alain’s dance blog

Duke Ellington - Blanton-Webster Band or Early Ellington

On the Mura Dehn dance documentary “the Spirit Moves” - a must-see for any Lindy Hop, Charleston or Blues dancer interested in the roots of the dance - you can hear Black and Tan Fantasy, The Mooche, Creole Rhapsody and East St.Louis Toodle-O layered over the dancing. Despite the low sound quality, early Ellington recordings are worth listening to, especially the cuts with jazz trumpet growler Bubber Miley.

For dancing the Lindy Hop, go for The Blanton-Webster Band, a 3-disc album spanning 1939-1942 with the complete recordings of Ellington’s orchestra with bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. Some of Ellington’s best compositions can be found on this set, such as Harlem Air-Shaft, played by the band at the Invitational Jack and Jill at ULHS 2005. Other masterpieces include In A Mellow Tone, Main Stem and Cotton Tail.

From Season 2 of So you think you can dance. Dmitry & Donyelle learning and dancing the Lindy Hop.

A lot of students have asked me about the different dances, so I’ll let the videos speak for themselves. Here are some solo jazz dances: Black Bottom, Charleston, Blues.

Josephine Baker

Jojo Jackson dancing the Black Bottom at Rocky Mountain Girl Jam 2007 Sharon Davies and Max Pitruzzella battling in a solo Charleston dance-off at Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2006 Mike Faltesek performing solo Blues at SoCal Blues 2006

This September is the marking of Cat’s Corner’s 9th year anniversary. As a present to Fred and everyone who has helped out with Cat’s Corner over the years, we are commemorating this event with a special ops code-named Cat’s Corner Facebook Day.

What can you do to celebrate CCFD?

1. You can post a picture of you dancing at Cat’s Corner.

2. Change your profile pic to the Paw. Better yet. You can download the Cat’s Corner paw (right click and save this file) and replace your picture with it for that day. Imagine everyone updating their picture to the PAW for one day. It will be a sea of paws in everyone’s news feed!

3. Change your status. Write something Cat’s Corner-related. For example, replace “Alain is __________ ” with “Alain is digging Cat’s Corner and will never go into ANY dark corner.” Of course, the more controversial, the better your status will be.

4. Change your description. Only for the totally religiously devout. Save your “About Me” facebook text somewhere safe, and then copy paste this into your About description:

I am devoted to Cat’s Corner. Cat’s Corner is my life. Long live the Cat! http://catscorner.ca

5. Post an item. Send a posting bulletin on that day to all your friends, describing how you discovered Cat’s Corner. You may have told all your friends already, but do it again, just for this special day. Tell everyone why ya love the Lindy Hop.

6. Post on your wall, on your friend’s wall, on the Cat’s Corner Facebook wall. And when you run out of Facebook walls to post on, paint graffiti on Montreal city walls. Proclaim your allegiance to Cat’s Corner loud and clear.

7. Finally, start now. You can start by writing your new About description, downloading the Paw, and drafting your bulletin.

Remember that the big impact will come if everyone “updates” their profiles, pictures, walls on the same day. So don’t forget. Tuesday September 4th is Cat’s Corner Facebook Day.

Post a comment on this page with a link to your facebook. We will send you many thanks and bless you for lovin’ the Cat.

Amen.

Last Friday, Cat’s Corner was featured in a full page article in La Presse, in the Arts and Entertainment section.

Marie-Hélène Papillon, the writer of the article, is very involved in the Montreal social dancing community, and her monthly articles are doing wonders to revive the social partner dancing scene in the city.

Thank you Marie-Hélène!