Love me or leave me: Kevin & Carla or Max & Tommy?

One of my favorite versions of Love Me Or Leave Me was played at Swingkatten's lindy hop practise tonight. This particular version is sung by Sammy Davis Jr. I like the song because it is very dynamic, smooth at some times, other times it's loud, I love those horns.

I, like many lindy hoppers, picked it up when I saw the hilarious video clip of Tommy Blacharz & Max Pitruzella dancing to Love Me Or Leave Me imitating (or making a parody of) the dance style and the dance moves of the dance couple Kevin St. Lauren and Carla LaRue Heiney.

This video clip I think can be considered a modern classic. Almost every lindy hopper has seen it but if you joined the dance scene in the last 2 years you might not have seen it, so, you should see it right away below.

I don't know what's best, to first see the "original" with Kevin and Carla dancing to Love Me Or Leave Me or see the "copy cats" Max and Tommy? You have to decide what works best for you.

First out is Tommy Blacharz & Max Pitruzella :



Now have a look at Kevin St. Lauren and Carla LaRue Heiney



I think both couples does a great dance. I would love to dance like that. I'd love to dance with Carla.

If you have any information about Max and Tommy's version, where it was performed, etc, I'd like hear from you.

What do you think of the different versions of people dancing to Love Me Or Leave Me? Please comment.

Steal dances or cutting in

Steal dances or cut-in dances are dances where your dance partner get stolen away from you in one way or another.

Here is a steal dance performed at the Thursday night cabaret at Herräng Dance Camp in 2003 by Tommy Blacharz, Andrew Sutton and Rabéa Lahlou. The song they dance to is (of course ironically chosen) "They can't take that away from me" performed by June Christy.



Andrew Sutton often teaches techniques for steal dancing and has written an article about steal dancing.

There is some information about "Cut-in dances" in Ralph G. Giordano's book Social Dancing in America: A History and Reference Volume 2 Lindy Hop to Hip Hop, 1901-2000.

In the section "Fashion, flappers and the great Gatsby" on page 59 Giordano writes about 1920s college campuses:

"The Charleston and the Varsity Drag were quite popular on college campuses. Also popular on campus was the "cut-in" dance. The idea was that more men than woman would be invited to a dance. The men were expected to "cut-in" during the course of a dance as many times as possible with a different female during an evening."

On page 96 he writes about American movies during the second world war:

"Many [movies] had a dance scene with a slow Foxtrot that also had an individual "Cutting In" on a couple. The scene was especially prevalent during World War II when there simply were not enough women partners at military dances. Although the custom could be annoying to leave a partner that you were enjoying dancing with for either a partner you did not like or possibly no partner at all, it was continually reinforced that it was a patriotic thing to do. "

What do you think of the video clip with steal dancing? Tell me.