[Dixielandjazz] Swing is where you find it in New York City

[Stephen G Barbone]

Excerpted from a NY Times Article. Want to swing dance? Come to the  
Big Apple.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

Gotta Dance? Swing on Over
By SHIRA DICKER - NY TIMES - December 21, 2011


There are swinging parties in Manhattan nearly every night. The trick  
is in knowing where to find them.

Take a recent Thursday: Sandwiched between a Blarney Stone and a  
liquor shop on Eighth Avenue just south of Penn Station and up four  
flights of stairs was a scene invisible to most New Yorkers. Wild and  
sweaty, loud and crowded, it featured scores of smiling, ever-shifting  
couples energetically executing the kinetic choreography of the Lindy  
Hop, the Charleston, the jitterbug , the Balboa, the collegiate shag.  
They danced East Coast and West Coast styles and bluesy New Orleans  
freestyle.

This party, the Frim Fram Jam, is a weekly event organized by the  
local chapter of a national swing dance network called Yehoodi, after  
“Who’s Yehoodi (Yehudi)? A song popularized by Cab Calloway. Held at a  
studio called You Should Be Dancing and drawing more than 150 people a  
week, the Frim Fram Jam is a popular destination within a throbbing,  
thriving urban subculture: Manhattan’s swing-dance demimonde. . .

Now enjoying a renaissance that began around three years ago, the  
current swing-dance milieu consists of a network of clubs, events,  
instructors, dancers, D.J.’s and bands. It is characterized by its own  
celebrities, etiquette and conventions, and enabled by social  
networking, particularly the New York City Swing Dance Group of  
MeetUp.com and Yehoodi.com. This scene is scored by composers whose  
names form the spine of the Great American Songbook: Duke Ellington,  
Count Basie, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Irving Berlin, Cole  
Porter, Isham Jones and, of course, Cab Calloway.

While the summer cultural landscape of Manhattan offers popular events  
like Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center and Swing Moon Dance at  
Pier 84, the city’s swing dancing truly comes to life when the weather  
turns cold and the action moves indoors.

Within the cozy confines of clubs like Sofia’s at the Edison Hotel and  
Swing 46 (the only place of its kind with live swing music every  
night), the casual rec-room atmosphere of the Frim Fram Jam, and the  
sumptuous, large-scale weekend parties in community centers, this  
spirited social subculture thrives. . .

Trim and energetic at 63, there was also Eugene Hammond Jr., a retired  
postal worker known as Ice. Mr. Hammond showed up at the Frim Fram Jam  
around 11 p.m. . . .“I’m here tonight,” proclaimed Mr. Hammond, who is  
known for executing sharp, staccato moves. “But I’m dancing somewhere  
else in this town every night.” . . .

Because there is a place to dance almost every night, it’s possible  
for Mr. Hammond and others to conduct their social lives entirely  
through the portal of swing. Dancers swarm to Sofia’s to catch Vince  
Giordano and the Nighthawks on Mondays, leaving Tuesdays for George  
Gee’s manic band at Swing 46, when teachers from Dance Manhattan  
provide free lessons. The Cotton Club’s Monday-night swing dancing  
with live music is legendary. West Coast swing is taught every  
Wednesday at Dance Manhattan. Thursday is the Frim Fram Jam, and then  
it’s back to Swing 46 for the Friday-night parties, always with a live  
band.

The biggest monthly dances happen on Saturday nights. These include  
the Swing Remix and the New York Swing Dance Society’s bash at St.  
Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic Church, whose trademark is the Shim Sham  
Shimmy, a line dance. Mr. Lana and Mr. Weisbond created Swing Remix in  
2007, after the closing of several clubs offering swing dance to live  
orchestras. While attendance was anemic at first, nearly five years  
later the parties draw hundreds and are de rigueur for any serious  
participant. The events are not only big; they are meticulously  
programmed. For starters, they feature a different band every time.  
Over several hours the demographic shifts strikingly. Early hours  
feature singles and middle-aged Upper West Siders in their motto T- 
shirts and baggy chinos. Then the hip young arrive in force, tearing  
up the floor with their retro clothes, geek-chic eyewear and low-slung  
moves. Just when the crowd seems to be settling on its identity, slick  
men in “Saturday Night Fever” gear accompanied by glitzy girlfriends  
appear, taking over the floor with showy footwork. Later on, looking  
like time travelers, cool cats from Harlem show up in fedoras and  
spats, making everyone else seem hopelessly out of step. . .