Dance Clip of the Month!

This clip comes from the movie “The Powers Girl” (1942) and features Benny Goodman’s band. This clip also offers a relatively rare opportunity to see Benny without his customary glasses on!

Hey all you swing dancers!
Time for some more fun swing history: Let’s talk about the Harvest Moon Ball!

The Harvest Moon Ball competition officially began at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1935. It immediately became a great display case for the remarkable Savoy Ballroom dancers. Lasting for many years, the Harvest Moon Ball was most famous dance contest in the world.

The Harvest Moon Ball was supposedly for “Amateurs” only. The Ball was held usually in August or September and was sponsored by the Daily Newsin New York and Los Angeles (News Welfare Association, Inc.)

The first unofficial contest was held at the Central Park Mall in 1927, but to the surprise of the organizers over 75,000 people showed up to watch the contest, all contests in the future were to be postponed in the name of public safety until Madison Square Garden could be obtained. They tried again in 1934 and this time the contest was officially shut down. The first official start date was in 1935 at Madison Square Garden in New York and would last untill 1980, from 1980 it was sponsored by individuals who were past HMB Winners with the last HMB in 1984.

Leon James and Edith Matthews - winners of the first Harvest Moon Ball (1935)


Starting in August, prelims would be run in many different clubs and ballrooms through-out the city such as the Savoy Ballroom and the famous Roseland Ballroom in New York. The prelims had a total of three judges, while the finals had five.

There were six divisions one could enter, some years would offer different dance divisions such as Lindy Hop, Rumba, Jitterbug, Jitterbug-Jive, Jive, Foxtrot, Rock and Roll, Polka, Tango, Collegiate Shag, Serviceman’s Division, Viennese Waltz and even the Hustle. Plus at the end of the contest the judges would pick an “All ‘Round Champion” to award additional prizes to, this was usually the couple who won the Foxtrot division.

Here is a video with some great vintage Harvest Moon Ball Lindy Hop clips:

source: streetswing

This week, Beet Street interviewed Rob Osborne, owner of our Monday night home, Avogadro’s Number.  Rob is a good guy and has really been good to us over the years, so it’s nice to see (hear?) him getting some good publicity… even though he didn’t mention our weekly night swing dances. 

If you haven’t eaten at Avo’s restaurant, you really should.  They make their own really tasty Tempeh, have great pizza, and their milk shakes are awesome (and big enough to share).  They also have a diverse selection of live music pretty much all week and the drinks on the bar side are good and reasonable.  ...Even though they put a lemon in my vodka tonic last week instead of a lime, but I won’t hold that against them. 

Listen to the interview on Beet Streets’s ReBeet page, here. 

“They’re Still Doing the Lindy Hop?” is the title of a short piece published in the Wall Street Journal last week, complete with a video featuring Frankie Manning. 

When someone sent me the link, I was like, “Yes, infact, we are still doing the Lindy Hop, where’ve you been?”  As you probably know if you’re reading this, the Lindy Hop is alive and well, even if it’s not in the exact form it was back then.  But it’s a nice little account of how swing dancing is still vibrant and alive after all the years since Charles Lindbergh’s historic “hop” across the Atlantic in 1927.

Check out the article here: They’re Still Doing the Lindy Hop?

Happy Birthday to Shorty George Snowden!

A little swing history for you all today!

Shorty George was born July 5, 1904. Shorty George was a top dancer in the Savoy Ballroom from its opening in 1927 into the early 30’s, when he formed the first professional Lindy Hop troupe, the Shorty Snowden Dancers. They performed with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra at the Paradise Club downtown through most of the thirties.

Although he was barely five feet tall, Snowden made his height an asset rather than a liability. With comic genius, he parodied himself in his signature “Shorty George” step, in which his bent his knees, swinging from side to side, exaggerating his closeness to the ground.

Shorty’s partner, Big Bea, towered over him. They often ended their routines in a comic move in which she carried him off the dance floor on her back. Frankie Manning says that this move inspired him to create his first air step, in which his partner started out on his back and then she flipped over his head and landed on the ground.

Shorty George is often given credit for giving Lindy Hop its name. As the story goes, there was a charity dance-marathon in New York City in 1928, shortly after Charles Lindbergh’s (known as “Lucky Lindy”) triumphant “hop” across the Atlantic. A reporter saw Snowden break away from his partner and improvise a few steps in a style that was popular in Harlem. “What was that!?” he asked. Snowden thought for a few seconds and replied, “I’m doin’ the Hop…the Lindy Hop”. The name stuck.

Count Basie, always attuned to the dancers, honored Shorty with the swing hit song called “Shorty George”.

Snowden retired in 1938, the only Lindy Hopper commemorated in a dance step, the “Shorty George.”
His unique reversal of the ballroom tradition, that was copied by many others, in which Big Bea tossed him in the air, opened the doors to any and every innovation in the dance.

Video clip of Shorty George and Big Bea:

Info from SavoyStyle and Yehoodi

The Global Shim Sham for Frankie video is here!


Remember back in March when we taped our swing scene doing the shim sham to honor Frankie Manning?
We submitted it to the Frankie 95 Festival organizers to possibly use in their “Global Shim Sham” compilation that they would show to thousands of dancers and friends of Frankie at the event in May.


Well… Fort Collins Represented!!! If you look closely (and don’t blink) you’ll see us all waving our happy jazz hands around 3:35!

What a great tribute video to Frankie.

And if you missed it the first time, here is our original shim sham video:

Welcome to our new blog! Here we will discuss upcoming events and share fun dance related information.