Pictures from the June 04, 2010 blues dance :)

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

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

When you are organizing dance events, it’s important to keep things fresh as much as possible not just for yourself but also for the tireless volunteers to help out to make that dance event successful. Here are a few quick things that we did for the Yonge & Bloor Blues dance event, “Jelly Roll Blues” to keep things fresh.

New Blood – DJs and Volunteers

We got a new upcoming and blues DJ here in Toronto and his name is DJ Hong Kong John Wong! He’s super stoked about starting to DJ and honestly that enthusiasm is contagious. Of course we also have the ever talented and fellow hamfats blogger, Kevin “Fats” Temple, who comes every month from Kingston and spins some good oldies and newsies. Check out his previous blog post about ending a dance. With the cultivating of exciting blues djs, we are ensuring that future dances constantly changes and evolves musically and never gets stale.

We are also getting interested new blues dancers who want to help out and volunteer for the dance. Big win.

Sweets and Other Nick-Nacks

Jelly beans and jelly punch for the Jelly Roll Blues dance. Get it? We thought it was pretty clever ;) They were definitely a big hit and provided a nice place to hang out and chat when not dancing.

Facebook Advertisements

In order to spread the word about our dance, we started thinking of creative ways to promote our event on facebook. Here is one of our ads:

Not Stress about the Little Things (but it’s all about the little things)

The eventual goal of the monthly dance event is to have it run so smoothly that even if myself, Jaclyn, or Kevin Sue were not around, it should still be able to run without any difficulties. Part of that involves not worrying about every little detail but instead entrust and empower each organizer and volunteer to make decisions that affect the dance.

Pictures + Taggin’

People love seeing dance photos of themselves. We conscientiously tried to take as many photos as we could during the dance so that we would have something to share and talk about afterward.

Content

Having lots and lots of content available for your group members and potential dancers keeps people interested in the dance, the culture, and community of your dance event.

Last night, at the end of Yonge and Bloor Blues, after our last blues song we turned back on all the lights and I played a couple soul/motown songs  to wrap up the night. The people who were still around and still wanted to dance got a chance to bust out the moves one more time and we got an upbeat end to the night.

I did it without thinking much about it, but when discussing it with Randy later, I realized that I did it because I don’t like anti-climactic ends to the evening. Maybe it is just a personal preference (I walk out disappointed when the end of a movie is anti-climactic, I prefer things to be wrapped up in a neat little package), but I feel that I have more fun at a dance when I get a chance to release any residual energy and dance hard one last time at the end of the night. There can be the instinct as the dance progresses to lower the energy level and then call it quits, but I think that the best DJs/Bands will respond to the dancers’ energy level and but then push them to dance harder when the energy gets low.  

It is like the fade-out/defined ending distinction in songs, but at the macro level. I (and many dancers) prefer it when songs end with a defined bang instead of fading out into silence. Plenty of great songs with fadeouts, but ideally most of them would have a distinct ending. Ideally the night should be ended on a high note and the dancers should be able to get some closure.

In the dance world, it can be difficult to accomplish this defined ending, because dances will sometimes run for an undefined amount of time (i.e. until people get tired/bored and leave). At Yonge and Bloor, we don’t have the problem because a large majority of our dancers leave in time to catch the subway, so our dances come to a natural end about 1ish. (And then Randy tries to convince people to get Pork Bone Soup)

At some lindy hop events organizers give a satisfactory ending to everyone’s night by having concurrent lindy hop and blues rooms until the end of near the end of the dance. People can choose their own adventure, and if they want to dance hard just before they leave to wrap up their night, then they can. Alternatively people will finish things up with swing and soul or gospel sets before the end of the night so you get an extra chance to get your groove on.

