As you may have already read - Swing Dancer Magazine is closing its doors.
We are very sad to announce this. Working to provide information about the various scenes and interviewing our community's leaders has been a joy to us for the past two years. As sad and difficult as this decision was to make we do feel it is the right one -it is time for our staff to move on.
Since we can't provide the dedicated service this site, and our readers, deserve we have decided to close on a positive note. The site will remain up for a while with full access to the archives. We hope you've enjoyed reading the site as much as we've enjoyed putting it together.
Keep Swinging, Christina Oppold Editor in Chief
Interview with Mark Stuart Eckstein: Part Two In PART ONE of this interview, we learned what Mark Stuart Eckstein has been up to in the past few years, including his time in the world of theatre and film. He also told us about his newest adventure: founding the M. Stuart Dance Theatre. In Part Two, we’ll learn more about his dance background—particularly his roots in the swing community—and philosophy toward swing dance, swing dance theatre, his own career, and the unusual places he finds inspiration...CONTINUE READING
by Christina Oppold | March 24, 2008 | People
My Life is Over: So You Just Lost a Competition Signs of having just lost a contest: 1. Staring at the relative placement scores looking for a mistake and complaining that judge 3 must have been smoking crack; 2. Renouncing the dance and proclaiming that you will never dance again because of this injustice....CONTINUE READING
by Nick Williams | Photography by Justin Raibolt | March 10, 2008
The Lindy Hoppers Fund I was recently tipped off, thanks to ILHC’s website, to the development of a wonderful project called the Lindy Hoppers Fund. Born out of a conversation between Tena Morales, Peter Strom and Skye Humphries over what to do with any potential profit of a documentary that is in the works as a way to give back to the community, the Lindy Hoppers Fund....CONTINUE READING
by Carl Nelson | February 21, 2008
SweetSwing SweetSwing, the Slovenian swing dance society, was founded at the beginning of 2007. It all began with a couple of dancers wishing to do something more for the swing dancing community. By then we had been dancing swing for about a year (mostly East Coast Swing), visited a couple of international workshops and soon....CONTINUE READING
by SweetSwing | February 11, 2008 | Global
On Improvising Why don’t you feel comfortable with improvisation? It’s a question that I longed to understand for many years now. After all, the first time I saw the masters like Gregory Hines, Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and Sammy Davis Jr. improvising in the movie Tap, all I wanted was to dance like them....CONTINUE READING
by Terrence "Taps" | January 28, 2008 | Features
Items of Interest
WATCH
Joseph Wiggans performed at the 80th Anniversary celebration of the Savoy and teaches at Herrang. An outstanding hoofer, he prooves that great tapping requires you look, and sound, good. This clip of is of Joesph improvising on a wooden block he found at a street fair.
Earl Tucker was also known as Snake Hips - so guess what solo jazz dance was his claim to fame...There aren't many video clips out there of people dancing snake hips, and even fewer clips of the master himself. We can't help watching this clip over and over again, floored that anyone can move this way!
LISTEN
Not many 14 year olds can sing like Ella Fitzgerald, but Canadian Nikki Yanofsky sure can!
SDM found out about Nikki by listening to the Hey Mr. Jesse podcast. So when we heard she was premiering at Carnegie Hall for the 70th Anniversary of Benny Goodman's performance, we had to go!
As impressed as we were by her recordings, she's even more amazing live. Free downloadable MP3s are available on her site www.nikkionline.ca but we can't recommend enough that you go out and purchase her songs on iTunes and check her schedule to see her perform.
Brand new to the internet, Westie Wire is as the place to go for the lastest information and discussion on West Coast Swing. Main features of the site include a blog, forum, and calendar searchable
What do we love about Westie Wire? Quick registration had us ready to join the conversation in no time. We found the site easy to navigate and the latest information from events right at our fingertips. Even better - the site is free for users and events.
Westie Wire - Keep your swing connected...get Wired!
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