Summertime and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high…

Monday Night Workshops all summer long!

Pick and choose from a selection of excellent workshops. Enjoy your summer weekend plans and then join us back on Mondays to help jazz up your work week!

Schedule Overview

• Monday, July 2nd – holiday – no classes
• Monday, July 9th – BAL NIGHT
• Monday, July 16th – Jazz with Miss Martha, 8pm to 9pm
• Monday, July 23rd – I Love Lindy Hop with Phil & Elly, 7pm to 9pm
• Monday, July 30th – Charleston with King Arthur! 7pm to 8:30pm
• Monday, August 6th – holiday – no classes
• Monday, August 13th – BAL NIGHT
• Monday, August 20th – Jazz with Miss Martha, 8pm to 9pm
• Monday, August 27th – Charleston with King Arthur! 7pm to 8:30pm

Week by Week

BAL NIGHT

Monday, July 9th –  Bal Night!

Balboa is a true dancers’ dance. Enjoy a close embrace that’s both sophisticated and cartoonish at the same time. It’s the perfect summer dance, allowing you to stay cool  and not overheat at fast tempos. Work on the subtle connection while improving your connection for other dances at the same time. It’s a great alternative when space is tight or the tempo gets fast – dance a whole song or a few phrases for a break. Because of the close connection, Bal was historically called the “Sweetheart’s Dance” with the Follow’s role being sweet and a little flirty and the Lead’s clever creativity can make the follower giggle and a spectator would never understand why!

• 6pm – Bal 1.5 Workshop – $20 in advance/$23 at the door (includes the dance) – some basic Balboa experience is required
• 7:30 – Bal 2 Workshop – $20 in advance/$23 at the door (includes the dance)*
• 9pm – Bal Social Dance – $3 drop-in for non-workshop participants
• *Level 2 advance registration special! Pre-register to take both workshops for $30, otherwise $40 for both at the door.

JAZZ NIGHT

Monday, July 16th – Jazz with Miss Martha

Owning it! – dancing flair, verve, and gumption

Add some real flair to your authentic Vintage Jazz steps.  From the Suzy Q to Around the World Charleston, the Shorty George to Spank the Baby, take a step back in time to the roots of jazz dance and get inside the character fof the dance.

• 8pm to 9pm
• $13 in advance/$15 at the door

I LOVE LINDY HOP NIGHT

Monday, July 23rd – Phil & Elly

• 7pm to 9pm
• $25 in advance/$28 at the door

CHARLESTON NIGHT

Monday, July 30th – Charleston with King Arthur!

• 7pm to 8:30pm
• $20 in advance/$23 at the door

BAL NIGHT

Monday, August 13th –  Bal Night!  1.5 and Bal 2 Workshops

Balboa is a true dancers’ dance. Enjoy a close embrace that’s both sophisticated and cartoonish at the same time. It’s the perfect summer dance, allowing you to stay cool  and not overheat at fast tempos. Work on the subtle connection while improving your connection for other dances at the same time. It’s a great alternative when space is tight or the tempo gets fast – dance a whole song or a few phrases for a break. Because of the close connection, Bal was historically called the “Sweetheart’s Dance” with the Follow’s role being sweet and a little flirty and the Lead’s clever creativity can make the follower giggle and a spectator would never understand why!

• 6pm – Bal 1.5 Workshop – $20 in advance/$23 at the door (includes the dance) – some basic Balboa experience is required
• 7:30 – Bal 2 Workshop – $20 in advance/$23 at the door (includes the dance)*
• 9pm – Bal Social Dance – $3 drop-in for non-workshop participants
• *Level 2 advance registration special! Pre-register to take both workshops for $30, otherwise $40 for both at the door.

JAZZ NIGHT

Monday, August 20th – Jazz with Miss Martha

Shockingly Awesome Charleston! You heard it. Put the *roar* into the dance that came out of the Roaring 1920s. Rawrrrrrrrr!

• 8pm to 9pm
• $13 in advance/$15 at the door

CHARLESTON NIGHT

Monday, August 27th – Tandem Charleston with King Arthur!

