The last few months have been an amazing success! The ‘A’ Train has seen over 1,250 people through its doors in the first 6 months. Cabaret was huge success and the community is thriving!
Our last set of classes until September will be coming to a close this week. But, have no fear, The ‘A’ Train will continue to run during the summer every Friday! I will be training in Sweden at the Herräng Dance Camp for most of August, so I leave you in the amazing hands of Nicole Tomes. I will be back at the end of August with more fun and inspiring moves from the camp.
Enjoy the summer and come out dancing every Friday at the Mount Pleasant Community Hall!
Thank you to everybody who made The Cabaret Fundraiser such a huge success! We had over 120 people through the door to watch all the fabulous performers and dance the night away! We are still calculating how much we raised. These funds will be used by Swing Dance Calgary to promote swing dancing in Calgary and to put on larger events. A special thanks to the organizers, namely Nicole Tomes, Joanna Pesta, Heather Imorde and Dana Codding.
Great work to all those that came out to our practice session last night in preparation for Cabaret next week. Here is the video link. We just need to sharpen up the ending and we will do great. Please be at the hall for 7:30pm to do a few runs beforehand on Friday June 25th!
We have a lot of great events coming up, but first I will start with a recap of RCMA 2010 in Vancouver that happened the other weekend. In one word, AWESOME! Another great event put on by Lucy Falkner and Rhythm City Productions, congrats on such a success. All the classes were top notch and I know the Calgary crew learned a lot from Daniel, Asa, Michael and Casey. I thoroughly enjoyed learning from the Swedes and I am even considering heading to Sweden during the summer for the 5 week long Herrang Dance Camp. The competitions were very well done and the competitors gave it their all! It was great to get to hang out with old friends and make new ones, don’t worry if you missed this one, as Lucy will be putting on RCMA 2010.2 in September. There will be 6 instructors, two of which have been confirmed, the amazing Skye Humphries and Frida Segerdahl!
Tonight The ‘A’ Train will be raising funds for the Haiti Relief Fund by donating a portion of each door sale to the Canadian Red Cross. I encourage you to bring out your friends and family, as the more people we have, the greater our donation will be. There will also be a donation jar that will go directly to the Fund. If you have any questions please talk to me at the dance tonight. We are aiming to raise $500, which will be matched by the Canadian Government, dollar for dollar!
Lastly, I have finally struggled and fought with getting registration up and running for the Mini Workshop with Rachael Ries that is coming up on February 20th! There will be more details about the classes and levels on the main page of the site, but you can Book Now!
Hope everybody had a great holiday and is nice and refreshed for a brand new year of dancing! We have some great things in store for you this year so please stay tuned to the website!
Starting this Friday January 8th, The ‘A’ Train has pulled into Calgary. The ‘A’ Train is Calgary’s newest weekly Swing Dance event. Put on by Toe Tappin’ Swing in association with Swing Dance Calgary, this event happens every Friday Night at the Mount Pleasant Community Hall (602 – 22nd Avenue NW). The beginner drop-in lesson starts at 8:30pm and music by Calgary DJs follows at 9:15 until 12:30am! Bring your friends, no experience or partner necessary. We are also on Facebook, so come join us on The ‘A’ Train! We are also looking for volunteers to help with setup and door shifts, you get in free for the night, Contact Us if you are interested in helping out with this great event.
Toe Tappin’ Swing now has a brand new Mailing list setup and ready to dispense wonderful news about dance events happening in Calgary. There will also be updates and suggestions on awesome out of town events to go to. If you would like to receive these wonderful pieces of news, head over to Our Main page and click on the link in the top right hand of the screen. You will be sent a confirmation email after you have submitted your information.
Rhythm City Mess Around, also referred to as RCMA is happening again this year! It is a really great way to jump start your dancing in 2010. Put on by Lucy Falkner and her company Rhythm City Productions in Vancouver, it happens in three weeks on January 22-24. Instructors include Daniel Heedman and Åsa Palm from Sweden, they are by far two of the top Lindy Hop instructors in the world! Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from them. There will be a large group of people heading over from Alberta so you won’t be alone. You can register for the classes Here. There are also competitions and dances the whole weekend! If you have some spare time and want even more dancing, head over early as the instructors will be teaching classes the week before the event! Looking forward to seeing you there.
I hope everybody is enjoying the Holiday season so far. It has been a great beginning to my time in Calgary and I have enjoyed meeting so many great people. I am looking forward to what the New Year holds! Namely more classes and a new venue for our weekly Friday dances.
