alain’s dance blog

From my interview last year with Swing Dancer Magazine. I thought I’d repost it even though it’s also on my “About” page. Who reads the “About” page anyway … actually, probably everyone. But do you scroll all the way down, past my French blurbs? Now that’s the real question. Thank you Christina for the interview opportunity!

From Swing Dancer Magazine

8 Questions with Alain Wong

The Basics
Alain Wong
Dancer / Teacher / DJ / Performer
Montreal, Qc, Canada

1) Which fast food restaurant makes the best fries?

Quebec has a national fast food called “poutine”. Fries with gravy and fromage en grain (curd cheese) on top. And the best one in Montreal is at a 24h poutine joint called La Banquise

2) Being up in the land of Maple Leafs - are you a bilingual instructor? If so, have you ever had to teach a class in both French and English? What’s it like?

Yup, I’m a bilingual instructor.

The official language in the province of Quebec is French, but Montreal has both a strong anglophone and francophone community. Most of our students speak French or both French and English, but we occasionally draw English-only speakers such as foreign students attending one of the two English universities in Montreal, McGill and Concordia University.

Having grown up here, I’m lucky to be fluently bilingual. And as most teachers at the Cat’s Corner dance school, I can seamlessly switch from one to the other without a problem.

We do try to keep the dance vocabulary in English in respect to the African-American roots of the dance, so we’ll use “Swing Out”, “Sugar Push” and “Tuck Turn” in our French sentences. There are also equivalent ways of counting “five six here we go” (cinq six on y va). Finally, since I’m teaching movement and rhythm, I will offset the disruptions in language-switching by using visual cues and by scatting out the rhythms.

When we have visiting instructors for workshops, there will sometimes be a designated translator to help the francophones. In general, Montrealers are good with understanding if not speaking English, so it’s usually not an issue.

3) If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?

I’d probably be an apple tree, short and gnarly.

4) What made you decide to learn to swing dance? Better yet, what’s the Where, When, How, and Why of swing dancing for you?

September 2000. I was in my first year at McGill and saw students dancing outside in front of the Arts building. I couldn’t believe that people still partner-danced. At the time, dancing to me was about going to the club and “shaking it”.

It gave me the urge to try it out; plus, one of the girls was really cute! For the record, swing dancing is not an excuse to pick up girls.

It turns out the students had just founded the McGill Swing Kids club, and were recruiting members. I signed up and went to their first swing outing with a friend. My friend dropped out after that one time, but I continued on and took dance classes. As it turns out, I ended up dating the the girl I had initially spotted. And here I am seven years later, not with same person, but still deeply passionate about the music and the dance.

Why am I still passionate? The people are genuinely warm, open, welcoming. The dance is rich in history and culture.

Through swing dancing, I discovered great music and made life-long friends. The Lindy Hop community is my second home.

5) How’s it feel to be an ambassador of swing now that you’re in the GMail/YouTube video and are the screenshot being used for the video?It’s awesome that we were chosen for the Gmail video. I feel lucky and proud to be representing Lindy Hop and swing dancing on the world-wide-web.When the video went public, I was really excited, but didn’t realize the extent of what we had accomplished. As it closes in on the 5-million views, it’s mind-boggling to think that all these people have seen Ann Mony and I swinging out. It’s kinda cool.The day the video appeared on the Gmail homepage, my other dance partner Mélanie Huot-Lavoie received a text message from France - a dancer had spotted us and was letting her know. So not only did the video create exposure for the dance, it also got people talking and helped connect Lindy Hoppers together.As for the impact of the video, Peter Strom said it best when I saw him at Showdown this year, “It must be getting SOME people to start dancing… somewhere out there”. So yeah, I’m proud of that. Swing dancing has brought so much to my life, and I’ve seen the joy that it has brought to others as well, so I’m really glad that swing is getting the exposure it deserves. These days, I totally use it as a tool to convince non-dancers to try swing.And one thing I can’t forget. Fred Ngo, the guy who brought Lindy Hop to Montreal almost ten years ago, was actually the one who suggested that we submit a video for the Gmail contest, so I owe him big time.
Thank you Fred!

