Category Archives: lindy hop and other dances

Charlie Shavers Plays The Trumpet

Charlie Shavers Plays The Trumpet from dogpossum on 8tracks.

I’m a big fan of Charlie Shavers, but I didn’t realise I was until I started getting nerdy with the discographies. As I added musicians to song information in my collection I realised his name just kept popping up, mostly with other artists I love. So I’ve made an 8track of some songs from my favourite bands.

You can read his own account of his life in this little autobiographical piece, Charlie Shavers: About the Size of It (talking to Les Tomkins in 1970). But here are some interesting things about Charlie Shavers:

  • he played the trumpet;
  • he composed the song ‘Undecided’ (I’ve chosen a 1939 version where he plays with Fats Waller);
  • he played in Lucky Millinder’s band (but I didn’t include any of these songs);
  • he played the banjo and piano before the trumpet.

There are plenty of other things to say about Charlie Shavers, but I’d rather listen to his music.

Here’s the set list for this 8track. It’s mostly smaller bands, I’m afraid, even though Shavers did so much work with big bands. But this probably a more accurate indication of my tastes!

Four Or Five Times – Jimmie Noone and his Orchestra (Charlie Shavers, Pete Brown, Frank Smith, Teddy Bunn, Wellman Braud, O’Neil Spencer, Teddy Simmons) – 173 – Jimmie Noone 1934 – 1940 – 1937 – 3:09

Sloe Jam Fizz – Buster Bailey and his Rhythm Busters (John Kirby, O’Neil Spencer, Charlie Shavers) – 147 – Buster Bailey: Complete Jazz Series 1925 – 1940 – 1938 – 2:26

Blue Monday On Sugar Hill – Coot Grant (Leoloa B. Wilson), Kid Wesley ‘Sox’ Wilson, Charlie Shavers, Sidney Bechet, Sammy Price, Teddy Bunn, Richard Fullbright, O’Neill Spencer) – 213 – Charlie Shavers and The Blues Singers 1938-1939 – 1938 – 2:17

Blues Galore – Johnny Dodds and his Chicago Boys (Charlie Shavers, Lil Armstrong, Teddy Bunn, John Kirby, O’Neil Spencer) – 148 – Complete Jazz Series 1928 – 1940 – 1938 – 2:47

Them There Eyes Billie Holiday and her Orchestra (Charlie Shavers, Tab Smith, Kenneth Hollon, Stanley Payne, Sonny White, Bernard Addison, John Williams, Eddie Dougherty) – 180 – Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday On Columbia (1933-1944) (Disc 06) – 1939 – 2:51

Fine and Mellow – Charlie Shavers with Alberta Hunter – 87 – Charlie Shavers and The Blues Singers 1938-1939 – 1939 – 2:52

Undecided – Fats Waller and his Rhythm (Herman Autrey, Gene Sedric, Al Casey, Cedric Wallace, Slick Jones) – 97 – The Middle Years – Part 2 (1938-1940) (disc 2) – 1939 – 3:38

Effervescent Blues – John Kirby Sextet (Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle, William ‘O’Neill’ Spencer) – 119 – John Kirby Sextet: Complete Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings (disc 01) – 1939 – 2:50

Royal Garden Blues – John Kirby Sextet (Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle, William ‘O’Neill’ Spencer) – 276 – John Kirby Sextet: Complete Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings (disc 01) – 1939 – 2:33

Come Easy Go Easy – Rosetta Howard acc. by the Harlem Blues Serenaders (Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Lil Armstrong, Ulysses Livingston, Wellman Brand, O’Neil Spencer) – 90 – Rosetta Howard (1939-1947) – 1939 – 3:03

St. Louis Blues – John Kirby Sextet (Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle, Gordon ‘Specs’ Powell) – 221 John Kirby Sextet: Complete Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings (disc 02) – 1941 – 2:45

Oh I’m Evil – Una Mae Carlisle with Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle, John Kirby, O’Neil Spencer – 158 – Una Mae Carlisle: Complete Jazz Series 1938 – 1941 – 1941 – 2:25

