Office Hours w/ Mark – FAQs & Policy

On By markacalkinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why are you offering these Office Hour sessions? 

A. Often we dancers get stuck in habits or the same old moves that prevent us from seeing all sides of the dance. The major benefit of taking a session is having someone help build your self-awareness and provide a guided practice in an accountable, yet encouraging environment. Personally, my goal is to offer a time for swing dancers to develop their skills by using a more direct approach.

Q. I’m not sure I’m ready if I should take Office Hour sessions. How do I know? 

A. Given that you are asking this question may even point that you are ready. Generally, I recommend dancers who are interested to have a few lessons under their belt so that they may get the most of these sessions. That said any dance student who is eager to learn is more than welcome to sign-up.

Q. You say that I should bring my own topics/questions to these sessions. What happens if I don’t bring any questions to the session?

A. That’s 100% okay. Often times I have dancers asking me for advice. If there are no specific questions, we’ll just social dance a little bit so we can make some observations about your dancing. Then we’ll dig in details in real-time where I will show how you may make adjustments and how those can change the course of the dance.

Q. I really want to learn a line dance (Shim Sham, Tranky Doo, Big Apple, etc). Can I learn this here? 

A. Yes! If this is something you’d like to focus on, I highly recommend that you schedule at least ½ hour session if you haven’t had a chance to try these dances before. Each of those dances take about 1, 2 or 3 hours just to learn (respectively) and then time to practice and build muscle memory. So in these cases it may be beneficial to schedule a full hour lesson with me.

Cancellation Policy

Like most businesses, I prefer that cancellations did not happen, however there are times where they may be inevitable. Cancellations are OK as long as they are communicated 72 hours prior to the scheduled engagement. This means if the scheduled lesson is on Thursday, then the latest I expect a cancellation is Monday evening.

72 hours allows me to re-fill the cancelled slot. Cancellations AFTER the 72-hour period should be rescheduled to account for the lost time. Contact me directly at 937-417-2920 with questions regarding rescheduling.

Dayton Swing Smackdown

On By markacalkinsIn Update2 Comments

We are excited for Dayton Swing Smackdown, coming up this weekend! If you’ve never attended, you really should. It is a fantastic event, a great place that encourages and inspires all levels of dancers, and is a competition that celebrates the huge effort it takes to work on a Lindy Hop team. It’s a wonderful event for the Midwest region, showcasing what our many, varied swing scenes have to offer while allowing all levels to have a voice in the team competition.

Josh Forbes and all the organizers, past and present have worked hard to create an event that is supportive, enjoyable, and encouraging, while still being a competition. The team competition is always lively, entertaining and bursting with creativity. It is great to watch dancers that are just discovering Lindy Hop to perform on teams along with seasoned dancers. It is such a scene-building and spirit-boosting event. We are always excited and amazed to see where Lindy Hop has taken our fellow competitors. Come out and dance with us this weekend, or just come for the show.

This year is especially meaningful to us as we will be passing the torch and plan to no longer be captains of Team SwingColumbus once the season is over. It’s been a great 9 years. 9 years of choosing music, flailing aerials, crooked lines, picking costumes, changing partners, soldier boy dances, gangbusters, extra follows, blowing bubblegum, crafting Rube Goldberg machines, and holding that swingout line – how quickly the time has gone! We will still plan to be a part of Dayton Swing Smackdown, as we doubledown on our dancing, teaching, and competing together. Cheers!

Here are a handful of routines that have inspired us over the years:

2011- UD Swing Club

2012- Miami Swing Syndicate

2012- OSU Jitterbucks

2013- Rhythm Cats

2015- CTA Blue Line

And certainly we could not forget, the year we were not able to bring the trophy home:
2010- Hoosier Hot Shots

Dayton Swing Smackdown and the team competitors have always motivated, challenged, and inspired us. They have constantly kept us on our toes, causing us to keep pushing our team goals and creativity. Thank you!!

A huge Thank you to all our team members, past and present:

  • Mandy Agler
  • Cristina Amurao
  • Erwin Amurao
  • Christina Austin
  • Kat Barnes
  • Danny Beyrer
  • Binaebi Calkins
  • Gail Clendenin
  • Lee Conley
  • Robert Cooper
  • Becky Daskalova
  • Aleks Daskalov
  • Erik Hernandez
  • Jonathan Howard
  • Daniel Hoy
  • Hew Keller
  • Rachel Keller
  • Viktor Lillard
  • Cal Lin
  • Ali Lodico
  • Caitlin Martin
  • David Martin
  • Angela Jayne Michell
  • Crystal Nakatsu
  • Desiree Roffers
  • Josh Sarkar
  • Brandon Schott
  • Stanley Steers
  • Anna Young
  • Theresa Wong

CBUS HO! See you on the dance floor!

Shannon & Mark

Recap: The Original Jelly Roll Blues

On By markacalkinsIn Choreo, TeamLeave a comment

Preface

For the first 4 months of 2013, Shannon and I coached our team through two competitions and successfully completed another undefeated season!  This year brought a number of challenges along with the added pressure to match the success of our Back Bay Shuffle routine.

