Soho Swings To... 'On Revival Day'

Hi Soho!

It was great to see so many of you return, plus fantastic to see some new faces at Soho! You were all fantastic with your charleston, and we’re really excited about the opportunity to develop it further over the coming weeks before moving on to some 8-count lindy hop.  And for total beginners, the class is always a walk-in lesson, so you’re always welcome!
 
This week (Tues 16/03/2010):

Beginners 7:00 - 8:00pm:  we will of course be going over our basic charleston again and we will then have some fun with a few new side by side charleston moves.  This week we’ll be giving the Johnny Drop a go, plus a few other great moves!

Practice time, 8:00pm onwards: social time! We’ll put some music on to let you play around with the moves you’ve learnt so far, and be on hand to answer any of those questions you might have.

Intermediates: if you’re interested in intermediates @ Soho, we’d love to hear from you.  Drop an email to peta@swingpatrol.co.uk to let us know you’re out there and interested!

Last week (Tues 09/03/2010):

We started out with the charleston basic with kicks - leads start with left leg, follows with right; rock step, kick (forward), land, kick (forward) and kick (back), land.

The hover:  i.e. keep kicking with the inside leg!  So we went, rock step, kick (forward), land – as per the basic.  Then kept kicking forward and back with our inside leg.  Once the leader is ready, they led the return to the basic by kicking forward, then back, then land.

Jig Walks: we changed the footwork to rock step, kick step, kick step, big kick.  We then put this into the side-by-side partner position, with both kicking towards each other on the first kick step, then outwards on the second, etc.  Leads to remember to kick higher than the followers to avoid collisions! ;-)
 
Soho Swings To...

Practicing your basic charleston footwork when you’ve got a minute to spare at bus stops is fun, but there’s nothing quite like practicing to some swinging music!  So each week we’ll be recommending a track for you to practice to – and here’s our selection for this week...

Artist: LaVern Baker, Track: On Revival Day (Album: Sings Bessie Smith)
One of Chris’ favourites, this is a total joyous track! LaVern Baker’s totally amazing vocals swing through a track all about the energy, passion and spirit of an evangelical congregation on Revival Day.  “When the congregation start to sing / nothin’ in this world don’t mean a thing / ooooooooooooh!” Not dancing to this track is far more difficult than giving in to the swing..!

View other diary entries for Soho - The O Bar (83 Wardour St Soho W1D 6QE) ...