The company line in Toronto has always been, “we are lucky to have so many great live bands”. Well, truth be told, I was not a company man for a very long time. Things are starting to change though and I’m slowly starting to see the light. I just need to look in different avenues and directions.

Two bands that really stand out are Patrick Tevlin & His New Orleans Rhythm and Up Jumped Swing. Both bands will be playing at Toronto’s main lindy dance (Dovercourt @ Saturday nights) in the upcoming month. Check out a clip of Patrick Tevlin and his happy pals playing at Grossmans this holiday weekend:

One of the ways to “legitimize” the blues scene that is rapidly growing in Toronto is to have blues-centric dances as opposed to having “blues” music (and I use that loosely) at end of a swing night. Luckily for us, Toronto is going buck-wild like a prodigy child about blues dancing and there is a bunch of opportunities for dancing! (Please Note: these photos were not taken in Toronto)

Yonge & Bloor Blues

Although we do not have a regular schedule yet (for example the first friday of the month), we are having our second event this upcoming Friday. We had a GREAT turn out for the first event and like I said in my previous blog post, it’s mostly new people which is encouraging in developing an actual blues scene.

• Friday March 5 – Yonge & Bloor Blues featuring DJ’s Kevin Temple (Kingston), Joe Lim (Waterloo), and Adi Ze (Toronto). 765B Yonge Street (above Starbucks).

After our successful first blues dance event, “The Mooche”, Yonge & Bloor Blues presents our second event on March 05, 2010. Going back to the roots, “The Juke Joint”, will focus on of what makes blues dancing great: more hot blues DJs playing great tracks and more great feeling blues dancing with new and experienced dancers.

Dovercourt House Blues

Friday Night Live Band Blues at the Dovercourt House. There are some upcoming great blues bands that will be playing for us dancers at the Dovercourt House. I am especially excited about the Douglas Watson R & B Review (I heard them last year in Ottawa, great stuff).

• Friday March 12 – Tyler Yarema Trio (vocals, keyboard, drums, upright bass)! Dovercourt House.
• Friday March 26 – Johnny Max Band! Dovercourt House.
• Saturday April 10 – Douglas Watson R & B Review!

Friday Night Live Band Blues & Swing happens most second, fourth and fifth Fridays at Dovercourt House starting in March, and featuring excellent live bands and blues dance lessons! Friday Night Yonge and Bloor Blues starting in March happens most first and third Fridays featuring an excellent blues dance class and a DJ’d Dance!

Sunday “Swing and Blues” at the Imperial Pub

It’s a bit on the low turnout side (don’t shoot me I’m just writing what I saw) but there is DJ’d blues and swing music every Sunday night at the Imperial Pub @ 54 Dundas St. E. Free cover = win win.

There’s a new weekly dance in town! Every Sunday night come out to The Imperial Pub and Library to dance to the best DJ’d blues and swing music in Toronto. Brought to you by The Swing and Tap Academy of Toronto, the inaugural night of “Swing and Blues Sundays” is this Sunday, January 10th, 2010! Cheap drinks, great music, good food and best of all – the dance is FREE!

Had a great turn out at the first Yonge and Bloor Blues event and you could say it was a bit of success. We had about sixty to seventy people throughout the course of the event. This by itself is not a lot of people compared to our local lindy hop saturday night dance (which tops over a hundred guests) but we were pleasantly surprised by the turn out.

What I was really most ecstatic about was the fact that the majority of people came out to Kevin and Brooke’s drop-in beginner blues class and stuck around for the dancing. New people being introduced to blues dancing from the beginning instead of being an after band dance at Dovercourt or at the pubs. Wowzee crazee?

A couple quick thoughts I had about the event though:

1. Organizing is hard work. Lots of work goes behind the scenes just to put on a very “simple social”.
2. Getting the right mood with the music selection is a lot harder than it seems (need to find/grow more blues DJs in our scene).
3. People will ask a lot of questions about blues dancing and about the event. Be prepared to spend time chatting with new dancers and doing a bit of educating.

Overall, I’m glad the first event was “successful”. However, success is a double edged sword. If the event had not gone well or if nobody showed up, we could have just dusted off our hands and said, “well at least we tried, time to move on to something else” (like dancing). Now we actually have to follow-up and host another one.

More to come later.

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

Toronto Blues Website

I started a blogroll (mainly for myself), to keep track of the new blues events/happenings going around in Toronto. Semi useful information and a few songs now and then.

Check it out: http://torontobluesdance.com

Forgot to post this – won a competition with Alcina Chiu at Toronto’s Inter-Regional Jack and Jills. :) More clips on the site’s Vimeo page (http://vimeo.com/channels/hamfats).

