Puppets

Shave and a Haircut

Here are some things I recently found on Facebook. Social networking is not entirely evil.


Why I Dance (and why you should too)


Black Coffee, by the Careless Lovers
A cute video directed by Joon Chang, whom I worked with in the 48 hour film festival a few years back.


A Word on Swing: Lindy Hop Bloggers Bobby White and Jerry Almonte bring back some thoughts from Lonestar


The Loose Marbles, with Meschiya Lake: Holy Cats! I'd never heard this woman sing before. I can't believe she can do that without an amp!


Shave and a Haircut: Blues dancer and sfx guru Logan Gloor shot this stop motion of fellow dancer Eric Eltringham. Before this Eric was known as Thor.

Memories of Hal

Hal Takier (also known as Hal Savoy or Hal Chavoor) passed away yesterday. My condolences go out to his family, especially his widow Marge. Together they hosted the biweekly dance at Bobby McGee's in Brea for what must have been decades.



I can easily say that swing dancing in Los Angeles would not have been the same without Hal. Of course the dance at Bobby's was an instant bridge between the turn of the century jitterbugs and the "old timers." Still, I think Hal's contribution to us kids (who have been called by some old timers ourselves) was more than just a place to learn sweet old moves, connect to history or even to find our places in a larger community. For the life of me, I'm having trouble putting it into words.



Let's go back a little bit. I remember the first time I saw Hal dancing. It was the clip from Twice Blessed, with Hal in the striped shirt. That was one of the first clips in my collection, and I still think it looks like nothing else before or since. When I first saw it the notion that the dancers in those old clips could be just a short drive away wasn't thinkable, but the dancing blew my mind nonetheless.



My friends and I eventually found our way to Bobby's. We would go every time without fail. I remember Hal as fairly soft spoken, sitting, smiling and from time to time coming out to impress us with some honest-to-goodness bad-assery. I remember Tip and Holly getting lessons from Hal about his signature move, the merry-go-round. Was that why we kept saying "you're doing it wrong" to each other all the time? If you don't remember they went on to win a ton of titles, and I believe their first awards could easily be attributed to their time with him.


See the striped shirt at 2:02.

I just remembered how all the boys sought out striped shirts, surely because of that clip I mentioned above. For a while that was the look everyone wanted.



How could I have not yet mentioned his dancing? The period when we were dancing at Bobby McGee's was the same period that we were first discovering all those beautiful clips that you can now find effortlessly on YouTube. It was also the time of the style war.

For those of you who weren't there, the style war of the aughts was known as "Savoy vs. Hollywood." It was fought by online warriors who generally knew very little about anything. It could be summed up by saying that some students enjoyed dancing inspired by Frankie Manning and the dancers of Harlem while others were digging the dancing inspired by Dean Collins and his protégés.



Hal Takier's dancing was something else. He was from Southern California, but from what I remember, his dancing predated Dean Collins's influence. He was dancing bal-swing, but at the time we barely had words for it. And anyway, Hal's dancing was Hal's, and it wasn't Savoy or Hollywood, and it was awesome.

My memories are starting to blur at this point. All I have left is to thank Hal for his kindness and his contribution.

The History of Lindy Hop (now satire-free)

Okay, less foolin' this time. Here's a documentary circa 1980s, featuring many of the dancers of (I assume) the New York area of the time. It's definitely Harlem-focused, but Harlem is awesome. So it all works out.

The History of Lindy Hop

Have I posted this before? If not, here it is.



As far as I understand it, this is all factual.

Cheek to Cheek

After watching John Bohannon's TedTalks presentation last week, I wanted to take a moment to find some of the other entries in the Dance Your PhD series. After a quick search through YouTube, I found some old friends of mine!


Sommer Gentry and Dorry Segev demonstrating haptic communication
Audio removed for legal reasons.

Last Thursday I taught the Shim Sham and then did a demonstration of how "Eyes Up!" works within a dance. The video above works on what I believe to be the opposing principle. I've long been a fan of dancing blind. I actually love dancing with both my and my partner's eyes closed. Don't do that nearly enough.

I don't have time to consider how these opposing principles complement each other, but hopefully it will suffice to say that I think they do.

Here's the Ted Talks with Dance Your PHD founder John Bohannon

Gorgeous and nerdy at the same time!

Cliptomania: (Mostly) Not Lindy Hop edition

I missed the US Open Swing Dance Championships for the second year in a row. I am lame. Directly below are two clips from the early days of West Coast Swing.


Lance Shermoen and Mary Ann Nunez on Dance Fever in 1985.

Mary Ann Nunez is a fairly big name in the West Coast Swing world. Lance Shermoen I mainly have known behind the scenes at Camp Hollywood as the guy who makes sure the judging goes right. I don't remember ever having seen him dance in person. Here they are tearing it up!


Jack Carey and Annie Hirsch, who according to Skippy Blair were "the epitome of Classic West Coast style." I haven't seen either of them in years, I'd guess. I'd imagine that they are both at the US Open at the moment.


This isn't swing dancing but I love it! The Hullabaloo dancers, featuring Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie, who both went on to fame with A Chorus Line.


This is from the classic episode "Lucy Gets an Eye Exam," and features "King Cat" Arthur Walsh, who is best known for The Groovie Movie. Spoiler alert: this is one of the episodes recreated for I Love Lucy Live!

Thanks to Burnie Gipson for posting that via Tumblr. I've been looking for the clip on YouTube for years. I remember looking through the dancer guide at Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee for clips featuring Arthur Walsh and this was my treasure find. Of course, my old clip collection has gone the way of the VHS tape.