Swing djing: shaping the floor

To shape the floor is to look at dance floor and see what mood and energy is and deciding in what direction to go. Faster or slower tempo? Big band or small group? Older or modern recording? Vocal or instrumental? Experienced or inexperienced dancers? Crowded floor or lots of space? Which people are dancing together? Theme of the night? Face of the moon?

You as a dj shapes the floor, the dancers respond and you adjust. What would be a good song right now and in what direction will it take us?

It's almost like a dance itself, the dj provides a lead: "Lets try this move (song)" and the crowd follows "Cool, and look at what extra styling I just added to the move". "Yeah! Ok, then you'll probably like this next move"

The photo above is from last night at Cats Corner where Jonas Pettersson djed.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to buy or license it.

What do you think of last night at Cats Corner? Please comment.

Cats' Corner: Autumn Premiere

Tonight it's autumn season premiere for Cats' corner, the weekly dance that Swingkatten arranges.

This season the dance will take place Tuesdays at the ballroom at Gästrike-Hälsingland nation located at Trädgårdsgatan 9.

Jonas Pettersson will be the swing dj tonight.

Welcome to a night of fabulous dancing!

What do you think of the new location of Cats' Corner? Please comment.

All Balboa Weekend 2008 + Swedish Balboa Weekend

Last weekend the All Balboa Weekend took place in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. This is the largest event for anyone who dances balboa. They have classes, competitions and lots of social dancing.

Big congratulations to my friend Jonas Pettersson who took first place in the Open Jack & Jill division together with Teni Lopez-Cardenas. I don't have any video clip of them so instead look at Mickey Fortanasce & Kelly Arsenault who won the American Classic Balboa Championship.

I haven't heard the song before, can anyone tell me what song that is?

The Sweden Balboa Weekend in coming up here in Uppsala September 26 - 28th. We've got some awsome balboa teachers coming: Mia Goldsmith & Peter Loggins, Laura Keat & Jeremy Otth, Kate Hedin & David Rehm. Come to Uppsala in September you too!

What do you think of the video clip from All Balboa Weekend? Please comment.

How to recognize a balboa dancer from Uppsala

Tonight it's time again for Cats Corner at Uplands nation in Uppsala. Since it is Veronika, Nils and Gabriela who are organizing this evening, the evening will have a slight focus towards all the balboa dancers in Uppsala.

One of the things they have fixed is small balboa corner so that the balboa dancer will run less risk to be hit by a charleston kick from the wild lindy dancers since the room can be quite crowded.

The balboa corner also makes it easier to find your fellow balboa dancer. Another thing that will help you recognize a balboa dancer from Uppsala is the newly produced balboa buttons. If a person wears this button, she/he would like to dance balboa with you. A great initiative from Jennie!

A couple of Swingkattens balboa teachers, Jonas Pettersson and Trina Dobbs, will dj classic swing tonight. As usual: Time: 20-23, Price: 20 kr.

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

What do you think of the idea with a balboa button to locate other balboa dancers? Tell me.

Henrik Eriksson is djing swing at Cats Corner tonight

Just a reminder: Cats Corner has been taking a break for two weeks but now it's back again. Join us tonight for a great night of dancing.

I will be djing great songs for you. I've found some great new stuff that i'm eager to play.

There is also a taster class in Balboa at 19 by Jennie Norrman & Jonas Pettersson.

Come dancing tonight! Or as Louis Jordan put it:

"Hey everybody. Let's have some fun! You only live once and when you're dead you're done. So, let the good times roll!"

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

Will you be there tonight? Do you it's strange to talk about yourself in third person? Tell me.

Cats Corner: Advice for beginning dancers

On Tuesday David Kågedal and Jonas Pettersson shared the dj duty for the night at Cats Corner. Songs to mention: David played "One-Two-Three-O'Lairy" by Count Basie. (Jonas also played a nice song by Artie Shaw but I already forgot the name, I have to take notes!) Update: the song was "Summit Ridge Drive" från 1940.

