Check out when the phrase in the music changes and how the rest of the crowd gets into the groove. Really fun night at our last blues dance with a fantasmical band as always led by Patrick Tevlin.

Some more clips (but this time on vimeo):

• http://vimeo.com/22774873
• http://vimeo.com/22773750
• http://vimeo.com/22772391

At our dance venue on Yonge & Bloor, people mess around with the temperature of the studio all the time. To combat this, Kevin Sue installed a case-lock around the studio thermostat so that you would need a key to open the case to be able to have access to the studio heating system. Great idea in practicality, except when the key is no where to be found. So if you went to the drop-in lesson and live blues dance last night (and why wouldn’t you have gone?) and were sweating buckets, there was a greater force at work :-)

But yah what a night eh? Brian Cober and Aslan Gotov, for their first time playing for us blues dancers in Toronto, were great great great. Everybody was walking up to me throughout the night and asking where I found them. Well, actually, my israeli friend Kim found them but they have been playing in venues all around Toronto for a while now (ie. Grossmans Tavern). If you know more great blues musicians, remember to refer them to me!

The first blues dance in Toronto went pretty well, thanks to our good ol’buddy Patrick Tevlin playing some sweet sweet tunes for us. For the dance, we brought in a live band to play the equivalent of one DJ set (1 hour’ish) just to mix things up. The responses from the community have been pretty positive so far and we’ll definitely be integrating Toronto’s great blues musicians into the scene as much as possible :)

Patrick Tevlin – Toronto Blues Dance – Blueberry Hill from Hamfats.ca on Vimeo.

Patrick Tevlin, Suitcase Sam, Robin Hatch
January 14, 2010

Angie Fadness (Madison, USA) and Randy Pante (Toronto, Canada)

Standing for Something

I was talking to Marvelous Martha this afternoon and she sent me a link to a leadership video about having a belief. It got me thinking about an exercise that we did for the Yonge and Bloor community about what we stand for. It took us half a year but I believe that the Yonge & Bloor blues community is starting to find its own footing in the overall social dance scene in Toronto.

Just in case you missed it, this is what we stand for at Yonge & Bloor Blues:

#1 – Blues is a dance in its own right.
We believe that blues dancing is an art form all its own, which requires the same amount of study and practice as any other dance style. It is not just a dance done at the end of a lindy hop night nor is it done only at house parties.

#2 – Blues music for blues dances.
For blues dances, DJ’d or live music, we like to dance to blues music. There is a rich history of blues music including but not limited to jazz blues, delta blues, piedmont blues, and rhythm and blues.

#3 – Respect each other as dancers and individuals
On and off the dance floor we try to treat one another as we would like to be treated. Blues can be a very close and intimate dance, but only if both parties/dancers are comfortable with each other. Respect each other’s space and comfort level.

#4 – Build a community of dancers
We are a community with a shared passion – dance. If we focus on our shared passion, the fruits of a community naturally happen.

#5 – Pursue growth and encourage sharing of knowledge
We work as a community towards common goals – to learn and grow to become better dancers and to spread that knowledge to other people. We’ll try hard to provide opportunities for this to happen and we’d like you to try hard too.

To say that we came up with these beliefs naturally and easy would be a lie. We thought and debated about each point long and hard before committing to them. There were decisions made in drafting these beliefs that were not very popular with some of our existing community dance members in Toronto (and to some extent, still not, but it’s gotten significantly better).

In our community, we have some dancers whose personal preference about blues music is something that you might see at a lindy exchange, where the earlier part of the night is up-tempo swingin’ tunes before slowing it down later on, maybe after midnight. An all-blues music dance night is not for them and I understand and respect them for it. We all have our own personal preference for music and dancing and as any dance organizer knows all too painfully well, you can’t please everybody.

The change by introducing an all-night, blues-music-only dance in the community had its risks. We definitely received mixed reactions but all we could do was weather the initial knee-jerk reaction to change and keep pushing for something that we believed in. We wanted blues dancing to be it’s own dance in Toronto. Blues music for blues dancers.

