Chicago Lindy Lab

Last weekend, I participated in a 2 day dance workshop hosted by Nicolle Wood. It included 5 hour and a half long classes co-led by Nicolle and Kelly Palmiter. Here are my takeaways from the classes.

Class 1 - Savoy Style

The first class focused on Savoy Style swing. The Savoy Ballroom in Harlem is where Lindy Hop was born in the 1920’s. We spoke about how the style created by the dancers there was relatively grounded. We contrasted this groundedness to the Hollywood Style taught in the next class, which was more upright. The posture of Savoy still is like a runner’s stance, over the front of the feet with the upper body bent slightly forward towards the floor. Throughout the weekend, we talked about how all of moves begin from the floor. The foot pushes down into it to generate the force necessary to move around.

We worked specifically on a Savoy-Style swingout. In this type of swingout, the lead steps backwards on the 5. That contrasts the Hollywood style, where the lead steps and turns to face the direction where the follow will travel. With the Savoy-Style backward five step, the follow walks face forward before swiveling when they get to the end of the rope. In Hollywood style, the follow walks backwards.

During this class, Nicolle emphasized that at any given point, the weight of a dancer should be distributed entirely on one foot. She repeated this advice often. I sometimes do not fully transfer weight. Throughout the weekend I concentrated on making sure I did. Having a full weight transfer changes so much. One thing it influences is the contrapossto movement. Full weight transfer makes the upper body swing. The arms naturally sway contraposstostally. In this way, full weight transfer takes the worry out of how to move the arms. Their movement becomes a natural outcome of the weight transfer.

During this class, Nicolle also made two swingout pointers that she repeated throughout the weekend. The first was that the lead lets go on the 5. The second was to take a symbolic breath at the face off. There is a clear point before the redirection occurs where lead and follow are momentarily still: a symbolic breath.

We added a little bit of flair at the end of the session. After doing a circle, the leads performed a send out while reaching down to touch the floor. Once the partnership reached open position, both lead and follow did a little knee wobble.

While learning this combination, we discussed how Lindy Circles are less about the destination than the rhythm. I mentioned that I almost always felt late on circles. Focusing on the rhythm and not the destination helped get rid of that late feeling. We also talked about not being so upright in a circle, and focusing instead on creating centripetal force with our partners.

We also practiced a swingout footwork variation. Instead of the rock step, the lead kicks their left leg backwards. Then, instead of planting the foot, the lead swings the leg forward during the second beat, and lands it at the beginning of the next triple step. I’ve practiced this variation a bunch prior to the workshop. That floating of the leg can be tricky, especially if the right leg is kicked out on the seven. The kick out on the seven requires that the right foot comes down on the 8, with no float.

Lastly, we practiced hacksaws. I’ve never gotten hacksaws to feel comfortable. To help with that, I concentrated on making sure to have the correct contrapossto weight. If the first hacksaw is on the lead’s left foot, it helps to push the lead’s left hand forward first. We practiced entering into the hacksaws with a type of send out, where the partners end up face to face, but still kept the formation closed. We then did three hacksaws on each leg, with the last kick landing like a kick step, and transferring the weight to the other-side.

Class 2 - Hollywood Style

In the second class, Nicolle and Kelly described Hollywood style swing. This style originated in California in the middle of the 20th century, and was created in order to make Lindy Hop align more to the visual style of Hollywood. That included whitewashing. The original style of Lindy Hop which came out of Harlem was considered too black for the American mainstream entertainment. The Hollywood style brought the movement away from the Savoy style’s characteristic groundedness, making it more upright, and limiting moves, like certain styles of swivels, considered to be too lascivious. The Hollywood style was also showier in specific ways. While the Hollywood style has some negative historical connotations, it was still a widely practice style of Lindy Hop, and we learned its style in the spirit of honoring the long, complicated history of the dance.

We learned the Hollywood style swingout, which has a relatively explosive exit from the faceoff. In the Savoy style, the lead’s fifth step is backwards, and the follow is led out forwards. In the Hollywood style, the lead rotates their body quickly on the five, stepping forwards towards where the follow will progress. The lead and follow generate a good amount of pressure in the lead’s left hand, which creates an explosive spring. In the Savoy style, the lead’s left hand does very little, and can even be dropped out.

After practicing the Hollywood swingouts, we learned a few new moves. We added a skipping circle to the end of the swing out. We learned a Charleston variation called Savoy Kicks, which Laura Glaess demonstrates in this video. And we learned Dean and Jewel’s Cuddle, which this video demonstrates. To initiate Dean’s cuddle, the lead needs to interrupt the follow’s second triple step. The lead does this using rotational energy coming from their left hand. When the lead does this correctly, the follow turns on one foot instead of triple stepping. The step-step that results then allows for the next step to be a triple step with the leads left foot forward, which is mirrored by the follow left foot forward triple step.

