Author Archives: dogpossum

For those of you who’ve been worrying, i’m actually ok.
the chapter is ok (well the first chapter of the Chapter That Is Now Two Chapters, anyway). sure, it made me cry. but i’m not crying now, am i? no!

i’ve done some work on freeswingpress, so, while it now has a psychadelic colour scheme, it also has a far fancier layout. i suggest you check out the navmenus. i made them MYSELF.

we have nice things in the garden at hte moment. cherry tomatoes growing out of the concrete and producing enough tomatoes to turn my tongue to furr. herbs like crazy. beans. the passionfruit vine is doing well (ah, nostalgia). and we have these AMAZING peas!!! they look just like snow peas, except for the fact that they’re a delicious shade of mulberry. absolutely fantastic and wonderful. i have photographed them, but can’t find my card reader for this computer, so you’ll have to wait. but they are truly very special and wonderous things. i go look at them everyday just to see how they’re going.

yesterday was the sydney road festival, and what began as a trip to yoga and then brunch at a cafe became an all-day visit to the markets. i’m not sure many people from brunswick were there, but it sure was fun. we gathered up the Ladies and watched chinese ribbon and plate spinning, bands galore and ate a lot of things. it was sweet. we also looked inside the church hall where i do tango, the brunswick town hall and the mechanics institute. all on sydney rd, and the last two ones i’ve always wanted to look into. the town and church halls look like fantabulous dance spaces. the mechanics insitute a cute little performance space. i don’t know why there aren’t more dance things put on in brunswick. we could have the whole goddamn exchange on one street, where people wander in and out of all those different venues, as well as the streets.
sigh.

the brunswick lindy exchange is only a matter of time.

the gym no longer pleases me. it’s kind of exercise without a clear purpose.
i like yoga, but have found it tricky to find just the right class.
but tonight i will try the rathdowne yoga room’s drop-in beginner class.

i am doing so little exercise, i’m really getting stiff and sore. and that contributes to … wrrrritter’s blooock.

iyengar yoga = A1

the rathdowne yoga room is lovely, and you have to love an instructor called frank who wears purple bike pants. and recognises my overly-turned-out right hip/knee straight off. very reassuring. though of course it meant i had to work extra hard to keep that side of me sitting properly.

thesis? hmmm. maybe. poor worklog. neglected.

a few people have asked about the stuff i’ve learnt from bill borgida lately. so i’m going to add it in a link.
it’s fairly scatty, and could do with some editing, but people want it ASAP, so they’ll have to just cope. i’ll see what i can do about adding photos/demos etc later.

please note: while i’m keen to help, learning to dance from a bunch of notes on the internet is not going to work. you need to do it with your body, see people move and learn to see how things work in other people’s bodies. otherwise, i hope this is a bit useful. it is also only part of a basic approach, and only half way through.

i’m drawing extensively on bill borgida’s work, and stuff i’ve learnt about tango from jarny and i’m really only beginning to learn all this myself. so please allow for errors as i muck through all this.

finally a bunny photo. the squeeze is enamoured. and obviously the bunnies reciprocate: they mark their mates and favoured people. with urine.

this bunny is pumpkin. it was her cage-mate spud who decided the squeeze belonged to her.

My chapterÂ’s focus on the Melbourne lindy hop community is reflected in my choice of texts which address ethnicity and cultural appropriation in af-am vernacular dance.
The texts most likely to appeal to the general reader or lindy hopper are marked with an asterix. These are also perhaps the most important books of Afro-American vernacular dance available. I have included no autobiographical works in this list

Card, Amanda. “The ‘Great Articulation of the Inarticulate’: Reading the Jazz Body in Australian and American Popular Culture in the 1960s.” Journal of Australian Studies58 (1998): 18 – 28.

Copeland, Roger, and Marshall Cohen, eds. What Is Dance? Readings in Theory and Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.

