Bobby Mcgee's & Southern California Swing Legends

My old friend Kasey Buharie recently gave me permission to share her video archive to YouTube. It's kind of a process to get all the details and info up.  I'm planning to release them over time. All the released videos will go up in this playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqLKBNesVXgh2mLcaWnP2DkYWvErZ5Eg4

So far a few clips from Bobby McGee's including our Southern California legends and some of the "kids." I'm hoping to get more onto the list soon so please keep looking out.

Thanks to Jackie Kimmel, Andrew Selzer and Maricela Fajardo for their help with the project.

Lineage - the one who kept us together - Holly Dumaux Ginsburg

I was saddened to learn earlier today that my old friend Holly Dumaux Ginsburg passed away suddenly this morning near her home in Palos Verdes. All of my previous Lineage posts pay respect to dancers from earlier generations. Holly has earned her spot in the family of lindy hoppers who we should remember, even though we only started dancing within days of each other.

Holly was witness to my own earliest days of exploring the lead/follow dynamic. We were in the first bunch of students taking private lessons with Erik Robeson & Sylvia Skylar, right before the phrase Hollywood Style popped up. This was that period sometimes called the Style Wars, more about which some other time.

She more than once credited me with making leading and following work for her. I'll take the compliment, though I'd be remiss if I didn't note how much hard work, blood, sweat, tears and LOVE Holly put into the dance with her then partner Tip West.

Tip & Holly were among the crew of young dancers who spent so many Sundays with the old timers at Bobby McGee's around the turn of the century. As far as I'm concerned they're the dancers who really understood Hal Takier's lessons on how to do the Merry Go-Round. That was one of their signature moves, and I know how important it was to them to get it right.

And these two were up in the top of the competition all the time. I remember watching a full house at the Palladium for one of the early Camp Hollywood events and feeling like the roof exploded when they landed one of their stunts.

But if it was only for collecting moves and competing, there were so many of us doing that. Holly was a mother-figure to us, then the young dancers. And while the world was looking at Tip & Holly as rock stars, to us in Los Angeles, they were family.

So many weekends spent at Holly's condo in Pasadena, watching VHS footage we collected, or going over steps together. Holly made sure everyone felt welcome. I'm sure she felt that we were all kin. She was one to keep us together.

And though I haven't seen her for many years, many memories are flooding back. I'm grateful to have spent so much time with Holly and hope you'll find some time to remember her yourself.

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.