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.

Last year, I helped some b-girl friends with their latest show, a fusion of break and swing.

I met Jodee Allen, co-owner of the dance company, a few years back when I volunteered for the Inner City Dance Project. We both gave of our time to provide young children with affordable $1 dance classes. Unfortunately, the project fell through. But we have stayed friends ever since. So when they pitched me their idea of creating a fusion of two street dances, I jumped on right away. And the result is amazing.

Why don’t people dance in couples anymore?

They premiered “Take It Back” at Espace Tangente last October, to a string of sold-out crowds. It got rave reviews in all the major newspapers. I was even wrongly credited for composing the musical score in La Presse. Here’s the official blurb about the concept.

TAKE IT BACK
With “Take it Back”, Solid State asks the question, ” Why don’t we dance in couples anymore?” It comes down to the idea that someone must lead and the other must follow. The popularization among urban youth of dancing in mass groups or the soloing format of street forms has created an environment where we dance how we want. Everyone is a leader. Who is willing to follow? So where did the role of the follower go? In an attempt to create a social partner dance for our generation, Solid State has paired the high physicality of B-boying (Breakdance) with the partnering structures of Lindy Hop (Swing) and the gestural abstractions of Contemporary Dance. The result of this fusion is a humourous yet profound look at our societal issues with trust, and the shift in our perception of gender roles.

Check out this article in the Montreal Mirror. Or these reviews in The Dance Current.

Their next performance is this weekend in Toronto, so if you have friends over in Hogtown, spread the word. If you’re in Montreal, you can catch “Take It Back” next month. The dancers are JoDee Allen (b-girl Feisty), Helen Simard (b-girl Cheeco), Raul Guevara (b-boy 4Everfresh), Joe Danny Aurelien (b-boy Dingo), Johnny Bien-Aime (b-boy Skywalker).

• Sept 8-9 2007, Dancemaker’s Center, Toronto, ON
• Oct 16th 2007, Theatre Outremont, Montreal, Q

Watch them dance at the Osheaga music festival last year in Montreal.

For more info, visit Solid State Break Dance.

Next week, we’re having our second Battle of the Swing DJs at Cat’s Corner. It’s going to be a tag team battle AC vs. DK.

In the old school corner, we’ve got DJ Danny-O, head DJ at the Canadian Swing Championships for the last six years, and superman DJ “Ka-El” Karrwright Lee, who just got back from Japan. I had to convince Karrwright to come out of retirement for this one, so this will be a rare occasion to see one of the Montreal originals in action.

In the newcomer corner, we’ve got the youngsters from Cat’s, DJ Carl Nelson who will be DJing at the upcoming Albany Chill, and DJ Alain Wong (me).

Don’t miss it. It’s gonna be violent.

This is the playlist of the Saturday late night at the Montreal Lindy Hop Exchange 2007. Nathan Shetterley started off which some groovy mood music while people ate, and then dancing resumed at around 2am.

DJ Mike Thibault from Rochester and DJ Alain Wong from Montreal trading songs, mostly four at a time.

Savoy Blues Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band
Effervescent Blues John Kirby & His Orchestra
The Darktown Strutters’ Ball Alberta Hunter
Flying Home Barnet, Charlie
Moten Swing Kansas City Band
The Comeback Count Basie & Joe Williams
Roll With My Baby Ray Charles
Let’s Get Together (edit) Chick Webb/ Ella Fitzgerald
Don’t Go ‘way Nobody Boilermaker Jazz Band
Track 19 Mystery Track
Like It Is Erroll Garner
Honeysuckle Rose Ella Fitzgerald
Don’t Be That Way Lionel Hampton
One O’Clock Jump rip Coleman Hawkins & The Metronome All-Stars
The Very Thought of You Billie Holiday
Death Came A Knockin’ Ruthie Foster
It’s All Right Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions
Hound Dog Big Mama Thornton
Cry To Me Solomon Burke
Groove Me King Floyd
Shoorah Shoorah Allen Toussiant with Chocolate Milk
What Makes The Ending So Sad Lou Rawls
Never Make Your Move Too Soon (edit) Ernestine Anderson
Splanky Count Basie
Skin ‘Em Back (Original) rip Skeets Tolbert and His Gentlemen Of Swing
Exactly Like You The Benny Goodman Quartet
It’s De-Lovely Boilermaker Jazz Band
Yes Indeed Tommy Dorsey
Keep on Churnin’ Wynonie Harris
Got To Give It Up, Part 1 Marvin Gaye
Let’s Get It On (Demo Take) Marvin Gaye
Ocean Of Tears Ruthie Foster
Lonely Teardrops Jackie Wilson
Please Mama Please Go Cat Go
You Sexy Thing Hot Chocolate
When the lights Go Out Jimmy Witherspoon
Gimme a pigfoot Lavern Baker
On The Sunny Side Of The Street Lionel Hampton
They Can’t Take That Away Carmen McRae
A Letter To Heaven Sister Wynona Carr
Just A-Sittin’ And A-Rockin’ Ben Webster
I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A letter (Ahlert-Young) Jay McShann
Black And Tan Fantasy Duke Ellington
You are My Sunshine Bill Henderson
Trouble in Mind Nina Simone
Midnight Blues (Red Shirt) Jimmy Witherspoon
You Send Me Aretha Franklin

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.