DeFrantz, Thomas. “The Black Male Body in Concert Dance.” Moving Words: Re-Writing Dance. Ed. Gay Morris. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. 107 – 20.
[not entirely relevant, but de FrantzÂ’ interest in contemporary Afro-American vernacular music and dance and film are worth following up]

Desmond, Jane C. “Embodying Difference: Issues in Dance and Cultural Studies.” Cultural Critique (Winter 1993 – 94): 33 – 63.
[an excellent essay addressing dance as a cultural practice. Uses cultural studies theory to consider how dances are transferred across cultures, and addresses issues of gender, class and race with satisfying depth]

*Emery, Lynne Fauley.Black Dance in the United States from 1619 to 1970. California: National Press Books, 1972.
[another key historical work addressing Afro-American vernacular dance. More rigorously researched but still some minor flaws]

Friedland, LeeEllen. “Social Commentary in African-American Movement Performance.” Human Action Signs in Cultural Context: The Visible and the Invisible in Movement and Dance. Ed. Brenda Farnell. London: Scarecrow Press, 1995. 136 – 57.
[a really interesting article discussing the ways Afro-American children use dance and dance movement in every day life. Focuses on tap dance and contemporary dance, but fascinating for its attention to cultural, ethnically determined dance aesthetics and the socialization of dance movement in Afro-American culture]

Gere, David, et al., eds. Looking Out: Perspectives on Dance and Criticism in a Multicultural World. New York: Schirmer Books, 1995.

Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance. Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1996.

Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in
American Concert Dance.” Looking Out: Perspectives on Dance and Criticism in a Multicultural World. Eds. David Gere, et al. New York: Schirmer Books, 1995. 95 – 121.
[somewhat ambitious in some of its claims about the influence of Afro-American dance and song in western culture, but worth reading for some of its discussion of ethnicised dance aesthetics.]

Griffin, Sean. “The Gang’s All Here: Generic Versus Racial Integration in the 1940s Musical.” Cinema Journal 42.1 (2002): 21 – 45.
[another work discussing Afro-American dance and song in Hollywood film. A useful read]

Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina. “African-American Vernacular Dance: Core Culture and Meaning Operatives.” Journal of Black Studies 15.4 (1985): 427-45.

*Hazzard-Gordon, Katrina. Jookin’: The Rise of Social Dance Formations in African-American Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990.
[another of the key texts dealing with the history of Afro-American vernacular dance. Hazzard-Gordon, unlike many of the other historians in this vein, is Afro-American. Her book is fascinating for its emphasis on everyday dance spaces in af-am culture, rather than more elite institutions like ballrooms and studios. Her work is well researched and interesting]

Jackson, Jonathan David. “Improvisation in African-American Vernacular Dancing.” Dance Research Journal 33.2 (2001/2002): 40 – 53.
[a fascinating and easier to read academic work on the topic of improvisation. Worth reading]

Kealiinohomoku, Joann. “An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance.” What Is Dance? Readings in Theory and Criticism. Eds. Roger Copeland and Marshall Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. 533 – 49.

Knight, Arthur. Disintegrating the Musical: Black Performance and American Musical Film. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002.
[a book considering the representation of Afro-American dance and song in Hollywood film. An interesting background for dancers when watching archival film]

Koritz, Amy. “Re/Moving Boundaries: From Dance History to Cultural Studies.” Moving Words: Re-Writing Dance. Ed. Gay Morris. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. 88 – 103.

*Malone, Jaqui. Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
[the most authoritative and well researched of the histories of Afro-American vernacular dance. Worth researching, particularly for its consideration of Afro-American marching bands]

*Murray, Albert. Stomping the Blues. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
[another of the key historical works on Afro-American vernacular jazz dance. Focuses primarily on music, but fascinating for its definitions of ‘blues’. It is not, though an example of solid research. Despite this, it is easier to read and worth looking through]

Pietrobruno, Sheenagh. “Embodying Canadian Multiculturalism: The Case of Salsa Dancing in Montreal.” Revista Mexicana de Estudios Canadienses nueva época, número 3. (2002).
[considering salsa dancing in Canada, but interesting for the parallels between that dance community and Melbourne’s swing community. Especially in reference to the discussions of schools and cultural ‘authenticity’ in teaching]

*Stearns, Marshall, and Jean Stearns. Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance. 3rd ed. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994.
[one of the longest-standing and most useful histories of Afro-American jazz/vernacular dance. There are some sections which have been queried for their historical accuracy (most notably the sections describing the ‘cat’s corner’ in the Savoy ballroom), which emphasise an inadequately rigorous research methodology, but still a useful, and easier read]

Thomas, Helen. Dance, Modernity and Culture: Explorations of the Sociology of Dance. London and New York: Routledge, 1995.