Don’t Tetch It! – Una Mae Carlisle with Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle, John Kirby, O’Neil Spencer – 191 – Una Mae Carlisle: Complete Jazz Series 1941-1944 – 1942 – 2:21

Long, Long Journey – Esquire All-American Award Winners (Louis Armstrong, Charlie Shavers, Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges, Don Byas, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Remo Palmieri, Chubby Jackson, Sonny Greer) – 103 – The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings (disc 17) – 1946 – 4:31

I Cried For You – Billie Holiday and her Band (Charlie Shavers, Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, Ed Shaughnessy) – 115 – The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes (disc 2) – 1954 – 2:28

Easy Does It – Big Eighteen (Billy Butterfield, Buck Clayton, Charlie Shavers, Rex Stewart, Lawrence Brown, Vic Dickenson, Lou McGarity, Dicky Wells, Walt Levinksy, Hymie Schertzer, Sam Donahue, Boomie Richman, Ernie Caceres, Johnny Guarnieri, Barry Galbraith, Milt ) – 129 Echoes of the Swinging Bands – 1958 – 5:14

‘Four or Five Times’ is quite a well-known song. Jimmie Noone first recorded it in 1928, but I love this later version that includes Shavers. It has a lovely, light, swinging feel.

‘Sloe Jam Fizz’ is by Buster Bailey and his Rhythm Busters, and includes not only Charlie Shavers, but also John Kirby, who Shavers later went on to work with.

‘Blue Monday on Sugar Hill’, credited to Grant and Wilson, is a fun song featuring lots of famous people – Sam Price, Sidney Bechet, O’Neil Spencer. It reminds me of Lil Armstrong’s band. The Bechet-Shavers connection is pretty interesting.

‘Blues Galore’ is another nice song, this time by Johnny Dodds and His Chicago Boys, which again features John Kirby, O’Neil Spencer and Charlie Shavers, but this time Lil Armstrong is credited. I reckon this song really heralds the type of stuff Kirby’s band did later – quite a light, gentle touch, but with a really solidly swinging rhythm, perhaps a bit more insistent than in Kirby’s small groups later on. The vocals are great.

‘Them There Eyes’ is a bit different to the earlier songs, but I think that Shavers’ style really helped develop Holiday’s sound during this period. I don’t think this song is as good as a lot of the stuff she did with Teddy Wilson, for example, but there’s much in common. I think Shavers and Wilson have a similar approach to songs, so it’s not too surprising to find them together with a musician like Billie Holiday.

I don’t know much about this version of ‘Fine and Mellow’ as it’s just new to my collection, but I couldn’t resist the connection with Holiday, who of course recorded a very famous version of this song. I like this version, though, for Alberta Hunter’s gravelly vibrato contrasting with Shavers’ tootly and growly trumpet.

This nice, light version of ‘Undecided’ is a nice antidote to the laboured versions which are overplayed in the lindy hopping world. I loooove the way Shavers’ sense of humour blends perfectly with Wallers’. There’s a wheedly, whiney tone that winkles its way into your ear.

‘Effervescent Blues’ is probably one of the better known Kirby band songs in the lindy hop world, mostly because it was covered by the Mora’s Modern Swingtet. I like the rolling piano matched with the tootly melody. It has the light touch I associate with the Shavers/Kirby pairing, but it’s not as light and complicated-feeling as their later stuff.

‘Royal Garden Blues’ is tootly. It’s super fast and complicated. It really is a good example of what some people call ‘chamber jazz’. I love it. I like the way this group has a lot in common with Benny Goodman’s small groups, but actually has quite a different feel.

‘Come Easy Go Easy’ is completely different – Rosetta Howard isn’t subtle or tootly or tinkly. But Shavers’ whiney trumpet sets off her grittier style really nicely. This line up is again, quite familiar, and it echoes those earlier songs with blues singers. It’s interesting to see that Shavers was doing this in the same year as that busybusy Kirby group stuff.

Two years later, the Kirby Sextet has really set off on its course. This version of ‘St Louis Blues’ is complicated small group jazz. Hot, but also quite finessed.

