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

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.