportunity to meet and work with Jean and to listen to her stories. It would be such an incredible experience for them to meet someone so historically important who has contributed much to the Lindy scene. We did something similar with Frankie Manning years ago and still remains one of the best things I’ve ever done.

So, several email exchanges with Rusty Frank later we were fortunate to have Jean with us for a weekend.  This was also her first time teaching in England so it was a great honour for us in many ways. I’m proud of my team who have been slowly and carefully placing posts on Facebook over the last 12 months to create a real awareness of who Jean Veloz is since we have a lot of new dancers. Nothing gave me more joy than watching all the respect the Londoners showed for her, and the way they always stood up, and how they queued up to meet her and have photos with her.  

I also loved how jean stayed to the end at all three social events and clapped and cheered the dancers in front of her. The lady oozed with positive energy.

Words simply can’t describe how exciting it was to have Jean here. Her teaching was incredible. The way she moved was incredible. It was a great honour for me to be able to dance with her. I’m really proud that London put its best foot forward and we had three great nights with Jean. I thought she’d be exhausted by the final night; I kept reassuring her that it would be fine if she only stayed for half an hour. But every single night she stayed right to the very end and just loved watching the dancers dance would get so excited watching people do their swing-outs. She’s such a lovely lady and was so gracious. It was such an inspiring weekend and one that we’ll always remember.

Elif, Sibhe, Sally Young and Laura Hicks were great behind the scenes making this weekend happen and I couldn't have done this without the team.

Some other highlights:

* Jean talking about dancing in front of and then chatting with Gene Kelly.

* Jean talking about her love of the Big Bands from her day.

* The London dancers and their absolute respect of Jean

* The joy for all to have Jean around.

* Rusty and her great teaching. I learnt loads.

* Jean and her humble and lovely nature.

Here’s a video and some great photos from the weekend:

Jean Veloz dancing at Wilton’s Music Hall with one honoured guy.

Photos: Friday at Wilton's Music Hall

Photos: Saturday at the Bishopsgate Institute

Photos: Sunday at Red Rhythm

Sartori - a tribute.

A beautiful dancing tribute to Sartori - member of the Swing Patrol community.

You often hear of requests for a dance group to perform at weddings and birthdays, but it’s not too often that you get a request to dance at a wake. And yet we recently did and what a special tribute it was. It all started when I received a call from Kannan who explained to me that he was having a wake for his girlfriend who had passed away due to cancer. One of her great loves was dancing with Swing Patrol and so he wanted to hire two teachers to perform for the final hour of the wake, as a tribute to his girlfriend and her love of dancing. Sartori had performed at the last Performance Ball at York Hall and had many friends in the Swing Patrol community.  I was really touched by this phone call and immediately promised to support the event.

It just so happened that my whole teaching team was meeting for a teacher training and catch up session, so I told them about the request and put the idea to them. Before I knew it, what was originally going to be two people dancing turned out to be the entire teaching team dancing for Sartori’s friends and family. The team were unanimously supportive of doing this gig for Sartori. It was a very sad and solemn day and the speeches were quite powerful. Sartori’s boyfriend spoke about how his biggest regret was not having gone swing dancing with her. At the end, the teachers performed and put on quite the show for that special last hour of Sartori’s wake. as per the wish of Kannan the event finished on a real positive high even though it was naturally really emotionally charged.

Afterwards, when I was having a drink with the team, it was just great to reflect on the impact Swing Patrol had on Sartori. I’m really proud of my team for doing this gig. They gave up their time to do this for free, and most of them didn’t even know her. She was a student at Finsbury Park so the Finsbury Park teachers knew her, along with a few of the others, but the rest of the teachers didn’t. They were so generous and all pulled together to put on a performance in memory of Sartori. It really makes me proud of what lindy hop and the Swing Patrol community can do, and to be part of such a great environment where people just love what they do.

I felt this was worth writing about and wish I knew Sartori better as going on the tributes and speeches this was a very special person with a wonderful passion for life.

The better quality photos thanks to Nikki Zigras.

Thanks to Bernadette Cumento who is assisting me. 

Paris in a day with the entire Swing Patrol teaching team.

