Last Friday, I attended a staged reading of Jeff Campbell's new play "In The Pocket: The Ballad of Bobby Trombone.” at The Savoy Denver. This was a collaboration between Emancipation Theater and Theatre Artibus.

One section that stood out was the first time Shane Franklin broke out his tap shoes to involve the audience by rhythmically tap dancing and getting us to respond with “in the pocket.” In the pocket, as you can likely guess from the play’s title, was a recurring theme. Since things can get lost in writing, I’ll say it was very similar to Frankie Manning calling out “uh1, uh2, uh you know what to do” - very rhythmic, timed, leaving space for the response of Shane’s taps’ calls to audience members. Innnn the Pocket.

And that got me thinking. Can we at Swingin’ Denver get our students more audibly involved in a similar way? And could that help them find Lindy Hop’s pocket?

Uh 1 Uh 2
We Know What To Do!

Food for thought