Meditatin’: On the Nature of (Pure) Balboa

Meditatin’ is a new series that’s basically just a collection of small thoughts about various aspects of swing dancing. Photo courtesy of Beth Grover.

Recently Nick Williams posted on Facebook, “Balboa people, we need to talk. What do you think Pure Balboa is?” He was partly frustrated by what people do in “Pure Balboa” contests, which I agree is often not what most of us Bal-Swing instructors think of as Pure Balboa. Anyway, I responded to the post with roughly the following, which I thought was a good quick response to people in general who wonder about what Pure Balboa is, and why it’s a different dance than Bal-Swing.

When I was coming up in Bal-Swing competitions, some would have (and still do have) “Pure Balboa” rounds. At the time, around 2003, I remember the main source of advice: “Pure Balboa means chest to chest. Don’t open up.” There may have been some more complicated advice given to me, but “just stay chest to chest” was what stuck with me (and you can tell in my early “Pure Balboa” contests). I now happily understand much more about the important difference between the two dances that the old timers called Balboa & Bal-Swing.

A dance should exist for a reason. By which I mean, it should have a nature to it that makes it its own dance and not something else. Balboa’s nature was shaped by its surroundings: It was a dance done on a packed floor, hence chest to chest. On a packed floor, no one can see your footwork; hence, it’s not a dance for showing off footwork. On a packed floor, no one spectates the dance; hence it is not a spectator’s dance; it is meant to be shared between the partnership and no one else. Pure Balboa was a date dance, done in coat and tie and skirts and heels; hence one of its goals is efficiency and not sweating all over your partner. These very literal boundaries gave the dance its identity and help shaped other aspects of its style: those boundaries also made it natural to shuffle the feet a lot, and play with rhythms and weight changes and small direction changes, to make things exciting. So you see, Pure Balboa has a very specific nature.

Who’s Who: Balboa & Bal-Swing.

I throw out a lot of names in classes. Names which can be forgotten before the student gets to YouTube. I talked to other teachers, and several of them do, too.

So, here’s a list of people we teachers may mention in Bal-Swing and Balboa classes, and links to their dancing. (A Lindy Hopper’s list for both Harlem and Southern California is in the works.)

Who’s Who in (Pure) Balboa.

Who’s Who in Bal-Swing Leaders.

Who’s Who in Bal-Swing Followers.

This entire project is dedicated to Dwight Lupardis, who helped save and document many aspects of Balboa & Bal-Swing through the art of film, research, and the type of obsession that we here at Swungover appreciate.

The photo of Snookie & Roy is courtesy of Beth Grover.

Who’s Who in Original Bal-Swing Followers

Teachers often mention original dancers in class; however, those names may easily be forgotten between leaving the workshop and getting to YouTube. So, to make it a little easier, this is a list of original Balboa followers often mentioned in classes, with links to clips of their dancing (other sections for Lindy Hoppers coming as well). This will take some time to fully complete, what with all the biography information and clips, but I figured it’d be kinda neat to construct it in front of people’s eyes.

These entries will grow with biographical information over time. Not all the dancers will have a wealth of information, but we’ll try to get what we can. (Also, it is simply the nature of the history that I have so much more information on leaders than followers. I’m dedicated, however, to getting more information on the followers in this post.) So, enjoy! Names are listed in alphabetical order, so aside from a special section on the “Most Influential,” order does not signify importance. Names may be added, so if you’d like to recommend someone, feel free to mention their name in the comments. Please note: Marge Takier and Lila Desatoff began dancing after the original swing era. However, you can see plenty of Marge’s dancing in Hal Takier’s video and Lila’s in Willie Desatoff’s video.

As always, we strive to be unbiased and accurate. As much of this is an oral history, there may be some mistakes. If you see there is an error, please notify us with the error and any references for the correction and we will try to rectify the situation immediately.

NOTE: One doesn’t tend to look at original followers for moves, but instead for movement. Sure, there are some footwork variations and occasionally even full-body styling in these clips. But those are few and far between for original followers. Instead, the original followers are defined much more by their movement — like the intricacies of how they put their foot into and out of the floor, their timing, their posture, their pulse, their shuffle, and the way they flow through movement.

Bal-Swing: Most Influential

NATALIE ESPARZA
Natalie Esparza was an original-era Swing and Lindy dancer. Years after the war, she dragged her niece to learn Lindy Hop from her good friend Dean Collins. To little Mary Anne Nuñez, the rest was history.

MARIE FIDO
(Still collecting information on Marie. There isn’t much.).

INEZ THOMPSON
Inez Thompson’s husband, Ed, apparently first saw his future wife when she was standing up on a library ladder. He noticed her legs and asked her out. Ed and Inez primarily danced what they called Balboa (what we call “Pure Balboa” today), though they learned some Bal-Swing later in life. Inez is known for her smooth movement, and her almost-always bent knees are a striking part of her style, considering very few other influential Bal-Swing followers danced that way.

