Make Your Audience Feel Like Insiders

As a company that prides itself in making swing events accessible for all, it’s noticeable when we and perhaps others feel like outsiders due to information not being made readily available. Some recent examples:

• Contacting an event organizer to ask who their DJs are for a dance night and them ultimately not sharing that information.

• Being ignored multiple times when asking another organization who was DJing their night and ultimately emailing the owner.

• Seeing an older woman asking a bandleader’ mom if her son was playing because event calendars she was looking at still had the incorrect information on it

• Colorado dancers from another city not being in the know of a Colorado meetup happening at an out-of-state event

• An event site requires hopeful competitors to purchase a Competitors Pass but offers no pass with this label leading to confusion for a new competitor

In the first three cases, we all had access to insiders with the information we sought but what if you didn’t have that access? Where would you go? In this information age, there are so many online places to check for information which means these organizations would ideally communicate relevant information on each platform they maintain. That typically includes the Facebook event, web calendar, Facebook page, Facebook group, the booking venue calendar and Instagram to name a few options.

One of the reasons why our website’s homepage looks how it does is thanks to a woman sharing direct feedback with us based on what she heard about our site’s usability. An older person was having trouble finding information about our next event and, even though this info was available on our site, we needed to improve. We did this by linking text within that opening sentence and then linking menu items directly below to improve access on desktop and mobile. And we continually make sure we provide up-to-date information covering most everyone’s frequently asked questions.

To address the opening four examples, here are some thoughts:

1. If you’re empowering DJs to do their own promotion work instead of the organization, equip them with where to post and verify they are posting. And if you’re getting away from marketing on social media or being actively present, please consider becoming active.

2. Make sure your Facebook page is actively monitoring page’s content and answering questions on your FB events and pages. If users are directly coming to ownership via phone or email because they’re being neglected online, you messed up.

3. Keep your web calendars updated. More and more people are moving away from social media which means it’s even more important to keep your website calendar updated along if you’re part of a group collective calendar (Turnverein, Avalon Ballroom) where people look.

4. Oftentimes when Colorado travels to an event, people tend to focus on Denver and Boulder as they’re rarely aware of dancers from Colorado Springs, Fort Collins or the Western Slopes. It takes little effort take to say “hey, there’s a Colorado group photo happening Saturday night. Do you know about it?” or “do you know about the Colorado Goes to Camp Hollywood group? Let me share it with you since you’re going.”

5. Step into a new person’s shoes and evaluate your website with their eyes or ask a friend that doesn’t do “that thing” to look for discrepancies and ask probing questions. Consistent messaging matters because doubt and questions can be barriers to entry.

It’s worthwhile increasing inclusivity.

Swinging on a Continuum

I was struck yesterday by a promotional piece from a local organization that pinpointed 1999 within the “swing revival era.” Come to find out this was missed during the editing process done by more knowledgeable dancers. We’re happy this was edited out but it’s noticeable that relatively newer dancers were pushing a revival narrative, a myth I thought was being addressed by local organizations thanks to calls in by Moving History Together, Collective Voices for Change and Move Together. .

We’d like to ask that Colorado swing dance organizations like CMDance and others that promote revival narratives refrain from doing so. Instead, I’d encourage my fellow organizations to share stories about Mama Lu Parks, LaTasha Barnes learning Lindy Hop from her grandma, what Mura Dehn and Margaret Batiuchok gleaned from their record-collecting of Savoy dancers, etc. Lindy Hop and other Black social dances have existed and continued on into this present day. What changed, and this is important, is that white people ignored these dances or diminished them through whitewashing, reduction and sometimes systemic racist policies to reduce safe gathering spaces and to control bodies only to “rediscover” them.

When we (and I mean “we” since I’ve done this too) talk about “ourselves enveloped in the cultural revival of American swing music and dance” we are becoming the colonizer and not the colleague. Let’s be better guests within Black cultural art forms.

Why "Other" African-American Dance Contributions?

Kizomba, Salsa, Zouk, Jitterbug read the dance list. Here was a school that respected the names of Black dances created outside of America but chose Jitterbug to represent Lindy Hop, a Black dance created in America. We asked why and are still awaiting a response.

Frankie Manning, a second-generation Black Lindy Hopper, once said in an interview: "Nowadays if you say Lindy Hop there are very few people who know the word. You know you say Lindy Hop and they just look at you you know. What is that? And then you say uh jitterbug and their face light up because they have heard Jitterbug for so long till they think that's what it is."

There’s a local jazz festival celebrating Jazz Age dances and listing Charleston, Lindy Hop and Jitter Bug in what is being billed as a “celebration of America’s unique performing art.” Once again, a Black creation is subsumed for a white audience with the Jitter Bug inclusion and no mention of Black creators related to these dance and music forms.