I’m a big fan of Una Mae Carlisle. She’s got a sophisticated style, but can really get hot. Her timing is wonderful – she just sits back there behind the beat. I like the way she works with that little band, that’s pretty much the same gang as in all those other small Shavers’ groups.

Four years later, this Esquire all star band is something completely different. It’s commercial jazz at its most extravagant.

I added in ‘I cried for you’ just as an example of how Holiday’s style changed, and how she and Shavers still work together so well. This is magical, particularly with the addition of Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown.

‘Easy Does It’ is another of those ‘stunt bands’ put together in a kind of mishmash of big names. But this is a great song, and it always reminds me of Frankie Manning.

[EDIT]Trev has just pointed out that I missed the part where Charlie Shavers was with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band. This is a bit of an oversight on my part, to be explained by the fact that I didn’t actually own the 1937 MBRB stuff. This has been rectified.[/]

Essential Swing

Essential Swing from dogpossum on 8tracks.

Direct link to this 8tracks set which includes one song from each of these albums.

Our students keep asking us for music recommendations, so I’ve put together a list of albums I consider ‘essential’ swing for new dancers, or people just beginning a collection. The first draft of this list had about sixty million albums and eleventy hundred artists. But I had to keep this real. I think this list is a bit long – 19 specific albums and a heap of modern artists? Too long for someone who’s just starting to collect!

This is, really a list of music that I think would kick off a good collection. It is, of course, informed by my own musical preferences, and by the music I started my collection with (and by Reuben’s excellent list). I expect most people to argue with me about this list – that’s a good thing. We should all have strong feelings about the music we dance to, and we should all be heavily invested in musicians and their work. If we just got up and danced to any old shit, our dancing would would be totally rubbish. But this is a list of albums that I think are a good place to start a collection. My list of definitive, most important to lindy hop (or charleston, or balboa or blues or jazz) music would probably be quite different.

Putting this list together, I realised that I’ve been neglecting a lot of these staples in my own DJing. I’ve been using lots of modern bands and getting into more esoteric artists and recordings. And, frankly, I think that’s a mistake. Here’s the provocative part of this post: swing DJs today need to play more solid big band swing, and to lay off the rare-and-unusual small band esoterica.

Buying swing music is very different these days, just seven years after I started DJing. I remember hunting down that Count Basie ‘Breakfast Dance and Barbeque’ CD at a local Borders. I’d be surprised if you could find it in any music shop today…though I do see it (very rarely) in a JB Hi-fi. Actually, the only brick and mortar shop I recommend is Music Without Frontiers in Hobart. That guy who runs that shop knows EVERYTHING about all music. If he suggests something to me, I buy it, whether I know the artist or not. Because he’ll only recommend very good quality albums, by important artists. Even if I don’t love it at first, I know I’ll suddenly realise, even a year later, that this is the important album I needed to hear.

Most of the first albums I bought were CDs purchased online through amazon, my collecting prompted by a sudden surge by the Australian dollar, are now available through itunes, and I can’t really imagine a good reason for not buying electronic versions. Sure, you won’t get the liner notes, and that means you won’t know who’s in the band, when songs were recorded, and in what cities, but all that information is available online in jazz discographies like Tom Lord’s Jazz Discography, or sites like www.redhotjazz.com. Actually, now I think about it, it’s quite difficult to get decent discographical information for jazz. Someone really needs to put a copy up on the torrents, because no one is going to care in a few years; jazznerds are dying off.

So, to make sure there are a few more jazznerds to replace them, here are some gateway drugs.

The beginnings of a swing music collection.
Just getting into swing dancing, and wanting a bit of music to practice to, or to just help you figure out what the music was all about? Hopefully this list will be helpful. I’m going to tip the list upside-down, chronologically speaking, so the most accessible stuff – the contemporary bands and 1950s stuff – is at the beginning. But feel free to graze the list randomly.