Class 3: Switching Roles

In the third class, leads and follows switched roles. Nicolle said that a dancer learns a great deal when they learn the opposite role. I have been trying to learn to follow swingouts for a while now, and think that this class marked a turning point. I feel much more confident following them now. Practicing following further reinforced the lesson of clear weight distribution across one foot at a time. For the faceoff, the follow’s weight is fully distributed on the right foot, which allows for a clear left step forward on the five.

We discussed the importance of providing a good amount of tension as a follow. This means not fully leaning back into one’s weight. That makes the body hard to move. Nicolle used the phrase, “Lindy hop is moving a human being.” I would add, Lindy hop is being a human moving. Adding too much tension to the partnership makes the body hard to move. A while back at a weekend workshop I asked Naomi Uyama about this feeling of “weightedness.” She did not like the term itself because of implications about body size, so she changed it to “waitedness,” which I thought was a clever substitution. The follow provides that tension by waiting for a directive force.

Nicolle suggested an ideal way for a follow to position the hand. She prefers it to be resting on the shoulder, with the left fingers curled inward. This makes it so when the hand departs from the shoulder, it is in a shape which is easily catcheable for the lead.

We also talked about the line of the swingout. Nicolle used the image of a diving board. The follow walks up and down that diving board. The lead steps off the diving board at different times to allow for the follow to pass. Kelly spoke about stepping backwards on that line, leading with the butt. Thinking about the butt moving backwards along the line encourages the best type of force in the arms. The arms don’t pull by themselves, but rather react to the momentum of the larger movement of the body.

Class 4: Quick Stops

In the first class on Sunday, we practiced quick stops. Quick stops change the ending of a swingout. After the face-off, the lead raises the left hand to make a palm-to-palm connection. We used a step like the 5 of a Hollywood swingout, with the lead facing forward, to start the outside turn. The follow then pivots on their left foot, while dragging their right. Once the spin is completed, the follow lands on their right foot, with their left crossed behind. The lead counterbalances the follow so the partnership freezes with both dancers posed in a seated stance. Quick stops are a recognizable characteristic of the Hollywood style of Lindy.

Nicolle then taught the follows how to change the quick-stop into a Jewel Drop, named after Jewel McGowan. Instead of dragging the right foot, the follow steps on their right, then takes another step on their left, leaving their body pointed away from the partnership.

We ended the class with a series of sequences. The first began with a no-arm tuck turn. We talked about how a tuck turn could be signaled without the lead’s left hand, and instead initiated with subtle movements of the right hand on the back. The lead then used a raised flat let hand to interrupt the turn, redirecting the follow in the opposite direction. Then, as the follow completed the turn, the lead dragged the back of their hand across the follow’s back, and used that hand to catch the side of the follow and pull them into a drag. The lead stepped back on the left foot, and pushed their left hand contrapostally to initiate the first drag step. Drags have always been tricky for me, partially because I am still a bit nervous about weight bearing on my right foot. Making sure to push the left hand forward with the left step back, therein ensuring the counterbalance, makes the drag more comfortable.

The next sequence involved a hammer lock turn. From the hammerlock, the lead initiated a tuck turn, followed by a short redirect and an elbow catch, which propelled an inside turn. The sequence ended with jig kicks. We clarified that the feet in jig kicks go straight out, not to the side. The body of both lead and follow hinges like a teapot to make the characteristic jig kick motion.

Class 5: Fast-Lindy

The last class of the retreat focused on techniques for lindy hopping to fast songs. The main idea was taking out triple steps. Instead of a triple started on the 3, we simply stepped. The step was paired with rotational movement, which allowed the lead to get into the faceoff position. We made sure to continue “breathing” at the faceoff, even when the moment of pause passed quickly.

After practicing speed, we added a move to the end of a circle called a Gil Slip, where the lead hangs off the follow’s shoulder. We learned the proper arm hold, where the lead reaches under the follow’s arm and grasps the follow’s trapazoid. The follow reaches under the lead’s arm to lock the position. The lead then drops towards the floor. The follow dictates how far the lead drops, and when they come up to standing position.

From the drop, we got into cross hand, and the lead led a barrel roll. Leads were encouraged to stay relatively stationary for the barrel roll. The follow does most of the traveling.

After the barrel roll, we practiced boogie-drops. These are different from the solo-jazz boogie drop. The lead turns the follow so their back is facing them. The follow extends their arms to the side, and the lead positions their arms under the follow’s armpits. The lead ensures they have a solid base with both feet planted on the ground. The follow then drops towards the floor in a sitting posture. The lead should stay close to the follow, and the drop is led in a controlled manner. The follow will not be able to fully support themselves in this move, but the drop should feel safe. It is not a trust fall.