Day 2, Class 1: Gabby Cook and Nathan Bugh

Gabby and Nathan taught our first class of the second day. The class followed a more common structure than the Day 1 classes, centered around a long Lindy Hop combo. The last class I took with Nathan was at Lindy Fest. That class was heavily conceptual, focusing on how to isolate arm movement to better communicate with a partner. The theory in this class came secondhand through observations added during the explanation of the steps.

The combination started with a standard swingout, followed by a swingout that ended with two outside turns. Nathan corrected the class’s turn technique, instructing us to not start the turn too early. He noticed that some of leads were winding up the turn as we exited the faceoff, which could lead to throwing the follow off balance. In my head, I contrasted the early prep of a Hollywood style swingout to a more delayed turn that Nathan wanted.

The turns were followed by a tuck-turn from open position, which guided the follow along the path of a side-pass. The leads worked on a footwork pattern which paused with the weight on the left foot. Gabby encouraged use to accentuate the pose. She said that part of Lindy Hop was making things look smooth and cool, and this was an opportunity to show off a bit. We emphasized sitting into the pose through our left hips. The follows, meanwhile, performed a quick triple step combo, with the first step being a swift right foot behind the left. While we practiced, Gabby wanted follows to be less jumpy, and to stay more grounded. As I practiced the follow footwork, I had the tendency to jump into the behind-the-leg move. The sequence ended in closed position, which, with the lead pose and the follow footwork, was tricky to get land correctly.

The next part of the sequence was a tuck turn from open, with the lead ending facing away from the follow, emphasizing the stretch away. From there, we did a they-go-they-go. Gabby and Nathan discussed the old terminology, he-goes-she-goes. They said that pronoun arrangement came from Frankie Manning’s original description of the move. The move is a follow turn, followed directly by a leader turn.

The sequence continued into some familiar moves with little variations. For a basic outside turn from open, Nathan showed how he sometimes lightly grips the follow’s wrist. He said that often there is confusion about what type of turn will happen at this moment, and reaching out and touching the wrist takes away the ambiguity. At the same time, he encouraged us to increase the range of the turn so the follow travelled fully across to a closed shoulder position before being redirected.

After the redirect, we practiced a cuddle variation. The lead led the follow into the cuddle position, but did not provide a back stop. Instead, the follow continued moving backwards into open position. Leads switched into left-to-left cross hands to facilitate the move.

Sometime during teaching this move, Nathan used what would turn out to be my favorite teaching metaphor of the weekend. He said that Lindy Hop is sort of like a catapult. A lead load’s the follow into the catapult, and the follow has to sit in the bucket until the lead slings them out. If the follow hops out of the bucket before the catapult goes off, the sequence will not fire correctly.

Day 2, Class 2: Peter Strom and Naomi Uyama

Peter and Naomi led us through a class which focused on improving some basics. We started with side pass work. The first adjustment Peter wanted leads to make was to change the arm movement. He wanted there to be swoopier action, which provided more emphasis to the turn. I adjusted my normal way of leading a side pass, and made it feel more like how I would lead a barrel roll. I added way more initial windup, and made the arm follow a larger arc. I asked Peter and Naomi about this adjustment, and they offered that what I was then doing was close to leader-splaining. I was putting too much emphasis on the wind-up. They brought me in front of the class to demonstrate a correction. They offered a few points of advise, in addition to calming down the initial windup. They said to stay more inline with the follow, bringing them towards me, before stepping out of the way. They allow said to move towards the follow, or at least not away, at the end of the combo.

The latter was my big takeaway from the class. The lead needs to provide the follow space to take their rock step. If one reaches the end of the rope too soon, then the follow has no choice but to step forward, like in a swingout. In order to facilitate that, in a six count basic, the lead can step in place. For a swing-out, the last triple step moves away, which creates the tension to have the follow swivel forward. In the open position, the lead can even step towards the follow on the second triple to give room for the next rock step. While practicing this with Naomi, the partnership travelled a greater distance across the floor.

Also while demonstrating in front of the class, Naomi once again encouraged me to relax my right hand, like she did in a workshop a year or so ago. She encouraged me to keep it low, around the waist. I was raising it up after the side pass.

Peter said that, in general, Lindy Hoppers are too far apart. He wanted us to dance closer. In the context of this class, a closer partnership meant allowing the follows the space to rockstep.

Day 2, Class 3: Tyedric Hill

After an intense, hot, and sweaty weekend (plus an unexpectedly gigantic lunch burrito) a final class led by Tyedric was slightly terrifying. Tyedric did not hold back. He served up a bunch of high bpm music, with some amazing injections of hip hop, including some Busta Rhymes songs. His main instructional theme had to do with heals and toes. Lindy Hoppers, he said, had to be very comfortable shifting weight between the heal and toe. Given the state of my toe joints, I was a bit nervous about this, but at the same time welcomed the practice. It gave me the space to figure out how to get more comfortable with these quick weight shifts. The limitations of my feet don’t let me do these moves without hesitation, but I still think I could get to a place where toe-heal switches are much more common in my footwork.

We first practiced Al Minn’s triple, which felt like a mix between a mambo step and a half-break. We stepped hard with one foot, like the first step of a half-break. Then ball-changed with the other foot crossed behind, with the toe taking the weight. At the same time, our lead foot pivoted on the heal, like during a Susie Q. The crossed foot then step out hard to the opposite side, and the pattern repeated.

The second pattern was a dishwasher, which Norma Miller performed in one of her Trickeration routines. For me, this was more difficult than the Al Minn’s Triple, but other dancer felt it was the easier of the two. The step starts in a cross position, with the front foot on the heal, and the back on the toe. With a slight push from the back, the front foot pivots, so the legs are no longer crossed. The feet then switch positions, to return to a crossed position. The pattern then repeats. Success depended on fluid switch between toe to heal.

In passing, Tyedric described the Mashed Potatoes, made famous by James Brown. I’ve mentioned before I use the name Mashed Potatoes to describe a crank-like motion of a leg extending backwards, like the footwork in the rear leg in a squat Charleston. Happy to now switch to referring to James Brown heal-toe work as Mashed Potatoes.

As always during Tyedric’s classes, I love how he had us dance to hip hop. I can’t say I accept outright his claim that Busta Rhymes swings, but I will listen for it, and hope to come over to his understanding of those rhythms. I also love how he connects hip hop to Lindy and jazz dance in general. I have started taking hip hop classes at Rhythmhood in the Humbolt Park neighborhood in Chicago. Making the connection between these two forms is one of the things, at the moment, I find most exciting about dance.