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Thursday, November 16, 2006 Swingapore One night when I was still living in Ann Arbor, a lindy hopper showed up to our weekly dance that obviously wasn't from Michigan: he knew what he was doing, and none of us had seen him before. When I talked to him, I discovered that he was from Singapore. My homeland! Since I visit from time to time, I asked him where people in Singapore dance; he directed me to Swingapore and I made a note to check it out on my next trip. Fast forward a year later, and tonight I danced in another country for the first time (since I'm from Michigan, Canada doesn't count). The swing scene in Singapore is small and inexperienced, though the people were really friendly and I had fun talking to them. They're having an exchange next year, and the worldwide lindy hop community is minute enough that I know the instructors that they're bringing in (for those who care: Frankie Manning, one of the original lindy hoppers, and Kevin and Carla). I'm told there aren't a lot of other venues besides the weekly dance at the Jitterbugs Swingapore studio, although there are other schools. What struck me as particularly funny is the kind of dancing they're doing--it's normal to mix lindy hop and Charleston together in one dance, but it doesn't work when the music is slow. Nearly all of the music they DJed was lindy blues tempo (though it was all fairly traditional swing/jazz, with the exception of a song or two), though they don't know really know blues. So you have a fast dance mixed with a dance that can handle most tempos danced to slow-ish music. The combination was rather interesting. I wondered if they'd just learned Charleston, because I'm not sure I danced with a lead that didn't partake of this mixture. But apparently they've had classes in it for a while. Thus went my first out-of-country dance experience. It was fun, but I'm thankful I live in Chicago, a city known for having a great dance scene. I'm realizing just how fortunate I am to live there. ^ Top | 10:15 AM | | | 
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