Blue Moon will be back in June.

Blue Moon’s March 2013 Dance is this Thursday, March 7th.  Location: Rusty’s, 405 E 7th Street (@ Trinity), downtown Austin.

What’s New This Month?

Dance starts at 7.30 for casual warm-up, with a beginner lesson at 8.00 and open social dancing as long as someone is on the floor.

As always, everything is on me, except your bar tab. Please consider buying a few drinks so that the establishment loves us.  Under 21 welcome accompanied by a supervising adult.

Blue Moon’s Valentine’s Dance this Thursday is a great way to schmooze with your honey on the dance floor. This Thursday (that’s in 2 days!), Feb 7th.  Location: Rusty’s, 405 E 7th Street (@ Trinity), downtown Austin.

What’s New This Month?

This month we’ll investigate Super Symmetry in swing — working with basic moves but from a different angle.  Dance starts at 7.30 for casual warm-up, with a beginner lesson at 8.00 and open social dancing as long as someone is on the floor.

As always, everything is on me, except your bar tab. Please consider buying a few drinks so that the establishment loves us.  Under 21 welcome accompanied by a supervising adult.

What’s New This Month?

It wouldn’t be a First Dance is there wasn’t something going on for the first time. We’re expecting a special appearance by Gail and Carl (yay!), and who knows what other firsts we may turn up ? Dance starts at 7.30 for casual warm-up, with a beginner lesson with at 8.00 and open social dancing as long as someone is on the floor.

As always, everything is on me, except your bar tab. Please consider buying a few drinks so that the establishment loves us.  Under 21 welcome accompanied by a supervising adult.

Blue Moon Swing Holiday Dance This Thursday, Dec 6th, 2012! Santa is busy at the toy factory and this is your last chance to show him how nice (or naughty) your dance can be. Start the Holiday season off with an evening of swing dancing. Festive attire in red, green or white suggested! (Or Santa brings you coal!).

Thursday, December 6th.  Location: Rusty’s, 405 E 7th Street (@ Trinity), downtown Austin.

What’s New This Month

Looks like presents came early this year because Blue Moon is happy to welcome Jes Ann Nail as our guest instructor this month. Dance starts at 7.30 for casual warm-up, with a beginner lesson at 8.00 and open social dancing as long as someone is on the floor.

As always, everything is on me, except your bar tab. Please consider buying a few drinks so that the establishment loves us.  Under 21 welcome accompanied by a supervising adult.

‘Twas the Night Before Blue Moon

‘Twas the night before Blue Moon, when all through the street
Not an espadrille was stirring, nor even two feet;

The swing shoes were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Debbie Figueroa someday soon would be there;

The westies were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-pushes danced in their heads;

And  Roxy in her ‘kerchief, and Richard’s tippy-tap,
Had just settled down for a winter’s nightcap,

When out on the street there arose such a clatter,
We sprang up from our drinks to see what was the matter.

And what to our wondering eyes should appear,
But a  Texas Ford F-150, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a red breasted suit, and his hair in a slick,
We knew in a moment it must be Westie Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he hammed it up, and double compressed, and called them by name;

“Now, Jes Ann! now, Derrick! now Luis and Linda!
On, Chris Brown and Taletha! On, Topel and Tina!

To the end of the slot! but beware the wall!
Now swing away! swing away! swing away all!”

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

He spoke not a word, and without any miming,
And fixed all the anchors; then improved all the timing,

Then laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

But I heard him exclaim, ere he danced out of sight,
“Merry Swingmas to All, Blue Moon, now dance all night!”

What the heck is Soul anyway? More on that at the end of this post.

What’s New This Month?

It wouldn’t be an All Soul’s Day dance without an angel to look over us. And we’ve got one of the biggies. He may keep his wings under wraps, and have a bit of a Devil-may-care look, but Angel Figueroa will be joining us, as patron saint of your …. soles.  Dance starts at 7.30 for casual warm-up, with a beginner lesson with Angel at 8.00 and open social dancing as long as someone is on the floor.

As always, everything is on me, except your bar tab. Please consider buying a few drinks so that the establishment loves us.  Under 21 welcome accompanied by a supervising adult.

What Is Soul?