Related to this, using words like "vintage" can fix Lindy Hop into a particular time and place while ignoring it's cultural transmission (separating creators from their creation) through generations perhaps minimizing its present impact. My notes from Marie N'Diaye from hers and Felix’s workshop - “European cultures tend to preserve. That was their environment. If they didn't preserve food, they'd die, whereas food was often abundantly available in the African continent.” If environment begets culture then we ought to look at the language we use to enhance inclusivity.

Oftentimes, organizers are resistant to changing their language because they’re afraid of distancing their majority-white customer base. When an organizer asked us for co-promotion assistance, we asked them to take several anti-racist steps such as calling what they were teaching by their Black social dance names, talking about the roots of these dances both on their website and social media. Months later, we still haven’t heard back.

But what if we fully embraced and acknowledged Black ownership? As Dr. Thomas DeFrantz discussed in a CVFC talk - “Dance is technology transforming dehumanization into joy but Black people can’t hold the patent.” We keep taking their fertile creations and:

• renaming their creations

• transforming their creations through European-American lens (lead/follow concepts, angularity or lack thereof)

• sharing a history where these creations are vintage, ending in a certain era, and thereby ignoring the living community that fostered them

It’s sad to hear “That's just the way he is; he isn't going to change.” when people talk about organizers that will continue teaching East Coast Swing alongside their Lindy Hop. Instead of preserving white ownership appropriating Black culture, we should dismantle it through our words, actions and dollars.

How to Incorporate History Into Classes

We’ve had some recent posts on our Facebook page that have led people down a path regarding history incorporation into classes that we’ve seen before. An unattributed excerpt - “I think force feeding history in schools is absolutely foolish.” Partially related would be the response, “I need to think about how I can best alter the message to be on brand and relevant to our patrons.” we received from an event organizer when we wrote them: “Within my company and places we teach, I'm striving to name the specific dances we're teaching and give proper attribution to the Black creators when possible. With how you're advertising this event, and given that your event is celebrating Black American music, I think there is opportunity here for us to honor the creators.” When your first reaction is immediate pushback or pushback against an exagerrated version of what is asked, we’d recommend some inner evaluation of your own biases.

One argument to incorporate history into classes, marketing, and other educational material is made by noted Black historian and dancer, Moncell Durden, here around the 42:00 mark: “Most of the time, it’s the music that labels the dancing. It’s not swing dancing, it’s lindy hop. It’s called lindy hop. If you change that, then you’re changing the people who brought it to you. You’re changing the identity. It’s not defined by the area. The area has influence.”

Moncell further dives into this around the 2:00:00 mark in the video below, a great talk hosted by The Breakaway.

Here are some ideas for incorporating history into classes and within an organizer’s direct sphere of influence:

• Incorporate naming the dance and its origins into an opening statement.

  • We’re going to teach you Lindy Hop, a Black dance created in the 1920’s

  • We’re excited to teach Lindy Hop, a Black vernacular dance formed in the 1920s out of the Harlem community

• Find opportunities to share that Lindy Hop and other swing dance styles are vernacular dances and what that means and what those vernacular hallmarks are. “Vernacular refers to dance performed to the rhythms of African American music: dance that makes those rhythms visible” - Steppin’ on the Blues by Jacqui Malone

  • Improvisation and spontaneity - “nice, love the improv there!”

  • Propulsive rhythm - “let’s play with the drive of that triple step” or “yes, great momentum!”

  • Call-and-response patterns - like a break and shake.

  • Self-expression - encourage peopple to bring themselves and their experiences to the dance

  • Elegance - dig into what it means to look effortless

  • Control - encourage different types of swingouts, tuck turn directions, level changes, etc.

• Include history into your class descriptions.

  • Learn to Lindy Hop from the ground up! Sign up today and learn the dance that sprung from Black American culture in Harlem during the 1920s-40s!

• Include history into your FAQ or Welcome Page and perhaps link to a more in-depth section

  • Learn Lindy Hop and Charleston, the original dances of the swing era! Swing dancing is joyful, free spirited, and infectious. It's unabashedly fun with a carefree style that closely reflects the music of the late 20s hot Jazz to the 40s Big Band music. It was created by Black Americans in Harlem, New York. You're going to love it! Check out more information on the history of these dances here.

• Be a resource and not just a marketplace on your social media sites by offering informative articles, good videos of historical and modern dancers, and spotlighting other learning opportunities from diverse voices.

• Fully name the social dances you’re offering

Our thoughts on including history are much like our thoughts when it comes to feeding young kids and what we tell them. We’ll determine what goes on their plate and they’ll determine what they’ll eat. There is no force feeding. It’s just a very well-balanced fun class.