I have a bit of a pet peeve about organizers/DJs/whoever is responsible (no time for the blame game) who come to a foregone conclusion about how the night is going to go down and where the energy will be at any one time. At lindy hop dances, the pre-determined (insert arbitrary time here) is not “blues-o’-clock” in which you play progressively lower energy music until people get bored and leave, nor is it necessarily “west-coast-o’-clock”, or “disco-o-clock”. It all depends on the dancers, and only partially, they should be pushed in an energetic direction. Don’t decide that people are out of energy, because when you do so, you are killing the night instead of keeping it on life support for as long as possible. If it is indeed disco-o-clock, better make sure that it is a welcome change of pace that will ultimately inject new energy into the tired/bored/uninspired dancers. None of this wimpy lullaby disco stuff. (While disco was an arbitrary illustrative choice, I do firmly believe that a disco afterparty is a great idea.)

These are all just my personal thoughts, I am sure that I am not the only one who likes to wait for that last good dance before leaving, and I hope that I am not the only one who likes to see dances end on an energetic note. (Energetic organizers yelling at people to leave doesn’t count).

Possible times to close out the night:

• Energetic-Lindy-Hop-o’-Clock
• Those-Blues-Songs-That-Really-Get-You-Moving-o’-Clock
• Soul-o’-Clock
• Disco-o’-Clock
• Hip-Hop-o’-clock
• Charleston-o’-clock
• Surf-Music-o’-clock
• Rock-around-the-clock

-Your (Somewhat) Friendly Neighbourhood Kevin Temple

This quarter was the first time I have actually taught a continuous set of blues lessons in my life. There I’ve said it. The cat is out of the bag! I mean I have always been trying to figure out moves with my friends even before I even knew it was called “blues dancing”. I remember finding a page on Apple’s .mac webpages of “dance moves” and trying to copy it at school. Last night marks the end of the first quarter of 2010 and the end of drop-in beginner blues class hosted by Bees Knees Dance. It will soon be replaced in April by a progressive series (wow!) beginner blues class. Here a few things that I’ve learned along the way (please note I am no expert in teaching or teaching methodologies).

Working with the “I already dance blues” scene aura

To be honest, the greatest challenge I have encountered so far (and biggest learning growth) in Toronto is trying to figure out when I get the “I already dance blues” attitude when trying to convince others I think would be good candidates for the beginner blues class.

“Why would I need to take dance classes in a dance that I already do at the bar and [the weekly swing dance venue]?”

You know, from one point of view they are completely right. There is no “right” and “wrong” way to dance blues (ed. see Bryn’s comments after the post though) as there is a right and wrong way to dance other dances such as ballroom or the local flavor of lindy hop. So why even bother with a class?

So my strategy – instead of trying to convince them that what “they” are doing is not what the rest of the blues dance community in North America are doing, I am simply going out and dancing blues that I know as much as I can, wherever I can. Then when others ask me what kind of “styling” I am doing, I point them to awesome workshop events (and consequently youtube dance clips ie. bluesshout) that I have learned from, and if they want to learn but a small piece of that, “hey by the way I’m trying to unload all my knowledge to the dance scene as fast as possible so we can grow”.

Dispelling the “blues is dirty” mentality

Yes, I get it. You went to a blues house party one time and all you saw were people grinding all up on each other and getting drunk. Yes, that’s a part of the blues dance scene here but it doesn’t have to be like that all the time. In my opinion, blues dancing is a very classy dance. Let me show you why… [proceed to show dance clips online].

As an added learning benefit of my crusade to make blues dancing in Toronto a more “legitimate” dance, I’ve started actually reading more about the history of blues music, culture, and dancing. Win-win.

Get people interested in the music (and the rest will become easier)

The music is super important to a dance.

If your students are not into the music, they won’t be into the dance. During the classes I try to introduce as many great blues tracks as possible and I always send a track list to anyone that asks. I have found that by doing this, students are more likely to come back and take additional classes.

It’s a bit more effort to do this on a weekly basis but…

Teaching is hard work

Teaching does not make me a lot of money, when compared to the amount of time spent doing it. Between renting out studio space, emailing interested dancers and answering their questions, constantly printing promotional materials, lesson planning, and going out social dancing as much as possible, I probably would make more money working at Starbucks (which conveniently is underneath where we hold classes). But you know what? I would do it all for FREE because I love every single moment of it.

