Alain Wong’s interview on Swing Dancer Magazine
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008From 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!
8 Questions with Alain Wong
The Basics
Alain Wong
Dancer / Teacher / DJ / Performer
Montreal, Qc, Canada1) 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.
