Second City Swingout - Day 1

Day 1, Class 1: Kerry Kapaku and Michael “Falty” Faltesek

The first day of my track was rhythm heavy. I feel like the instructors huddled before the conference started and determined that the Chicago scene needed a rhythm infusion, which, if true…then…noted. In the first class of Second City Swingout, Kerry and Falty led us through a tap-centric hour and a half.

We began by working on flaps. Flaps are a type of foot flick. The toe grazes the floor, before the weight transfers to the ball of the foot. It is different from a scuff, which grazes the heal. Flaps require looseness in the foot and heal, which always feels good to practice. We substituted the flap for the first step of a triple step. In class, this felt difficult for a simple move. Practicing it at home (sorry downstairs neighbors), is much easier, since I can hear the soft toe hit on the ground. It truly does make a triple step feel tap-pier and jazzier. In class, we messed around with adding the flap into closed position with partners.

Alongside the practice of footwork rhythm variations, Kerry and Falty discussed the importance of vocalizing rhythms. One could, for example, vocalize the flap sound into the vocalized triple step. Such vocalizations often make the step easier. They also allow one to practice the steps without actually doing them, since the internal voice often precedes visualization. Kerry and Falty offered that vocalization and accompanying rhythmic variations is one highly effective way of opening the door to individual expression.

After the flap practice, we worked on some swing out variations. We practiced over the tops, which required the left foot to hover in front of the right foot where the rock step normally occurs. The right step then jumps over, like a Bop-It jump, and the partnership moves directly into the triple step.

We worked on a quick toe tap rhythm, again in place of the rock step. After a slight hop on the right foot comes a left foot toe tap, which is then repeated a few times.

We ended with a short shuffle-ball-tap move. This added a flap on a triple step, followed by a wrap-around toe tap and a push off into a slide.

Falty made an offhand comment about practice which struck a chord. He mentioned the wedge method of practice, where a dancer dedicates a short 5 minutes of intentional practice each day. The time spent can grow organically. Falty emphasized intentionality. One picks a thing to practice, and works on it, rather than just dancing to a song. I have started making a list of things to practice, and have started devoting the 5 minutes. 5 minutes flies by.

Day 1, Class 2: Andrea Gordon and Andy Reid

Andrea and Andy proposed a set of prerequisites for a successful Lindy Hop move. They first mentioned rhythmic fit. If a move is arhythmic, it won’t feel or look good. Arhythmic moves might not place emphasis on the down beat, or they might put awkward emphasis on the odds. They might not be swung. They might not add any unique rhythmically to the base rhythm provided by the band, or they may clash with the rhythm of a soloist.

The second prerequisite was repeatability. They explained how a lead or follow could perform a step early in a chorus. This sets the expectation that the idea, or a variation on the idea, will repeat later on in the chorus. A chorus, in this usage, is a full AABA sequence. For example, the Dizzy break, which I will get to shortly, might be introduced at the first phrase of a chorus, then called back at the end of a chorus. Or, if the dance spans choruses, then an idea could be repeated at the last measure of each chorus.

The third prerequisite was that the step fit within the song. They spoke again about the chorus. The step’s feel should match where one is in the chorus. For example, a step at the end of the refrain, in the last A section, may have a more explosive quality, which could match the accent a swing band often adds as a type of chorus finale.

The class shifted its focus away from the theoretical and onto a specific rhythm: the clavé. The clavé rhythm shows up all over the place, especially in Latin music. Andy showed us a step pattern based on the clavé, which he called “Dizzy’s Break.” This was named after a musician he encountered in New Orleans. We matched the words, “It’s - Diz-y’s-break” to the first half of the clavé rhythm. We then inserted the steps into a swingout, stepping hard with the right foot on the 5, and finishing with a left toe tap on the 1. We then practiced chaining Dizzy’s breaks, by substituting a hard left foot step for the final toe tap.

Day 1, Class 3: Tyedric Hill

Tyedric Hill led us through our last class of the day, which focused on solo jazz. Tyedric employed a unique teaching style. He spoke very little. He simply demonstrated a step, which at first looked fairly impossible. He then broke it up into pieces, which we more manageable. We then worked our way back up to the full step. It was an interesting and effective teaching strategy.

Tyedric explained that one benefit of the teacher not speaking very much is that it encourages dancers to formulate questions without being prompted. In such an environment, students have to be more observationally alert. They also must be more self-sufficient in their learning. It helps practice the habit of formulating questions on one’s own, as well as learning how to answer questions about dance for oneself.

The main step we practiced was a Charleston variation inspired by the Four Step Brothers’ Nagasaki routine. The step pneumonic, which can be superimposed not he basic Charleston, was “Kick-triple-hop-tap-hop-triple.” It is a step whose sound on the floor is just as good as how it looks.

Tyedric had a bunch of insights throughout the class. A big one was that in jazz dance, it helps to lead with one’s butt, and let the body follow. He used the example of a fall-of-the-log, and demonstrated how one could think of the first motion as the hip falling to the floor. This idea dovetailed with a larger point that swing is a dance, which, when done well, resonates through the middle of the body. There is a groundedness which moves through the hips. From this center, the rhythm reverberates outward, allowing for the dance to feel the music through their entire body. Swing dance, as a black American vernacular dance, emphasizes this groundedness. That base posture grew out of African dance, and is distinguished from a European tradition which generally emphasized an upright stance.