Because we’ve been asked on numerous occasions on how we do choreography, we have offered some insights about this year’s process.

Continue reading “Recap: The Original Jelly Roll Blues” →

We're now on WordPress!

On By markacalkinsIn Development, Update

Lindyroos.com on WordPress

Our new site is up!

Most things are in order, but there are still a few kinks we are working out especially if you are using Internet Explorer – I”d recommend using another browser like Firefox, Safari, etc for your own viewing pleasures.

Thank You 

A big thank you to Russell Maltempo who has hosted our old website for many years.  Thank you for your continued support and allowing the Lindyroos to be on the web for the first time!  You can visit his website here: http://www.russellmaltempo.com/

Another big thanks to Binaebi Akah who has spearheaded the development of  our new website and kick-started us to update to WordPress.  You’ve done an amazing job and we truly appreciate your efforts in getting this website in order.  You can visit her website here: http://www.siriomi.com/

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What is Collegiate Shag?

On By markacalkinsIn LessonsLeave a comment

Collegiate Shag is a lively high-energy swing dance that developed in southern USA (most likely New Orleans) in the 1920s, and was made popular by college students, hence the name “collegiate”. Full of hops and kicks, and danced to medium or fast tempos, it has a style that is recognisably ‘jitterbug’. It is danced in a closed position hold, similar to most ballroom dances, but also includes open and separating elements.

In its most popular form today, it has a 6-beat basic step that has a “slow, slow, quick-quick” rhythm similar to Fox Trot. This form is sometimes called Double Shag (because of the two “slow” steps), but there are also Single and Triple forms of Collegiate Shag. There are other dances known as “shag” dances, including Carolina Shag and St Louis Shag, but these are vastly different.

What is Balboa?

On By markacalkinsIn LessonsLeave a comment

Balboa as a dance takes its name from the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach in California, where it evolved in the 1920s and 30s. It is said it developed as a style there because of the packed ballrooms, where the dancefloors were far too crowded for any but the tightest partner dance.

Balboa is a much more compact and subtle dance than Lindy Hop, done almost entirely in a closed position (no breakaways or ‘swingouts’) and mostly on the spot. It has an 8-beat basic step, and very small footwork, meaning that it can be danced from medium to extremely fast tempos. Followers often wear high heels to dance Balboa, and leaders wear smooth soled shoes that allow them to slide on the floor.

“Bal-Swing” is a style of Balboa that incorporates some of the open positions from other swing dances. Many Lindy Hoppers around the world also dance Balboa and Bal-Swing, and vice versa. Some people call Balboa the “dancer’s dance”, as it is not as flashy or spectacular to watch as Lindy Hop, but a challenging and satisfying dance in terms of the strong connection to your partner, its pure style of lead and follow, its elegance, and the subtlety of its movements and improvisation.

What is Lindy Hop?

On By markacalkinsIn LessonsLeave a comment

Lindy Hop is a partnered swing dance, that evolved out of the Charleston in the late 1920s, in the ballrooms and on the streets of the African-American district of Harlem in New York City. The dance evolved alongside swing music itself, emerging in the late 1920s when hot jazz (born in New Orleans) was transforming into swinging jazz, and died out (as we know it) in the late 1940s as the swing era gave way to bebop and rock ‘n roll. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, as swing music spread across the USA and the world, Lindy Hop spread with it.

Legend has it that Lindy Hop earned its name in 1927 when one of its original dancers, George “Shorty” Snowden, was asked its name by a reporter, and dubbed it Lindy Hop after aviator Charles Lindbergh and his famous solo flight across the Atlantic that year (newspaper headlines read “Lindy Hops The Atlantic”). It is sometimes simply called The Lindy, it was commonly known as The Jitterbug. Hollywood films and US newsreels first showed Lindy Hop to the youth in the 1930s, and the US servicemen during World War II were widely responsible for popularising the dance in Europe and Australia in the 1940s.

While the acrobatic aspect of Lindy Hop is perhaps most familiar to many people, Lindy Hop has many characteristics. Though it can indeed be danced wild and fast, with spectacular airsteps, it can also be slow and smooth, elegant or sexy.

Lindy Hop is the mother of a variety of other dances, that evolved out of Lindy from the 1950s onwards, including Rock ‘n Roll, Boogie Woogie, Jive, West Coast Swing and Carolina Shag. These later styles are all danced to different music, have other influences, and are simplified, mainstreamed, institutionalised or just far removed cousins of Lindy. Lindy Hop is the original swing dance!

Although the origins of the dance are obscure, the dance has been traced back to blacks who lived on an island off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina (which is why the dance is called “Charleston”). The Charleston dance had been performed in black communities since 1903, but did not become internationally popular until the musical debuted in 1923. The Charleston dance became popular after appearing, along with the song, “The Charleston”, by James P. Johnson in the Broadway musical Running’ Wild in 1923.  Thus began the popularity amongst the Flappers of the 1920’s and is how most people think of the Charleston. The dance can be done by oneself, with a partner, or in a group, and is most often done to ragtime jazz.