alain’s dance blog

This fall, there seems to be an explosion of new weekly dance events in Montreal. So no more excuses. There’s plenty of opportunities to dance!

Here’s an update on swing dance nights in Montreal.

1. Tuesday night at Les Bobards, 4328 St-Laurent, corner Marie-Anne. Live band at 10pm. This is organized by Patrick Evans and Swing Connexion. $5 cover. Of the two dances on Tuesday, this one is more appropriate for Lindy Hop. You can read a review on Carl’s blog.
2. Tuesday night at Le Petit Medley, 6206 St-Hubert, corner Bellechasse, near Beaubien metro. $4 cover and mandatory coat check. Organized by Studio88swing. A mix of swing, blues and rock and roll.
3. Wednesday Balboa practice at Studio Metronome, 4557 St-Laurent north of Mont Royal. Organized by Sylvain Tchang, who also teaches Balboa there. I’m not sure if this is regular, so you might want to ask just to make sure.
4. Thursday West Coast swing night at Union Francaise, 429 Viger Est near Champ-de-Mars metro. Run by Studio88swing. Music by Max Pitruzella.
5. Friday Downtown Stomp at Cat’s Corner, 486 St-Catherine West suite 303. $7 cover, crash course at 8:30pm, dancing at 9:30pm. My all-time favorite night of the week.
6. Saturday at Le Jazz Hot. Live band every week. $12 cover. Run by Studio88swing.
7. Sunday Swing’n Groove at La Porte Rouge, 1834 Mont-Royal East, corner Papineau. Music by DJ Daniel “Pocail” Champagne. Free. Starts around 8:30pm. I went to the first one last week, and boy did we party! The music played is not strictly jazz - you’ll be able to break out to a mix of Motown, funk, blues and soul.

So far this fall, my top three dance nights have been on Fridays at Cat’s, then Sunday at La Porte Rouge and to round it up, Tuesday at Les Bobards. But do try out every dance and make up your own opinion.

I’d like to thank everyone involved in making Sept. 4th, 2007 a successful Cat’s Corner Facebook Day already.

Here are some of the creative things that Cat’s Corner fans have come up with:

In the comments section of this page, I’ll be linking to everyone who contributed to CCFD, including their “status update” and their “updated profile picture”.

It’s not too late to take action. Change your status, update your picture, post the Cat’s Corner video - join us in celebrating Cat’s Corner Facebook Day!

Ann and I are teaching a new class this September at Cat’s Corner dubbed Lindy Revue.

The Lindy Revue concept

Une revue est une formule théatrale qui combine musique, danse et sketches. Pour ce cours, Alain et Ann ont combine le meilleur de nos cours de Dazzle & Flash, Charleston et Routines & Chorégraphies pour creer une routine qui vous mettra a l’epreuve sans vous decourager!

The goal is to learn a choreography in six weeks and to present it at the Friday night dance at Cat’s. There will be video reviews and even a dance blog for the class.

Check out the cool logo!

Google ran a contest last month in order to build a collaborative video through Youtube for Gmail. The idea was to pass the Gmail logo (an M envelope) in a creative way through video. Ann and I submitted a video of us swinging out with the envelope, and guess what? We made it onto the final cut!

Gmail: Behind the Scenes (Final Cut)
A compilation of clips submitted by Gmail fans as part of our collaborative video project. Selected from over 1,100 clips from fans in more than 65 countries. Learn more at http://mail.google.com/mvideoThank you to Etienne for filming it!

I’d like to congratulate three of my friends from Cat’s for winning the Advanced Lindy Hop Jack ‘n Jill at Wicked Lindy in Boston this past weekend. Ok, technically only two are actually Cat’s Corner teachers, but Mariel is in our extended family, so I consider her part of Cat’s too.

Advanced Jack ‘n Jill results for Wicked Lindy 2007 (Boston)

1. Rajeev Hotchandani & Ann Mony
2. Lee Tucker & Mariel Adams
3. Alain Fragman (the other Alain) & Jennifer Stout

Yay Cat’s!