Mandi’s Birthday & the anniversary of Bees’ Knees Dance in St. Catharines – a special Swing Dance Party & Extravaganza with live music!
WHO: YOU! Dancers and non-dancers alike, friends and strangers – all welcome to the big dance party!
WHAT: You’re all invited to my Birthday & Anniversary Swing Dance Party Extravaganza!
Live music, great dinner menu, large wooden dance floor…
WHERE: Stella’s Restaurant & Lounge, downtown St. Catharines
45 James Street
St. Catherines, ON
***Please, no gifts… However, there will be a requested $10 cover charge to help cover the cost for the band. Thanks for your contribution to the live music!
WHEN: Saturday, March 5th
5:30pm to 9pm+
WHY: This will mark Bees’ Knees Dance’s one year anniversary in St. Catharines and my XX birthday party! I would love love love it if you would be there to celebrate with us!
HOW: This location is just steps from the St. Catharines bus terminal for friends coming from Toronto, Hamilton, etc. and we can also coordinate car pooling.
DRIVERS WANTED! If you are coming from Toronto and have room in your vehicle, we’d love to arrange some car pooling. See More
“Shall we shag now or shall we shag later?” –Austin “Danger” Powers
Instructors Phil Bourassa and Reesa Del Duca just got back from a great weekend of Shag Dance workshops. This is what Phil had to say about the weekend:
Great workshops, great competitions and, most importantly, great dancing. This past weekend, Reesa and I headed up to Ottawa, representing Toronto at this year’s Shag Explosion 5/Canadian Shag Dance Championships. I’ve never Shagged so hard in my life!
For those unfamiliar with Collegiate Shag, also know as “Shag” and “Flea Hop”, it is a type of Swing dance made popular in the 1930s. The dance is known for its hopping basic step and high energy footwork that separates it from other forms of swing and other dances that use the “shag” name, such as Carolina Shag or St. Louis Shag. – CollegiateShag.com
Having studied Shag separately and worked on a few moves together, Reesa and I were looking forward to getting our feet wet in Ottawa. We got there pretty late Friday night, but I still managed to squeeze in a few dances with some good friends and take a turn in the Jam circle that broke out.
Saturday afternoon had a whopping six classes; followed by the Jack ‘n’ Jill Competition preliminaries. We attended all the classes and they were tons of fun. Using their charm, great sense of humour and extensive experience in various forms of Swing, Zack and Maryse from Swing Connexion in Montreal are always a favourite among students. Hailing from DC, David and Chelsea not only showed phenomenal skill in competition, they also demonstrated an in-depth knowledge of Shag Dance history in their classes. The extensive experience of Byron, Natalia and Bill of Swing Dynamite, both in teaching and in competition, infused a healthy dose of local expertise.
Tony and Jamie, coming all the way from New York, were new to the event but by no means were new to Shag. Their impact was felt immediately on the social floor and peaked Saturday night with a killer performance. Not only did they take the title of Canadian Shag Dance Champions, they also offered a free class Sunday morning (if you could drag yourself out of bed). We were then told they will be invited as teachers for next year’s Shag Explosion. You have to check ‘em out! Here’s an earlier clip of the routine they performed Saturday night.
I think I can speak for Reesa when I say the highlight of the weekend for us was hearing the results of the competitions. Being fairly exhausted and sleep-deprived by Sunday afternoon, we were given a bit of a boost when it was announced that Reesa and I took 2nd and 1st place in the Open Jack ‘n’ Jill competition. Woo!
Fuelled with nothing but leftover sandwich wraps, a few drops of adrenaline and about an ounce of sleep, we managed to make it back to Toronto in one piece.
As per usual, the folks at Swing Dynamite put on another great event. I definitely recommend it for next year. www.shagexplosion.com
On Tuesday, January 18th, 2011, Phil Bourassa was a guest instructor in Hamilton and he taught a solo vintage jazz class. The routine is called Sausages (haha) and was originally choreographed by Kevin St. Laurent .
Thanks to the Hamilton crew for their enthusiasm! It was a great class. Now time to practice and perfect it.
Click here to download the notes for the Sausages Jazz Routine as transcribed by Phil.
