This fortnight’s variation is Out Out In In!
Make a statement with this tidy symmetrical variation
Also useful for avoiding stray cats and holes in the floor
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Kieron Finn on Vintage Fashion
Last month we picked up some excellent tips on vintage hair and make up from the Someday Sweethearts. This month we’ve got a second installment of vintage style for you from one of our lovely local dancers–Kieron Finn! Kieron has been a fan of vintage fashion since he was a teenager, starting with mod 60s fashion and then moving on to earlier eras. For a lot of people it’s lindy hop that inspires an interest in vintage fashion but for Kieron it was the other way round.
Breaking News Keds Are Legit!
I definitely learned a thing or two speaking to Kieron, the biggest being that canvas plimsolls are 100% authentic footwear for dancing lindy hop! They’ve been around since 1916 and were what Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers wore initially to practice and perform in. So wear your cheap plimsolls with pride and stop worrying that they don’t go with your outfit! For more details I’ll refer you to this excellent post on Swungover.
How to Dress for the Savoy
- If you want to find inspiration for clothing tips, search the internet for photographs of what people actually wore and find a style that suits you.
- Wide legged chinos with a cuff and double pleats are an accurate and practical vintage style of trousers. The pleats give you movement room and the wide legs assist in ventilation.
- Button braces look more authentic than clip on braces. Hot tip: If your trousers don’t have brace buttons, all you need to do is sew 6 buttons on the waistband.
- Waistcoats are traditionally worn with the bottom button left undone.
- If you wear a tie, wear a tie clip, in between the 3rd and 4th shirt button.
- Single breasted suit jackets with the traditional 3 buttons follow a similar rule for being buttoned, starting from the top, working down, the rule is “sometimes, always, never.”
- If you want to stick to Savoy Ballroom rules, suit jackets are to be kept on, as a mark of respect for your dance partners. Note: this is an extremely warm option.
- If you can’t hack it with a jacket, it’s good manners to wear an undershirt if you are wearing a shirt without a jacket or a waistcoat. This helps to minimise sweat transference to your partner when dancing.
- Shirt sleeves, if they are rolled up, should be rolled below the elbow.
Where Kieron Shops for Vintage Duds
http://www.chestercordite.com
Makes very good quality clothing, especially his repro spearpoint shirts.
http://www.froggywentcourting.co.uk
Has a great line of knitwear, accessories and caps. He always makes sure he gets his items made in the uk.
https://simonjamescathcart.com
Is worth checking out for his regular 50% sales. There’s no point paying full price. The polos are good for dancing, but only at the sale price.
https://www.saintsavoy.com/en/
These make amazing dance shoes in male and female styles. They are quite expensive, but very good and with good vintage styling.
Filed under Cats' Corner, Uncategorized
Time to STFO!
New to swing dancing? You’ll definitely want to spend some time on what is probably the most quintessential lindy hop move–the swingout. You’ll spend the rest of your lindy career trying to perfect this move, learning different styles and techniques and all the variations. Let us start you off on the right track!
Swingout Course
Wednesday, 24 October – 14 November 2018
8:30 – 9:30pm at The Dance Studio Leeds
£30 whole course
The course will go over the basic shape of a swingout and progress to more in-depth technique, styling, and a couple of variations to spice things up a bit. As usual with our courses numbers will be limited so we can give you personal feedback on what you need to make your swingout awesome.
This course is a good follow on from our Fundamentals Course for those who are feeling confident with the basics. It’s also a great course for those who have had a go at swingouts but want to delve a bit deeper and really work on improving their technique, learn to dance faster and add some styling (swivels!).
Rob and Tina swinging the f@*% out
Filed under lindy hop, What's On?
Footwork Variation of the Fortnight #70!
This fortnight’s variation is Shuffle Ball Change!
Spice up your ball change with a little shuffelin’
This one should be familiar to those of you that dabble in tap dancing. What other tap variations have you tried throwing into your lindy?
Is Lindy Hop for You?
Our city of Leeds hosts a lovely diverse and vibrant Lindy Hop community. These lovely dancers make a start for a wide variety of different reasons. Some people take up swing dancing because of a love for vintage fashion, some are fans of swing music and trad jazz, some people come in looking for a fun way to get more exercise, some come in search of a new hobby or a new challenge, others are looking for new ways to connect with their partner or make new friends. These are all fantastic reasons to take up swing dancing!
You’ll see a range of ages on the dance floor, from 20-somethings to 60-somethings, in all shapes and sizes and all colours of the rainbow. If you want to find out if swing dancing is right for you the best thing to do is pop along to a class. For a list of beginner lessons and drop in classes have a look here. Another great option is our Fundamentals Course:
Learn the basics of Lindy Hop in just 4 weeks!
