Jungle Swing

As you may know by now, Jungle Swing’s Stomp it Off! Dance is on summer break from July through to the first week in September. We’ll be back on September 10th to get you back on the wonderfully sprung dance floor that the Grandview Legion has to offer. Our first band night will be the 24th of September with the Hoppin’ Mad Orchestra hitting the stage for your Lindy pleasure and in conjunction with the Rhythm City Mess Around. September will be a grand start to the fall Swing dance season at Stomp it Off!

Dancing and Music

In the mean time, there are all sorts of events happening in Vancouver that Swing dancers can attend and enjoy. Heck, even non-dancers can take them in and get full entertainment value! For example, tonight, June 29th, The Jen Hodge All Stars are playing at Guilt & Co, located at 1 Alexander Street in Vancouver. Jen Hodge, hot off her big stage performance with the Company B Jazz Band for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, will be taking her happy fun Jazz vibe to the stage with her All Stars. I believe 9pm is their start time, but get there early as it’s a Jazz Fest event and it’s likely to be crowded!

Thursdays during the summer the Showboat stage will be running from 7:30pm to 10:00pm, weather permitting of course! This summertime favourite is always well attended and is outdoors on the water with a cool atmosphere and relaxed vibe. It’s a great way to get some dancing in during the summer, so check it out!

For those that feel the need for Blues dancing and its spinoffs, there’s two events to look for in Vancouver. First is Blues in the City run by the incomparable Adam Konkle. Affectionately known as BitC, this well known Vancouver Blues Dance event runs every second and fourth Friday of the month at Academie Duello located at 412 W Hastings. It’s a can’t miss for you Blues lovers out there. Second is Blues Cafe, run by Vincent Wong, in Burnaby at Dance Addicts Studio, 4622 Hastings Street. This is what’s known as a Fusion event (not the atomic kind) and is attended by dancers of all stripes.

There will be many Canada Day celebrations with live music that dancers will love. Granville Island always has things on the go for Canada Day. This year they kick it off with the Jen Hodge All Stars and Swing Patrol running back-to-back from Noon until 5-ish at the Ron Basford Park stage. Elsewhere, Dal Richards will be playing at the Vancouver Convention Centre main stage, 10:00am start time, in the Jack Poole Plaza, and then at the Showboat stage starting at 7:00pm. This iconic band leader is still going strong well into his 90′s and is a must see not only as a musician but as a national treasure. Can you believe he’s doing two shows on Canada Day?!

Summer time is also a great time for dance classes. If you’ve ever wanted to take a Swing dance lesson series, give it a shot during the slower summer months! Jungle Swing’s recommendation is Rhythm City Productions. With a wide array of beginner Swing dance classes, you can get yourself ready for the fall season in no time flat! Visit the Rhythm City website for more information and to register for your first Lindy Hop class.

Public Spaces – How Do We Use Them?

This evening I have the privilege of helping the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and VIVA Vancouver audition busking acts for the street space transformation on Granville Street this summer. As many of you know, Jungle Swing will not be participating directly in VIVA Vancouver transformations this summer as we did last year with Dancing in the Street. However there will be many different events and types of entertainment on the Granville Mall downtown. Of course, all this leads into the topic of how we use public spaces and in what ways we can re-purpose transit corridors in a city like Vancouver, which was built on a grid.

Last night I attended the Spacing Road Show for Spacing Magazine Vancouver launch. Spacing got its start in Toronto and is all about how we use and perceive public spaces in our cities. The Road Show had a great panel of thoughtful Vancouverites and members of City Hall who talked about Vancouver’s public spaces, how we currently use them, how we are moving towards new usage ideas, and how this all ties in with current transportation realities in our urban lifestyle. Currently in Vancouver, many of our public spaces are transitory such as the Sea Wall (which is ranked as Canada’s top public space by Spacing in their first national edition), Granville Mall, and Commercial Drive, rather than destinations unto themselves. These public spaces are transit corridors, whether for fitness or shopping, but the spaces themselves are not generally used for anything other than as a means of moving people. While this is certainly needed and wanted, there is the unique challenge of temporarily re-purposing these transit spaces for event and gathering space when such is needed and wanted.

We of course had fine examples of this re-purposing or layered use of public transit space with the 2010 Winter Olympics when the downtown core was turned into a gathering place for Vancouverites and guests alike. Last summer the DVBIA and the City of Vancouver got together to build off the Olympic successes to create the Rediscover Granville initiative, of which Jungle Swing was a part with Dancing in the Street. Every year the Vancouver International Jazz Festival successfully engages in the layered usage idea, turning Vancouver streets into open air stages. But it doesn’t always go right.

Some of you may recall a bit of hockey induced craziness that happened in the downtown core during what turned into a regular re-purposing for the playoffs. For the most part the re-purpose for the Canucks playoff run was successful with tens of thousands of people enjoying the outdoor viewing and celebrations. It only turned ugly for one game, but that is the part that will stick in the craw of Vancouverites for some time to come. Another re-purposing that didn’t turn out well, but with a much smaller consequence, was the Car Free Days on Commercial Drive. While many people enjoyed the chance to walk up and down the Drive, sit at a mid-street ‘patio’, and take in entertainment without fear of being squashed by oncoming traffic, a number of businesses were adversely affected because their regular clientele found it difficult to drive to and park near the places they wanted to go. This was an interesting unintended result of a transportation space re-purpose as many did not foresee the push back from businesses due to a lack of customers. While on the surface, both of these re-purposing initiatives seemed like a good idea, they both failed and for very different reasons.

With the positives and negatives both squarely in mind, the City of Vancouver, through VIVA Vancouver, is forging ahead with new ways to use the streets of Vancouver and create public destinations with transitory space. From the Pedestrian Weekends on the Granville Mall to the Cambie Village Community Artists Plaza and the Modular Deck just east of Main on East 14th, Vancouver is encouraging people to get out and engage in their spaces, as both destination and transitory. This summer will have a lot to offer in Vancouver with how we use our city and think about ways to layer usage and engage the public in a positive and thoughtful manner.

While you’re deciding where to go and what to do in Vancouver this summer, pick up the latest issue of Spacing at Chapters and think about how we can use the spaces of our city to encourage cultural growth and positive activities. To add one more idea that was rought up in the panel discussion last night, more than 80% of Canada’s population lives in urban settings yet we still have a century old notion of Canadians as pioneers. The sooner we accept our urban lifestyle and engage in solutions to urban problems, the better off we will be with regards to urban planning, transit, and space usage. And to drive home the point of our outdated ideas we hold about ourselves, it was noted that during the last federal election campaign debates, not a single party leader discussed the urban reality of Canada and the role cities play in our lives. Crazy, eh?

Cheers,
Darren