Boston tea party 2010

Boston Tea Party has been a really good event. I feel like I have learned a lot from the dancers there, from their energy and their joy shared with the public along their performances, in the competition, in the jams, on the social dance floor. It's a very expressive dance that uses all levels of energy, from something very intimate and invisible to the spectator's eye to something very extravagant and almost theatrical, taking the stretch to its limits, from ground to air. So of course it catches people's attention and for the best of it.

I've been wondering what was so special about lindy hop, jazz, etc. Boston tea party is a crossover event where both swing and west coast swing dancers are gathered (almost) together in the same place. It's two very different populations, as much as you can expect from people listening to some high 00's pop beat on one side and to the sound of the 20's to 40's jazz on the other side. So of course, there is a big socio-cultural difference. But what about what the dancers like to call the "essence" of their dance, the "values" it expresses ? What can be said about the semiology of the movements, of the technical principles, like stretch, elasticity, bounce, musicality, rhythm, lead and follow, partnership, energy, moving the body as opposed to leading with the limbs ?

It made me think of more general things like judgment, evaluation, understanding and all the intellectual exercises we start doing from this kind of social experience.

Lindy hop is special for what it brings to its dancers and the dynamic that it creates, as opposed or compared to nothing. There is no need to classify or order what's better or worse than any other kind of dance.

There's a lot about the ego in many problems that we can encounter from dancing, because it has to do with the body and often with our inhibitions etc. So I want to focus as much as I can on the sharing and on the joy.

Just before the event, I got a small break down during the pre-competition training. And my friend Alain asked me why I am dancing. This is the kind of question that keeps you on hold for a while. And I think his very own performance during the event with Lunou, along with the large smile on Amanda's face during her highlights, and Veit's passion, and Cathou's sens of risks, and Aleix's smart musicality, love and support, made me realize why. Lindy hop inspires me truthfulness and joyfulness. Because it has this large scale of stretch, it expresses the pursuit of freedom, because it has this rhythmic complexity, it stimulates creativity, because it is based on grounded body positions, it seeks for this "dirtyness" we all love, because it's a couple dance, it is based on partnership, because it has the street, Black social condition background, it carries ethical values. I can go on and on with reasons why I love to dance and want to keep on dancing.

And what I want to work on for myself - because it's not so easy sometimes - , and what I want to transmit to my partners and students and friends of the swing scene, is the way to share all of this, the way to give as much as we can get, and to surpass and surprise ourselves by taking risks.

So here are videos of a late night jam. I'll be at the very end of the 2/2 with Aleix. But the rest of it was pretty amazing.

(Pictures are from Sam Westover (smalls) with Amanda on first picture and Veit on second - and Adam Dau with Cathou (3rd small), and Alain and Lunou)

The Boston Tea Party 2010 Jam Circle 1 of 2 - Lindy Hop Swing Dance Exchange

The Boston Tea Party 2010 Jam Circle 2 of 2 - Lindy Hop Swing Dance Exchange