We’ve all got them. Now this is your chance to share your swing dance pet peeves with the world. As Lindy Hoppers, we really are such a friendly and social bunch but in a perfect world we wouldn’t have these secret irritations. Hopefully, by sharing these pet peeves here in writing we can raise awareness of many dance issues that arise without having to point any fingers. The next time someone is guilty of one of these bad habits, you can politely inquire if they’ve read this post!
DISCLAIMER: Please understand that the following pet peeves are not meant to frighten or deter you from dancing. In particular, beginner dancers should not be fazed by mention of dance technique that is beyond their level of understanding. All Lindy Hoppers are absolutely thrilled to welcome new dancers to the community and technical pet peeves express our impatience with long time dancers who have bad habits, not new dancers who have yet to learn what the heck we’re even talking about. Please come, dance and feel welcome!
Want to add a dance pet peeve to the list? Please contact us and let us know!
Personal Hygiene:
The #1 voted pet peeve is always related to hygiene. Please take careful note!
Avoidable smelliness. Please make sure to wear clean, fresh clothing and to wear deodorant. You might not think that you smell but people are rarely able to smell their own personal odour. Don’t leave this to chance. Take your personal hygiene seriously!
Excessive sweatiness. Sweating is understandable but if you know that you sweat enough, please be courteous and bring as many number of change of tops as required. It’s not unheard of to bring 6 extra t-shirts to a dance and to change throughout the night. A towel is also a good idea. No one wants a handful of sweat, or to be sprayed by your sweat, to have your sweat get on their nice outfits, or to slip on your sweat. Think about it!
Excessive perfume or cologne. One spritz will do it folks. Easy on the trigger!
Bad breath, coffee breath, garlic breath, onion breath, etc. etc.
General Swing Dance Partner Pet Peeves:
True of both Leaders and Followers!
Weak frame, spaghetti arms, no connection.
Statue or overly forceful frame, arms that push or pull, exhausting muscle connection that yanks and shoves.
Partners who tense up or become frantic as the tempo becomes faster. Please stay relaxed!
Partners who get lazy when the tempo gets faster, who don’t triple step, don’t motor their steps and help to create the stretch so the whole shape falls off the music.
Lack of eye contact, i.e. looking down, looking at other people, and generally not paying attention.
Dopey eyes or creepy eye contact. It’s great to look at your partner so that you’re interacting with them on a personal level but it’s *just* dancing!
Inappropriate behaviour in general while dancing. We are here to dance not frisk. Any touching or contact not specifically related to leading or following is an absolute violation and is never okay!
Partners who grip their partners’ hand, either with their thumb or by squeezing.
Partners who grip their partner’ back.
Long fingernails!
Poor floor craft. If you bump, crash or step on someone take responsibility by apologizing and take it as an indication that you’re not being careful enough. A certain amount of bumps do happen but it’s up to the leaders in particular but the followers as well to be aware of their surroundings. If it’s very crowded, you must adjust your dancing!
Over hopping or bouncing. The dance is called Lindy Hop however this should manifest itself as more of a downward pulse, not a bouncy uppity hop.
“Tea Potting” which is the generally understood name for rocking the upper body back and forth rather than moving and grounding ourselves with the lower body.
Partners who are overly apologetic.
Partners who never apologize.
Drunk or otherwise inebriated dance partners!
Talking while dancing. A word or exclamation here or there is one thing, but trying to carry on a full conversation is quite another. Zip it and enjoy the moment!
Wicking shirts. Nice for you but not so nice for your partner since these materials will often transfer your sweat away from you and on to your partner!
Bad Class/Workshop Etiquette:
Teaching and critiquing your partner in rotation.
Talking when the teacher is talking. Not only are you assuming that your partner wants to listen to you instead of the instructor, but you’re also interrupting the rest of the group.
Poor punctuality. Nuff said.
Pet Peeves about Followers:
Followers who pull down on the leaders shoulder, especially with tall leaders.
Followers who push down on the leaders arm, especially in closed position.
Over-resisting, either in open on 1, 2 or in closed on 4. Yes, we want to feel like we’re leading and moving you but not moving a freight train!
Floating pinkie fingers; when the baby finger slips out of the hand hold. It feels so wrong!