Who’s Who in Original Bal-Swing Leaders

Teachers often mention original dancers in class; however, those names may easily be forgotten between leaving the workshop and getting to YouTube. So, to make it a little easier, this is a list of original Balboa leaders often mentioned in classes, with links to clips of their dancing (other sections for Lindy Hoppers coming as well). This will take some time to fully complete, what with all the biography information and clips, but I figured it’d be kinda neat to construct it in front of people’s eyes.

To get a sense of how most of the entries will hopefully look with some time, see the first entry on Willie Desatoff. Not all the dancers will have such a wealth of information, but we’ll try to get what we can. So, enjoy! Names are listed in alphabetical order, so aside from a special section on the “Most Influential,” order does not signify importance. Names may be added, so if you’d like to recommend someone, feel free to mention their name in the comments.

As always, we strive to be unbiased and accurate. As much of this is an oral history, there may be some mistakes. If you see there is an error, please notify us with the error and any references for the correction and we will try to rectify the situation immediately.

This project is dedicated to Dwight Lupardis, the original Balboa historian whose passion for the dance helped save it in the form of the film The Balboa Project, where many of the clips in this project come from.

Bal-Swing: Most Influential

WILLIE DESATOFF
“Finesse, Finesse, Finesse.”
(1921 – 2005) William John “Willie” Desatoff grew up in a Russian neighborhood of Los Angeles, graduated from LA’s Roosevelt High School in 1940, and served in the Coast Guard during WWII. He then spent his life as a carpenter. He was widely considered one of the greatest Balboa-Swing dancers by his peers in both his youth and old age. He was great friends with Maxie Dorf. He was unique among most of the original dancers in his desire to break down and teach Balboa and Bal-Swing, even in his young age. He is known as one of the best for his smoothness, his rhythm and syncopation, his refinement of everything he did, and the powerful individualism of his style. Several modern Balboa dancers and instructors learned from him personally, including David Rehm, Randy Maestretti and Kara Britt, Nick Williams, and more (Kate and I were honored to have had an opportunity to work with him shortly before his death). His widow and wife of 20 years, Lila Desatoff, appears in the final dance scene of the clip. Read his obituary, written by David Rehm, here.

MAXIE DORF
“It’s a natural move.”
(1921 – 2000) Maxie Dorf was one of “the Big Four,” the nickname for the Ray Rand Swingers, a performance group of Swing (the LA dance that combined with Balboa to form Bal-Swing) dancers that included Hal Takier, Lolly Wise, and Gil Fernandez. His main partner in his youth was Mary McCasslin.

Who’s Who in (Pure) Balboa

To original dancers, the word “Balboa” meant “the chest-to-chest shuffling dance that happens between the partnership and doesn’t ask for attention.” Because its entire world was centered around the partnership, we didn’t feel right separating the leaders and followers into different posts like we did with the Bal-Swing dancers. Today, most teachers refer to this dance as “Pure Balboa” and occasionally even as “Strict Balboa.”

Teachers often mention original dancers in class; however, those names may easily be forgotten between leaving the workshop and getting to YouTube. So, to make it a little easier, this is a list of original Balboa dancers often mentioned in classes, with links to clips of their dancing. This will take some time to fully complete, what with all the biography information and clips, but I figured it’d be kinda neat to construct it in front of people’s eyes.

These entries will grow with biographical information over time. Not all the dancers will have a wealth of information, but we’ll try to get what we can. So, enjoy! Names are listed in alphabetical order, so aside from a special section on the “Most Often Discussed,” order does not signify importance. Names may be added, so if you’d like to recommend someone, feel free to mention their name in the comments. Please note that Ray Cunningham began dancing after the war and is mostly known for teaching the post-war closed position dance Lamanu (choose your own adventure in spelling it), hence, he is not listed below.

As always, we strive to be unbiased and accurate. As much of this is an oral history, there may be some mistakes. If you see there is an error, please notify us with the error and any references for the correction and we will try to rectify the situation immediately.

This project is dedicated to Dwight Lupardis, the original Balboa historian whose passion for the dance helped save it in the form of the film The Balboa Project, where many of the clips in this project come from.

Balboa: Most Often Discussed

DEAN & NANCY RAFTERY
Dean is still with us and teaches and dances at many events. In the original swing era there were a lot of regional differences among styles. Dean’s Pure Balboa was apparently part of the “inland flat footers” style. Dean is probably most known for his back-pivots, the move in the clip that is a lot harder than you’d expect. Dean also teaches Lamanu, an obscure dance from the post-war era that no one knows how to spell. (That joke was stolen outright from a New Zealand swing dance thread.) More info coming.

