for area hepcats. It’s one of nearly two dozen regional ensembles who perform for jaspers and janes seeking to trip the light fantastic. Denver is an ironic place
cmDance presents Lindy on the Rocks: Sunday Sunset Swing at Cheeseman Park.
They are talking about jitterbugging—an art form
that encourages both self-expression and social interaction. Its culture of like-minded fans do the Lindy Hop, the West Coast Swing, the Balboa, and the shag, with moves such as dips, drops, pushes, passes, whips, pretzels, side cars and lampposts, the last of which sends one partner fl ipping over the back of another. On almost every night of the week, venerable venues
Instructor demonstration at the cmDance Lindy Diversion Dance Weekend.
such as Denver’s Mercury Café and Turnverein Dance and Cultural Center host dances and classes. (The best reference site on the Web is the Denver Dance Calendar,
www.denverdancecalendar.com). There, live bands and enthusiastic DJs play or spin tunes new and old as the crowd pairs up in time to a happy beat. The Turnverein, open since 1920 at 1570 Clarkson
St. in Denver, is home to two social dance organiza- tions, the Rocky Mountain Swing Dance Club and the Colorado Swing Dance. It has two ballrooms—a 4,500-square-foot gem upstairs and a newly expand- ed and upgraded 2,700-square-foot dance fl oor below, according to general manager Paul Maxie. “It’s fun to play those old tunes,” says Roger
Campbell, bandleader of After Midnight, a local sextet that mixes big-band classics with original compositions as it pumps out the accompaniment
in which a new swing boom might take place, as it almost killed “King of Swing” Benny Goodman’s career right before his big national breakthrough at Los Angeles’ Palomar Ballroom on August 21, 1935. Former Elitch Gardens proprietor Jack Gurtler told Denver historian Corrine Hunt, “Benny Goodman bombed in Denver!” In the early 1930s, there
were two basic kinds of jazz, broken down along racial lines. For black audiences, there were the adventurous, virtuoso sounds of artists typifi ed by the brilliant inven- tions of Louis Armstrong. Then there was “sweet” jazz, a kind of sentimental and bland puree ladled out to white, mainstream culture by such men as the original “King of Jazz,” the interna- tionally famous Denver native Paul Whiteman. However, visionary com-
posers and arrangers such as Duke Ellington, Eddie Durham, Don Redman and, most prominently, Fletcher Henderson, were crafting a new, hot sound. This harmon- ically dense, brass-blasting, driving music caught on in infl uential ballrooms such as the Savoy in Harlem. Tiffi ny Wine, who teaches
and hosts numerous classes EnCompass January/February 2012 11
© Harry Saito
© Harry Saito
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