It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of hard work. But each and every time I end a dance class, I feel reinvigorated about the dance myself which means I want to work even harder to make the next class better. The personal growth for myself clearly outweighs the time spent prepping and teaching.

Actually care!

I’ve also learned that you actually have to really care about your students. Like actually. For reals. Otherwise, it will show through in your teaching and in the class. You cannot fake sincerely wanting another human being to succeed in something that you love doing yourself.

Admittedly, during the course of this year, I came to class one time just not being motivated or interested at all. It was a blizzard outside, I had a long day at work, and I’m pretty sure hills were being perpetually created wherever I started walking towards. Never again.

If things were getting a little stale, I changed something up, anything really to get me amped up again. For example, maybe the warm-up is just a bit longer or with a more jaunty song, or perhaps I’ll try to put a more “intermediate” move in just to see if I can break it down for everybody. The lesson for me really was to not let external factors negatively spill onto my students, who have taken time out of their evening to come to class.

I cannot stress how much actually caring has been beneficial to the success of the blues dance class.

Have a great teaching partner who will compliment your strengths

Kathleen has been a great teaching partner this year and keeps my craziness in check. She’s also the same height as me.

Randy is gonna be teaching in the Toronto area this month!

Note: the above image was not taken in Ontario. Here is a quick view of where I will be teaching and DJ’ing in March:

• March 12 – Dovercourt – Blues
• March 13 – OWO (London, Ontario) – Lindy Hop Workshop
• March 26 – Dovercourt – Blues

(1) This friday at Dovercourt there is the “Friday Night Live Band Swing & Blues”, March 12, featuring the Tyler Yarema Trio (vocals, keyboards, drums, upright bass)!

I will be teaching a beginner blues slow drag class at 8pm. The dance starts at 9:10pm to 1am and I’ll be DJ’ing the band breaks.

Dovercourt House, top floor Dance $13, $15 with one class, $18 with both. $3 off for full-time students

(2) On Saturday March 13, I’ll be teaching a lindy hop mini-workshop with Alcina Chiu at UWO. I have a soft spot for university swing clubs (having learned from one myself) so I’m really AMPED to be teaching for them.

The workshop is from 2-5pm and the social dance from 6-10pm .

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=342866544252

(3) On Friday March 26, I’m teaching at “Friday Night Live Band Swing & Blues” again. This time I will be teaching a beginner juke joint blues class at 8pm. The band playing this night is the “Johnny Max Band!” and they sound pretty awesome. As before, I will be DJ’ing when the band is not playing.

Dovercourt House, top floor Dance $13, $15 with one class, $18 with both. $3 off for full-time students

(4) As always, every Monday night I teach BEGINNER blues with Kathleen Molto at the Yonge & Bloor Studio for Bees Knees Dance (just in case I didn’t spam it enough times).

Quick update about the Yonge & Bloor Blues event on friday. So it went relatively smoothly and we had eighty plus dancers show up throughout the night. Wowee! The attendees number is very promising because at least we know there is interest and momentum to continue having monthly blues dances at the studio. Truth be told, we never really planned on having this event recurring every month but I think the rewards of spreading the blues goodness to new or existing dancers outweighs the organizing and continual promoting (facebook spamming?) of the event.

As always, the blues dance would not have been possible without Kevin Sue Chue Lam’s muscles to carry stuff and Jaclyn’s due diligence in paperwork. Thanks guys! :) Also thanks to all the DJs who spun some mad hot blues (Joe, Kevin “Fats” Temple, and Adi “Pimp Walkin” Ze).

Here is a great facebook message I came across right after the dance:

Vitor Campos: Vibing to Blues Dance… so good!!! puuure musicality awesomeness. =D I want more!

WARNING DANCE CLASS PLUG COMING BELOW:

There were some questions about where to take some blues dance classes. As always, I teach (with Kathleen Molto) a beginner drop-in blues class on MONDAYS 8:30pm for Bees Knees Dance at the Yonge & Bloor Dance Studio 765B Yonge Street (above Starbucks). We mainly focus on the fundamental techniques of the dance while giving you some movements to try out on the dance floor. It’s a pretty chill class. ;)

A Couple Pictures

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