It's good to see that a lot of people are coming out and dance, especially the beginners, I had a nice dance with A. who were there for her first time. Dancing with H. was a blast as always.

Amberlynn over at Dance Primer continue to write cornerstone posts that every beginning dancer should read:

Why You Shouldn’t Wait To Go Out And Dance
10 Successful Strategies to Get Others to Ask You To Dance
Relax, Nobody is Watching You

The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission. Contact me if you want to license it.

What are your advice to beginning dancers? Tell me.

Beginners night at Cats Corner

Tonight, it's beginners night at Cats Corner, which means that we welcome everybody who is taking Swingkatten's beginner courses and introduce them to the social scene. It also means that experienced dancers only can dance with beginners for one hour in the beginning of the night. Then, hopefully everybody will be up and dancing and there will be no wallflowers.

I'm going to dj the night together with Jonas Pettersson. Welcome!

Hey Mr Jesse: October show

Regular readers of this blog should be familiar with the Hey Mr Jesse podcast by now, if you just discovered this blog, check out what I've written about the podcast in the past. If you haven't listened to the show yet, you really should do it now, it's well worth it. Download the show here.

First off is the news that my friend and swing dj colleague Jonas Pettersson will be the guest dj at Yehoodi Radio on Thursdays during October. Earlier this year Jesse Miner asked for suggestions of swing djs that hadn't played on the show before so I suggested Jonas. Yay, he's here! I expect great music and I'm looking forward to his set (if I only can get the Live365 to work).

I don't want to reiterate everything so just read the show notes from the October podcast to see all the contents of the show, it's all there.

As always, the real gem of the Hey Mr Jesse podcast is the interview. This time it's David Berger from The Sultans of Swing who is interviewed. He talks about how you arrange a swing song and the thought process behind. Really educational. Recommend listening.

I always try to send some comments to Jesse and Manu and some of them are mentioned in the show. I tipped them about Jimmy Smith playing Moanin' and Nikki Yanofsky singing Evil Gal Blues. It also seems that they might feature a interview with Nikki Yanofsky later on, I hope that'll be the case.

What did you think about the October podcast of Hey Mr Jesse? Tell me.

Cats corner: How to get a swing venue in 15 min

Yesterday our new weekly swing club Cats Corner was supposed to start at Uplands nation at 20. At 18:50, I got a call that the venue for some reason was double booked this time. I remembered the advice from the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy: Don't Panic.

I rushed directly downtown and was lucky enough to book Grand, another venue that we frequently use, within 15 min from the first phone call. How's that for working fast?

Fortunately a lot of people found their way to Grand and we had a nice swingin' evening with Jonas Petterson as our swing jockey. Since he sometimes play fast music and not everybody are able to lindy hop to tempos like 240 BPM, he reminded everybody that they could dance to half time tempo (120 BPM) and then it should be a nice comfortable song.

Next week we will be back at Uplands nation. And we can have another premiere! Yay!

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 there? What did you think of the evening? Tell me.

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.

Swing dj Jonas' favorite song right now

One of my swing dj colleagues in Uppsala is Jonas Pettersson. I couldn't hear him dj last Wednesday at Zackes Jazz Corner at the dance studio Chicago in Stockholm ( run by The Harlem Hot Shots), so I asked him:

What is your favourite swing song right now?

It's "Mahogany Hall Stomp" by Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five, recorded in New York, March 5, 1929, Okeh #8680.

Can be found on "Armstrong, Louis – The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven
Recordings" [4CD] [Columbia #63527].

Why that particular song?

Because it shows an amazing and very early example of the transition from the two-beat hot jazz of the twenties to the oncoming four-to-the-bar swing of the thirties. Listen to "Potato Head Blues" with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven on mentioned compilation for an example of "two-beat", same tempo as "Mahogany Hall Stomp", but with tuba and banjo, which gives it a completely different feeling compared to the more fluid swing of the string bass and guitar of "Mahogany Hall Stomp".

What is your favorite swing song right now? Tell me.