Where do I start?
Collecting swing can get addictive, but it can also be a bit overwhelming at first. Big band classic swing from the 1930s and 40s is probably the most important. This is a good compilation to give you a taste of the different artists in the classic big band swing family:

  • ‘An Anthology of Big Band Swing 1930-1955’ – (1993, Decca) [Amazon]

Modern bands:
A lot of new dancers like to start with 1950s recordings, or with current-day bands recreating old sounds. That’s totally cool – they’re a gateway drug!
There are lots and lots of bands doing great music all over the world today. This album is a must-have, and a very good place to begin a collection:

  • Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis ‘Live In Swing City: Swingin’ With Duke’ – (1999, Sony)
    [on Amazon;on itunes]

Here are some other bands that are popular with dancers (in no particular order):

After that, it’s a matter of following your nose. Chase down the original recording(s) of the songs on these albums and see what you like.

Music by decade:
Harlem lindy hoppers of the 1930s and 40s, like Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers were mostly into big band swing, and would go out to dance to big bands most nights of the week at big ballrooms and dance halls like the Savoy Ballroom.

This is a very basic list of good quality albums with lots of good dancing music by musicians and bands from the 1950s, 40s and 30s.

Modern era swing: 1950s

  • Count Basie Orchestra – ‘Breakfast Dance And Barbecue’ (1959, Blue Note Records)

    A high quality live recording of Basie’s big band playing favourites to an enthusiastic audience at a late night/early morning show. Features Joe Williams on vocals.

    [amazon; itunes).

  • Count Basie Orchestra – ‘Count Basie Story’ (1960, Blue Note Records)

    • A 2-disc recording of Basie’s ‘New Testament’ big band in the studio. Features many of the hits from the bands’ 1930s playbook, including ‘Jive at Five’ and ‘Shorty George’. Joe Williams on vocal again.
    [amazon; itunes]

  • Maxine Sullivan – ‘A Tribute to Andy Razaf’ (1956, Legacy)

    • A recording from later in her career, Sullivan sings with an excellent group of musicians, famous in their own right (including Buster Bailey, Milt Hinton, Dick Hyman).
    [amazon; itunes]

  • Jimmy Witherspoon – ‘Jazz Me Blues: the best of Jimmy Witherspoon’ (1998, Prestige)

    • Excellent 1950s swinging small group stuff featuring lots of great musicians (including Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins), as well as Kansas City’s famous singer.
    [amazon; itunes]

  • Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (and Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown, etc) – ‘Ella and Louis again’ (2003, Verve)

    • 1950s small group recordings of two of the biggest names in jazz. Mostly slower, groovier feeling swing. Excellent listening, with a band featuring brilliant musicians (including Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, etc).
    [amazon; itunes]

Classic swing era: 1940s

  • Lionel Hampton Orchestra and small groups – ‘Hamp: The Legendary Decca Recordings’ (1996, Decca)

    • A 2 CD set featuring some of the best 1940s Lionel Hampton big band music. The 50s stuff is a little too jump blues for lindy hop, but is still lots of fun. This album comes with lovely packaging, including great liner notes. Features iconic song ‘Flying Home’.
    [amazon; itunes]

  • Charlie Barnet Orchestra- ‘Skyliner: 190-1945’ (1998, Giants of Jazz)

    • Often overlooked by modern dancers, Barnet’s big band was very popular with lindy hoppers in the swing era, and this album is a good introduction to its 1940s recordings.
    [amazon; itunes]

  • Cab Calloway and his Orchestra – ‘Are you Hep to the Jive?’ (1994, Sony)

    • Cab Calloway is probably best remembered today for his performance of ‘Minnie the Moocher’ in the Blues Brothers film, but this charismatic band leader led an excellent big band whose lyrics were usually played for laughs.
    [amazon; itunes]

  • Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra – ‘Complete Jazz Series 1941 – 1942’ (2009, Complete Jazz Series)

    • Lucky Millinder’s band with Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing is very popular with dancers, though his work with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band in the 1930s is perhaps a little better.
    [itunes]

