I used to go to the Five Spot in Society Hill in Philadelphia early in the evening. While I was having a drink at the bar there would be couples on the dance floor practicing their routines(!) for later on. The same six couples would hog the dance floor, and casual dancers were forced off to the side. It wasn't fun anymore. I think that pretty much happened at all the clubs across America.

In slightly good news, the girl I am currently seeing wants to learn, and in some Internet searches I've found places that still do it.  We start lessons on Sunday---I could use a crash course myself.

<!--quoteo(post=81773:date=Jul 6 2006, 09&#58;18 PM:name=sailor&#045;man)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sailor&#045;man &#064; Jul 6 2006, 09&#58;18 PM) [snapback]81773[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
I also noticed, that the "elite dancers" wouldn&#39;t dance with any of the new people, and I guess the newbies were intimidated, or discouraged from coming.  They couldn&#39;t learn much dancing on their own. 

I think that some of the spectators crowded the floor too.

I seem to remember that a lot of dancers wouldn&#39;t drink.  Often the brought their own water, or just drank free glasses of water instead of buying non-alchololic beverages from the bar.  Therefore, the venues weren&#39;t making any money, and favored other dance nights that weren&#39;t so stressed about maintaining perfrect form and drank, like Latin Dance nights, etc. 

In either case I&#39;m a bit miffed about it. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif[/img]  I really enjoyed the scene.  I went to a swing night here, but it was in a cafeteria, they weren&#39;t selling any type of beverage--they never even turned the lights down&#33;  I guess, I enjoyed the whole 1930s-40s night club experience, and not just the dancing. 

Here&#39;s hoping it comes back again&#33;&#33;&#33; [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]

I agree with the cheapskate theory.  Swing dancers don&#39;t run up bar (or food) tabs.  When swing was trendy, a lot of marginal people would come out and presumably did spend &#036;.  But when the trend dwindled, the serious dancers were left, the ones who didn&#39;t buy anything.  So all the restaurant/nightclub venues in the DC area that used to have swing dance nights dried up.  There are still plenty of places to dance, but not much in the way of true retro nightclubs.  Doc Scantlin still produces 1930s nightclub events, but it&#39;s not expressly for swing dancers.  And the dancers don&#39;t tend to come out for Doc, anyway.  Another problem is that dancers don&#39;t tend to dress anymore-- I&#39;d hate to have a legion of dancers show up at a night club event in sneakers and jeans. 

As for the &#39;elite dancers,&#39; I&#39;m not sure why they&#39;re so coveted, frankly.  I mean, I can see that the situation generates resentment.  But it&#39;s not as if they&#39;re the only people worth dancing with.  There are a lot of good dancers who aren&#39;t in the little &#39;elite&#39; group.  So I&#39;m not sure how much of a deterant that is.


<!--quoteo(post=81773:date=Jul 6 2006, 08&#58;18 PM:name=sailor&#045;man)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sailor&#045;man &#064; Jul 6 2006, 08&#58;18 PM) [snapback]81773[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
I also noticed, that the "elite dancers" wouldn&#39;t dance with any of the new people, and I guess the newbies were intimidated, or discouraged from coming.  They couldn&#39;t learn much dancing on their own. 

I think that some of the spectators crowded the floor too.

I seem to remember that a lot of dancers wouldn&#39;t drink.  Often the brought their own water, or just drank free glasses of water instead of buying non-alchololic beverages from the bar.  Therefore, the venues weren&#39;t making any money, and favored other dance nights that weren&#39;t so stressed about maintaining perfrect form and drank, like Latin Dance nights, etc. 

In either case I&#39;m a bit miffed about it. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif[/img]  I really enjoyed the scene.  I went to a swing night here, but it was in a cafeteria, they weren&#39;t selling any type of beverage--they never even turned the lights down&#33;  I guess, I enjoyed the whole 1930s-40s night club experience, and not just the dancing. 

