Dancing in Johannesburg

Lindy Hop.

Before I left for South Africa, I surfed the Net looking for Lindy Hop events in Johannesburg. The links that I found all pointed to “Lindy Factory” whose site was now gone. I then posted a request on the FrankieXC forum and Dr. Joan, one of my most favorite people, responded with Micki’s contact information. I managed to get hold of Miki just before I left LA and got from her several contacts in Johannesburg. A flurry of emails and got the telephone number for Jenny Rose who together with Oliver ran the Johannesburg Lindy Hop scene. Happiness!

By the time I got over my jet lag, flu/cold and could find my way around Johannesburg, it was middle of November. My call to Jenny’s number in her email returned a message that the number I just called was a phone that has been stolen and was thus no longer in service. I then emailed to Jenny and got her work number and eventually managed to talk to her directly. She was extremely enthusiastic and friendly. She told that there was Lindy class in the Parkmore area every Tuesday night at 8:30pm. Unfortunately I could not make the first Tuesday night I found out about it, so on the following Tuesday at about 7:30pm, I started from the southern suburbs and made my way north towards Parkmore. The maps I had were fortunately pretty accurate and I got to the studio without incident at about 7:15pm. Just as I arrived, there was a group of about 5 people leaving the studio and I asked the person that was about to lock the gate whether I could go in and he informed me that the studio was closed for the night. I told him that I was told to get there by 8:30pm and meet up with Jenny Rose. That was obviously the magic word and he asked me for her number so that he could verify that I was indeed supposed to be there. After speaking to Jenny, he told me to go upstairs with him and he was going to lock me into the studio and leave the downstairs gate open. He warned me that once he left, that I would not be able to leave until Jenny, who has a set of keys, arrived. He then went off and I settled in and waited. About 15 minutes later, 4 people turned up and asked me to open the gate, when I informed them that I did not know how, he directed me to a ‘secret’ switch and they entered. He was Oliver and with him were Jenny and another couple who were their regular students. It turns out that the Lindy Hop dance scene consisted of two couples; the other couple could not make it because it was year-end and there were a lot of activities. The three couples would get together every Tuesday and practice their routine. They would then present their routine at several shows during the year. The Tuesday meetings would consist of 45 minutes of dancing lesson and practice, then everyone would go off for a beer nearby.

During the lesson, they did a slide where the follower would squat down and be pulled through the legs of the leader and I asked how this was lead. The answer was simple; it was not! I noticed also that several moves, that could easily be lead, were executed without the leader being ready for the move. My surprise must have been obvious because Oliver said to me that they do not do lead and follow over here because the class is so small and the routines were fixed and the couples did not change partners. They were basically an exhibition group where lead and follow was not necessary and only complicated the teaching and learning effort! Needless to say, I had great difficulty in following the routine even though most of the patterns were pretty simple. The sequence was long and they had been at it for more than a year. I consoled myself with the fact that I knew every individual move and the next week, I would have much less problem remembering the sequence. At the end of the 45-minute period, I was asked as the outsider so do a step that I had not seen during their routine. I chose to do the Savoy (kick) Charleston and to my surprise, nobody there had seen it before. So we spent several minutes trying it together.

During the beer session, I mentioned that I would probably have less problem with the sequence next week and was told that as this was nearing the end of the year, the studio is closing for the year this week and there would not be any Lindy until the middle of January of the next year. :(
Although my Lindy career in South Africa was short lived (all of 45 minutes), I can claim to have danced with and socialized (had a beer) with two thirds of the entire current Johannesburg Lindy scene! (4 out of 6 people.) :o]

Throughout 2004, Jenny, Oliver and two other couples met every Tuesday night and Oliver would teach them pieces of a routine for about 45 minutes, then off to having beer! The objective was not social dancing but exhibition dancing as there were no social events for Lindy Hoppers here. They would dance their routines during fund raising events to showcase the dance. In 2005, it is Oliver’s plan to have a regular class consisting of teachers of other dances (mostly ball-room and free-style) and hopefully in this way introduce Lindy to the South African dance community again. (Free-style is very similar to Jazz, but is danced mostly to hip-hop music!)

Ballroom – International Latin.

During my last visit, I managed to take a few lessons from a studio near the place I was staying. When I first got here this time around, I looked up the yellow pages to see if I could find the studio again. The studio was no longer listed. It was on the way to my friend Richard’s house, so I dropped in on the studio one day and found out that it was still active even though it was no longer listed. I left a message for the teacher doing International Latin to call me and waited for an appointment. Three weeks later, I got my first appointment. She had apparently gotten herself a boy friend and had gone out of town with him. During my first lesson, she asked me what kind of dancing I was doing mostly back in the States and I answered Lindy Hop. She asked me whether that was a new kind of dance as she had not heard of it and she was up to date on all dances! :) I explained that it was a dance that originated in the 1930’s in Harlem. She put on a swing type of song and asked me to lead her in a few steps…… boy what a disaster! The six-count stuff was OK, but the eight-count stuff was a nightmare. This despite the fact that she knew the Jive’s “whip” (which is almost identical to the “swing-out”). The rest of the hour was devoted to the “open hip-twist”. She wanted it lead differently form the method that Melissa taught back in Irvine. When I lead it the way Melissa taught, she would do a 180-degree rotation instead of a 90-degree rotation preventing the completion of the “fan”. Took me a long time to figure out that she wanted a twist in the wrist instead of a slight forward tension. After about 45 minutes, I managed to lead an “open hip twist” to a “fan” by which time I was totally frustrated and feeling really dumb. In desperation for some exercise, I made another appointment to have another lesson the next week. She had a group class after my lesson and I lingered to watch what they were doing. There was 9 people in the class, two couples, the teacher was dancing with one of the other women and two women were dancing on their own. Strangely a man was also dancing on his own. I could not figure out why he did not partner up with one of the three women that did not have a lead. It was rather interesting to watching the class with three couples (the teacher with one of the follows) and two other follows and one lead not partnered up. They also did not do any rotation during the entire class.I turned up at what I thought was the appointed time and the place was empty! A few phone calls later and I had another appointment, this time again just before her group class. She suggested that I take her group class following the private lesson and I agreed to do so. During the lesson, she taught me the routines (Rumba, Cha cha) that they were going to do in the following class. I asked her how long they have been doing the routine and she told me that most of them had been at it for about 18 months. The routines consisted of patterns that range from bronze to gold ones. The routines had a few patterns that I had not done before like the Cuban, sliding door and kicky walks. The problem was not the patterns themselves, but the sequence that had to be remembered. Each routine was about 3 minutes long. When the group class started, I discovered why I saw one guy was on his own last week. Two of the follows announced that they did not want to dance with a partner!!!! They claimed that a partner would put them off their routine. :) LOL……………So much so for lead and follow! :( At the end of the class, Helen (the teacher) announced that this was the last class of the year because the studio was closing for the year. Apparently most studios here close in early December and reopen some time the second week of January. We were all invited to go to the Glen (a nearby shopping center) to have coffee to celebrate the end of the year. So too ended my brief stint at dancing in Johannesburg. In terms of exercise, this has been not too good (have not yet managed to break sweat), but did manage to socialize with two different dance groups in a very short time. :)