  • Slim and Slam – ‘Groove Juice Special’ (1996, Sony) – Slim and Slam

    • Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart were recording large number of funny songs which are great for dancing throughout the 30s and 40s, and then into the 50s. They’re very popular with dancers today.
    [amazon; itunes]

Classic swing era: 1930s

  • Count Basie and his Orchestra – ‘Count Basie – the Complete Decca Recordings, 1937-1939’


    • A 3-CD collection of the 1930s hits by one of the best-known band leaders of the swing era. This is a big set, so it’s worth previewing the songs to find ones you like. Popular songs include ‘Topsy’, ‘One O’Clock Jump’ and ‘Jive at Five’.
    [itunes; amazon]

  • Ella Fitzgerald and her Orchestra- ‘Ella Fitzgerald Live at the Savoy 1939-1940’ (2007, Hep Records)

    • Features Ella leading (and not singing much) with the Chick Webb band just after he died. This is a brilliant series of live recordings which really capture the feel of the Savoy Ballroom, home to lindy hop!
    [amazon]

  • Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra – Lunceford Special 1939-1940 (2001, Sony)

    • Lunceford’s 1930s big band is very popular with dancers, and this is a great collection of Lunceford songs from just one year, including dancers’ favourite ‘For Dancers Only’.
    [amazon; itunes)]

  • Billie Holiday ‘Lady Day Swings!’ (2002, Sony)

    • Billie Holiday in the late 30s and early 40s, mostly with Teddy Wilson’s Orchestra. Holiday can be a bit tricky for dancing because she does complicated things with timing, but the bands are great and the songs are all very famous.
    [amazon; itunes]

  • Benny Goodman’s Orchestra ‘Sing Sing Sing’ (1987, RCA/Bluebird)

    • Goodman is famous for both is small and big bands, but this is a good introduction to his 1930s big band recordings. Includes the songs ‘Bugle Call Rag’ and ‘Roll ’em’.
    [amazon; itunes]

Jazz era: 1920s
There’re lots and lots of very excellent artists and albums in this group, but I haven’t gone into them here, as I don’t really think they’re a great place to begin if you’re looking for music for lindy hop. I do think this a group worthy of its own post, so….

Places to buy music:
It’s always best to buy albums directly from bands if you can, so checking their websites is a good start.

Digital downloads:
– itunes
– CDbaby for modern bands, and some older stuff
– bandcamp
– emusic if you have access to an account

Online shopping:
– amazon for CDs
– cduniverse for CDs

Brick and mortar shops:
– Music without Frontiers in Hobart
– ordering at your local music shop (often cheaper and faster to buy online yourself)

Nothing is fake

If you dance a bit slower, I’ll actually be able to see all your win.
If you dance a bit slower, I’ll also be able to see all the bits you fake.

Here, watch this video of Naomi and Skye last year. Nothing is fake. Everything is awesome.

MWLF 2011 Skye and Naomi

Incidentally, one thing I love about this routine is the way the choreography doesn’t just set the follower up as reacting to the lead, or just carrying out the moves perfectly. The follow and the lead have clear personalities within the choregraphy’s story. The movements are relaxed, and leave enough time for both dancers to speak clearly, rather than rushing through move after move after move. This sort of pacing is what makes really top shelf dancing. Also, the dancing is top shelf. :D

New & chic in jass

I’m quite liking this new trend in jazz/dance videos. I like the high quality of the videos, I like the editing, I like the relaxed dancing styles, I like the way they’re doing a very good job of selling lindy hop to a mainstream audience. Not so struck on the body image stuff, but to be honest, if you’re a hardcore dancer, you pretty much pare down to muscle, sinew and bone. Or do you? I’m not about to experiment; I like it that I can rock a good shimmy.

Hippocampus Jass Gang – Blue Drag

Carsie Blanton’s Baby Can Dance – OFFICIAL VIDEO

ATTN: Speakeasy

FYI peeps, Speakeasy is on again this month. If you dance anywhere in Sydney, you must dance at the Speakeasy. Even Dave dances there.



