Actually, the chances are good that you’ll see a Big Apple. Heck, there might even be a Shim Sham…

If you’re new to the whole Swing Dance thing, come out for the 8pm Drop-In Swing Dance Lesson. It’s included in your cover charge for the night and it will give you those all important survival tactics for the dance floor. You’ll also meet a bunch of people, probably much like yourself, who are giving this Swing Dance thing a shot for the first time. Don’t be shy! Make it a swingin’ evening this Saturday at the Stomp it Off! Swing Dance.

Where: 2205 Commercial Drive in the Grandview Legion Auditorium on the corner of Commercial and 6th (3 blocks from the Skytrain and plenty of parking)

When: Doors open at 7:30pm, Drop-In Dance Lesson at 8:00pm, Dance from 9:00pm to 1:00am

How Much: $13.00 regular price, $10.00 for Jungle Swing Members.

Our Drop-In Swing Dance Lessons are provided by the fine folks at Rhythm City Productions. Take some classes with Rhythm City and your dancing will reach epic proportions in no time.

Cheers,
Darren

This Saturday night at Stomp it Off!, we’ve got DJ’s Angie and Mark for your musical entertainment. Get out and enjoy the show, do some dancing, and, if you’re new, make sure you hit the Drop-In Swing Dance Lesson starting at 8pm. The Lesson is included in the cover charge for the evening and will give you survival tactics for the night. Jungle Swing’s Stomp it Off! Dance is held at the Grandview Legion Auditorium located at 22o5 Commercial Drive, right on the corner of Commercial and 6th. Need the rest of the deets? Here you go!

Where – 2205 Commercial Drive
When – Doors at 7:30pm, Drop-In Lesson at 8pm, Dance from 9pm to 1am
How Much – $13 regular price, $10 for Jungle Swing and affiliate members

Come on out and dance!

Also, this Thursday, check out the new dance hosted by Rhythm City! It’s going to be a blast.

For more information on the RCMA weekend, head over to the Rhythm City website!

Our usual times apply to both of these great nights of dancing. Here’s your deets!

Where – Grandview Legion Auditorium, 2205 Commercial Drive
When – 7:30pm Doors, 8:00pm Drop-in Lesson, 9:00pm Dance
How Much – Band Night with The Hoppin’ Mad Orchestra: $20 Regular Price, $17 Jungle Swing and Affiliate Members

Join us for one of the best live band nights of the year. For all you new dancers, do not fear. We will still have our drop-in lesson before the dance. Also, there’s nothing like the atmosphere you get from a live music night. Come on out, bring your friends, and listen/dance to the best Vancouver has to offer in live Jazz.

Rhythm City Mess Around

For those of you who haven’t registered, get it done! It’s time for you fall Lindy Hop workshop fix and the Mess Around is this weekend. Rhythm City offers the best workshops in Vancouver with some of the worlds top instructors. For more information, head to the RCMA page on the Rhythm City website.

Cheers,
Darren

Speaking of great music, we’ve got a special night of killer live music on Saturday September 24th. As a part of the Rhythm City Mess Around (RCMA), Jungle Swing is proud to present the Hoppin’ Mad Jazz Orchestra on stage at Stomp it Off! This amazing band will blow your socks off with their swinging rhythms and amazing horns. There are very few bands in Vancouver that can compete with Hoppin’ Mad!

For more information on the RCMA weekend, head over to the Rhythm City website!

Our usual times apply to both of these great nights of dancing. Here’s your deets!

Where – Grandview Legion Auditorium, 2205 Commercial Drive
When – 7:30pm Doors, 8:00pm Drop-in Lesson, 9:00pm Dance
How Much – DJ Night: $13 Regular Price, $10 Jungle Swing and Affiliate Members
How Much – Band Night: $20 Regular Price, $17 Jungle Swing and Affiliate Members

New Stuff!

There’s a new dance night in town. It will mosey on in as of Thursday September 22nd and it’s presented by Rhythm City! The dance will take place at St. Michael’s  Church, located at 409 E. Broadway in Vancouver. The as of yet unnamed dance will run from 9pm to midnight. You can help Rhythm City in naming this new event by showing up to Stomp it Off! on Saturday night and filling out a ballot.

