Black Coffee: Careless Lovers

Do you ever wonder why swing music makes you want to dance? Could it be that infectious rhythm or could it be some else? Something completely different that makes you jitter and do strange moves. Like coffee? Black Coffee? Oh yes.

Check out this wonderful video with the band The Careless Lovers, a band made up of swing dancing musicians from the coffee loving city of Seattle.

The 2011 Swing/Jazz Dance Music Video Contest.

Another great version of Black Coffee is by the band Six Swingers.

What do you think of the video Black Coffee with the Careless Lovers? Please comment.

-->

Photography: Vintage fashion and swing dancing

Last Saturday was packed with events, there was weekend dance workshops, Swingkatten had a fika where people in the the organization introduced themselves and presented what they are doing. Swingkatten is doing so many things these days that it's hard to keep track of it all.

However, the main event was the swing dance later on that evening. On stage we had Hasse Ling and His Syncopators of Swing. They are a great small band that knows what the dancers want. They've played at several of our dances.



In the first band break there was a vintage fashion show with clothes from a shop called Dreamers Vintage in Uppsala. The shoes were from Jigwalk. Marielle Hjalmarsson was the fabulous and charming MC of the event.

I was asked to photograph the fashion show and also to take some portraits afterwards. In order to to able to take the photos I want and to get the quality of the photos as good as I want them to be, I invested in a new flash accessory. Hopefully you will see the difference. I'm still on the mission to become a world class photographer.

You can see a large collection of vintage fashion photos from the night here. Note the arrow below on that page which takes you to more photos with swing dancing as well as the performances that took place in the second band break.

The performers were first a group of tap dancers from Swingkatten, then came Emelie and Rebecka Decavita from the show group MessAround and last but not least The Midnight Rounders, a show dance group from Stockholm (first picture).



As if photographing and doing light design for the fashion show wasn't enough, I also djed the late night shift. It went pretty well and it was fun to see a jam circle erupt. Benny Goodman did it again.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

What do you think of swing dance at Grand? Please comment.

Swing i Swaben

This weekend, starting tomorrow Friday, there will be an event called Swing i Swaben.

Good bands, social dancing, dance classes and all sorts of fun.

This announcement comes a little bit late, but if you're a spontaneous person you still have time to join the fun. I wish I could be there. Some of my friends will be there: Emelie & Rebecka Decavita will teach lindy hop and Trina Dobbs (with her company Jigwalk) will sell vintage style shoes.

What do you think of Swing i Swaben? Please comment.

Sweden Balboa Weekend 2007

On Saturday I visisted the Chicago dance studio where the big dance of the Sweden Balboa Weekend was held. Hasse Ling & His Syncopators Of Swing played excellently as usual.

My part of the evening consisted of helping out with the Jack N Jill competition playing and stopping the music during the competition. The competition was won by Emelie Decavita from Uppsala (Yey!) and a guy from Finland (sorry, I didn't catch his name, tell me if you know).



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license them.

Were you at the evening at Sweden Balboa Weekend 2007? What did you think of it? Tell me.

Emelie Decavita: Swing dj premiere at Dekadans

Tonight it's premiere time at Dekadans.

Emelie Decavita is usually one of the hostesses of Dekadans, making sure everything runs smoothly, but tonight she will also be making her swing dj debut.

It's great to have more swing disc jockeys in Uppsala and I look forward to hear what music Emelie will be playing.

If you haven't been to Dekadans before you should go there, it's such a nice place to dance some lindy hop or balboa or even a foxtrot.

The photo of Emelie is taken by me and may not be used elsewhere without permission.

Have you been to Dekadans? What do you think of the club? Tell me.