Photobooth at the Toronto University Exchange 3D. If you want full quality pictures, feel free to contact me. I can email you the original digital copy or print a 8″x10″ copy ($10 each) for you. As you may know, the TUX event is all about being low cost and accessible for everybody. While you can definitely use the photos for your facebook/twitter/etc I ask that you keep the hamfats logo attached and image unedited.

Click on link below to see the rest.

Toronto’s blues dance for blues dancers holds its first event on Jan. 29, 2010. Epic. Website: http://yongebloorblues.com/

Remember when I said that there were plans in motion to (re)build the blues dance scene in Toronto? Well let me tell you all about it…

Things are getting exciting here in Toronto. And I’m not talking just about the Reservoir Lounge comment fest from my last blog post (although very interesting). There are dances specifically for blues dances that are going to take place in our city as well as various opportunities to learn to dance to blues music.

Third Friday Swing & Blues Dance Party (Dovercourt House)

The first event I should mention is the one that will be put on by Simon (Swing Toronto) at the Dovercourt House (“DCH”). According to Simon, the plan is to have a monthly blues dance at DCH every third friday of the month. This will be a band based event and the band this month will feature the excellent Tyler Yarema Trio. Tyler actually participated in the blues “musicality” workshop a while back when Steven and Virginie came to Toronto to teach. It was by far my favourite class of the weekend and it definitely helped me understand just *that* much more about the music and dancing.

When: Friday December 18
Who: Swing Toronto

The lesson will also be taught by Waterloo’s own, Jeff Benoit, and he will be teaching two classes, “The Essence of Blues Dance” (@7pm) and “Let the Music Move You(@8pm).

Make sure you come take those classes because Jeff has really keen insights about blues connection and feeling. One of the first weekends I was in Toronto, I jumped on over to Waterloo, for their blues exchange, and was very impressed with Jeff’s foundation classes.

Yonge & Bloor Blues (Dirt Cheap!)

The second event that I want to mention to you guys is the one that will start up in 2010 called “Yonge & Bloor Blues”. If you have not been to the Yonge and Bloor studio (“The Ultimate Lindy Hop Studio”), check it out at:

765B Yonge Street – upstairs from Starbucks, the door is nestled between the Starbucks and Tim Horton’s on the East side of Yonge Street, just North of Bloor. Steps from Yonge & Bloor subway station.

Not only does BEES KNEES DANCE bases its Toronto dance lessons there, the studio is also owned by Toronto local lindy hoppers Kevin and NaYoung. They are great people and even though they not intend to start up a dance studio when they opened up their business, it is the best studio for our community in all of Toronto.

Where/Who: Yonge & Bloor Blues Facebook Group Page

The first dance is set for January 29, 2010 so it’s still a bit away.

Bees Knees Monday Night Blues Classes

Speaking of Bees Knees Dance, Mandi is hosting blues dance classes in Toronto with Randy (yep, that’s me) and Kathleen. The will be every Monday night from 8:30pm-9:30pm, directly after my friends’ Shannon and Jasper’s beginner swing classes. Check out http://www.beeskneesdance.com for more information.

I am really pumped up about these classes because it will be the first time, at least in my knowledge, that a regular weekly blues dance class will be offered in Toronto (correct me if I am wrong). It’s exciting to think of all the potential blues dance babies that can come out of it.

When: Every Monday Night 8:30-9:30pm, starting January 4th.
Who: Bees Knees Dance; Randy and Kathleen
Where: 765B Yonge Street

Workshop w. Shannon

Last Saturday, in conjunction with the University of Toronto Swing Club, Shannon and I taught a blues mini-workshop. We wanted to keep it a bit low key. Truthfully, it was a bit low key just in case we did not get the turn out we wanted. However, we were BLOWN AWAY by the reception and we actually filled out all the available spots for the workshop and even had extras coming in on the day of.

There were a few first workshop jitters admittedly but once Shannon and I settled in, it was amazing to see students go from not knowing anything about blues dancing to actually respecting their dance partners and moving around comfortably. Shannon is a phenomenal teacher and the university swing babies are very lucky to have her as one of the primary teachers.

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Well that’s it, those are the updates in regards to the development of blues dancing in Toronto. Stay tuned in the new year for more info :)

Social dancing at the Reservoir Lounge is like playing russian roulette with your dance outing (not to be confused with the real russian roulette which I have an inkling is played at the bar next door, “Vodka”). Sometimes you end the night having fun dances and great times with your local Toronto swing scene friends, and other times, you are sitting on the subway with your brains all over your lap in disappointment and swearing off the venue forever. Well why fight the good fight and try to change a local dance venue favorite here in Toronto? Here are a few quick tips for when you do find yourself on a Wednesday night with nothing to do and want to make the best out of your outing at the infamous Reservoir Lounge (“Rez”).

Tip 1: The music will always be the same. Get over it.

No, you are not in some sort of crazy Bill Murray movie where the same day repeats itself. You are however, at the Reservoir Lounge, where the music set NEVER CHANGES. I repeat, the music set will never change. Never ever. It’s something you just have to accept and move on to enjoy the rest of your night.