6) In addition to the Gmail video, you’ve got a bit of a presence online - tell us about your lindy hop dedicated blog.I started my blog as a source of information for my students. In Montreal, we don’t have a city-specific discussion forum like Yehoodi (New York) or Whiteheat (Seattle) in which dancers can come together and talk swing, so I felt the need to create a space where I could bring up dance topics, help Montrealers learn about the history of the dance, and at the same time reach out to the international community.On my blog, I cover Lindy Hop, jazz music, DJ-ing for dancers, performance, history, technique, even dance shoes.I encourage students to social dance by promoting local dances and events in Montreal. I also give them the resources to learn on their own by referring to forum threads on sites like Yehoodi and SwingDJs so that they can get different points of view. And finally, I promote the dance community at large by announcing news and encouraging readers to attend swing events outside of Montreal.In the dance context, my learning philosophy comes from Ryan “Swifty” Swift, a prominent Lindy Hop DJ in New York City. He taught me to lead people in the right direction, and let them discover on their own. That’s what swing dancing and DJ-ing swing music have been for me, a constant source of excitement and discovery. That’s how I hope to inspire dancers with my blog.

Oh, and there’s also some shameless self-promotion for my dance school, Cat’s Corner, and my handpainted t-shirts for dancers. So far, I’ve painted one of Max Pitruzzella and Sharon Davis, Skye Humphries and Naomi Uyama, Mike Faltesek… I’m currently painting one for Jojo Jackson.

7) Fill in the blanks: Today I am really ___________ because ____________.

Today I am light for the leaves have turned blue.

When hanging around the house, do you wear shoes, go barefoot, wear socks, or wear slippers?

I get chilly, so socks.

Thank you readers for following my dance blog this past year. I’ve decided to put blogging on hold for the next month as I prepare for my 7 week bike trip from Vancouver to Mexico. I’ll be dancing all along the West Coast on my way down south (starting with Camp Jitterbug in Seattle), so I’ll definitely write about my journey along the way.

It’s not too late to donate (click here to go to my donation page), and you can also come support me by dancing on Friday April 25 at Cat’s Corner. The Cool Canaries will be playing for my fundraiser.

New Dance Blog

As Carl mentioned yesterday, we are launching a collaborative dance blog project this summer. There will be more dancer interviews, more jazz music discussions and more reporting on Lindy Hop events in the near future.

For now, here are the most popular posts of the last year:

The Lindy Hop dance

• Top reasons why you will fall in love with Lindy Hop
• How to prepare for a swing dance competition
• The different types of dance shoe soles: pictures

Spotlight on dancers

• Dancer Interviews: Adam Boehmer
• Dancer Interviews: Stephanie McKernan and Lindy Bout
• Handpainted t-shirts of Lindy Hop dancers: Max Pitruzzella
• Handpainted t-shirts of Lindy Hop dancers: Mike Faltesek

About swingin’ jazz music

• How to start your collection of swinging jazz music
• Song playlist at the Montreal Lindy Hop Exchange 2007
• Song playlist for the Battle of the Swing DJs 2007
• My Top 5 Count Basie songs for swing dancing
• My Top 5 Sidney Bechet songs for swing dancing
• My Top 5 Duke Ellington songs for swing dancing
• My Top 5 Fats Waller songs for swing dancing

Wicked dance videos

• You can dance no matter what your size!
• We’re dancing Lindy Hop in the official Gmail video by Google
• The family of swing dances explained in video part 1
• Best slow motion dancing in a Lindy Hop video clip
• Watch our Lindy Hop performance at ULHS 2007
• SwingOutDayton team choreography to OK GO
• Watch Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollmann at the US Open 2007
• Watch the SuperJews dancing at Swingin New England
• Bands for dancers today: Loose Marbles
• Watch the Harlem Hotshots from Sweden on TV
• Watch a tribute to the Harlem Congaroos in Seattle
• So You Think You Can Dance: The Lindy Hop

The Jam Cellar “April Fool!” video:

The Jam Cellar is a world-reknowned weekly swing dance party held in a posh, turn of the century mansion in Northwest Washington, DC on Tuesday nights. They have an awesome video blog that you all should subscribe to.

Stephanie McKernan is a dancer, organizer and teacher in Vancouver, British Columbia. She’s the driving force behind the second round of Lindy Bout, happening this April 11-13, 2008.

Photo credit: Shawn.M.Lavelle

1. What’s your story? How did you start dancing?

I grew up in Toronto. I love music. I love jazz music. Thanks to huge crushes on Christian Bale and Robert Sean Leonard I saw Swing Kids and saw there was actually a dance that people did to jazz music. Then I learned that one of my friends actually knew how to do it! I learned my first swing outs at the back of Barcode (a now non-existent venue in Toronto) the summer before I moved to Vancouver for University. When I moved to Vancouver, very few people did Lindy hop. I was introduced to East coast swing and Ballroom dancing and dabbled in that for a year. The next year I joined the swing dance club at the University of British Columbia and became its secretary – no more dabbling. Dancing and organizing dance events became and remains a huge part of my life.