Followers who don’t travel far enough on 3 of the swingout thereby not creating stretch on the face off (3 & 4). If you haven’t gone far enough the move doesn’t work and we have to chase each other. Follow the momentum to the end by going past the leader right into their arm. Also, moving or collapsing in or hovering on 4 of the swingout without waiting for the 5 to be led out. Please maintain the stretch and let the leader move you.
Followers who anticipate moves by putting on the breaks when they shouldn’t; this is common in turns when the follower stops rather than continuing the momentum of the spin.
Followers who fly through a move assuming that they know what it is. This is common when followers drive themselves out on 5 of the swingout without waiting to be led, or when they run in on 1, 2.
Assuming you know what kind of swingout is being lead. It is completely up to the leader when and how they will lead you out on the swingout; straight out, curved, completely backward. Followers must wait on 4 and let the leader create the shape!
Followers who hijack while their styling, either by pushing or pulling on the leaders or by interrupting their lead completely.
Followers who close off their frame/who don’t make their arms and frame available therefore cutting off the potential for many moves.
Pet Peeves about Leaders:
Over-leading: give us room and space to play and breathe. Constant leading is claustrophobic and generally unmusical.
Leaders who yank on 1 and/or 2 thereby not allowing us to swivel.
Leaders who pull too hard on 5; this causes us to either fall over or run.
Over-leading in general; you don’t have to man handle us, we’ll catch the suggestion without being muscled around!
Leaders who try to lead our swivel by waving their arm back and forth. I swivel because I want to swivel, it’s my decision – not yours!
Leaders who don’t adjust their repertoire to the tempo of the music. The vocabulary that you use for slow music should not be the same as when the music speeds up. Listen to the music and lead appropriately; inside turns are better suited to a slower tempo while Charleston is ideal for faster music. Have a default game plan so that you don’t have to think so hard when the music does speed up.
Multiple inside turns. Inside turns are awkward because they wrap the follower up and when you just start winding us around we aren’t able to maintain any frame or footwork. You’re just dragging us around and it’s not fun!
Leaders who over spin the followers. Give us a break! We don’t enjoy it!
Non-moves. Leaders have a tendency to lead very vague shapes that are creative but should be used sparingly. Watch your non-moves and make sure your dancing is always rooted in familiar, basic Lindy Hop fundamentals.
Start & stop moves. Particularly when the tempo gets faster, remember that Lindy Hop is a dance based on stretch and momentum. Moves that are constantly moving the followers and then blocking them (such as fast stationary American Spins) break the momentum. This makes the follower have to run to create stretch again. They’re exhausting and counterproductive.
Generally poor, unclear leading. If the move doesn’t work, don’t assume that it was the followers fault. Take responsibility and consider your own technique before you blame or become irritated with the follower. We can tell when you’re judging us! Not cool.
Leaders who don’t pursue dance classes. If you want to dance with all of the wonderful followers, please consider continuing to work to improve your own dancing. Just because there are usually more followers than leaders doesn’t mean that you’re such a hot commodity and that followers should fall at your feet to dance with you. If the followers are working hard to improve their dancing, why shouldn’t you also work hard to be the best that you can? It’s a give and take.
Are we missing your dance pet peeve? Please contact us and let us know!
Mandi Gould is Director & Head Dance Instructor for Bees’ Knees Dance in Toronto and St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
Please join us for a special choreography project for experienced social Lindy Hoppers.
Over 3 months (12 Tuesdays), you’ll put together a piece of choreography and also continue to work on your high level swing dance technique and repertoire.
At the end of the project, you’ll have a chance to perform as part of the big Bees’ Knees show on Saturday, April 6th!
This is a student show performed at the Dovercourt House in front of a supportive and enthusiastic audience of fellow swing dancers and will be a fantastic experience that you can feel very proud of.
Join in! 12 Tuesdays in January, February, March
Runs weekly January 8th to March 26th at 7:05pm
Performance date – the big Bees’ Knees Show: Swing Goes To The Movies! Saturday, April 6th!
From Chuck Berry to Elvis to Fats Domino to Bill Haley & The Comets to The Beach Boys… this night will send us back to a good old days; diners, drive-in movies, milk shakes, black and white television and loads of nostalgia. Think American Graffiti, hot summer nights, poodle skirts, sock hops and TV dinners. It’s time to work it on out to some smoking hot dance tunes, so if you can relate to the Fonz in Happy Days and you wish it could have stayed 1955 forever then this is the night for you!