Thomas, Helen. “Do You Want to Join the Dance? Postmodernism/Postructuralism, the Body, and Dance.” Moving Words: Re-Writing Dance. Ed. Gay Morris. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. 63 – 87.

Usner, Eric Martin. “Dancing in the Past, Living in the Present: Nostalgia and Race in Southern California Neo-Swing Dance Culture.” Dance Research Journal 33.2 (2001/2002): 87 – 101.
[a somewhat dodgy article which does not demonstrate adequate field research. Still one of the few academic articles about post-revival lindy hop]

Influential films which feature lindy hop and are reasonably easy to get hold of:

*Potter, H. C., Dir. Hellzapoppin’. film, 1941.
[Includes perhaps the most important lindy hop film sequence featuring Frankie Manning and the WhiteyÂ’s Lindy Hoppers. This film also stars Dean Collins, who is probably the most important dancer in smooth or Hollywood style lindy hop. Collins is a white dancer generally credited with bringing lindy hop to the west coast of the USA].

*Woods, Sam, Dir. A Day at the Races. film, 1937.
[another important film sequence, featuring the same dancers

*Mura Dehn, Dir. The Spirit Moves: Part 1: Jazz Dance from the Turn of the Century ’til 1950. Film, 1950.
[this is an excellent film, but relatively difficult to get hold of. It may be in your local or state library, and can be purchased on video from the savoy style website]

Some useful websites with reliable information about lindy hop
*Pritchett, Judy. Archives of Early Lindy Hop. website. April 2004. http://savoystyle.com/
[features some nice historical clips and with excellent information]

*Loggins, Peter. The California Historical Jazz Dance Foundation website. The California Historical Jazz Dance Foundation. January 2004. http://caljazzdance.com/.

*”Progressive Era to New Era, 1900 – 1929. Prohibition: A Case Study of Progressive Reform. Harlem Rent Parties.” webpage. The Library of Congress. The Library of Congress. January 2004. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/progress/prohib/rent.html
[an example of archival material available online which refers to lindy hop and Afro-American communities of the ‘original swing era’]

*Loggins, Peter. “Informational: Styles of Lindy Hop.” webpage. Jive Junction. Reuben Brown. Jive Junction. January 2004. http://jivejunction.com/informational.htm http://jivejunction.com/informational.htm.
[An interesting article about the history of lindy hop styles. Loggins is one of lindy hopÂ’s most respected historians, and justifiably so]

today i had a busy day inspired by Jane C. Desmond’s article “Embodying Difference: Issues in Dance and Cultural Studies” in Cultural Critique (Winter 1993/94, pgs 33 – 63).

And IÂ’ve recently written an overly long post in this thread on swing talk about the charleston swingout.

charleston

The charleston – as you may or not know – was one of the key dances incorporated in the historical development. While the open/closed/open structure of the swingout (foundational step of the lindy hop) included the break away which so revolutionised partner dancing in the 30s (what, a couple dancing alone together?! improvising?!), I do suspect that the charleston contributed footwork and timing to the neophyte swing out. The break away was of course already living in the texas tommy and other pre-lindy partner dances. The charleston predated lindy, and gained mainstream popularity in the 20s though it did develop earlier than that and was initially performed in an Afro-American stage play whose name escapes me just now. The charleston itself developed from earlier Afro-American post-emancipation dances.

