How to Do the Tranky Doo

Posted on April 27, 2013 by swing

Year after year at Swing Club, we’ve taught old standard lindy hop routines along side of our social dancing moves and technique, including the Big Apple and the Shim Sham Shimmy, but next semester, we’re doing something new!

It’s been popular for at least a year in Atlanta, and there are several versions around, but the one that we’re going to be teaching is based heavily off of the version seen in the old film clip Spirit Moves, with Al Minns, Leon James, and Pepsi Bethel. It was originally performed to Tuxedo Junction in the Savoy ballroom, but the film clip is dubbed over with The Dipsy Doodle (performed by Ella Fitzgerald), so it’s extremely popular to dance it to this song on the East Coast right now. If you want to try it to a song that’s a bit slower, definitely go for Tuxedo Junction performed by Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra.

Here are some great resources for if you want to practice on your own:
Demonstration with moves counted out: Tranky Doo
Wikipedia entry with full step list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranky_Doo
  Awesome PDF by Shesha Marvin that’s really really helpful once you figure out how to read it: http://www.ocswing.com/pages/review/trankydoo.pdf
Again, the original Spirit Moves video: Spirit Moves

And there are lots of other videos of Al and Leon performing it as well as modern-day dancers such as Bobby White! Just search youtube! If there’s anything you have trouble with, you want to learn it with us as a group, or you just want to have a good time, join us at Swing Club and ask us!
Have fun!

Posted in Weekly Updates | Comments Off

SOS II!

Posted on April 5, 2013 by swing

Swing-Out Savannah was so much fun and such a hit last year that we decided to do it again!

With new teachers, new venues, and lots of exciting ways to see Savannah and dance a ton, we can’t wait to announce open registration for Swing-Out Savannah 2, with the one-day early bird price of $15!

Let’s take a look at the first SOS to see what kind of great things we can look forward to again (and more!), shall we?

SOS 2012

Posted in Weekly Updates | Comments Off

Lindy Focus!

Posted on January 6, 2013 by swing

While you were away for the holidays, some of your SCAD Swing Club officers and members were at the annual Lindy Focus Dance Camp in Asheville, NC!

Lindy Focus Dance Camp

Taking place from December 27th through January 1st, Lindy Focus was five amazing days of Balboa, Blues and Lindy Hop classes, dances into the night, nonstop live bands, and all the fun you can handle!  A huge part of Lindy Focus is improving your dance skills, and to help, are some of the world’s best instructors. You can see some of their moves in this video, which starts with the Balboa instructors. Skip to 3:25 for Blues instructors, and then to 6:00 for the Lindy Hop/Swing instructors:

Lindy Focus XI: Instructor Demos

We learned a lot from them, and we are so excited to share what we’ve learned with all of you Winter quarter at SCAD Swing Club!

See you on the dance floor!

Jill Harlan

President

Posted in Breaking News! | 2 Comments

End of Quarter Sock Hop Coming Up!

Posted on November 2, 2012 by swing

We’ve learned a lot this semester, from the basics, to some cool moves, to Charleston, and even a little 8-count (that stuff with the triple steps), and had a great time at the Masquerade and the Gender-Bender Ball. With only two weekends left in the quarter, we’re going to finish it up by taking it easy with a Shim Sham lesson this weekend followed by a fun Sock Hop party next weekend!

Get out your bobby socks, saddle shoes, and fine ’50s attire for the decade that marked the end of swing’s huge popularity and the start of Rock and Roll music.

Wear your best socks for a sock contest and leave room after dinner for a root beer float!

For this weekend, check out these videos of the Shim Sham Shimmy with Frankie Manning!

Frankie Manning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjfM4Wrj9UI

Al and Leon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zpkkjm4Nt4

Breakdown, easy to follow along: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOvTidi0leM

Posted in Weekly Updates | Comments Off

Awesome SOS Weekend!

Posted on May 10, 2012 by swing

 

So, believe it or not, I have very few photos to share from this weekend! I spent the whole time taking videos of the amazing dancing going on at Savannah’s first-ever mini exchange, Swing-Out Savannah. Pictured above are our own gorgeous burlesque ladies, the Hot Trots, preparing their choreography for the routine they performed at the main dance on Saturday night. Here’s the final performance: I Am a Good Girl

Friday was our biggest night, with over 40 people at the lesson and dances, and the late night had everyone exhausted for morning classes. Luckily, class didn’t start until noon or so, but by the Saturday night dance, everyone was wiped out. Even so, Sunday afternoon, we still got dressed and ready to have a relaxing picnic in the park. We were lucky enough to get some awesome DJs, our fantastic teachers Mead McLean and Lauren Jordal, and amazing people to dance with! All in all, it was a fabulous weekend, and we’re happy to have been able to put it on with everyone’s hard work!