I have been living in London for five years now. I wanted to celebrate the SP London 5 year milestone in a big way. I think life is all about moments so the plan was to create a memory that we would talk about for a long time. We put on a free swing ball that sold out in a few hours, we had a T shirt designed to acknowledge all those who had taught for us at some stage over the last five years and we created an album of every Swing Patrol class and social that shows who we were at the age of five.

The more adventurous vision was to take the teaching team to Paris for a day. We had been saving for this for 12 months and booked these tickets months ago. It was hard to believe that the day had arrived. Everyone had to rise at 4am to ensure we were all at St. Pancras for customs. Eurostar is the only way to travel to Paris and we basically took over a carriage. We were on the first train out of London.
One teacher missed the train but Eurostar were good enough to place him on the next train and he met us at Notre dame. It was all part of the fun and he got a massive welcome when he arrived.

With the help of my intern we presented a letter of thanks to each of our teachers and each teaching team was given a blue padlock to put on the lovers lock bridge in Paris. This was to represent their students and all the support the students have given them as a teaching team. The train trip was fun with some sleeping and others being too excited. Many of the team are fluent in French so when we arrived we were grateful to David Warwick who lead the way to Notre Dame. Some went inside and others went for breakfast. I will never pass up the chance to walk through Notre Dame. It's one of the great cathedrals and quite breath taking. Next stop was the Love Padlocks bridge. We took lots of photos, enjoyed the back drop of Notre Dame and marvelled at the sites and sounds around us.

Next we took the team on a boat trip around Paris. It's a great way to see Paris and for those who had never been to Paris it is always a cool moment when the boat comes around the corner and there is the Eiffel Tower. We disembarked at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. We walked the whole strip and enjoyed all the fancy shops and history of this avenue.

We arrived at The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile and set up two portable speakers (thanks to Ben & Robyn who carried them) and set up for an impromptu dance. The sun came out, the tourists flocked around and we had a great dance. One of my favourite photos of the day was taken by Chris Morris of the team doing the Trankey Doo. It really shows the joy of dance and the footage that Vicci took shows a very cool group of dancers in action.

Time for lunch and the team simply had to meet back at a designated rendezvous. With the City Mapper app it was easy to find the local bus that took us straight to the Eiffel Tower. It never ceases to amaze as you walk towards this iconic Parisian structure. About 30 of the team decided to head up the Eiffel Tower and while some of the team opted for an ale at a local bar. The queue was almost an hour but with all of us in the queue together we had a lot of laughs and enjoyed the whole experience. It was blowing a gale up high on the Tower but we had a great time and naturally the views were spectacular.

We arrived back to the ground just in time for a crazy storm to hit Paris. We took shelter and laughed at the strange predicament of being trapped under the Eiffel Tower. Moments later we had a double rainbow, Alex Dreyer arrived to welcome us and a lovely sunset was our back drop with the lights of the Eiffel Tower coming on. It was magical.

We gave Alex a birthday dance, we had a two year anniversary blues dance for Adamo & Vicci, danced the Big Apple under the Eiffel and finally it was time to leave. We all gave Alex a cheer for coming to see us and then headed back not the Metro and  back to Gare De Nord where the Eurostar heads back to London. The trip back was one of the highlights for me. It's a big team and London is massive. Many of the team operate, dance and live for example in south London so don't see other teachers every week. Watching the team laughing, chit chatting, teasing, drinking and basically being a team was super. I honestly thought everyone might sleep on the way home.. it was a noisy party and people seemed to be just waking up! I have no idea where the adrenalin was coming from but it kicked on back in London as we all went to the St. Pancras Champagne Bar and continued to enjoy this day. One teacher (very drunk by now admittedly) said " Scott.. this has been one of the greatest days of my life and I will never forget it!"

A big thanks to the team who also made a little presentation of thanks to me on the St. Pancras train platform. Was emotional but people know what a sook I am. :)

If my team remember this day for ever.. job done. They are a very special and dedicated group of people and absolutely deserved this crazy day out.