• 7pm to 8:30pm
• $20 in advance/$23 at the door

Song: Posin’

Artist: Jimmie Lunceford

One of Frankie’s favourites! This is a really great, playful song. Add it to your collection!

Bees’ Knees Dance was thrilled to present its first full length, seated show including on March 31^st, 2012, including 17 historical dance acts!

Before there was Swing…

1910
The Lady Bugs
Maple Leaf Rag

Roaring in to the 1920s!
The Yellow Jackets
Melancholy

1925
The Tuesday Night Hoppers
That’s a Plenty

1926
The Bees’ Knees Trio
Dinah

Crashing in to the 1930s!
1933
The Monday Night Hoppers
Vagabond Blues & It Don’t Mean a Thing…

1935
The Trunky Doo
(Aka. The Tranky Doo)
The Bees’ Knees Dancers

1936
The Bees’ Knees Student Troupe
When I Get Low I Get High

1939
The Bees’ Knees Dancers
The Big Apple

Marching in to the 1940s!
1940
Scrub Me Mama!
The Niagara Honey Bees

1942
The Balboa Troupe
Vol Vist Du

1944
The Bees’ Knees Student Troupe
In The Mood

1946
Reesa Del Duca & Phil Bourassa
Digga Doo

1948
Comp & Show
Clap Your Hands

Welcome to the 1950s!
1950
The Company Store Dancers
Sixteen Tons

1956
Rock Sock The Boogie
Johnny B. Goode

The Twist

Modern Savoy
2002
Jonathon Neville & Carlynn Reed
Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down

2012 – A Return to the Roots of Lindy Hop
The Bees’ Knees Dancers
Riff Time

The End

Song: Let’s Get Together

Artist: Duke Ellington

This is a great song and one of Frankie’s Favourites. It’s a bit peppy, has great swing and fun musical sections that echo and play off of one another.

 

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Last week I had a very irritating interview with a reporter from the National Post and the article came out today.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/06/taking-the-lead-so-you-think-you-can-challenge-gender-roles-in-dance/

Presumably, we set up the interview to speak about “Jive” dancing but as soon as the questions began I could see that the aim was to create a controversial issue out of gender roles within dancing. It wasn’t hard to tell what direction the article was heading and I cringed my way through the rest of the questions.

We spoke for quite a long time and I did my best to recount all of the extremely non-sexist opportunities that there are for people to explore either the leader or follower role in dance. I really tried to explain about the open and welcoming nature of the swing dance community though ultimately the aim of the article had been set and there was no steering the conversation. The story was intent on creating an issue.

Despite my urging, the article also declines to mention the very awesome and diplomatic Swingin’ Out group, Canada’s first queer (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) swing dance club. In fact, I provided numerous examples, situations and stories about gender equality in dancing. It figures that the only example used in the article – our role reversal class – points out that it’s not a beginner class while ignoring the reasoning behind it and the rest of examples we discussed.

I don’t doubt that there are gender restrictions within the ballroom community, and that’s extremely unfortunate, but I also find the article unfair. This sort of journalism so irritating. It’s so sad that if there isn’t some sort of negativity and controversy, the media just isn’t interested in the story.

I had the same reaction in one of the documentaries about Frankie Manning which was otherwise really excellent but insisted on including a racial slant to the story that Frankie himself never focused on. Heaven forbid that they might write a story just for the sake of the joy and positive aspects of the dance! In fact, I urged her to take some interest in 92 year old living dance legend, Norma Miller, coming to Toronto at the end of this month for the Frankie Manning Tribute Weekend. Now that’s a story worth talking about.

To Andrea Seto, the woman in the article who was kicked out of her Jive class in Toronto, forget Jive! The Lindy Hop community welcomes you!

UPDATE: I’ve received a nice letter from Andrea Seto from the article and has already taken steps to join the swing community which is very heartening. I’m very happy that we can offer a much more inclusive environment, and I love that an old fashioned dance like Lindy Hop is so progressive about gender roles.