Music: House party Swing in the Lounge Room, Blues in the Rumpus Room
Donation: $10 on the door
When: Saturday, 25 February 2012, 21:30 until 04:00
Where?: Crossover Dance Studios, level 1, 22 Goulburn St, Sydney
BYO?: Yeah baby!
Supper: feat. the Speakeasy Bakers
FB page

NB Bring your fan and a change of tshirt, because you will sweat.

New thoughts about the long term sustainability of dance projects

Oh! Exciting! Last night Alice and I launched our new weekly class in Petersham… I say that as though it was just us two there working the door, making up lead numbers (we only needed one more lead!), buying drinks, laughing and talking and filling the room, bringing our friends along just to see what dancing’s like, offering advice on PR, working the bar and making food. We really couldn’t have pulled it off without lots of help from all of our friends, from our respective kissing-partners (my Squeeze gets mad props for being a gun working the door, Alice’s for filling in lead numbers and both of them for being ridiculously chillaxed and having no doubt of our abilities), from the lovely Petersham Bowling Club staff, from, well, everyone we know. We are so grateful for the work people have put in, even (or most particularly) those people who were patient enough to sit through one of our rambling conversations full of what-ifs and low-number-anxiety.

Basically, we had support and help from pretty much everyone we know. And we’re so grateful. Running a dance event is a social enterprise, from beginning to end, and even though it’s a cliche, we absolutely couldn’t have gotten even this far without everyone’s support and encouragement.

I now have lots of things to write about here about teaching and running classes and volunteer labour and the economics of running weekly classes and the relationship between social and class dancing and… well, lots of things. But it’s not really cool for me to write about what is, essentially, other people’s business here on my blog. I’ll let it all percolate a little more and see if I can come up with something that’s not going to be indiscrete or inpolitic.

I’d love to talk about how we might use various media to promote our event. That’s the sort of thing my academic phd brain loves thinking about most. I spent so long researching and writing about media use in a capitalist, patriarchal culture, I just can’t stop myself then applying that work to the practical public relations strategies for a (highly gendered) dance class in a multimedia cultural environment.
I’m fascinated by the relationships between digital, print, face to face/word of mouth, radio and audio visual texts and media. I’m so interested in the way brands can be developed at a small, seriously local/micro level. I’m all a twitter with ideas about developing a sustainable business model centred on collaborative creative practice.

Every time we put together a Faceplant ad or print a poster or make an announcement at a dance or simply dance in public my brain kind of explodes with the wonderfulness of how humans work together and tailor media for our very particular uses. But I also have to stop and calm myself down: baby steps, yo.
While it’s possible to run on ahead at a million miles a minute when you’re thinking through ideas for a bit of academic writing, the actual practice of all this theory requires a slower pace. As my design subjects and dance practice have taught me, you learn a lot from actually doing something, and thinking about that thing isn’t actually all that helpful for understanding, really knowing how that thing works. I need to put the practice before the theory, but at the same time let the critical and theoretical work inform what I do. Nothing new for a feminist who sees dance itself as a feminist project. But something new for the lecturer/writer/tutor who spent so much time working on advertising and media discourse.

I guess the thing that I’m most struck by now, and will no doubt come to obsess me, is the difference between running a one-off event and a weekly event that goes on and on and on and on and on and on. Running a one-off gig is tiring and anxiety-making, but it’s over after a few months or a year. With a long-term gig like a weekly dance or class, you need stamina, and the work you do must be sustainable. You can’t make yourself ill with overwork; you can’t live in a state of high anxiety/alert or you’ll go nuts. Your work needs to be sustainable. And that means that there are all sorts of different labour politics, issues surrounding professional and personal networking, skill development and PR practices to think about.
It’s fascinating for me, because I’m so used to doing one-off gigs. Big weekend exchanges. One-night dances. One-off classes. Coordinating DJs for our local events is a long-term gig, but it’s a pretty simple one (though do remind me to talk about how we’re going to encourage and foster new DJing talent as a long term project). I have to say, right now I’m really interested in the dynamics of making a weekly gig sustainable – environmentally, culturally, socially, economically.

