Balstory: A Journey from THEN to NOW + director's commentary

Last weekend at the Great Lakes Balboa Escape, along with theming and re-theming the snack table all weekend, I shot a panel about the history of Balboa, starting with the roots in Southern California and extending toward modern day! The panel featured Bobby White, Tise Chao and Niko Centino.

SoCal Balstory: A Journey from THEN to NOW 

The video should speak for itself, but here are a few pics I grabbed from a few sources to add a bit of visual flair and also to cover up for goofy moments in shooting. 

During the panel, Tise refers to a few places that were big parts of my personal swing dance history. If you look to the Lineage tag here on the blog, you'll find some of my memories on similar subjects. 

Hal Takier and Bart Bartolo at Bobby McGee's

Freda Angela Wyckoff's 90th birthday celebration

Closing night at the Derby in Los Feliz

I recommend checking out the cards that should pop up in the corner of the video. Those will link to videos which are pertinent to the discussion. There's a limit to the number of cards I can add to a video. I wish I could add so many more. 

I couldn't find a good picture of the dance floor at Bobby McGee's in Brea, but at least this matchbook mentions the Brea location.

There's a lot more mentioned in the panel. I snuck this pic of myself dancing at the Derby in there because y'know, I needed attention.

Lineage - the Inspiration of Freda Wyckoff

My last post a few months ago was a meditation on the lineage of the Lindy Hop. There I mentioned Freda Angela Wyckoff having celebrated her 90th birthday. Earlier this week I received the news via Facebook that she was in intensive care. This morning I received the news that she passed away from heart failure last night.

Morgan Day dubbed her the Queen of the Rock & Roll Lindy era. I think to many of us (including Morgan) she was much more than that.

Here are a couple of her memorable videos from YouTube, dancing with George Christopherson:





I'm sad to say that none of the photos on my classic MySpace profile with me and Freda survived the transfer to new MySpace. There weren't many, but I remember a picture with Freda, Lila Desatoff and me, in which the ladies wore t-shirts with bikinis printed on them. Perhaps someone has a copy somewhere. There are plenty of photos of Freda surfacing on her Facebook profile at the moment. She clearly meant a lot to us.

Do I even remember the time she went from being the lady who danced in those clips to being a person whom I knew and loved? Faintly perhaps. I'm not sure if it was my first or second time at Bobby McGee's. At that point I was still taking in those first whiffs of family, like being part of a thing that was more than a hobby. Freda wasn't alone in that sense, but she was a major part of that.

The thing I remember is that she loved us kids. She welcomed us with open arms, without reservation. I mainly remember lots of hugs. There was a lot of love in that woman. That's what I remember more than the dancing.

Here's the tribute that my friends at the Swing Pit made for her 90th birthday just a short while ago.

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Watching this clip now I think it was Dave Frutos who put the word "Lineage" into my mind via this exact clip. It's a sadness for me that I wasn't there. I miss you all, my friends.

Here's a comment I wrote just minutes ago to a photo of Kim Clever and Freda from that same party: 

Hugs, Kim 

I miss Freda too. I had been thinking about her since I moved so far away. And I think that more than her dancing were the open arms with which she greeted us youngsters. 
And I hope you won't mind if I say I feel you embody that really well. So in some way, Freda lives on.

In memory of Freda I suggest that you find a way to hug someone at a dance this week. Just let them know they are welcome. Show someone some love.

Lineage

Now that I live in the Midwest, I've realized what it is that Southern California has that most other places don't. This morning I spent a good half hour responding to Scout Craft's question on Facebook about the benefits of social dancing in Hollywood style. I was unaware that folks still used that phrase. I've always believed that branding dance styles is ludicrous. I'm much more concerned with the lineage and the traditions of wisdom that have been passed along.

But now I have to reflect on what the style of dancing at home meant to me and it wasn't a style. I personally never tried to dance like the old timers, but sort of swimming in the same pool with them was a big deal. Now that I've lived in places where their influences aren't felt I know a lot more clearly what it is that they shared. I miss that. Most places don't have a direct link with their history. Most Lindy Hoppers don't have a familial connection with their dance.

Bart Bartolo passed away in February and Jack Carey passed away last month. Freda Wyckoff just celebrated her 90th birthday last weekend at the Swing Pit. I'm glad I knew all of them.

I went to a Balboa event last month and I think there's a giant missing component in the modern Balboa community. I'm not able to elaborate on it very much but old Balboa dancers really wanted to impress upon us that Balboa could be danced as slow as 80BPM. That range of tempos has really shrunk over the decades and it seems like most modern Balboa dancers don't even know this is an option. 

I include that last part in this post because it's about lineage. And as our elders continue to pass on, I think it's vital to remember their knowledge.