A Weekend of Dance Reviews! Part I: Swing Time In West Hartford

Oh my!  What a weekend this was!  I packed my schedule with loads of dancing for the past two days.  Workshops, dances, and a crazy milonga night!  I have a lot to rave about, so I've divided my reviews into three parts, one for each event.

So, let’s start at the beginning for Part I.  My weekend started with the First Friday Swing Dance, one of my favorite dances in Connecticut.

HCD's First Friday Swing Dance

What Is It? 

A monthly swing dance

Where Is It?

The West Hartford Town Hall

Why Is It Good?

It has a great live band every month and the crowd is always large, friendly and very diverse.  It’s a great dance for beginners too!

Eight To The Bar

This month, the featured band was Eight To The Bar, one of my all-time favorite swing bands, so of course I just had to go!  I arrived early so I could take the beginner class.  Of course, I’m not a beginner student, but I figured that if I want to review this dance properly, I should try to attend all of it.  I was also curious about the guest teacher, Ari Levitt, and his teaching style, especially since I was going to take his Waltz workshop the next morning (more on that later, check out Part II).

Ari Levitt did a great job with the beginner lesson; he kept things simple and friendly.  And the crowd was getting pretty big and chaotic, too, so, considering that aspect, he did a pretty good job with crowd control.

Of course, once the band started the event was in full swing (pun intended!).  The dance floor is always crowded when the band plays, so while that may lead to the occasional collision or toe-treading accident, the floor is lively and entertaining, no matter who you’re dancing with.  By the way, when I say crowded, I mean the floor is full!  And mind you, this is an enormous floor!  I think one of the reasons I love this dance so much is because of the number of people who attend.  It’s always more than 90 people (90 people is a bad day for this event).  Some months back, the room reached maximum capacity, and there were at least a dozen people outside waiting for admittance!  A good large crowd like, along with some awesome live music, creates such a positively charged atmosphere, that you can’t help but be in a bouncy mood yourself!

 

Huuuge floor!

During the band’s first break, there’s always the usual announcements, followed by the Shim Sham line dance, a long-standing event tradition that has never been broken.  We shim-shammers are picky about the song they play, too.  Too slow or too fast and we will revolt!  This month they used one of the old stand-by versions of the Tuxedo Junction song, so the line dance went along smoothly (if you’re curious about learning the shim sham, check out the Swing Jam dance at the American Legion Hall at the end of the month!)  We also got a little treat in addition to the Shim Sham.  Ari Levitt led us in what’s called a Swing Jam.  Basically the crowd forms a circle with space in the middle for Ari and his partner to do a little swing.  Ari selects a dancer at random and dances with her for a short period, then another follower volunteers to jump in and take her place, without stopping the dance.  Ari managed to dance with several women within the one song, including yours truly!  I must say, he is an excellent lead; he is one of those guys who does his absolute best to show the follower off to her fullest advantage, so even the most beginner of students can look and feel amazing when dancing with him.  I loved the funky moves he put me through.  He even surprised me with a small aerial lift!  One second, my feet were swaying on the ground, the next second they were flying up in the air!  I have no clue how he did it, although I suspect that a hip toss was involved somehow, and he made it feel like the most natural thing to do.  He is truly an excellent dancer!  No wonder he is requested to come back every year!

Ari Levitt

I mentioned earlier that this is a beginner-friendly dance.  I stand by the statement whole-heartedly.  This dance is the perfect mixture of beginner, intermediate, and advanced dancers, and the people who come here are very friendly and welcoming.  The unspoken rule of this event is to dance with a whole bunch of different people, so beginner students will often get a chance to dance on the dance floor.  This dance is also a good lesson in practicing good floorcraft, since you must pay attention to your surroundings as well as to your partner, and I’m saying this both as a leader and as a follower.  Overall, this swing dance generally creates a very positive experience for beginner students, and we are constantly recommending it at Hartford Ballroom.

  

I have one word of warning about this dance.  Well, two, actually.  First, be prepared to get stepped on or bumped into.  No matter how careful you are, it’s bound to happen on such a packed floor.  The best thing to do is to smile and apologize, even if it wasn’t your fault, and just keep dancing.  That way your experience stays positive, and no one gets offended and upset.

Secondly, while the people here are generally very nice, there are a small few who think they know all and try to give you corrections or advice.  I call this unsolicited teaching, and I’m very against it.  Unsolicited teaching can make the receiver feel inadequate and even humiliated, and often times the advice is inaccurate or inappropriate for the situation at hand.  A couple of times, I have been a victim of unsolicited teaching, and it’s not pleasant.  So my advice is this: if someone tries to correct you on your technique, just smile and nod, and end the conversation as soon as possible.  Don’t take the advice to heart.  If it bothers you, ask your teacher about what the person said.  And if you feel inclined to correct someone on their technique, don’t do it!  Trust me, you don’t fully understand that dancers’ abilities, and you could very easily ruin their night.  If there was a more complex pattern that you tried to do but it didn’t work, and you feel endeavored to explain what you were trying to do, please do so quickly (30 seconds tops) and try to explain it without blaming the partner.

With all that being said, this is such a fun dance to go to!  I went home with sore feet but still very content.  I highly recommend this event, especially during the months when either Roger Ceresi or Eight To The Bar is playing (they are both my favorites).  This is great for East and West Coast Swing, and the occasional Foxtrot, or other social dance.  It happens on the First Friday of the month, and it’s provided by Hartford Community Dance.

For more event details, click here for HCD’s webpage.

For more on Ari Levitt, click here for his website.

For more on Eight To The Bar, click here for their website.