Well a small little era of lindy hop in DC has come to an end. And it's a bitter-sweet moment for me after working so hard to build a weekly night of dancing at downtown nightclub Muse Lounge.

After much discussion with the folks at Gottaswing and assorted players in the DC swing dance world, we all agreed to postpone our new series of classes and weekly dances until September. If Muse Lounge is down and we can attract more students, we'll return to this downtown venue before we know it.

But that brings me to the bitter part of all of this. I have to be perfectly honest with you all in saying I'm highly disappointed. Sure, I finally get one night off during the week to myself now. But that's not really the point, nor is it a true silver lining in all of this. The fact is, Tempo at Muse is postponed until September because very few were willing to support it. We started out very strongly with an average of 10 or 12 students in each class and about 30 dancers showing up. The range went from ridiculously good to fresh out of our first class beginners. The venue has a nice, strong air conditioner, a full service bar and a pretty darn nice sound system. Even the floor was pretty nice, soft and above all, clean! There were couches along the wall for people to relax in and you really couldn't beat being one block from 3 metro lines. I had even booked a solid rotation with some of DC's best swing-era DJs.

Our high point was having The Loose Marbles come through town. We had over 100 dancers squeeze into this venue with a bevy of the top names in Lindy Hop tearing up the dance floor right in front of the hot jazz combo. In my opinion, it was one of the better nights of dancing in DC because it was a combination of amazing music and dancers all thrown into this beautiful nightclub. I remember saying to some folks, this is quite literally what the social life was like back in the days of the Savoy in Harlem. Ballrooms were to dancers in the '30s what nightclubs are to so many today. So here we were, blending these two era's into something that really worked.

Fast forward a few weeks. Our dance has a total of 6 people. I can't even remember how many actually paid because I think 2 or 3 were from the class. We couldn't even pay our DJ for an hour worth of time so Lily took money out of her own pocket. How does a dance go from over 100 to 6 within just a few weeks? Maybe it was a just one of those nights? Maybe it was the rain? Who knows???

It didn't get any better the next week. Or the next. Or the next. Finally we book the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs for the final week of our classes. We get about 30 people to show up. It was fun. The music was great! The venue rocked once again. But it was nothing like the success we had captured before. And clearly there was a large segment of the DC dance scene avoiding Muse Lounge.

At this point I guess there isn't a whole lot to be said other than I'm definitely confused. I'm confused at how a lindy hop scene can sit back so proudly and pat themselves on the back for having such a vibrant scene, yet won't support the majority of dance nights thrown their way. I'm always so embarrassed when people come from other cities thinking DC is "the shit" when it comes to having a dance scene. They know about the Jam Cellar. That's a no brainer. But they're always so surprised and disappointed when there isn't more dancing options throughout the week. Sure, we have CCB. We have Glen Echo. But we all know there is a large number of people who won't support those venues either. And frankly, some times the music leaves a whole lot to be desired.

Such as it is, we have venues. We have sheer numbers that other cities would die for. We have talent between DC and Baltimore that is unreal. But for some reason we can't seem to build upon these things. I have no clue why. Maybe it's politics? Maybe it's personal? As far as I'm concerned, politics and personal beefs have no place in dancing. Dancing should be that outlet to forget all that crap and simply have fun and be moved by amazing music. It's why we do this. It's why Frankie and his crew did it in Harlem.

Hopefully in September we'll return. Maybe we'll have a better marketing approach. Maybe we'll figure out the key to getting more dancers out. Who knows. For now we just lost another chance to engage in one of our passions in this great city.

Labels: Dancing, Jazz, Lindy Hop, Music, Swing Dance

posted by DVS @ 2:22 PM