The summary:
Forty one teachers arrive at 5.15am at St. Pancras. Coffee, check in, boarding the Eurostar.
Presentation of the T shirts.
Letters of thanks from Scott and padlocks handed out to the team. Some slept.
First stop was Notre Dame where we had an hour for breakfast and sight seeing.
Next stop the love lock bridge.
Boat trip around Paris. Embarked near the Champs-Élysées.
Walked the length of the Champs-Élysées,
Arrived at The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile. Had a 30 minute dance with this great back drop.
Lunch and free time.
Bus to the Eiffel tower.
Went up the Tower.. some went for a drink
Witnessed a double rainbow and storm.
Alex Dreyfus arrived to greet the 41 Londoners.
Birthday dance for Alex
Dance under the Eifell Tower featuring the Big Apple, the Shim Sham and a two year anniversary blues dance for Vicci & Adamo.
Metro back to Gare du Nord, more coffee/booze
Back on the Eurostar.. party carriage.
Team give Scott a thank you book at St. Pancras station.
Final drink at the Champagne Bar at St. Pancras.

Three hundred plus great photos by Rupert on FB.
Photos below by a range of people but mainly Chris G and Chris M

Six crazy days where we grew up...

Six crazy days and one very defining week. 

In September/October 2013 it was becoming really apparent that the Swing Patrol socials were getting really crowded. Our venues are great but still quite cozy. We started focussing our attention on large spaces to dance. No point sharing this dance all over London and then offering no where comfortable to dance! 

After many meetings and lots of coffees with some very cool people from the Wam Bam Club, the Bishopsgate Institute and Wilton's Music Hall we managed to set in a place three joint ventures where we could secure these stunning and large places to dance. There is no way we could achieve our vision without these groups as the hire of such venues is prohibitive. At the start of last week we were nervous. We had taken a nervous and adventurous risk that the scene would grow in January. If the London dancers weren't ready to fill these spaces it all could go spectacularly wrong. Venues like the Bishopsgate Institute have no sound system so that involved some serious hiring of sound equipment and technicians. It's all these behind the scenes challenges that meant this week was quite momentous for us. If it worked it meant we may be able to play a role in really catering for the growing London swing scene and ensuring our fabulous Lindy Hoppers had room to swing out. 

Jan 19th The first Super Swing Pit at the Bishopsgate Institute. 

The Bishopsgate Institute were equally nervous. They had opened up the entire building for this event and had cautiously offered us two Sundays. The event sold out with over 300 people attending. It was incredible to see so many people dancing in a ballroom on a Sunday night that wasn't a Festival weekend. Marco from Berlin commented that many scenes wouldn't have this many dancers on a premier Festival weekend.  The venue will be offering us further Sunday nights and we can't thank the dancers enough for literally making this a regular event by way of their support. We went for Bagels afterwards in Brick Lane.  Some memories. 

Jan 23rd Wilton's Music Hall

After the sell out Christmas event we were offered two evenings. The Valentine's Day and this random Thursday evening. How would this mid week event go? Would Wilton's expect the same result as Christmas? We didn't sell out but it was a smashing evening with 180+ people swinging away in this magical place. We went for Brick Lane bagels after the event and many continued dancing at Jamboree nearby. It is just such a wonderful environment to swing out in this venue. Some memories. 

Jan 25th Red Rhythm at Wam Bam

A spectacular Ballroom in the middle of London with the possibility of us having this space on a fortnightly basis. The opening night had teething problems but nothing that can't be sorted for future events. The change over can be done a lot smoother in future but what a beautiful space to dance in. We had super feedback and the dancers loved the ballroom and the space. As Jess Coffin says:  "Had an amazing evening dancing at the Bloomsbury Ballroom. A beautiful venue with incredible lighting and ambience and most importantly lots of room to swing out!"  Again this was a crazy test and again the London dancers were so amazing and we all had room to swing out to our hearts content. Now we have had one event there we know what to do to improve this evening so it should be fantastic going forward. We went for Brick Lane bagels afterwards. (Photos to come. ) 

--

We did it! The week has passed and we can't thank the London dancers enough for supporting these three evenings. It has been an exhausting and exhilarating week and in our eyes a really defining week where our community stepped forward in a resounding way. Thanks everyone.. we owe you a massive thanks and quite a timely week with our fifth birthday celebrations this Saturday night. 

Scottie