2. You’re an organizer and teacher in Vancouver. What are your thoughts about the swing scene in Western Canada?

First, a bit of a disclaimer, I’ve never visited the swing scenes in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. I know dancers from across Western Canada but my only real experience with swing scenes is in British Columbia, specifically Vancouver. I’ve visited Victoria a few times; it is a lovely place with an enthusiastic and welcoming scene, but distinct from Vancouver.

In high school I remember learning about Vancouver’s physical and cultural isolation from the rest of Canada. It is ‘trapped’ to the East by the mountains, to the West by water, to the South by a border and to the North by nothing. This applies to the swing scene. We seem to do our own thing without being too influenced by other scenes.

That being said, we do have many dancers (myself included) who travel regularly to Seattle, Herräng and other places where they are inspired and challenged. They bring that excitement and experience home and pass it on to other dancers. So we’re not completely isolated and insular.

We are in the midst of a dancing boom. Our Beginner and Intermediate classes are full, any workshops or special events are very well attended. People are working not only on their Lindy hop, but also their Balboa, Charleston and solo jazz. We also have a growing Blues scene. This makes me really excited-it’s fabulous that people are getting interested and more involved in the various branches of vernacular jazz dancing. It also shows a size and maturity in our scene that we have not had before.

There are two weekly dance nights in suburban Vancouver (Langley and Abbotsford) that have developed their own smaller scenes. There is one large weekly dance in Vancouver. It is called Stomp It Off and it runs every Saturday night. It brings in upwards of seventy people every week and is a good mix of local and suburban dancers. There are disadvantages of only having one big dance a week but there are also benefits in a scene our size. Being the biggest regular weekly dance it brings together all the dancers in the scene: beginners, advanced dancers, people that like Blues, people that like Charleston etc. It has forced the DJs to be good at keeping people with different tastes dancing all night. In turn, it exposes dancers to a wide range of danceable jazz music and it prods them to explore other types of jazz dancing. Another bonus of having one main venue is that it fosters community as you see people from week to week and learn their names and perhaps a bit about them.

In Vancouver we have great relationships with amazing local musicians. When I first started dancing out here it was all djed music, things have changed since then. Two of the main venues in and around Vancouver, Stomp It Off in Vancouver and Fat City Swing in Langley, have live music at least once a month. We also have many dancers who frequent the trad jazz festivals that happen around Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest. These events are a blast. The crowd at trad jazz festivals is made up of mostly senior citizens and a handful of dancers who are the same age as their grandkids. I love it when everyone is dancing to the same band and the Lindy hoppers will be swinging out, going crazy and the old timers will be fox-trotting around the floor never breaking a sweat. Every so often the older crowd will come out to a swing dance venue when we have a band; it’s quite inspiring and sets a great example for us young’uns.

Vancouver has amazing people involved in the Lindy hop community. I’ve been grateful and fortunate to work with most of these people. We have dedicated organizers like Darren Scherck (who runs Stomp It Off) and teachers like Lucy Falkner who help the scene grow and push it to greater dancing heights. There are also many other people who may not take such a visible role, but are always around when you need a hand in running an event or when you want to seriously work on your dancing.

3. How would you compare the Vancouver/Abbotsford scene to the one in Seattle? Since you are so close to one another, would you consider them “sister” scenes?

Again, a bit of a disclaimer, I can’t speak for the Abbotsford scene. Abbotsford has its own thing going on. It’s distinct from Vancouver in many ways.

Seattle’s scene is bigger and older than Vancouver’s Lindy hop scene; as familial relations go, Seattle could be the much older sister to Vancouver. The first generation of Lindy hoppers in Vancouver used to drive down and back every week to take lessons and dance. (The drive is roughly 3 hours one way if the border is good.) So in a way the Vancouver Lindy hop scene was a branch of the Seattle scene. Since then we’ve grown up quite a bit and are now independent but we love them visiting us and we love visiting them.

Seattle’s scene is huge. Most of the differences between Vancouver and Seattle stem from the difference in size. You can go dancing any night of the week in Seattle and see different people at every night. Seattle also has distinct Balboa and Blues scenes that are larger and more established than the scenes in Vancouver.

Because of the size and breath of the Seattle scene we tease them for never coming to visit us in Vancouver. This is quite often true. Vancouver dancers travel to Seattle more often than Seattle dancers travel to Vancouver. We still love them.

