alain’s dance blog

The New York Palladium-Times reports that Ramona Noel Staffeld will appear at the Oswego IDOL fundraiser.

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette published a nice article on Coal Country Traditions, a nonprofit organization in Pittsburgh with the mission to preserve many styles of dance, including swing.

And most interesting mention of Lindy Hop this week was found in the Edmonton Journal, where freelance music reporter Mari Sasano mentions Lindy Hop in a K-OS show preview. Seemingly out-of-nowhere.

Toronto-based k-os makes songs that are smart, but also infectiously dance-able. Who didn’t do the lindy-hop to Crabbuckit in 2004

On a side note, there are two awesome events happening this weekend near Montreal. The Canadian Balboa Championship run by Jason Herron, and the Albany Chill Lindy Hop exchange run by our friends in Albany. Both events are a three hour drive away. I’ll be in Albany for Barbara Morrison and Gordon Webster!

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!

Following my previous post on the MTLX, you might be wondering why you should attend a Lindy Hop exchange.

Here are a few good reasons:

• If you are hosting an exchange in your city, you get to meet cool Lindyhoppers from around the world. You get to introduce them to your city, introduce them to your language. In short, you get to share your home with strangers.
• Exchanges are for dancing, eating, sleeping and the occasional hooking up. That means that your weekend is not interrupted by teachers talking or competitors performing. It means you never stop dancing.
• When you go to an exchange, you go to have fun and to meet people. Nobody has pressure on their shoulders (like at a competition). Everyone is there to share in fun, sweat and style.

An exchange is Lindy Hop at it’s purest form: social dancing. Read what Adam thinks about Lindy exchanges.

Let me know why you like dance exchanges.

Last night I DJ-ed at Swing and the City and it was a “show your MTLX colours” night (yes, there are two different ways of spelling color (our) and I always forget which one is which).

MTLX stands for Le Montreal Lindy Hop exchange.

A dance exchange is an event that focuses solely on social dancing. You dance in the afternoon, you dance in the evening, and you dance late night until early morning. As opposed to a workshop or a competition, where the focus is on dance classes or competition.

The first Montreal exchange ran in 2005, and this year is the second edition happening the weekend 10-12th of August. There are some amazing out-of-town guest DJs coming in - Tomo Tanaka from New York, Mike Thibault from Rochester, Greg Avakian from Philly, Nathan Shetterley from Quebec/Detroit. It’s going to be awesome.

You can win a free pass to the event by wearing the MTLX colours (blue, green, burgundy, or orange) at a “Show your MTLX colours” sponsored dance. What is so cool about their promotion? Well, it’s an innovative way of getting the hype out. It gets people talking and participating.

If you’re in, you wear the colours. And not just at one dance, but at all of them. In effect, you spread the word to others just by being there.

MTLX in two weeks.