The first couple of times you head to the Rez, you’ll probably notice that the songs are actually quite decent and the sets very tight. Then something odd will happen. You will start memorize which songs go after each other and then realize that the exact same set had played the week before.

The jazz fanatic and swing dj in me dies a little bit inside whenever I go out dancing at the Rez. It took me a while to get over it but I think you can too. As long as you accept the fact that the same set will play week after week regardless if you are there or not and be able to stomach the song, “Flip, Flop, Fly”, on repeat for the rest of your dance life, you will have the recipe for success.

Dancing to the same songs is always better than not dancing, right?

Tip 2: Get used to aborting moves and standing still during dances.

Waiters and waitresses walking around with trays full of expensive glasses of wine, rich financial district workers rolling out twenties on the middle of the dance floor, and inexperience dancers flailing in full flight, these are just some of the obstacles in your way if you choose to accept the mission of dancing at the Rez. It may seem tough, but with just a little bit of skill and some good old fashion luck from Saint Frankie Manning, you should be able to do it.

Learn to dance small when the even smaller dance floor gets packed. Or learn to dance in between the lanes of circular tables. You basically have two square feet of space maximum to dance with your partner. I’m not kidding.

If you are a lead, learn to use chest-to-chest connection for majority of your dances (win!) and work on your fast-twitch reflexes to be able to abort tuck turns during any count. If you are a follow, try to insist to your lead that you do not need to do Savoy style swing outs to every song.

Tip 3: Learn to distinguish quickly between actual dancers and PUAs wearing fedora hats (or Cougars in flapper dresses).

While there is nothing wrong with PUAs, the Rez is a very dimly lit venue for dancing and the “public” are sometimes indistinguishable from the Toronto lindy community. If you are new to Toronto or its your first time dancing at the Rez, make a dancer friend quickly and ask for referrals as to whom to ask to dance with next.

This is what I like to do whenever I am in a new city for dancing:

1) Immediately ask someone to dance as soon as you get into the dance venue (after putting on your suede soles and hat of course har).

2) If the dance was not terrible, ask your partner who you should dance with next.

3) Ask the next person and indicate that you were referred. That usually makes that person immediately more friendly as they are getting a compliment as being a desirable dance partner.

4) Repeat step 2 and 3 until tired or what a break.

Also, do not leave your drink unattended. Haha joking, it’s not that bad…

Tip 4: Don’t open a bar tab.

This is especially true if your first name rhymes with “candy”, which oddly enough, a lot of the Rez’s martini tastes like. Mmm..

Got any tips for dancing at our beloved and infamous Reservoir Lounge? Leave a comment! :)

The Reservoir Lounge (52 Wellington St. E).

(P.S. If you are any way affiliated with the Reservoir Lounge, what about the idea of having free cover for dancers? I bet you’d get a lot more people out (and buying drinks) in the long run which would far outweigh the $100 or so dollars you make from cover charge. Just sayin’).

Here’s the deal. Ever since I moved to Toronto, I have been asking, “why is there never any actual blues dances in the city?”. Sure every now and then we would get a fat dance from local events like the Toronto University Exchange (which btw, is coming up again in January), or late night at Dovercourt, but there was never anything constant to look forward to. I know, I am kind of a spaz about dancing. In order to get my blues fix in, I had to cough up quite a bit of bread to visit cities like Waterloo, Chicago, New York, Vancouver, and Minnesota. While those trips were always fantastic and worth the effort, reality would often settle a week or so after returning home and the urge to get that fix in again would slow start to fill up. Eventually I would get antsy and it was off traveling again. Rinse. Repeat. $ minus minus. Eventually, what I took away from BluesShout! in Chicago was that starting a blues scene in your own city can be preferable to being a traveling blues gypsy (although, wouldn’t that be the life?).

People have told me that in the past, Toronto used to be a pretty kickin’ place for blues dances. The city has a good amount of actual bands that play the genre and you could often get buddies together to hit pubs such as Grossmans, Reservoir Lounge, and The Rex to hear some good tunes. However, listening to live music just makes it that much harder to escape the reality that there just isn’t a blues scene right now in Toronto.

Now as you can probably guess from the title of this blog post, there are current movements taking place to remedy this situation. One thing that I did not factor in is how much work it might actually be to (re)start a blues scene. Luckily, the past couple of months have led to collaborative efforts from the established dance organizations in Toronto and I think we are off to a good start.

Toronto is a weird when it comes to dance organizational politics so I won’t let the cat out of the bag just yet. What I can say is that there are events being planned and the overall goal of this collaborative movement is painfully simple and elegant:

1. Actually have regular blues dances.
2. Start teaching dancers how to dance blues.

Mind blowing I know. Stay tuned.