4. Tell me about Lindy Bout. What was the original idea, and why did you decide to organize this event? What’s new this year?

Back around when the Canadian Swing Championships used to be the Eastern Canadian Swing Championships there was talk about a Western Canadian Swing Championships. Western Canada was not really interested in such an event. You can check out the conversations on Lindyhopper.ca if you’re interested in the discussion that was online.

Gradually dancers in and around Vancouver started taking dancing more seriously. A bunch of us started a Lindy hop troupe called Hot Koko. The Kokos started working really hard and competing and winning and inspiring other dancers in and around Vancouver. In 2006 Darren Scherck, Kevin Savage and myself sat down to plan a competition weekend that would take some of the dancing fire in Vancouver and Victoria and stoke it. We wanted a weekend in Western Canada for Western Canadian dancers. We came up with Lindy Bout. Later that year, for various reasons Kevin and Darren bowed out of running Lindy Bout and I took full control of the weekend.

The ideas and motivation behind Lindy Bout have not changed. It was important to us to have an event that truly represented where we were at in the West dance-wise, an event that would foster healthy competition, an event that would inspire dancers to keep challenging their dancing and an event that would bring dancers from all over Canada’s West together for a big party. That’s where it came from and where it’s still going.

It was a small event last year, but hugely successful. This year is quite similar to last year with a few changes to reflect how things have progressed out here. I am overjoyed that, as last year, Mark Kihara will be our Master of Ceremonies. He was a big part of making last year incredible and I’m looking forward to having him around this year. Dan Amores, Mandi Gould and Chris Chapman will be joined by Lucy Falkner as our head judges and teachers.

Friday night we’re holding the Battle of the Western DJs. Three DJs chosen from the Prairies, two DJs from Vancouver and one DJ from Victoria will compete for honour and our dancing love.

There are a few new Match divisions (in tune with our boxing theme, all the competitions are called Matches). The Solo Jazz Match will give people an opportunity to bust out some solo Blues, Charleston and other forms of jazz. The Partner Blues competition will give the great Blues dancers in the town an opportunity to show their stuff. We also have a Performance Match to encourage people to put together any sort of choreography and perform.

Lindy Bout is right around my birthday. It is also one of the last big events I will be at before I move to Toronto, so on Sunday we’re going to have a big brunch party. There will be food, perhaps some cake, party hats, great music as well as a vintage clip presentation. Joel Schwarz (aka Professor Smack) is a local dancer who has a huge collection of vintage jazz dance clips. He has also done extensive research on the clips and the history of dance by talking to the folks who were there. I’m not sure what he’ll have in store, but he always puts together a great collection of clips and stories.

Also new this year is the number of people from Alberta already registered!

5. Since you are moving to Toronto in the summer, what’s next for you as a dancer? Have you danced in Toronto before, and if yes, how would you compare the dancing in the two cities?

I have danced in Toronto before. I’d usually be in Toronto during the Christmas season and sometime in the summer either on my way to or from Herräng and I’d try to get out to a dance.

Vancouver venues are dry and are mostly djed. Toronto venues serve alcohol and usually have live music, as such I find them more conducive to chatting. I spend more time hanging out and socializing in Toronto, whereas in Vancouver when I go out I spend more time dancing. I could also spend more time socializing in Toronto because I’m rarely there, so when I go out I take time to catch up with people. Because I’ve been there infrequently I feel like a visitor. It’s funny but dance-wise I feel more at home visiting Seattle than Toronto. I’ve been in Seattle more often and I have some good friends there.

I don’t know what will be next. I will be getting married and looking for full-time work so I’m not sure what type of structure my life will take. I will continue dancing; I’m not sure about the teaching, performing and organizing parts of my dancing life. There are great people and dancers in Toronto that I hope to work with but really, I’ll have to wait and see where I fit in the community and how I can contribute to it.

Thanks Steph! If you liked this, you can also read my interview with Adam Boehmer from Ann Arbor.

The audition dates are finally set for the Canadian version of So You Think You Can Dance. Two restrictions: participants are of the age of majority in the province/territory in which they reside, and are no older than 30 years of age.

The Montreal auditions are happening on May 27th, a few days before the start of my Bike Ride to Mexico.

SYTYCD Montreal
Tuesday, May 27
Théâtre St-Denis
1594 St-Denis Street

I know a bunch of dancers who will be auditioning, so wish us luck.

More details on the official CTV page.