The charleston prevailed into the 30s and 40s, yet with a distinct style that differed from the early 20s charleston. The earlier version was more upright and with a different rhythm, while the later version is more syncopated and less upright. IÂ’ve heard this later style referred to as ‘lindy hop charlestonÂ’, ‘30s charlestonÂ’ and ‘flying charlestonÂ’. This final name, though used by Jacqui Malone in her credible book Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance is used by contemporary swingers in reference to another distinct step. In this clip Frankie Manning dances first the lindy hop charleston (primarily in profile) and the ‘flying charlestonÂ’ (in front-view). You can see why Malone refers to the lindy hop charleston as ‘flyingÂ’ charleston, as ManningÂ’s distinctive style makes his stretched-out upper body appear to be flying, while his lower body goes like the clappers – a rea
lly nice example of ‘cool’. ‘Cool’ is a concept used in Afro-American dance to refer to the juxtaposition of a ‘cool’ or aloof, or chilled face with a ‘hot’ body which is engaged in fierce physical exercise. Or some other similar juxtaposition of moods.

Charleston swingout?
The charleston swingout has come to contemporary Australian swingers post-lindy hop (ironically enough) and I doubt it ever made it to Australia pre-revival. Though I could be wrong…
It is essentially, the same movement as a swingout, where the partners come into a closed position and then out, but in the charleston swingout, the footwork is distinctly charleston-inspired and less of a ‘slotted’ movement.

I’ve been led the charleston swingout once or twice, but I wanted to learn to lead it myself. And it seems that there’s a deficit of weight change information in the explanations I’ve had. Or else I’ve not had it explained to me in terms that I can understand.

I am all about weight change, as per previous discussions on this blog and elsewhere.

ok, so back to the topic at hand…

I’m reading some really great stuff about dance at the moment. For a bibliography of stuff IÂ’ve read this past week or so, check out this file.

At any rate, IÂ’ve been really fascinated by all this stuff and have started to wonder about the way we dancers use archival Hollywood clips of swing dance as an authoritative source for dance. The California Historical Jazz Dance Foundation, of which the respected post-revival dancer and historian Peter Loggins is a part offers this fairly exhaustive list of films in which lindy hop and swing dance appear. HellzapoppinÂ’ is perhaps the most-used and influential of all these, and stars Frankie Manning.

In that thread on the charleston swingout, people suggest I look up After Seben, a clip which features Shorty George Snowden (I think it is) dancing the charleston swingout. Now IÂ’m have some concerns about this source, as an historical guide to dance recreation. Check out the extended version of this entry to see what these concerns are.

Continue reading “work thoughts”

over here, mig is getting into some serious prompting-creativity action. he’s decided to not watch telly, or read anything for a whole week.

now, i’m not sure about the rest of the world, but if i didn’t anything or watch any telly or read any internet, or listen to any radio, i’d be absolutely un-creative.
i wonder if art galleries and fillums and shows are out as well.

all those things are things that prompt me to write.
especially the reading thing. especially if i’m reading work stuff. i mean, look at the bibliography for the dance stuff i’ve read over the past week or two. that’s like 25 things i’ve read in a week or two, plus play books of course – so add about 5 more books on there, plus the internet (including a vast array of swing discussion boards for research), plus all sorts of other things.

and i’ve been writing like a dang fool all week. notes and ideas and emails and discussion board posts and everything.
i find that when i stop sucking up culture from outside-me sources i stop pumping my own words back out.
especially work words.
work words are all about discourse, not monologue.

guess that’s why i dig partner dancing and not something like tap… though it’s only a matter of time…

Ok, so IÂ’m doing some browsing through interesting blogs, via this blog, which I quite like. It seems IÂ’m actually not really pulling my weight as a feminista extravaganza. IÂ’ve gotten dull. IÂ’ve gotten domesticated. IÂ’ve gotten depoliticised.
Whatever happened to the hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners dogpossum who’d cheerfully roast fellow undergrads in English subjects, or take on arsehole blokes in my ‘peer’ group for their unsavoury comments?

