San Francisco Swing - Did You Know?







	home getting started weekly classes event calendar instructors venues resources did you know? private lessons contact us We recommend An Introduction to 6-Count Swing on DVD.		did you know? There used to be more live music venues in the bay area 5-10 years ago and these days more of the dances are DJ'ed dances with live swing venues not as plentiful. Over 10 years ago there were very few people swing dancing / lindy hopping in San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose / the Bay Area compared to today. After movies like "Swing", the Gap commercials, all of the hype about swing, other commercials and bands, and all of us helping new people learn and get hooked on dancing, the scene grew in leaps and bounds. We posted this after someone sent it to us: Did you know that legendary lindy hopper Frankie Manning created the first aerial (or air step) by first practicing it with his partner on the roof of the building they lived in, and had a mattress to fall into each time until it was perfected! Judy helped us add to the content above from the real info! "Actually, they practised in Frankie's apartment which was on the top floor of the building (5th floor, no elevator). It would have been quite a bother to get the mattress one flight up to the roof every time they practised. The significance of the roof in Frankie's story is this: His partner Freida lived on the top floor of the building next door to Frankie's. It was a shortcut for her to go up one flight to the roof, go over the roof to the next building and then down one flight to Frankie's apartment. Otherwise, she would have had to go down five flights of stairs to the ground floor and up five flights of stairs to Frankie's apartment. She would have been huffing and puffing before even starting the practise! And then she would first have had to help Frankie carry that mattress up to the roof..." --content courtesy of Judy P. Did you know that longtime 9:20 instructors Paul & Sharon were actually Metronome Ballroom teachers before they ever started lindy hop? --content courtesy of Randy Did you know that lindy hopper Randy Cervantes once came to lindy in the park for over 6 months straight, never dancing once, all the while watching everyone dance, before a dancer named Raul told him about the Metronome, where Randy promptly enrolled? --content courtesy of Randy © 2000