Robert Leach is back from 8 years in New Mexico and he brought with him the desire to keep his favorite hobby alive. Leach, a Scientific Programmer at the Center for Computational Research with Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics at the University at Buffalo couldn't find a lindy hop group in town, so he's going to try to build one.
Starting Monday, January 14, Leach hopes to host a series of dances at Shakti Yoga on Lexington Avenue. With a $3 door charge to help cover space rental, Leach and his dance partner Arlette will instruct attendees in the lindy style from 8 to 8:30, followed by dancing. "You have a lot of West Coast swing dancers in Buffalo," Leach said, referring to the style of swing that is more erect. "But Lindy is low and down to the floor."
Leach has done his best to meld with the local dancers, but said that often, when he tells people he dances Lindy, "They baulk and scoff, saying, 'I can't dance with you.'" To complicate matters further, Leach said that Dean Collins, who trained many a Hollywood dance troupe, picked up Savoy Ballroom swing, and morphed it into Hollywood swing, which was popularized in the movies. But the various distinctions between the many different styles of swing explain why, when Collins was asked what style he danced, he simplified it by answering, "It's all swing."
Leach got hooked on swing while watching the famous GAP ad back in 1998, in which khaki-clad teens danced to "Sing, Sing, Sing". Later, Leach went to a dance with a blind date and said that he and his date "just didn't get it". However, when he went back the next week and danced with someone else, it all clicked.
"It's all in the posture, the energy," Leach said. He's going around town, putting up fliers for the 14th. "I'm not sure I can entice the UB Swing Club off campus, but I'm hoping that people who don't know what it is but think it might be fun will show up."
Lindy Fix
Monday Jan 14, 8-?
Shakti Yoga
220 Lexington, Buffalo, NY
Beginners Needed! No partner necessary.
Free Lesson 8-8:30
swingbuffalo.com
Wear shoes that slide (or apply duct tape or moleskin to the bottom of those that don't).
The following is a letter Rob sent after I'd written up his event, and it's offers a complete and interesting backstory to this form of dance.
A little more history for you...
Lindy hop is a style of swing dance which evolved from the marrying of African beats and movement with the structure of european formal dancing. It's danced into the ground, with your butt sticking out and your weight over your toes.
The name Lindy Hop was a term coined by "Shorty" George, a renown dancer at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem with a sense of humor who'd jokingly answered a reporter's question "What dance are you doing?" by drawing from the headlines of the day: Charles Lindberg's "hop" across the Atlantic. The father of modern lindy hop is Frankie Manning, currently alive & kicking at 94 years old. He, among other original Savoy ballroom dancers were tracked down during the swing resurgence in the mid-late 90s. Frankie still teaches lindy workshops to this day all over the world and is scheduled for a workshop in Rochester this year (I think in August) which I plan to attend.
Dean Collins has also majorly impacted modern lindy style because two dancers (both named Sylvia): Sylvia Sykes and Sylvia Skylar had been watching old hollywood movie clips of various lindy hop dancers and decided to track them down. Among others who did the same hunting down of other swing legends, they found Dean Collins and he taught them the style he danced in the movies first hand.
Dean refused to categorize the style or give it a name. When asked, he would always respond "It's all swing!", so Sylvia Skylar dubbed it "Hollywood Style". Sylvia Sykes latched onto another form of swing called Balboa which developed on the west coast the same time lindy was being developed on the east coast. Balboa is a very close and fast dancer's dance (because the moves are so small, it's not much of a spectator's dance) however it has evolved into a merged form called "Bal-Swing" which is more eye-catching. Two of the main contributors to modern balboa are Maxi Dorf and Willie Desatoff, both deceased.
Balboa's origins go back to the Balboa Pavilion and the Rendezvous Ballroom in Newport Beach, CA, where the dance floors were so crowded, people were forced to dance closer together. In fact, it's reported that, back in the 30s, if anyone danced in open position (not chest to chest) at either of these ballrooms, they were kicked out. Arlette and I are the only two balboa dancers in Buffalo, and I think the closest group of bal dancers outside of Buffalo are a group of students in Ithaca who do it as well. Lindy hop and balboa are danced in most major cities and dozens of countries and is picking up momentum every year.
I try to attend 3 or 4 national lindy and balboa events every year, including Camp Hollywood, All Balboa Weekend, Lindy Focus, Balboa Rendezvous, and many exchanges. I intend to bring Buffalo into this trend by developing a lindy and bal scene here. In fact, I took a scene-building class at an event I attended in Asheville, NC over new year's called "Lindy Focus".
An exchange (or "Lindy Exchange") is a phenomenon unique to swing dancing and reflects the unique social atmosphere you find at lindy and balboa dances. A host city invites people from all over the world to come and dance with them for a weekend. Local lindy hoppers open up their homes to visiting dancers and spend the whole weekend social dancing and "exchanging" moves and tips. There are no formal lessons at an exchange. This has allowed lindy and balboa to evolve quickly over the past decade. It's also considered rude to say no to the offer of a dance (with few exceptions) and it's considered to be optimal to hone your skills by dancing with as many different partners as possible so that you don't get married to one particular style.
"There are no wrong moves in traditional swing, only new ones" - a quote from the president of the UB Swing Dance Club: Brian Connor. Lindy hop and balboa are both considered to be dances focused on pure fun and excitement. It doesn't take much to become addicted.
Rob