Making a stand for something is not free from hassle; it does not mean we won’t alienate some lindy hoppers and we may even lose some dancers whom we don’t directly cater to in terms of musical or dance tastes. Not everyone will agree to our style of blues dancing and blues music, but that’s okay. Standing for what we believe in means that we are willing to lose a few people if it means we have others who LOVE blues dancing even more. They are also the ones constantly introducing new people to this dance and getting the word out. They are the ones really building the scene.

More to come later.

Previous entries:

• http://hamfats.ca/toronto/rebuilding-blues-part-2
• http://hamfats.ca/toronto/rebuilding-blues-part-1
• http://hamfats.ca/toronto/rebuilding-blues-part-0

Last year was the year that I started venturing out to blues exchanges and workshop weekends. Last year was also the year where I decided that “this dance” was a dance that I’m actually really enjoying being a part of, and it was probably time to learn it. I have always liked dancing to blues music, whether at a house party or at a pub, but I have always considered it more of a side hobby – something to do when I need a break from lindy hop/salsa/hip hop. What a difference a year makes.

When I was at BluesSHOUT! last year sitting and watching the competitions/social dancing/class demos, something amazing transpired right before my eyes that it’s hard to quantify it in words. What had happened was the undeniable group feeling that, we too, the participants, can rise to that level of skill and technique of the teachers, competitors, and other dancers we were watching. Think about that for a second.

I believe for me, this is what differentiates blues dancing right now from a lot of other dances that I like doing. Blues, for better or worse, is not as technically impressive or artistically flawless as other dances. (I mean, it is, but it isn’t. Ya’know?) But it’s raw, it’s real, and it’s constantly re-inventing itself. Everything I personally love about dancing.

Check out clips from last year’s BluesShout:

BluesShout 2009 – Ballroomin’ Finals

BluesShout 2009 – Juke Joint Finals

So what is so special about BluesShout? Heidi, in one line writes it perfectly:

BluesSHOUT! is meant not only to draw Blues dance closer to the roots of its past but to send it bursting into the future. – http://www.bluesshout.com/2010/history/index.shtml

BluesSHOUT! this year treated us blues dancers, organizers, and fans to an environment of growth, exploration and risk taking. The teachers and organizers created a general atmosphere that this event, was about not only taking your dancing to the next level, but the entire community’s as well. Ideas are amazingly powerful, especially when they involve the idea of “what could be”. For that reason alone is why we dedicate countless hours of our lives practicing and debating, why we become so emotionally attached to our local blues scenes and why it propels us to support our favorite competitors with genuine goodwill.

So thank you BluesSHOUT!, for inspiring us.

Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.

Stop what you are doing right now and watch this clip. Don’t worry, I’ll wait until you’re finished watching. ;-)

So if you did not know, this is a clip of the “spotlights” for the BluesShout 2010 Ballroomin’ division. It’s kind of a big deal. Ballroomin’ competitions are usually danced to new orleans style or big band jazz bands playing blues tunes. In this particular competition, you are able to choose your own partner but the song played is not known until you are actually on the dance floor.

Watching this live and then watching it on video gives me the CHILLS. My mind races with possibilities and ideas of how to “incorporate” what each of those dance couples bring to the competition into my own dancing. At the end of the day, that is the reason why I spend the moolah and time to get to events like BluesShout – to be INSPIRED and continue on with my own dancing.

Hey, check this out…

deeply humbled and honored to be considered on this list

WHAT THE???

I was just a sliver away from being in that clip? What no way! Seeing that list was probably one of the highlights of my weekend. I know that I personally do not have enough blues experience to be anywhere near the level that those dance couples are but I’m learning and sweatin’ away. Slowly but surely! To be acknowledged by my peers and instructors to be even remotely close to that top echelon group of blues dancers makes my heart FAT. <3 <3 <3.

Special kudos goes out to my wonderful dance partner Shannon Woods whom I met through a discussion thread for those needing competition partners. This weekend was the first time we have ever danced together and honestly it could not have gone any better.

Wow what a great first class for our (Kathleen and I) first progressive beginner blues series! I can’t even describe how pumped up I am about having dancers come out and support blues dancing in Toronto.

So how did we do it? Honestly… it’s easier than you think.

1. just lots and lots of hard work. Eep…
2. relentless scene building non stop even with hurdles and naysayers in your path.

I’ll have a more detailed blog post to come within the next few weeks, I’m just super excited right now and had to post up something! :D