ED & INEZ THOMPSON
Ed apparently first saw Inez when she was standing up on a library ladder. He noticed her legs and asked her out.

Downton Abbey: Season 4 Plots Revealed!

For April Fool’s 2013, I used Swungover* to vent some of my frustration at Downton Abbey’s third season. Swungover became “The Low-Downton, official fan site of Downton Abbey,” and featured this post about season four. Viewers of the show should note: Season three spoilers mentioned.

Alright Downton Devotees,

We know many of you loyal fans were devastated by the finale of season three in which a major character died.

Some have argued that the way the show handled the character’s death was cheap for using such a trite method of killing off the character, for sadistically using a moment of great joy for the family just to create greater shock value, and thirdly for killing off the character in the last few minutes of the episode, thus robbing both the other characters and the audience a chance to mourn together. Not to mention that the show lost one of the only four characters left you don’t want to punch in the face. But such criticisms are not exactly in The Low-Downton spirit, right readers!?!

To our surprise, many of our loyal subscribers have expressed that they are not sure whether or not they will continue watching the show. Well, for those who are on the fence about it, we have exciting news! You will not believe it, but we here at The Low-Downton have actually got our hands on the first draft scripts of season four! We of course can’t tell you how, but can only mention that it involved a fire alarm and Maggie Smith’s ignorance of computer security. But once we reveal it to you, surely it will prove to you that Downton Abbey’s last season was not really the “hard evidence that a show that pretended to be more than a soap opera is actually just a soap opera,” as some have claimed. But instead it is only now beginning to unfold into the greatness it has had the potential for.

Though season three ended with a death viewers couldn’t mourn, season four will make up for it by killing another character at the beginning. We won’t tell you who it is, but it is either the cook or Tom Branson, both of which are two of the other likable characters. Such a gut-wrenching death following the long break after the previous season finale really gets the viewer emotionally invested from the beginning.

Here’s where the nay-sayers will claim that this is yet another over-the-top attempt at manipulating the emotions of the viewers via cheap plot devices and now casticide. But once you see the episodes we think you will see this is not just for the sake of plot, far from it. The death will serve the much higher purpose of giving Mary a chance to show some other emotion than blandness. (As we have mentioned time and time again on our site, this is because we believe the actor is playing up the famous “stiff upper lip” British reserve. And as you will see in season four, we are proven right: it is only upon missing a step on the grand staircase and stumbling slightly that her stolidness shatters into a torrential rage that will make the first quarter of season four seem like three hours of attic scenes from Jane Eyre. Michelle Dockery, the actor who plays Mary, will surely be winning all the awards come next season.)

Once the house has begun to move on emotionally from that death, Thomas will accidentally poison Lord Crawley while trying to kill Mr. Bates, not just because Thomas wants the valet job, but also because Thomas had came onto Mr. Bates earlier in the episode and was rejected. The staff will finally decide Thomas can’t be trusted and will fire him. (But don’t worry, Thomas-Love-to-haters, he’ll be back working for the family again by episode three!)

Of course, the big question is what will happen to the Abbey, with Lord Crawley’s death (it wasn’t the poison, but the “cure” that ultimately took his life) and Mary’s infant son’s horrible tragedy in episode two. Well, just so we don’t get everyone riled-up that the show “always concentrates far more in the depressive side of the family’s drama than the happier side,” we’ll go ahead and give this spoiler: It turns out the original heir, who went down with the Titanic, was saved by whalers, and survived. He returns to the Abbey to claim his heritage, however his desire to sell the place immediately of course puts the remainder of the family in despair. It’s only with the arrival of the other, forgotten heir who was thought miscarried before his birth that things get more interesting.

Of course, the question of whether Mary will marry one of them comes into question, especially after her depressing tryst with Tom gets its own episode arch. We don’t mind telling you readers that, fear not, Mary finds yet another incredible, compassionate and intelligent man who will love her despite the fact that she has no personality, unless for some reason you count the strange combination of bitchy and haughty. However, we don’t think we’ll surprise anyone when we say that we don’t think the relationship will be as well-written as her and Mathew’s. After reading the scripts from beginning to end, it looks like there is hardly any explanation of why these two new love-birds actually like each other, except that they just keep saying they do. This is far different from the countless instances of character-rich dialogue shared between her and Mathew, where we really understood — nay, experienced for ourselves — those charmingly personal reasons why they were obviously soul-mates destined for no one but each other.

We’ve saved everyone’s favorite for last: Anna and Mr. Bates. Now that they were finally able to find happiness in season three, what’s to become of them? Surely, our readers often demand, the show won’t find more sadistically calculated ways to keep them apart just to draw out the story? Fear not readers. Sure, there’s a bloody run-in with Mr. Bates’s dead wife’s lover. And of course, their child is accidentally (and humorously) switched with Mathew and Mary’s baby at one point, which leads to yet another question of who is the true heir of Downton Abbey, and thus some plots on all the children’s lives. But rest assured, the show can’t keep the two love birds apart forever.

