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

[Marek Boym]

Wow!
In Israel, I've not seen swing dancers over thirty!

On 24 December 2011 04:22, Stephen G Barbone
<barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> 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. . .
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