Track Placement

Day 1 of LindyFest started with track placements. Track placements are a little stressful, kind of like contests. From 9-12 in the morning, dancers checked in for their 20 minute slot. We slapped stick-on numbers on our backs. I wore a pink shirt with fabric which didn’t agree with the adhesive, so my number kept falling off. After entering the main ball room, we formed a circle, and social danced for 3 songs of varying tempos. A group of judges circled around taking notes. We rotated partners at natural breaks of each song. Getting better at hearing these natural breaks, as well as learning how to dance within a song’s structure, would end up being one major takeaway from the event.

After my heat, I was called me back in for an extra evaluation session. It was unclear what this was about. They just said they wanted to see more dancing from a small group of people. This might mean they would move me up or down a track level. I ended up in the middle track, the Rattlesnakes, which was my original assignment. I have come to learn that these placements can pretty much make or break a weekend. If you are put in a level where the dancers are below your level, it can be difficult and demoralizing. Getting placed above your level makes the classes more draining, but this usually ends up being the better experience for the dancer punching-above their weight.

Class 1: A.J. Howard and Laura Glass

A.J. and Laura taught the Rattlesnake’s first class. We worked through a move which was a variation of Frankie-Sixes. After making the behind-the-back connection and subsequent rock-step, the lead initiated a barrel-roll. The follow turned over their right shoulder, and the lead followed by turning over their left. The partners ended up facing away from each other. The lead then created tension stepping away with the left foot, and bringing the follow back in front. Watching A.J. lead this move highlighted his style. He has a unique stretchiness that makes his body look very long while dancing. Even with that length, it is clear that he is able to maintain the connection with his partner.

Class 2: Irina Amzashvili and Anthony Chen

Irina and Anthony’s lesson focused on swingouts. Anthony described a specific style of swingout which the lead shortens their movement up until the faceoff. He emphasized that in this type of swingout, the lead’s triple-step on the 3 and 4 moves very little. The lead’s momentum is still traveling away. This felt different from how Peter Strom taught swingouts. During a weekend workshop a while back, Peter drilled us in emphasizing the directional movement up to the faceoff. These styles are not contradictory. They both keep the same directional movement, but they have slight differences in how the weight moves, as well as how they look. In Anthony’s version, at the faceoff, the lead leans back into their butt, using the follow as an anchor to keep them falling backwards. Anthony and Irena also emphasized having the lead’s and follow’s feet very close to one another. This allows for that leaning back posture, and with that a directional change that requires less force from the lead.

After making these points about the fundamentals of the swingout, we practiced a pop-turn pattern to add after the faceoff. I don’t use pop-turns very often, so I welcomed the practice. In the pattern, the lead got out ahead of the follow on the 5. This position causes the lead’s right wrist to bend back, which creates the tension needed for the pop-turn. The follow, in this move, keeps their left arm elbow close to the body, which contributes to the tension.

Class 3: Ursula Hicks and A.J. Howard

Ursula and A.J. led us through some simple patterns focusing on turns and redirects. The pattern added a turn on a step-step after a cross-handed tuck turn.

In various classes through the weekend, instructors talked about follows continuing through in their turning movement. It is through this continuation that the lead and follow can generate the opposite pressure in the hands to create the spring. This allows for the turn to be performed more easily.

Class 4: Caleb Teicher and Nathan Bugh

Caleb and Nathan led a theoretical class focusing on the hand-to-hand connection. A class like this feels slower, but in the end leaves one with a lot to think about. Nathan and Caleb described the hand as the all-important tool of communication. Through the hand connection, the partners communicate rhythms and steps. Subtle shifts of weight travel through the arm into the hand. They had us experiment with different distances and feel how the different lengths of stretches affected what was communicated. This is similar to the shortened swingout practice Irina Amzashvili and Rafal Pustelny led us in a 2025 Dayton Smackdown class. Nathan and Caleb talked about how tensing the back or shrugging the shoulders could be felt in the hand. Nathan called the hand-to-hand a sacred connection. In order to honor that connection, the dancers shouldn’t sending random signals through the hand. It should be kept steady and relatively calm. Nathan talked about how the rest of the body could be doing different movements and expressing itself loudly, but the connected hand had to remain static. We practiced moving each other around through varying hand tensions.

Class 5: Hanna Manning and Todd Yannacone

Hanna and Todd taught a class on finding our groove. They started by playing a few songs, and asking us whether they felt smooth or stompy. We then danced a few songs while focusing on the feeling. Todd lives from New Orleans, and spoke about a New Orleans style of dance that was smoother than other varieties. He taught us a step-tap-step-step-step-tap pattern that fit that smooth style, then had us practice to a couple of slow songs. The main point was that different types of music call for different styles of dance, but the style choice is ultimately subjective.

Add On - Solo Jazz Choreography with Caleb Teicher

I elected to take a 2-hour solo jazz class with Caleb. They led us through a short but sweet routine to “Body and Soul”, by Erroll Gardner. They described Erroll Gardner’s style as lazy, with a recognizable piano style that felt just behind the beat. The choreo fit the music very well, matching the music nicely with some familiar vocabulary: a few boogey drops, some camel walks, and some slides. There were a few tap inspired moments that Caleb made look easy, but I found hard to get my feet moving fast enough. Caleb offered the advice to take at least an hour after class to review the material. They said doing this after every class would pay dividends. Learning the routine reinforced the idea that a good solo jazz dancer knows how to shape their body to fit their body precisely to the musical details of a song.

During the second half of the class, Caleb taught us a more difficult piece of choreography. Before doing so, they spoke about how style related to cross body movement, which reminded me of Orlando Cabalano talking about the importance of contrapposto movement. Caleb said that they became convinced over the last year that looking well-styled in jazz was closely related to having the body cross itself. After that brief exposition, Caleb asked us to talk about Charleston variations. They showed a basic Charleston without cross body movement. Then they showed how the 20s variation of the Charleston looked good because of the cross-body stylization. They then showed us a cowtail foot circle variation. I said I called these mashed-potatoes, which is something I heard someone describe the circling of the foot behind oneself. Caleb then added a tap-version of a fall of the log, which is different from the jazz variety. The tap fall-of-the-log heavily emphasizes cross body movement. The routine was demanding, and by the end I was getting my feet all wrong.

Class 6: Peter Strom and Naomi Uyama

Peter and Naomi taught our first class on the last day. The class centered around another Frankie-Sixes combo. It started with an inside turn with an elbow catch that changed the second triple-step into a six count. The lead then quickly moved to the right side of the follow, and connected hands in the traditional Frankie-Sixes hand arrangement with the right hand behind the back. The combo ended with a follow inside turn, with the lead draping the left hand over their head. We then added a variation which turned the second triple step after the behind the back connection into a step-step. We worked on turning our bodies away from each other to make a final follow turn easier.

While learning this move, Peter and Naomi suggested that the hands of both lead and follow should generally stay at a certain level. They should circumscribe a circle slightly above the waist. This makes them available for connection.

Class 7: Erin Moris and Elze Visnevskyte

Erin and Elze taught our last class of the weekend. They focused on rhythms. They started by having us making percussive movements: foot stomps, claps, and knee slaps. We then added these in at various places in some free dances. They suggested to first add them on the back-beat, i.e. the evens, since that is where the musical emphasis resides. They said that as we got more comfortable adding these percussive elements, we should experiment with putting them on other beats.

The follows then practiced adding hops at the end of a swingout. Getting the hops to land at the right time took practice, since the prep, jump, and land would have to be completed very quickly. The landing makes a percussive sound, so it is best to hit the floor on the back-beat.