These days I just keep on reading when the regular band of misogynists make comments on Swing Talk. And what the HELL am I doing with guys who continually comment on their female friends’ breasts, arse, body in my peer group? WHAT am I thinking? It is not ok to interrupt a woman-in-conversation with a comment that she should “keep doing that – you’re turning me on” when she’s demonstrating bounce in lindy hop. It’s especially not ok when the guy doing this has had a few drinks and is compensating for said woman’s demonstration of superior dance knowledge. It’s absolutely, 100% WRONG for me to sit there and say nothing when I see this clever, capable woman embarrassed in front of her friends. It is SO wrong it makes me gag that I don’t say anything – I don’t step up and call him on his bullshit – because, as with swing talk, I’m thinking ‘don’t rock the boat’.

GodDAMN IÂ’ve had enough of this shit.

And while I’m on the topic, what makes guys think it’s ok to sexualise a woman, to add a sexual subtext or theme to a conversation or general social interaction in mixed company? Now, I’m certainly no prude – hell, I’m the original Mz Potty Mouth – but why is it that 90% of the men in swing are incapable of making grown up judgements about when and where it’s appropriate to turn on the potty? Is every guy in the swing community locked into some scary adolescent world where women are really either potential-fucks, past-fucks, someone-else’s-fuck, or unfuckable?
I mean, HELL, can’t they just figure out that it’s generally not ok to initiate the dirty talk with a woman they don’t really know, in mixed company? Do they not realise that said talk will not, in fact, impress said woman, nor convince her that yes – judging from the aforementioned talk – this is a Man worthy of her time and interest. In other words: you won’t impress anyone – not that woman, nor any thinking man around you – with high school smut and social bullying.

Right. IÂ’ve had enough.

And for all the swing guys I know who read this blog: if you’re thinking about making some smart comment along the lines of “so you’re getting all radical, are you?”, be warned: I might not come back at you with a bad-arse wisecrack to devastate you in front of friends and foe alike, but I sure as hell will go out of my way to decimate your reputation amongst the sistahs after the show. While the not-so-radical sistahs mightn’t take public issue with your behaviour, and while they might even laugh along with your lame-arse jokes, they probably aren’t digging it. And they’re sure as shit not thinking ‘my, what a clever and observant guy he is. I’d so definitely want to spend some more time with him’.

So, if for no other reason than to keep in with the ladeez: cut that bullshit out. Only your dough-arse mates think its funny, and thatÂ’s only because theyÂ’re a) drunk; b) alcohol damaged; c) stuck in some weird-arse perennial adolescence; or d) pining on yo arse with some suppressed homosocial desire which is perhaps most likely a response to the populist misogyny that convinces them that all women are less than men because they are really nothing more than an object defined by their proximity to their dick, or to someone elseÂ’s.

Phew. So yes, IÂ’ve been sitting on some righteous feminist angst for a while.
And if I were any of the fuckwits in the swing community whoÂ’ve been shitting me lately, IÂ’d be watching my back. Or my front. Because IÂ’ve had just about enough. And MAN do I have one arse-kickingly fast wit. I will destroy yo ass in front of a crowd. I will reduce you to unintelligible grunts with my whip-like one-liners. And if I canÂ’t get you with the dialogue, I will SO fuck you up on the dance floor, motherfuckers.

I am totally up for some smiting. I have severe wroth to vent.

– i have caught two mice in my room in traps. i totally killed them.
– two bunnies came to stay with us while their owner is off at a dance camp. out with the old rodents, in with the new.*
– i got a new gym instructor. the lovely robert, who is – he informed me with justifiable smugness – a level two instructor. we speak only of centers, while i admire his marvelous moustache and struggle through core-endurance-inducing exercises involving swiss balls.
– i took The Squeeze to a tango lesson with jarny and he surprised me by thoroughly enjoying it. i forebore** saying i told you so.
– i became queen lead of the universe and in so doing made a Serious Point: men are not necessary for dancing pleasure.
– The Squeeze became tango following king of the universe, and heterocentric order was restored to the universe.
– i bought a big ham cheap and planned to bake it and feed it to people. the plan does not eventuate.
– the washing machine died (after surviving a house fire, years in a sharehouse and several moves) and i decide to buy a new one.

*yeah, yeah, photos will follow. i promise.
**is that, like, actually a word? did i say that right. no, don’t tell me. i don’t care.