Here’s a video from Friday night, which doesn’t really show how packed the floor got, and there will be more videos to come!
Friday Night Dance

Posted in Weekly Updates | Comments Off

Swing-Out Savannah!

Posted on April 22, 2012 by swing

At SCAD Swing Club our members are always traveling to different cities to improve their dancing and learn new things. Well, this time, SCAD Swing Club is bringing the lessons to Savannah! We will have SCAD alumnus and dance instructor Mead McLean here to teach 5 incredible lessons that are sure to improve your dancing!

Join the Savannah College of Art and Design for their very first mini-exchange weekend: Swing-Out Savannah! Lessons from SCAD alum and swing dancer extraordinaire Mead McLean. Dances on Friday and Saturday nights! And a picnic in the park on Sunday afternoon. All for one low price of $15 (and FREE for SCAD students)!

 

REGISTER for the event at: http://swingoutsavannah.eventbrite.com/
Free for SCAD Students (register with your SCAD email)
Only $15 for everyone else!!

HOUSING is limited for out-of-towners, first come, first served.Contact swing@scad.edu to sign up for housing while it’s still available.

SCHEDULE

Friday

  • 9-10pm                  Lesson w/ Mead McLean at Weston Lobby: 231 W. Boundary St. Savannah, GA 31401

Easy & Flashy 8 Count Moves. Kick the weekend off with some simple 8-count moves to get you comfortable thinking in numbers higher than 6. We’ll go over what makes a basic move look totally awe-inspiring and begin to use the four 8-count structure of swing music in both solo and partner dancing.

  • 10pm-midnight   Main Dance @ Weston Lobby: 231 W. Boundary St. Savannah, GA 31401
  • 1am – 4am           Late Night Welcome Party @ 110 W. 34th St, Savannah, GA 31401

Saturday

  • 1:00-5:30pm        Lessons w/ Mead McLean @ Weston Lobby: 231 W. Boundary St. Savannah, GA 31401
  • 1-2pm                      DIY Dance Moves.

We’ll go over some ideas for leaders and followers to create new flavors of Lindy Hop and solo jazz by subtracting from and adding to your current set of movements. We’ll create a whole new range of moves using just a couple of basic ideas.

  • 2:10-3:10pm        On Music and Musicality.

We’ll listen to some music, look at the sheet music that the musicians are playing from, and see how we can take advantage of the common structures in the music. This will help you decide where to put that awesome move and where to put something simple and basic. And yes, we will apply this knowledge directly to your dancing. You won’t hear music the same way after this class.

  • 3:20-4:20pm       Technique and Freedom.

We’ll go through some exercises to explore the ways that technique can help you become more free in your dancing. We’ll talk about when and why to get technical and when and how to throw it out the window and just Dance.

  • 4:30-5:30pm        Lindy Hop Classics.

This one’s all about building up a vocabulary of awesome moves. We’ll throw in some old school moves and some new-school classics, too.

  • 8pm-midnight      Main Dance @ SCAD Student Center: 120 Montgomery St, Savannah, GA 31401
  • 1am – 4am              Late Night Dance @ Weston Lobby: 231 W. Boundary St. Savannah, GA 31401

Sunday

  • As scheduled     Private lessons w/ Mead McLean
  • 1-3pm                   Picnic in Forsyth Park

We’ll see you on the dance floor!

 

Comments Off

Retro Picnic Ends Winter Semester

Posted on March 11, 2012 by swing

For finals weekend, we at Swing Club know as well as anyone else that SCAD students are the busiest, most stressed-out, and hard-working than at any other time in the semester. So, instead of the usual lessons and dancing, we set out to have a retro-themed picnic in the park to let everyone relax and unwind for a couple of hours in the sun before going back to the grind. Everyone was beautifully dressed-up, and we had some great snacks while enjoying the perfect weather and the nearby Girl Scout 100th Anniversary festivities. Hope you’ll join us next time for an even more fun and well-dressed occasion!

Posted in Weekly Updates | Comments Off

Hot Trots Perform at the SCAD Circus!

Posted on February 29, 2012 by swing

 

(watch the video here–>)SCAD Circus Burlesque Performance

Did you know that SCAD Swing Club also has a burlesque troupe? At Swing Club, we love East Coast swing, Lindy Hop, Charleston, and Blues, but we’ve also got some lovely ladies who really enjoy burlesque dancing. When we were asked to participate with the SCAD Circus Club’s first ever performance, we were thrilled: We knew it was time to bring the Hot Trots, swing club’s burlesque troupe, together again. When they first formed, it was for a special club event, where 12 or so ladies learned a routine to the Elvis Presley song “Down in the Alley,” and it’s been about a year since then, so it was high time they got back together again.

Backstage ready to go on!

