Borodog and MrWookie talk Lindy Hop Shop

[Borodog]

First, so you know what I'm talking about, this is Lindy Hop.

This might go nowhere and die an ignominious death, especially since I haven't asked MrWookie about it ahead of time, but what the hell. We'll give it a go. All questions, comments, and contributions are welcome.

In my Ask Me thread I discovered MrWookie is also a Lindy Hopper. So, MrWookie, we'll start with the basics: What's your scene? What's your style? Savoy or Hollywood? Who have you taken classes or workshops with? Name a favorite song or artist to dance to.

My answers: My "scene" is the Triangle, NC area, which actually has a fairly hot swing scene (although it's no LA). There are at least two major dances per week that draw 300+. I personally dance Hollywood, or Smooth, style Lindy Hop. I also dance East Coast of course, and am currently adapting my Lindy to dance West Coast (if you're reading along and want to know what those are, you'll have to ask!). Most of my classes have been with Debbie Ramsey, who is an awesome dancer and amazing choreographer. She's a 3 time winner of the Feather Award for Top Female Teacher in The United States, and an inductee in the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame. Her Lindy Hop performance team the Swingalings took the 2003 U.S. Swing Dance Championship, among other national titles.

One of my personal favorite songs to dance to is the version of "Rockin' at Midnight" done by the Honeydrippers, headed by Robert Plant (yes, that Robert Plant).

If you had to describe Lindy Hop to someone without being able to demonstrate it, what would you say?

I'm teaching an introductory Lindy Hop class starting a week from Thursday, and they asked me to describe it for those who were unfamiliar with the dance. I sent them this:

"Hollywood style Lindy Hop is a slot dance in the swing family, most often danced to big band swing, jump blues, and early rock & roll. The dance is characterized by fast footwork and smooth movements alternating between extended, leveraged open positions and compact, compressed closed positions, the canonical example being the foundation move of Lindy Hop, the whip. Unlike the large frenetic movements of Savoy style Lindy, Hollywood, or Smooth Lindy, is characterized by style and grace, and much of the 'feel' of the dance depends on leveraged counterpoint between lead and follow. The progenitor of West Coast Swing, Hollywood style Lindy is a technically demanding but highly addictive dance style, and is enormously satisfying and fun to dance."

Would you agree?

By the way, the video at the top of the post is of Carla Heiney and Kevin St. Laurant, world class (and World Champion) Lindy Hoppers. Their style is mainly Smooth, but at the end of the video when they beat starts jumping they demonstrate they are equally comfortable doing Savoy.