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30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge: Your Swing Crushes / Favorite Pros

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Every Friday for thirty weeks, I will write about a topic from the list of the
“30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge“.

This week, we're talking about..

Week #12: Favorite Pros

My first thought about Swing crushes was: “Come on, I'm not twenty anymore.”

I know, I know, having crushes is not about age. Anyways, I wouldn't write about it.

So, let's talk about favorite pros.

Here is my list:

Nick Williams

I guess, Nick influences my dancing more than any other person. With his style and his unique musicality he's always been a big inspiration.

Laura Keat & Jeremy Otth

Both are very likable and awesome dancers. They are not afraid of taking a masterpiece of dancing and recreate it. Spectacular!

Kelly Arsenault & Mickey Fortanasce

The two of them preserve the heritage of the old-time Balboa dancers and add their own style to it. Always able to push the boundaries again and again.

Maeva Truntzer & William Mauvais

Maeva & William are presenting a new generation of swing dancers. Original and hilarious. With this routine they captured my heart immediately.


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30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge: Favorite Song(s) To Dance To

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Every Friday for thirty weeks, I will write about a topic from the list of the
“30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge“.

Let's talk about music.

Week #11: Many Favorite Songs To Dance To…

DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week | Shuffle Projects

Since I'm a Swing DJ there is for sure not only one favorite song I could name. I'm an avid collector of Jazz, Swing & Blues and I'm acquiring “new” songs almost every day.

The best way to get an idea about my favorite songs is to check out my series

DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week

But I agree, it would be too easy just leave you with a link. Here are some lists with my all-time favorite artists and songs (I like find as many different versions as possible of these).

Artists

  • Artie Shaw
  • Benny Goodman
  • Charlie Christian
  • Count Basie
  • Duke Ellington
  • Jimmy Rushing
  • Sidney Bechet

Contemporary Artists

  • Bernard Berkhout
  • Gordon Webster
  • Linnzi Zaorski
  • Meschiya Lake

All-Time Favourite Songs

  • Blues My Naughty Sweety Gives To Me
  • Four Or Five Times
  • I Found A New Baby
  • Some Of These Days


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>> Next Friday: #12 Your swing crushes/favorite pros

30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge: Favorite Workshop Weekend

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Every Friday for thirty weeks, I will write about a topic from the list of the
“30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge“.

This week's topic is

Week #10: Favorite Workshop Weekend: The Snowball

The Snowball

Like all the other “favorite” topics, there doesn't exist ONE favorite weekend for me. They all are different and special in one way or another that it would be unfair to compare and rate them. So, I have chosen one I really like to attend.

My focus has changed over the years. I don't attend that many workshops as a student anymore and if so, then it's preferably a Balboa weekend. Most likely I'm DJ'ing, I'm social dancing and sometimes I'm competing.

If there is an opportunity, I like to attend an event with my family.

My girlfriend and I attended the Snowball in 2006 for the first time. It's in a beautiful city (Stockholm Sweden) and it's around a calm time (after Christmas and over New Year's Eve). I remember the New Year's Eve party as one of the most relaxed one I've ever experienced. We wanted to go back one day. It took us five years.

Since 2008, all the evening events of the Snowball are happening in one place, in the Clarion Hotel Sign, which is centrally located and close to the train station. Just the perfect situation to bring my family, since we have a son now. While he is sleeping in the hotel room, we're still able to enjoy our passion.

This time, we won't wait another five years. See you in December in Stockholm!


<< Last Friday: #9 Favorite class taken

>> Next Friday: #11 Favorite song(s) to dance to

30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge: Favorite Class Taken

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Every Friday for thirty weeks, I will write about a topic from the list of the
“30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge“.

This week, I'm talking about:

Week #9: Favorite class taken – Not a dance class, though

30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge: Favorite Class TakenIt was in 2005 at Waterkant Jam, a Lindy Hop festival in Hamburg Germany.

Lennart Westerlund, yes THE Lennart, was teaching a musicality class with live band.

He was talking about the structure of jazz and the band was playing what he was talking about.

I would say, to have a live band in class was at that time quite unique.

But that's only half of the story.

If you know Lennart, then you know that he does things always a little bit differently.

So, he was talking about the AABA structure. Therefore he lined up three apples and another fruit as a visual example. Then he started to eat pieces of two apples to illustrate, that not all of the ‘A's in the AABA structure are exactly the same.

It was hilarious!

Could one show you that in a more memorable way?

photo: jaredflo


<< Last Friday: #8 Your favorite instructor

>> Next Friday: #10 Favorite workshop weekend (Lindy Focus, Camp Hollywood, etc) or one you’d really like to attend

30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge: Your Favorite Instructor

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30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge on Shuffle Projects

Every Friday for thirty weeks, I will write about a topic from the list of the
“30 Week Lindy Hop Challenge“.

Here is my topic of this week

Week #8: Instructors, who have inspired me a lot

There is no such thing as a favorite instructor.

They all are different. Some of them I adore, some of them I don't like that much. That's normal, isn't it?

So, how should I choose THE one. Impossible, at least to me.

Therefore, I'm going to tell you, who of the instructors inspire/d me most and why.

Johnny Lloyd

Johnny was my first Lindy Hop teacher. When I started with Lindy Hop in 1999, he was one of the most influential people in the swing scene in Switzerland. I liked his smooth and elegant style. He taught a lot about lead & follow and didn't focus on crazy moves.

Frankie Manning

Of course, I have to mention Frankie. He was not only a huge inspiration as a instructor, but also as a human being. And his hearty laughter is legendary.

Peter Loggins

Peter's shuffle style inspired me a lot. I spent hours to learn and practice the shuffle steps to finally create my own style.

Marie Nahnfeldt & Hasse Mattsson

Their warm and friendly style of teaching stands alone. I don't know any dancer who doesn't like taking classes with these guys.

I once had a private lesson with Hasse and we were working on the swing-out. Hasse just said to me how to start the swing-out: “invite her”. I tell you, these two words changed the way I do the swing-out forever!

Nick Williams

Two things I really like about Nick: His ability to break down moves, no matter how difficult they are, and his marvelous musicality. No idea, how I can nearly get there 😉

Carla LaRue Heiney

Carla's professionalism as an instructor impressed me a lot.

It was in Eauze at SHSC, when I asked her after a class about the move we just learned. It was a quite difficult body movement the lead had to do. Carla danced with me, backled the move and I understood it within two minutes, what I couldn't figure out during the whole class.

Sylvia Sykes

Sylvia has this dry sense of humor. I learned a lot from her and I use many of her explanations in my own classes. And, I just like her!

Laura Keat

Laura is very empathetic and she can give you feedback that is really helpful and pushes you forward. I try to be as helpful as a teacher as she is.


<< Last Friday: #7 Something You Really Want To Learn

>> Next Friday: #9 Favorite class taken