Cats Corner: Hear new swing music and swing djs

Tonight I will dj at Cats Corner in the end of the evening. Also, a new swing dj will make his debut: Dj Dietmar. It'll be intresting to see what kind of swing tunes he will play. In the beginning of the evening Jonas Pettersson will dj, so you have the opportunity to hear three different styles during the night.

I have collected some new swing music that I'm excited to play. Come and listen and dance!

Would you like to dj at Cats Corner? Tell me and we'll work something out.

Patrik Öhrström djs swing at Cats Corner

Tonight, Patrik Öhrström from Stockholm is djing swing music at Cats Corner. Patrik last dj:ed here in Uppsala in the spring. It's great to hear a wide variety different dj:s.

Cats Corner is located at Uplands nation at St. Larsg. 11. Time 20-23. 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The photo is taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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.

Cats Corner at Uplands nation

On Tuesday it was once more time to dance at Cats Corner at Uplands nation. Many people came out to dance and I felt the room was full of good energy. I had a nice dance with V. who just started dancing two weeks ago. Hey, all beginners! Come and dance you too, we would like to meet you.


David Kågedal was the swing dj of the night. Best song that night was "Evening" with Count Basie and (I think) Joe Williams.

A journalist from a magazine came and visited and I'm curious what the the article will look like. I was hoping that their experienced photographer would also have been there so I could have seen how he was working.

The photos are taken by me and may not be published elsewhere without my permission.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 do you think of the evening? Tell me.

Cats Corner: Premiere tonight

Today our Tuesday dance nights will premiere with a new name, Cats Corner, to reflect that the organisation behind the scenes has changed.

For you, the dancers and jazz listeners, nothing has changed: we will provide excellent swing music for you dancing and listening pleasure almost every Tuesday during the fall.

Come to Cats Corner tonight and check it out. You'll find us at Uplands nation at St Larsgatan 11 in Uppsala. We will swing under the chandeliers between 20 and 23. Cost: 20 kr.

See you there!

A great evening for swing djing

Yesterday was a great night at Uplands nation. I felt like I had found "The Flow" most of the time. I heard positive things from people, that's always nice. I'd love more feedback, just tell me what you think; good things, bad things, suggestions or whatever. Don't be shy.

If you really like or dislike a song while I'm djing, come and tell me, that gives me important information about what songs certain types of dancers like and I can more properly adapt the music to the dancers on the floor. I always tries to look around the room and see which dancers are dancing right now and which are resting. It's hard to know if the people which are sitting are just tired for the moment or if they don't like the music for some reason: wrong style or too fast.

I try to keep the music varied but I also want to have a flow so I won't jump between styles between each song, if you have a flow you can build a certain mood. Yesterday I felt like building a mood with hi-fi recordings of big bands with a "fat" sound. I also tested a influence from the tango scene by djing a tanda of Benny Goodman songs (A tanda is a set of 4 songs of a certain style).

It would be interesting to dj an evening of just tandas, but I think I'll never bring myself to do just like tango where a cortina ("curtain") song is played between the tandas and all the people leave the floor to find new partners. That just doesn't fit the swing scene.

I'm sorry I could fit in a request by Mr R. If you have a request, tell me as soon as possible, then it's more likely that I've brought the music with me and that I can fit it in to the flow of the music. Next time, perhaps?

Where you there when I djed? Tell me what you thought.

Swing dj Henrik Eriksson at Dekadans tonight

Yep! That's me.

Come down and bust your moves at Uplands nation in Uppsala tonight between 20 and 23. It only costs 20 kr.

Tell me if you like any particular swing song to be played and I'll se what I can do.

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

Swing dancing at Uplands Nation: Photos

It was nice to get the dancing season started at Uplands nation yesterday. Uplands nation is a beautiful location and I had many great dances.

International readers may wonder: what is a student nation? A student nation is a kind of student society that dates back to the 1600s in Sweden. Uppsala is the oldest university town in Sweden and the university was founded in 1477. There are 13 student nations in town.

You don't need to be a student to go to the dance, just go there and have fun. That was the case with one girl I danced with, she had never danced any swing dance (or maybe not danced at all) before. It certainly was challenging to try lead stuff, but wasn't not a big deal, all we wanted was to have a good time and we did. I hope she enjoyed the evening and that she'll come back. The lesson is: don't worry too much about your skills when you go social dancing, just focus on having a good time, then the rest will fall into place.

If you want to become a better dancer you need to both be social dancing and take classes and practise but each activity requires different mind sets. If you're social dancing, you should be thinking: "fun, fun, fun". If you taking classes, it's "think, look and listen" and at a practise it's "experiment, try again and refine".

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

Next Tuesday it's my turn in the dj booth spinning swing songs, what would you like to hear? Tell me your favorite songs, artists or styles.