For our live session this month, Members joined us for a great, thought-provoking discussion about the new Lindy Hop stage show, SW!ING OUT, which debuted at the Joyce Theater last month in New York City.
You can now watch the replay of that conversation, where we talk about things like the value of improvisation vs. choreography and how issues of representation are addressed in the show.
Have a watch and tell us your thoughts, and if you did see the show but weren’t able to join us for the meeting, let us if there were other things that stood out to you as impactful, exciting, disappointing, unexpected or otherwise in our Forum thread dedicated to this session.
On the topic of whether it’s important for the audience to know that much of what they see is improvised…
When out social dancing, I heard an onlooker ask, “They just met! How can they dance like that?!” An experienced dancer and teacher explained, “It’s like a language they both know. They can have a conversation even when first meeting.”
That knowledge increases accessibility and inspires people to learn the “language” so they can converse too. If they didn’t know that they may think, “I’d have to practice with the same partner for years to dance like that — and how would that ever happen???”