Snowball Dance Camp - Stockholm

Just before New Years Eve I went to dance at the Snowball Dance Camp in Stocholm. The camp is about one week but I was just there for one night, so I had to choose carefully which night to visit.



I choose this night because of the bands that were playing: Jennie Löbel And the Swing Kings and the Gordon Webster sextet. I've danced to Jennie and her band ever since I started dancing. I first saw Gordon Webster this summer at Herräng Dance Camp. I remember him in a 3AM jam in the pub when the set had stopped but the audience kept on clapping, wanting more. Gordon went back to the piano and improvised a song using the clapping audience as a huge rhythm section.

That's why I wanted to see them.



The ballroom was huge and there were people everywhere, in fact I don't think I ever have seen so many swing dancers at one time. I heard somewhere that the ballroom allows for 600-700 people to be there at one time. Lots and lots of people to dance with. It's fun to be part of such a crowd, but it also makes it difficult if you want to find a certain person you want to dance with.

If you follow the Swedish custom to dance two songs with a person you can dance 10 dances in one hour which meant 80 dances through the night if you danced non stop.



If the middle of the night there were a performance by The Harlem Hot Shots. Great stuff as always. I liked their 1920's number best.

The bands traded sets and they played 3 sets each. How about that!

In the end of the night the fatigue and the fact that my shoes are pretty new and not really worn in yet made my dance less good than it normally is (I hope).

Overall, a very nice night. Afterwards, I reflected on how easy it is to take events like this for granted and how much work it must have taken put it together. I know, because I've arranged half a dozen camps myself and more dance nights than I can remember.

If you meet the organizers be sure to thank them.

The next big event will be here in Uppsala in the and of January: The Uppsala Winter Camp. See you there.



The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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

What do you think of Snowball? Please comment.

Hey Mr Jesse: June edition

The June edition of the podcast Hey Mr Jesse is now available. [Download (40 MB, mp3)]

While all things they mention are good stuff, I think the best parts of the show are the interviews. They have a clip from the Philadelphia Lindy Exchange 2007 DJ Summit where several swing dj's talk about how they structure a set. Great stuff, I probably will get back to you with more comments about that later on.

Jesse Miner och Manu Smith also does a mini interview with band leader Gordon Webster and play a really good slow blues song from his new cd "Blues Till Dawn".

They give some more info about things already mentioned in this blog like:

• The Frankie Manning book launch
• Buddy DeFranco
• George Gee's new album: If Dreams Come True
• The Puppini Sisters

It nice to have topics covered from a slightly different angle.

Also they feature a comment from my swing dj colleague here in Uppsala: Jonas Pettersson regarding the last shows interview with Jonathan Stout and how he broke down the information about different kinds of swing rythms.

Read the show notes for Hey Mr Jesse - June edition to see everything they talk about in the show.

If you're interested, read what I written before about previous Hey Mr Jesse shows.

What do you think of the June edition of Hey Mr Jesse? Tell me.