Starting January 8th, 2010 the weekly friday dances will be held at the Mount Pleasant Community Hall. Toe Tappin’ Swing and Swing Dance Calgary are really looking forward to this move and we hope you are too! I will be posting more information in the next week about the specifics of the new dance.
I have been getting many requests for classes to be posted for January, so without further ado, here they are. Swing 1 and Swing 2 will be starting up on Wednesday January 20th, please register ahead of time as space is limited in each class. I am looking at starting a Balboa class in Febuary, but I am also open to suggestions.
One last thing to note, there is a link in the top right hand corner of the main page that will allow you to sign up for the Toe Tappin’ Swing mailing list. I highly recommend that you sign up, as I will be sending out updates on the dances and classes through this mailing list.
Here is another update coming straight at ya! The 10th Street Stomp is back this week for a Friday the 13th Bash, come out and get your dance on. Same place and time as usual, 7:45pm beginner lesson and dancing starting at 9:30pm. Bring some friends and have a great night of social dancing fun.
I have been working in conjunction with Dance Energy to find a great place to hold private lessons for those of you that are interested. They have an amazing floor and multiple dance spaces, plus there is a great community of dancers and instructors working out of the building. If you are interested in a private lesson, please Contact Us. Prices are:
$50/hour for one instructor
$90/hour for two instructors
$12/hour for floor space
The Toe Tappin’ Performance Team is in full holiday swing! We, with the help of some friends attended the Fall Into Swing event with the Prime Time Big Band on Halloween night. We all had a great time and taught a bunch of eager dancers the Shim Sham! The next event we are going to be at is the Hope Gala for Sonshine Community Services on November 12th at the Coast Plaza Hotel. Also, auditions for the Performance Team are coming up on November 16th, 7pm at the Mt. Pleasant Community Hall. Please bring $5 for hall rental, see you there!
Swing Dance Calgary and Toe Tappin’ Swing are coming together to bring you a night of pre-Halloween dancing! The beginner lesson, taught by Ashley and Heather, will follow the tradition of teaching Michael Jackson’s dance ‘Triller’! There will be prizes for Best Costume, so make sure you dress up and don’t get left out! You really don’t want to miss this, so bring out all your friends and family to a great night of dancing and entertainment.
(Deets: The same as your usual 10th Street Stomp. Drop In Lesson at 8:45, dance at 9:30. Carpenters’ Union Hall, Kensington)
See you there,
Matthew Isenor
UPDATE: Ashley and Heather will be continuing the tradition of teaching Michael Jackson’s ‘Triller’ to everybody during the beginner lesson starting at 8:45pm!
Ok, I have posted the classes for November on the website, so go on and get registering to reserve your spot! Swing 1 is an entry level swing class, no experience or partner required! Come out and enjoy dancing to great music. Swing 2 is a continuation from Swing 1 and will expand your lists of moves and techniques, this class will prepare you for the craziness that is Swing 3!
The Toe Tappin’ Swing Performance Team, currently deciding on a new name, will be holding auditions on Monday, November 16 at 7pm, Mount Pleasant Community Hall, 602 – 22nd Ave NW. If you are interested in taking your dancing to the next level, we will take you there with the performance team. We perform at charity galas, fundraisers and corporate events. Our current competition goal is to blow away all the other groups at Lindy Bout 4 in Vancouver in 2010! Watch for the videos. Audition cost is $5 for the hall rental and the audition will be an hour and a half long. Expect to learn some choreographies with the current team members and perform them at the end. Hope to see you there!
It is that time of year again! You guessed it, Halloween, a time to get dressed up and come out on Friday night to the Carpenter’s Hall to show off your costume! Regular times for the dance, as well as a costume contest and spooky themed music! I might even try and get the DJs to break out ‘The Monster Mash’. See you all there on Friday October 30th!
Well, it has been a long few weeks! Here is a recap on things and notice about things coming up.
A bunch of Albertans made the trip down to New Orleans this past weekend for the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, known as ULHS. This event is one of the premier events in the world to go to for Lindy Hoppers and I have been meaning to go for years now. I am very happy that I got everything coordinated and made the trip, it was worth the time and energy. We left Thursday morning catching a 7am flight from Calgary and managed to make it through a massive line at customs to catch our flight to Houston and then to New Orleans. Got to our hotel in the French Quarter that was close to a majority of the venues for the weekend. After unpacking, Charles and I headed down to Bourbon St and had a beer while we waited for the Riverboat Cruise to start. The cruise was enjoyable, with music from the Loose Marbles and another band. I ended up spending most of my time catching up with old friends that I hadn’t seen in a long while. Next there was the late night at the Spotted Cat, a small jazz bar on Frenchmen St. which is the heart of the local jazz scene. Lots of dancing ensued and we retired to our beds nicely exhausted.