Also new from Rhythm City is the Intro to Swing dance lesson series. The series is for anyone who wants to dip their toe into the pool of swing but has been a little intimidated by all the heavy swimming… er… swinging! If that’s you, sign up for Intro to Swing starting Thursday September 22nd by contacting Rhythm City Productions. Hmmm. September 22nd for the start of Vancouver’s newest dance lesson series and dance event. A coincidence? I think not!

Cheers,
Darren

Where – 2205 Commercial Drive

When – Doors: 7:30pm
Drop-In Swing Dance Lesson: 8pm
Dancing: 9pm to 1am

How Much – $13.00 Regular Price (dance lesson included), $10.00 Member Price (dance lesson included)

If your new to this Swing Dance thing, definitely take advantage of the Drop-In Dance Lesson to get your Lindy Hop feet under you. It’s a great way to give the dance a try while meeting a bunch of new people in the same boat as you. If you’re keen, you can also sign up for a beginner Lindy Hop lesson series with Rhythm City Productions. Check them out for the best Swing Dance lessons in Vancouver. There’s even a beginner Lindy Hop lesson series starting September 17th at the Grandview Legion Auditorium before the Stomp it Off! Dance gets going. Contact Rhythm City for more details. (Just a note, Rhythm City classes and the Stomp it Off! Dance are separate events. Lesson Series registration does not get you into the Dance and the Dance cover charge does not get you into a Lesson Series)

Also this month, Stomp it Off! will be hosting the first band night of the fall season on September 24th with The Hoppin’ Mad Orchestra headlining the show! A part of the Rhythm City Mess Around (RCMA 2011) Weekend, Jungle Swing is a proud supporter of this annual event. We’re looking forward to a great weekend of music and dancing. Come out and join us for the best in live swinging Jazz and Lindy Hop that Vancouver has to offer.

Cheers,
Darren

The Stomp it Off! Swing Dance Reopens September 10th
Location: 2205 Commercial Drive
Time: Doors open at 7:30pm

• Drop-in Swing Dance Lesson, presented by Rhythm City, starts at 8:00pm

• Dance from 9:00pm to 1:00am

Value: $13.00 regular price and $10.00 for Jungle Swing Members (Drop-in lesson included)

Many of you have been out dancing as much as possible around town and around the world, attending Lindy Hop and Balboa events everywhere you can. Some of you will be coming in to try swing dance for the first time. Others still will be looking to build off of what they learned in the past year as newer swing dancers who have yet to take up the challenge of the summer Lindy event season. To all of you, welcome to the fall season of Stomp it Off!

Cheers!
Darren

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

A Packed Dance Floor @ the SiO! Dance

And we’re about to lose a friend. For a couple of months anyway. Stomp it Off! is shutting down for the summer and this is your last chance to Swing dance on the sprung dance floor at the Grandview Legion Auditorium. Tonight’s DJ’s are the infamous, and semi retired, Possum Brothers. Leo and Mark are rolling out the shenanigans for a night of great music and the unexpected. It will be entertaining beyond the norm!

As usual, our Drop-In Survival Tactics™ Swing Lesson will get under way at 8pm as a part of your cover charge. From there it’s dancing from 9pm to 1am with the happy fun Jazz music that makes Swing dancing so enjoyable. So come on out and do some Lindy hop, Charleston, and Balboa. See you tonight at the Stomp it Off! Swing Dance.

Doors – 7:30pm
Survival Tactics™ Swing Lesson – 8:00pm
Stomp it Off! Dance – 9:00pm to 1:00am
Cover Charge – $13.00 regular price, $10.00 Member Price
Location – Grandview Legion Auditorium (upstairs) 2205 Commercial Drive.

Stomp it Off! will be back the second Saturday in September. Happy summer everyone!

Doors – 7:30pm
Drop-in Swing Dance Lesson – 8:00pm
General Mayhem (a.k.a. Dancing) – 9:00pm to 1:00am
Cover Charege – $13.00 regular price, $10.00 for Jungle Swing Members

As mentioned, this is the final Stomp it Off! Swing Dance before the summer break, so get out and get your Lindy Hop on. Or Balboa… whatever turns your crank.

Stomp it Off! will be back in September starting on the 10th. By then, you’ll be itching to get back at it.

Dancing in the Street is Cancelled

Yep, that’s right. We’re not doing Dancing in the Street this summer. The door is open for next year but this year will not go. If anyone has an idea for a street event this summer and wants to take one of the spots that was designated to Dancing in the Street, get in touch with me and I can direct you to the appropriate people.

Cheers,
Darren