Soul music is a combination of R&B and gospel sounds that began in Memphis in the late 50s. It’s different from R&B due to Soul’s greater emphasis on vocalists and its merging of religious and secular themes. This merging united Blues, a musical style that celebrated human sexual desire, with Gospel, oriented toward spiritual inspiration, to create Soul which tends to tell stories of human romantic love.

Why does this matter to dancers? Well, Soul marks the beginnings of a musical movement that lead directly to what we differentiate today as Lindy versus West Coast Swing. To a Westie, Soul feels like “classic swing” and is a blast to dance to — and anything earlier sounds too early to feel very west coast-ish. To a Lindy hopper, Soul feels more like “groove lindy” and is also a blast to dance to — and anything later sounds too contemporary to feel very lindy-ish.  Of course, back then it was all just “swing”, but Soul is where we retrospectively look back and say “aha! here is where the two paths started to diverge!”. Without Soul, everyone reading this might otherwise just be out bowling.

Soul eventually dominated the non-Rock’n'Roll music scene in the 1960′s and led to movements such as Neo-Soul, and Funk. But Soul itself never really went away. For fun: try listening to early recordings of Sam Cooke (“the man who invented Soul”), Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown from the 50′s and 60′s and then immediately put on a song by contemporary artists like Mary J. Blige, Anthony Hamilton, Joss Stone, or Raphael Saadiq. The strong similarities will jump out at you.

This Thursday

Blue Moon Swing returns! Last month four dozen  brave and saintly dancers showed at our “Dirty Dirty Swing” Dance — and survived. Now, with the spookie Halloween season coming up fast, what else will they face at this week’s dance dance? Swinging to the Smashing Pumpkins? There’s only one way to find out: This Thursday (that’s in 5 days!), Oct 4th.  Location: Rusty’s, 405 E 7th Street (@ Trinity), downtown Austin.

What’s New This Month?

Pro teacher this month is the adorable bundle of non-stop-dance-energy, Sherry Reynolds.  Dance starts at 7.30 for casual warm-up, with a beginner lesson at 8.00 and open social dancing as long as someone is on the floor (or until they kick us out)

As always, everything is on me, except your bar tab. Please consider buying a few drinks so that the establishment loves us.  Under 21 welcome accompanied by a supervising adult.

Leave the kiddies with the babysitter, and come celebrate how you got the kids in the first place! This Thursday, September 6th, 2012. Location: Rusty’s, 405 E 7th Street (@ Trinity), downtown Austin.

Now, this is Texas, and I’ve learned that standards are different here. Therefore as a reference for the faint of ear, here are two examples:

“Sweat” by Poppa Chubby (hmm, that’s got a whole another story right there!)

and

“I Could Get Over Him — If I Could Get Under You” by Kayce Jones.

Forewarned is forearmed. Note: all the songs are legitimately sw

Blue Moon is this Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 7.30 pm.

Special guest instructor this month: Sherry Reynolds, from Uptown Dance. And yes, the very same Sherry that runs the LoneStar Invitational. This will be Sherry’s first appearance at Blue Moon Swing, and she’s so taken with our “duct tape dancing” that we do at 7:30 that she’s excited to report she’ll be there for the 7:30 warm up before the lesson, and after the lesson she’ll stay for social dancing for most of the remainder of the evening! What a treat!

Finally, I’ve also asked Derick Van Ness to be a guest DJ at our August dance. Derick will be delighting you for a 45 min set starting at 8.30pm, so please come out and support him and BMS!

Blue Moon carries on that tradition with its annual Independence Day swing this Thursday, July 5th at 7.30 pm.  Vote with your freedom-loving feet and let freedom swing!

Special guest instructor this month: a Figueroa. No, not “A. Figueroa”, but rather “a” Figueroa. It’s a surprise, but we’ll have either an A. or a D., and you won’t know till you get here .

Finally, if you’re a fan of ACDC (and you should be!), spread the word that there is no dance this week (Tues, July 3rd) due to the holiday. Classes and dances for ACDC will recommence next week, July 10th. Spread the word, since no one wants to drive there and be greeted to a locked door and no dancing.

On the other hand, since you won’t have your Tuesday “fix”, just imagine how joyous your toes will be at Blue Moon this Thursday!