The next morning, or should I say afternoon, involved dancing outside, wandering around the French Quarter, and having Beignets at Cafe Du Monde! If you are ever in New Orleans, you have to try these things, they are covered in enough icing sugar to have sugar fights with, which did happen! The evening dance was located at the Wax Museum and we were allowed to wander around looking at all the exhibits. The hall was a bit small for the large number of people there, but the music was amazing, as was the calibre of dancing. I have been to many places to dance and this event by far has the best dancing I have ever experienced. The choreography showcases and pre-lims for the Jack and Jill happened throughout the night, there is a video playlist at the end of this section, check it out! Afterhours dancing happened at Fritzel’s, a jazz bar with two levels and live music all night. Another night of blissful exhausted sleep followed.
Waking up on Saturday morning was oddly easy as I knew there was going to be more dancing! We headed down to the French Market to dance outside on a portable wooden floor, it ended up raining and some of the competitions had to be pushed back to the evening. We did get to dance though and it was fantastic. So much happened that it will be hard to write about it and keep this relatively short, so I will try and just stick to the highlights. My favourite venue by far was the WWII museum that was the location of the Saturday night dance. Imagine a hanger with old fighter planes hanging from the ceiling and a massive dance floor, if I wasn’t drinking water or toweling off, I was on the dance floor. Met some more amazing people and had some of my best dances ever! The evening was broadcasted online live by the local News stations. Another late night at Fritzel’s and got a chance to work on my balboa a lot as we were packed in there like sardines. More sleeping…
Sunday there were classes and a club crawl that meandered around to a bunch of different jazz clubs on Frenchmen St., there are literally 6-8 of them within two blocks. Dinner and then off to the House of Blues to dance, watch some performances, listen to some great music, and the last of the competitions. Winners were announced and prizes were handed out, check out the ULHS website for the results. Earlier that evening I had the opportunity to meet Joseph Wiggan, one of the world’s best tap dancers, while we were walking back to our hotel. He and his friend Jason are amazing guys and really enjoyed the chance to chat and talk tap for a bit. I was also privileged to be invited to jam with them during the dance before they performed with the band onstage! This was by far the best moment of the weekend and has inspired me to take up my taps again and get back into practicing. This dance went late into the night and goodbyes had started, it was sad to have to say farewell to so many people that I had just met, but I know I will see them again at another event sometime. Mmmm blissful sleep…
Monday was filled with lots of rest and eating. Birkley and I managed to head out to the Garden District and catch the musicians vs. dancers baseball game. I ended up getting to play a bit and was dubbed ‘Matt from Canada’ as I was the only Canadian on the field. Managed to do decent with my rusty baseball skills and the dancers took the musicians to town and stopped their bad mouthing. Back to the hotel to shower, nap and change before wandering down to Frenchmen St again and catching the remnants of the lindy hoppers that were left in town and still able to dance. Got about 2 hours of sleep before having to wake up and head to the airport to catch our flights home. Quite the change in weather as we had been having 25-35 degree and humid weather in New Orleans and it was -7 and snowing in Calgary.
All in all, I highly recommend this event to anybody interested in experiencing some of the best lindy hop out there! The city was a great time to hang out in and there was live music everywhere! Words can’t begin to explain how much fun I had, so I will leave you with a playlist of videos from the weekend!
Just a reminder that the Todd and Ramona workshop weekend is happening up in Edmonton this weekend. If you haven’t signed up, I highly suggest that you go to this event. Ramona won a few of the competitions at ULHS and her dancing is amazing. Check out the Sugar Swing Website for more info. See you there!
Last thing to note, I have just booked more hall space and will be running another series of classes starting in November! Swing 1 will be running again, so if you are new to swing dancing, this is the class for you. Swing 2 will also be running, take this class if you have taken Swing 1 and want to keep moving forward or if you have previous dance experience in other social dances. If you have any questions about the classes please Contact Us. Classes will be posted in the next day or two, sign up early to reserve your spot!
Longest post yet! Thanks for reading and look forward to see you out on the dance floor!