To make a long story short, by the halfway point of Season 4, the only people who have survived the great typhoid epidemic of 1925 and the resulting fire are the servants, Mathew’s mother Mrs. Crawley, and The Dowager Countess. The show then will mostly revolve around the two women living together, confronting the modern era, and arguing over how to treat the servants. So, you see, the show is only a few episodes away from being at its best.

And, after it’s all said and done — mark our words — a certain Downton Abbey actor will wish he hadn’t tried to do “legitimate” theatre to pursue “multi-dimensional complex characters,” written with “integrity,” and instead had stuck around at Downton Abbey.

— Downton Bobby

Swungover Turns 3!

This little rascal of a blog is now three years old, and has grown a lot in the past year. That growth has all been in new and exciting ways, like spending a lot more time developing as a dancer and teacher away from the blog. Or finding more joy in and paying even more attention to refining Swungover articles. Or finding new ways to express ourselves, like Venn diagrams and video projects. All of this means that, though there was less quantity this year, we’re very pleased with the quality.

So, we present to you a stroll down (selective) memory lane for Swungover 2012:

In January, we lost one of the last great living swing legends, Hal Takier. For Hal remembered his life and many accomplishments.

Love & Swing was originally planned to be a five-part series written and released all within the month before Valentine’s Day. Yet with each new post, we realized there was so much more to love and swing dancing than we originally suspected. The result was that each post became an in-depth essay, and the series is still ongoing and will probably be seven parts long. The sections on non-dancing and dancing significant others and the love lives of instructors were highlights of the series, but the section on partnership vies for the place in our hearts and heads as the best all-around piece Swungover has ever produced.

We only did one new section of the “On Judging” series this year; however, Judging Philosophy 101 was a biggie.

Though we didn’t do many interviews this year, the one we did was certainly the most inspiring as far as our readers were concerned: An Interview with Paul Overton of Paul & Sharon.

We at Swungover were often inspired to write posts in response to issues affecting the swing world. Implied in the Contract was written in response to the relationship between promoters and dancers. In March, Dance World Takeover published a widely read post called “31 Signs You’re Not An Advanced Dancer Yet,” which led us to write In Response to “31 signs…” as a critique of what we thought was misleading advice. Regarding that response, someone commented that we shouldn’t think so much about dancing and instead just have fun, which led us to respond, fittingly, with the article On Having Fun. Finally, Training Bands to Play For Dancers came about in response to a few readers’ requests for advice.

We also branched out from the written format this year in the form of Venn diagrams like “Friends” and “Balboa/Blues” and promotional videos like L1ndy Phocus Time and Swingin’ In the Rain. However, swing education and alternative formats came together in our introduction to a new series, “Breakin’ it Down,” where we attempted to recreate a dance step done by the incredible Al Minns.

As a side project, we began Fine & Dandy, a picture blog exploring personal fashion (not affiliated with swing dance).

Finally, a very important thing happened at Swungover this year: Swungover‘s editor ceased to be merely an editor and began to be what writers call an editor, whispered with the shake of awe in their voice. Here’s what we mean. There are many people who can look over a Swungover post and correct the spelling and grammar.* It’s quite another thing, however, to have the experience, skill, creative mind, and intellectual integrity our editor has. Chelsea Lee has become an integral part of giving feedback crucial in creating the best Swungover has produced, and this year-in-review would not be complete without thanking her for all she does.

* — And, seriously, thanks to all of you who have offered. We apologize that our spelling and grammar are so bad that people feel the need to freely donate their services.

This year-in-review also wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t get a chance to say how fulfilling it is to work on Swungover. Officially you could say that grammar brought us together, but none of my work would have been possible without Bobby producing such thoughtful, imaginative, and helpful content for the modern swing scene. The fact that he has allowed me to share my thoughts and opinions in addition to my knowledge of dangling modifiers during the creative process is icing on the cake. I truly believe in what Swungover stands for and I am proud and thankful to contribute.
—Chelsea Lee

What’s in store for next year?

We’d like to introduce a new series here at Swungover. It’s called “Finishing a Swungover series.”

But seriously, a lot of next year will be spent continuing and/or finishing the series that are currently underway. So there will be more “Love & Swing,” “On Judging,” “The Great Debate,” “Vintage Manliness,” “Swing Photographers,” and “Breakin’ It Down.”

We do have a few new series planned, and the humor of this statement is not lost on us. But they are specifically designed to be smaller and much easier to write. There will be some occasional surprises, possibly a really big one.

A wonderful new year to all of our readers, and thank you for all the inspiration and great feedback you give us.
—Sentence written by Bobby White, edited by Chelsea Lee.