All-Balboa Weekend - Classic - Bobby White & Kate Hedin (2007)
Bobby and Kate are in town this weekend for balboa and Lindy hop workshops. I haven’t posted balboa in a little while, so now’s a perfect opportunity to. Being primarily a Lindy hop and Charleston dancer, my experience in Bal is limited but yesterday’s lessons wonderfully expanded by current vocabulary.
What’s very fun about this performance is that while many Lindy hoppers try to embellish their Bal with large moves and flashy variations like in swing outs, Bobby and Kate show how amazing Bal can look with just very subtle movements accompanied by brief but amazing moments of flash where appropriate. The stop at 1:14 is particularly incredible to see as it’s a moment where Bobby and Kate move from small movements to a big and flashy one and then back.
Anything Goes Tuesday - Bobby White & Kate Hedin and Nick Williams & Denise Phelan, London Balboa Festival (2008)
I figured I’d open Tuesday up to pretty much all the swing stylings I could, rather than restrict it to just blues (…also, it was becoming harder to find blues videos, shush). So here’s some more Bobby White, Kate Hedin, Nick Williams, and I believe this is the first time I’m posting a video including Denise Phelan. This is a pretty spectacular teacher’s jam, though I am sad that the video seems to edit out the other teachers’ jamming. Oh well, that footage may be floating around the internet elsewhere. If I find it, I’ll post it.
I’ve been informed lately that Nick Williams is something of a god among Lindy hoppers, even the international pro dancer. If so, where may I set up an altar in worship of him?
Tips & Tricks Thursday: Moves Like Grandma Used to Make, Nina Gilkenson and Bobby White, Jam Cellar (2007)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving! If not, then … hi! Hope you’re all enjoying your day of feasting and spiking America’s obesity statistics. But that’s okay, because you can burn it all off with dancing later. In the meantime, I chose a video from the “Moves Like Grandma Used to Make” series because I hope to enjoy food like my grandma used to make today. Although. I don’t recall her actually ever making Thanksgiving dinner before…
Anyway.
The Jam Cellar instructional videos were one of the things I sat down with for hours on end a few years ago just wishing that a. I lived in D.C. and b. I could do these moves. Well, now that the fundamentals are better hammered into my body, more and more of these lessons actually make sense to me. The “Moves Like Grandma Used to Make” series is awesome for finding ways to bring old school Savoy-style moves into modern Lindy hop. It’s odd how I’ve done S-turns so much recently but forgot all the wonderful other uses it has. Although, after taking classes with Mike Jagger, I’ve come to call it “the chase” instead of an S-turn.
