alain’s dance blog

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.

During the Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous, Benjamin Ricard from Port-O-Swing showed me their nifty new brochures. There’s a picture of Ann and myself inside.

Port-O-Swing is the big swing dance school in Quebec city. They teach many different jazz dances, including Lindy, East Coast, Jive, Blues, Shag, Balboa, you name it. Benjamin and Geneviève are most know for their death-defying acrobatics.

So the new flyers just came out, and it’s the first time I’ve been featured as a Special Guest in a dance event.

I’ve been to every single QSRV since it was founded, that is two years ago, and it’s always been a blast. Nathan Shetterley and Véro Paquet can throw a mean party.

First year featured Mike Faltesek’s first visit to our lovely province, and that private with him two years ago was life-altering for my dancing. It was also my first contact with Adam Boehmer and Marcie McCabe, two of the most infectious Charleston kickers anywhere this side of the Atlantic. And the Pacific. I also discovered sweet music by DJ Kelly Porter from Detroit. She played some awesome hot vintage tunes that I had never heard before, from peeps like Willie the Lion Smith.

Last year they introduced comps to the event. Ann Mony and I were lucky and got each other in the Jack and Jill. Too bad the footage was corrupted and the videos were lost - I heard we danced well. This year we decided that if we got each other in the Jack and Jill, we would change partners.

Mélanie and I also presented a routine that we had prepared for the Showcase division, but the comp was canceled for lack of participants. It was replaced by a Strictly, and we came in second. It was the first time Mumu and I competed together, so we were both really happy with the result.

This year features a team battle in honor of Quebec city’s 400th anniversary. It’s all happening at the Imperial Theatre on Saturday January 26, 2008. There’s a Facebook group for Montrealers looking for rides.

Québec Swing Rendez-Vous, January 25 to the 27th, featuring guest teachers Mike Faltesek, Nina Gilkenson, Thomas Blancharz, Alice Mei, Mickey Fortanasce, Kelly Arsenault, Kelly Palmiter, Laura Berger, Dan Amores and pretty much the whole province of Quebec, Canada.

See ya there!

Rikomatic from Yehoodi wrote a great post about the Swing and Soul weekend. His post made me discover Chibi Robot, who performed at the So You Think You Can Dance finale.

A highlight of the weekend for me was hanging out with popper Chibi Robot (aka Bryan Gaynor), who performed and taught during the weekend. After Chibi’s performance, I walked over to legendary dancer and musician Dawn Hampton and asked her what she thought. She said to me, “he’s the reply to anyone who says that they are too anything to dance. Too old, too fat, too short. If he can do it, anyone can do it.”

Now that’s inspiration right there. Watch a video of him on youtube.

Also check out Carl’s post on Swing and Soul. Dan, Carl, Jerone and Mike did a performance to the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back”, and the video is posted on his blog.

For those wondering where I’ve been this last week, I was busy at my new workplace. Fred and Ben decided to add me to the StandoutJobs team for the next few months. I’m excited and feel that I’ll be learning a lot in the startup environment.

The new toys are not bad either.

I’ve finally settled in, so new dance and jazz music posts will be up in the next day or two. In the meantime, if you know any Ruby Gurus, send them my way.

Also, I will be DJ-ing at the upcoming Québec Swing Rendez-Vous in January. Don’t miss the next deadline, December 15th, to save $30 on the weekend pass.