That first one is important because our venue, the Petersham Bowling Club, has a strong commitment to environmental sustainability, having secured some grant money for installing rain tanks, solar power and other lovely things. This is especially important for a venue that is a bowling green. Greens are traditionally environmentally and economically expensive. I’m also interested in the way dances are quite energy wasteful. We use a lot of electricity for cooling, for sound systems, for lighting. Yet we don’t harvest any of the (masses and masses) of energy our bodies expend on the dance floor. We don’t use that piezoelectricity generated by impact on the dancefloor the way some Dutch doods do. We don’t harvest the energy in the heat generated by our bodies. And that’s a lot of heat. Nor do we collect the moisture in the air from all those sweating bodies. The PBC isn’t the only venue in Sydney interested in environmental sustainability. The Red Rattler is also prioritising these things. I tend to spend more time thinking about social justice than environmentalism when I’m doing dance stuff, but I have noticed that the two issues tend to overlap in the priorities of particular venues. And the Petersham/Marrickville/inner west area is kind of keen on this stuff. As the Greens and other lefty political entities have realised.

I also think a weekly event has to be culturally sustainable. You have to offer something that not only suits your market/community in that first launch moment, but is also responsive to the changes in the wider dance community as well as individual students’ and social dancers’ needs. I think it’s important that a weekly event be responsive to the musical, cultural and creative requirements of dancers over the long term, whether they are students in the class or social dancers. That might mean adjusting class content to suit students’ interests and skills, or creating promotional material that correctly targets that preferred demograph, but it also means doing things like making musical choices that reflect broader dance community interests and responding to dance style fads and vintage/contemporary fashion overlaps.

Weekly events have to be socially sustainable as well. That means responding to the social needs and context of the local geographic area (Petersham, and inner-western Sydney) and to the social needs of dancers already in the scene. To put it clumsily (and to suit my own approach, rather than a broader critical or theoretical model), cultural sustainability is about the creative and functional things we do and make, as dancers, while social sustainability is about the interactive, human to human relationships and living. Weekly dance events can’t just be about dancing or dance-related cultural practice. They also have to be about social context and practice. Events have to be socially relevant and positioned carefully for longevity. The fact that some of our students came to their very first class simply because they’d seen a poster at the venue during the week is testament to the fact that matching venue to event is very important in targeting your preferred demograph. Dancers who aren’t coming to class are going to need a space that’s offering more than just a dance floor, if you want your event to be truly socially sustainable. That means thinking about food and drink, transport and safety, opening and closing hours and the shared values and interpersonal relationships at work in dancers’ lives. You can see how environmental sustainability can overlap with social sustainability.

And finally, weekly events have to be economically sustainable. This is perhaps the most important issue. I’m a big fat hippy socialist feminist, and I love nonprofit, community-run and ethically responsible dance events. I won’t have anything to do with an event that exploits workers or punters, or that articulates racist, sexist, homophobic or other hateful sentiments. I’m happy to do things ‘for the love of dance’, ‘for charity’ or ‘for the sake of art’, so long as that thing is a source of pleasure (rather than pain), ethically sound and socially responsible. But at the end of the day, financial responsibility is part of being a socially, culturally and ethically sustainable project.
You need to be able to cover your costs, you need to offer your host venue a sensible profit so they can justify your working relationship. You need to provide facilities that are safe, efficient and effective, and that means spending some money. And at the end of the day, if you’re doing this gig every single week, putting on classes or social dancing with all the preparation that involves (and there’s a lot of it, even if you’re ‘just’ doing a social dance), you need to give your workers – your teachers, DJs and staff – some sort of financial reward. Even if it’s just another way to show that you value their work. Even minimal pay can help relieve rent anxiety or defray the costs of transport and time and resources. Running short of money can be a serious source of anxiety for organisers, and being economically sustainable can help relieve that. Not to mention pay the bills and make the whole thing possible.

So, as you can see, I have lots to say, and lots to think about. But I can’t talk specifically at the moment, because this isn’t just my project. There are other folk involved, and sometimes knowing when to stop talking is just as important as knowing when to speak up.