Mandi Gould

Mandi Gould is Director & Head Dance Instructor for Bees’ Knees Dance in Toronto and St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

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May 5th marked our first ever Intermediate Follower Intensive.

I can honestly say that it was one of the most enlightening and gratifying classes that I’ve ever taught. To have the chance to spend that much time on such minute and essential follower technique is very close to my heart. All of the participants worked really hard and the results were FABULOUS!

Followers at the 1.5/2 level had a chance to focus completely on follower technique for 2 hours while dancing with very experienced and established leaders as their partners. We had the extreme pleasure of working on nothing but the swingout for 75 minutes before breaking into some slightly different material for the last part of the workshop.

A VERY HUGE THANK YOU TO THE LEADERS WHO WERE EXTREMELY HELPFUL AND ENCOURAGING OF THE FOLLOWERS WITH VERY USEFUL FEEDBACK AND ADVICE. I found the advanced leaders to be supportive and attentive, giving followers exactly the type of nurturing feedback that they needed. The nature of the workshop created a safe space for participants to feel comfortable receiving that type of guidance.

All of the participants should be really proud of what you accomplished during that session. With that said, it’s not realistic for all of the adjustments to immediately take hold and become permanent muscle memory and reaction. It does take a lot of work and thought to practice until perfect so I thought I’d give a very brief synopsis of the most important key ideas.

Practice makes perfect and the points may seem basic, but they’re subtle and require consistent attention:

1. Corpse arm; completely dropping the weight of your arm except for the light hook in your 3rd & 4th fingers to prevent from slipping out. Don’t forget to lock your shoulder blades back to engage your frame. Periodically check your arm and make sure it’s truly dropped, not just in open position but also during your face off.
2. Stretch on 1 & 2; stretching away from your leader for both counts with firm use of the floor during your twist
3. Using the first 2 points to enable the snap/release that helps you to travel as far in and past the leader as you can possibly go during 3, then taking a very stable and squared off face off with your leader during 3&4 with your back truly filling in his hand
4. Check the position of your hand on the leaders shoulder blade.
5. Allowing the leader to set your direction into 5. It’s the leader, not you, who controls the direction of your hips and if the swingout is straight or round. Keep half an eye spying on the leader during straight swingouts too.
6. Your basic posture and body position can best be achieved by hopping away from your leader with a firm landing position; your feet are pointed out to your left, the caboose and your feet underneath should be the furthest points from your partner, your upper body and head should be slightly closer to your leader, your shoulder blades are back and you can feel the strange stretchy tension in your arm.

Thank you again to everyone who helped to make this first workshop a huge success!

We also head a very successful Beginner Follower Crash Course which was also excellent. But that’s the subject of another Blog Post.

Mandi Gould is Director & Head Dance Instructor for Bees’ Knees Dance in Toronto and St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Song: Fever

Artist: Peggy Lee

Maybe doing my taxes this week gave me some sort of a fever but this is the first song I thought of this week. A classic and an important part of any collection.

 

Congratulations to Bees’ Knees star student and now Youth Instructor, Kevin Miller, for winning one of the two Toronto dance scholarships for the Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden this summer! Very well deserved!

Congratulations also to the other scholarship recipient, Nancy Hitzig, who has also been a guest instructor of ours.

See you in Sweden!

Song: A Fine Romance

Artist: Oscar Peterson

How about a little Canadian love for one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time? Oscar Peterson definitely adds a contemporary twist to a swinging tune, but in the best possible way. His piano playing is brilliant. This is just one example of it. Though I love dancing to old original swinging jazz, there’s just something so fun and playful about dancing to a tune like this now and again. Enjoy!

 

Song: I’m In the Groove Tonight

Artist: Effie Smith

I didn’t even realize that I had this song in my collection. I stumbled upon it when it came up on my iPod last week at the studio while Kevin and I were dancing and we loved it! What a fun, super mellow, playful and groovy little song. Check it out!

http://www.amazon.com/Im-In-The-Groove-Tonight/dp/B002LRPGNG