Here&#39;s hoping it comes back again&#33;&#33;&#33; [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]

I think both main points are true. The fact that the local club didn&#39;t make much money on alcohol sales certainly was a factor in our scene closing down. The local dance club did try to include people as much as possible, with frequent lessons offered between sets at swing nights, but for some reason, it just couldn&#39;t maintain momentum.

What&#39;s frustrating is that the swing scene gets a hugely popular reaction when put on display publicly (open air concerts, etc.) but I think a lot of people are intimidated by the thought of needing to learn steps. How many generations to this point have only learned to "dance" by spasming in vague proximity to someone who may or may not be their partner?

I&#39;ve also found that many people see swing as just a fad that came and went a number of years ago, and anyone ho still likes that kind of music and dancing is passe. I know I&#39;ve seen this attitude reinforced by local media reviews of new discs by people like Brian Setzer, where the artist is dismissed for "still" producing swing or rockabilly. They even seem insulted by it&#33;

Teach all your friends to dance and then rool up the rug and have fabulous parties in the living room?


SwS

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What can we do?  I&#39;d suggest start up retro cocktail hours.

Depending on the state of your hometown, you may want to consider pairing with a local Historical Society. You may want to lose the drinks at the nightclub for something like a picnic (see the hugely successful Gatsby Picnic threads). Of course, there&#39;s no guarantee that the love of history and old buildings won&#39;t get you a group of shabbily dressed hippies but you may get lucky. I would suggest that any event have a bonus to dress in retro, or at least a suit and tie. Sell tickets at the door that give a discount for dressing appropriately.

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In another post, someone mentioned an old post about what killed the swing dance scene.  I think it is a good topic to revisit an discuss, because I really enjoyed the scene, and miss it greatly [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img]

I think one of the things that killed the swing scene was that tv played up aerials and tricks. People didn&#39;t realize that it takes time to get to that point and there are "baby steps" in the meantime. I think people wanted to start out flying through the air, but didn&#39;t want to put in the time or effort so they got bored and quit.

Same thing happens in the Burlesque scene. Someone will see me perform and want to do it, but they don&#39;t realize that it took me months to put together my 6 min routine, make my costume, make the contacts, plus when I started out I sank more money in than I got out. So when they beg me to help them perform, they end up giving up because it is too much work.

Weither it is Swing or Burlesque, they see the final product and want to do it, but they don&#39;t want to work for it.  [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img]

I think swing was hyped a great deal in the 90s, and as it was the cool thing to do, a lot of people joined in.  When the media moved on to something new, so did the trendoid population.  In Arizona, swing was rpelaced by salsa.  We still get a good crowd, with a lot of younger newbies, but no wants to be bothered to dress up--they&#39;re too cool for that.  Many that once did dress up no longer do so--the put out an air of "it&#39;s all about the dance".  Most of the people who jumped on the trend have abandoned all aspects of the lifestyle look in the personal lives as well.  It&#39;s too much work and people can&#39;t be bothered [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

<!--quoteo(post=82127:date=Jul 19 2006, 11&#58;00 AM:name=Chrissy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Chrissy &#064; Jul 19 2006, 11&#58;00 AM) [snapback]82127[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
What can we do?  I&#39;d suggest start up retro cocktail hours.

I started going to the Bash after most people were moving on from the retro trend.  I do recall being told that everyone dressed up just a few months earlier, and that there was one guy would would always be dressed ultra-flashy 40s but he never did catch on to dancing that much [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

I used to prefer going to the VFW though--it had a huge dance floor and you never had to worry about running in to anyone&#33;

I&#39;ll say that the other thing that makes dancing not as much fun is when you have a bunch of newbies who don&#39;t get/understand the "no aerials" rule and insist on doing them on a social dance floor (this is especially annoying when the dance floor is ultra crowded.)  Doing so is dangerous to them and others and I personally don&#39;t enjoy getting kicked because someone can&#39;t understand the reasoning behind the rule or simply ignores following it.  [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]