This course will give you a solid foundation in fundamental lindy hop moves and techniques, ideal for people who’ve never danced before. With small class sizes you will meet a lovely group of people, meaning you’ll have friends to dance with when you come along to a social dance or drop in class. It is appropriate for absolute beginners and anyone else who wants to re-visit their basics in a structured learning environment
Course Details:
Wednesdays 26th Sept – 17th Oct
6:30-7:30pm
at Dance Studio Leeds
cost: £30 for the 4wk course
Pre-booking and payment required in advance
to register email: swingdanceleeds@gmail.com
Filed under News, Uncategorized
A Lesson in Vintage Glamour from the Someday Sweethearts
You don’t have to be into vintage style to to enjoy vintage dancing but we thought we’d do a couple of features on how to acheive a vintage look for those who want to give it a go! We got in touch with Nina Elkin, Artistic Director of the Someday Sweethearts, to ask if she had any top tips to share. Her response: “Oh…I have more then one”
The Someday Sweethearts are a chorus line dance troupe based in San Francisco that perform routines inspired by 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. The group was started back in 2014 by Gaby Cook (and originally called the Sweet Sixteen). They are still going strong today. Part of their mission as a group is to promote all women in lindy hop and support the growth of female performers, community leaders and choreographers.
Signature Sweethearts Style
Their version of vintage style is about what looks good for performances rather than about being 100% historically accurate. Depending on what they are performing the Sweethearts have three general looks:
1920’s Flapper: Smoky Eye Makeup, darker red lip color in cupids bow, Finger Waves / Marcel Waves in the front.
1930’s Chorus Line: 1-3 Pin curls in the front. Bun, Gibson Tuck or Chignon in the back. Neutral earth tone eye makeup & red lip color with a hint of pink in it.
1940’s USO Show: Victory rolls in front, Bun, Gibson Tuck or Chignon in the back. Neutral earth tone eye makeup & bright fire engine / victory red lip color with full lip.
photo credit Karri Rumba at Luscious FX
photo credit Nina Elkin Hourglass Studios
photo credit Karri Rumba at Luscious FX
What do the Sweethearts keep in their hair styling kits?
- Bobby Pins
- Setting Lotion for Hot Iron
- Setting Lotion for wet set
- Curling Iron
- Hair / U-Pins
- Rat Tail Comb
- Bristle Brush (for smoothing)
- Hair Spray
- Pomade
- Marcel / Duck Clips : for 1920’s Marcel Waves / Finger Waves.
- Dry Shampoo (A must for extra texture & body)
Videos, books and other resources they recommend:
- Hair pins vs Bobby Pins
- Vintage Hair Dos and Don’ts
- Hair Inspiration Blog
- Vintage Hairstyling – Retro Styles with step-by-step techniques by Lauren Rennells
- Facebook Group: Vintage Updos for Modern Girls.
Top tips for Vintage Makeup:
For performance/vintage look the Sweethearts to go with earth tones for 30’s-40’s and smokey eye for 20’s. NO SPARKLES. Vintage make up was matte. They recommend this website for research: Vintage Makeup Guides
Their makeup bag includes:
- Matte Foundation
- Concealer
- Primer (for eyelids – Urban Decay Primer. The colorless one)
- Powder – loose (clinique)
- Blush – with bright pink / orange tones
- Matte eye shadow – e.g. Naked Basics by Urban Decay
- Eyeliner – (brush tip marker)
- Lipstick – Besame! Vintage makeup shop, LipSense in a red lip for a non-smear option
- Makeup Fixer (Mac Pro Fix Plus)
- Brush Set
Filed under Cats' Corner, Uncategorized
Learn the Tranky Doo Thursdays in September!
Get these dates in your diary because we are excited to announce a series of Thursday night classes on the Tranky Doo, 6th, 13th and 20th September! The Tranky Doo is a classic vintage jazz solo routine from the 1940s. For some interesting factoids about the history of the routine and clips of a variety of performances of it go here.
We wanted to feature this little video because this simple class recap has long been the most popular video on our Youtube Channel. Dancers around the world are still finding it really useful for learning this great classic routine. Here’s your chance to learn this fabulous routine from Rob IRL (in real life) over the course of three weeks!
This will be offered as a short course of 3 classes. If you haven’t done much solo jazz before don’t worry–book on for all 3 classes and we’ll go at an easy pace with lots of repetition. If you’ve learnt the Tranky Doo before and want a quick refresher feel free to just drop-in for one or two classes.
Learn the Tranky Doo
Thursdays, 6th, 13th & 20th Sept 2018
8:30-9:30pm
at Dance Studio Leeds
Cost: £15 for all 3 classes (pre-booking required)
or drop-in for £7 per class
Email swingdanceleeds@gmail.com to book your place!
Filed under Charleston, lindy hop, News, Uncategorized, What's On?