What kind of preparation went into the event? The previous routine had been learned by a burlesque dancer at Atlanta Varsity Showdown in 2010, and this year, the routine came from the New Year’s Eve show at Lindy Focus IX in Asheville, NC. You can view the original routine here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNpeOZOUWao  For the Hot Trots’ version, everyone chose a different person from the video to follow and learned their part of the routine, showing off the different talents and personality of each dancer.

Dates were set for practices, and only those who were able to commit to either making it to all the meetings or practice on their own were able to perform in the final show. Having a lot less people than the cast for the original performance, Lauren, Liz, Nicole, Jill, and Sarah worked together to create some new choreography that would make it look like it was made for 5 people. In the end, their reworked dance made for a more entertaining act with more time to feature each dancer and without distractions. Besides the technical aspects of getting the routine memorized, they also put together props and costumes, which all fit well with each other while maintaining individuality.

Before the show, the Hot Trots and various characters from the circus greeted visitors in the lobby, and once it got started, it was a fabulous performance by everyone. For a first run, the circus’s only flaws were minor and well-covered for by the performers. With belly-dancers, jugglers, and contortionists before them, the Hot Trots were the grand finale to the show.

That’s the basic breakdown of the Hot Trots preparation for the show! Sound like fun? Sound doable? Like burlesque? If you answer those with a “yes,” maybe you should think about joining us for the next performance! The Circus Club will be putting on another show later on, and when they do, maybe you should be a part of it! Even without the Circus Club, the Hot Trots might want to perform for another Swing Club event, so if you’re interested, let us know, and maybe we could start planning a routine for spring semester!

Posted in Breaking News!, Weekly Updates | Comments Off

Intro to Lindy Hop

Posted on January 20, 2012 by swing

Now that it’s winter, we thought it was high time that swing club starts learning lindy! It’s a bit more difficult and takes a bit longer to learn, but once you start to get it, there are so many moves you can base off of it, and so many more possibilities to your dance. If you don’t get it right away, don’t worry! We’re all still working on perfecting our swing-outs years after we first learned. Just because you don’t get it perfect right off the bat doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it, though!

Here are some videos to get you started:

Lindy Swing-Out Lesson Recap- Here’s what your basic lindy step will look like, as well as some turns and other moves that we’ll teach as the semester goes on. We’ll break it all down for you at the lessons at 8 (Saturdays at the student center). Ladies, don’t worry about those swivels yet. Those will come in time!

Peter Strom & Mia Goldsmith Lonestar Invitational Jack & Jills- Here’s what it can look like when you gain some mad sick skills from practicing with us and with other swing scenes or from exchanges! These guys are amazing. Check out some of the other Lonestar videos, too.

Alex & Addie- Here are two of our very own SCAD grads, just before they left us. Alex Miller started here at SCAD Swing, and this was from last year, his senior year. This just goes to show how if you practice with us and go with us to exchanges, you can get to be a great swing dancer right here at SCAD!

Some vocab for today:

Jack & Jill- a competition where any “Jack” is paired with any “Jill,” to dance. This way, there’s no practicing ahead of time or coming up with a routine, so it’s a true test of your skills.

Exchange- an event usually spanning over a weekend (Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday) where swing dancers get together either exclusively for social dancing, or for lessons during the day and social dancing at night.

Other keywords we’ll go over soon: pulse, connection, frame, musicality, listening.

Next, we’ll talk about Charleston!

Posted in Weekly Updates | Comments Off

Saturday Sock Hop!

Posted on November 3, 2011 by swing

This Saturday, swing club is having a 1950s Sock Hop, complete with root beer floats and cream soda! Sock hops bring to mind greasers, poodle skirts, and rock and roll music, but that doesn’t quite sum up the ’50s. There were Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, and Nat King Cole to name just a few. We’ll throw in a lot more songs from the ’50s to our playlist on Saturday, but we have some old favorites that I’m sure people in that time hadn’t forgotten yet, either, but let us know if you have any suggestions for sock hop music that we can swing to!

We’re starting late this weekend at 9:30, so the lesson might be a bit shorter, but we’ll have a focus on solo jazz moves, so you don’t need a partner to do them, and games and social dancing afterwards!

Ladies, if you’re interested in any last-minute garment purchases to get dressed up, check out these adorable patterns, skirts, and dresses on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47401528/vintage-teen-tween-1950s-shirtwaist?ref=v1_other_1

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80422460/mccalls-5439-childrens-sock-hop-dress?ref=v1_other_1

http://www.etsy.com/listing/73493286/1950s-cotton-skirt-in-a-red-checkered?ref=v1_other_2

There are tons more awesome things like this available if you search around, and making a big twirly skirt like that or appliqueing something cute to it is not hard. If you’ve never sewn before, it’s not a bad first project, and you could probably start and finish it in one day!

Hope to see you there!

Posted in Weekly Updates | Comments Off