Wow, 2010 is coming to a close! What a swingtastic year this has been for Bees’ Knees Dance in Toronto. I thought it might be neat to do a little recap.
I think that 2010 was the year of dance lessons in Toronto. The bug is in the air, and there are happy dancing feet everywhere that you look. Don’t you feel glad all over just thinking about it?
In the winter of 2010, we ran three months of our Amateur Musical Theatre class. In January we did a medley from Mary Poppins, February was The Sound of Music, and March wrapped up our winter season with The Wizard of Oz. These were such fun programs to run, and if it weren’t for how busy our swing schedule has become we would definitely be running more of these sessions. For the moment Amateur Musical Theatre is on hiatus, but it’s fun to see what we did last winter.
Mary Poppins:
The Sound of Music: (I really wish I could find the performance version of this. We just happened to perform it on the night of the Pirate Party and somehow a pirate theme was exactly what The Sound of Music seemed to be missing!)
The winter of 2010 also marked the roll out of our Rock n’ Roll classes. These have added such a terrific new aspect to our class offerings and we’re really happy to have added it to the schedule! If anything, we have to find room to add MORE Rock n’ Roll in the new year, it’s so popular! We’re working on it.
Jasper Palfree and Shannon Refvik joined us in the winter of 2010, and Chelsea Lefaivre joined us just a little while after that. We’re so glad to have these three on board. We also had the pleasure of running some great Blues Dance classes with Randy Pante and Kathleen Molto. Though Randy’s schedule hasn’t allowed for those to continue, we were really pleased to have them on board for that great Blues run. Phil Bourassa joined us earlier this fall and he’s rounded out our instructor team really nicely. And, just recently, I’ve been thrilled to convince the talented Reesa Del Duca to team up with Phil for some great Balboa classes. Reesa has actually been part of the Bees’ Knees background team from the beginning, branding and designing our website and materials for the past several years. She’s such a terrific dancer too though, so I’m very pleased to pull her out from behind the curtain and on to the dance floor. I’m just so glad to have all you guys on board!
In the spring, I was invited to teach for the Great Wall Swingout event in Beijing, China. Here’s a clip from a performance I did there.
This fall has been incredibly busy, made even more so by the interruption of my travel to Korea to teach Rock n’ Roll workshops there.
Another Rock n’ Roll performance in September 2010 in Seoul, Korea with partner Zhenya Demchenko.
With the popularity of Rock n’ Roll in Toronto, and the enthusiasm of some of our core dancers, it seemed fitting to hold a Rock n’ Roll Halloween dance. Here’s a little performance that Drea Burck, Sue Shadoff, Glen Cameron and Chris Papaioannou put together:
This fall also marked an important turning point in the Bees’ Knees curriculum. For many years, I haven’t wanted to hold classes at the “advanced” level because I’ve never liked the idea of calling a class advanced unless I could guarantee that it would be filled with actually advanced dancers. You see, “advanced” is something that people should have to work toward and look forward to. But for a studio to run any kind of class, you have to make sure that enough people will enroll in in order to make ends meet. If there aren’t enough people, it’s just not fair to anyone when students who aren’t quire ready for that level are admitted in order to pay the rent. There has to be a critical mass of students who are both ready for the advanced level and ready to commit to a progressive class in order for that type of class to work. September 2010 marked that turning point, and we launched our first 3 month advanced track with terrific results.
Here are some clips from the Bees’ Knees Dance Holiday Show, the first of it’s kind, that took place at the Dovercourt House on December 11th. Congratulations to all of the performers. You all worked so hard and did a fabulous job. We look forward to doing these type of shows on an ongoing basis.
T’Aint What You Do
Yessir!
Rock n’ Roll Santa:
Lester Leaps In!
And finally, here’s a little Merry Rock n’ Roll Holidays from our Rock n’ Rollers. We hope that you have a fabulous end to 2010 and we look forward to seeing you in the new year!
WHO: YOU! Dancers and non-dancers alike, friends and strangers – all welcome to the big dance party!
WHEN: Saturday, March 5th
