Dance Fieldwork Diary (February 24, 2013)

I went along today to Rosaria's new Solo Charleston course at the YMCA near Tottenham Court Road.  This new course is on Sunday afternoons from 1330-1430.  I know Rosaria is hoping that the class time along with the more central location will result in a larger numbers of students attending.  I am attending so that I can supplement the core fieldwork I have done with her at the Cockpit Theatre and also because I miss dancing the Charleston.

The YMCA venue is very different to the Cockpit.  From the street, the doors open and you enter in to a vast, cavernous, multi-levelled building.  A huge, underground rabbit warren with many studios, a gym, pool, cafe and exercise spaces.  It takes me awhile to find the studio where Rosaria is teaching.

The studio is about half the size of the one at Cockpit Theatre with lower ceilings but a better floor.  It has mirrors along one length of the room. There were twelve students present including many familiar faces from the last course. Lynn, Amanda, Jane and Otila are all present.  New people included four males, one of which is a young child.  In fact there were two children in the class - they looked to be around 9-11 years of age and had come along with their mother.  It was refreshing to see new faces and have a few more men in the class too.

Rosaria ran the class as usual but I did notice she kept the pace punchy and there was no lag.  The class was an introduction to Charleston and she covered steps that I and several others in the class already knew.  Rosaria is aware of this as she commented to me after class that she might run an Advanced Charleston course for those of us that are ready to move to a different level.  I resolve to attend a few more of Rosaria's current classes, more to keep my hand in than for any other reason.  I  hope she runs the Advanced course.

I noticed during this class that although we have very little space to dance, this creates an interesting dynamic for the dance.  Charleston is originally meant to be danced in small spaces and I found that by having to keep the movement small and contained, I had much more control and could dance faster, with more fluidity. By keeping the 'wild, crazy' movements of the Charleston contained, the dance could be more wild and free. An interesting juxtaposition.  These thoughts reminded me of a clip I had seen of Bee Jackson doing the Charleston where her feet never moved from the one spot:

                                          Bee Jackson - Charlestoning on the spot - Youtube

Last Monday I went along to a Balboa dance night to listen to the music. The Balboa dance classes were run by a lady called Nikki Santilli who teaches vintage dance through her company, Hot Jazz Rag.  I saw on her website that Nikki was going to be teaching some one-off Solo Charleston classes at Wild Times.  I emailed to book a place in her class and also explained my research and asked if she would be interested in an interview.

On the interview front, Alia from Bees Knees has not replied to my email so I have sent a follow up one. Sharon Davis has emailed me back to say that she is teaching in America at the moment. I respond to say I can wait for when she returns to conduct the interview as it will still fit within my fieldwork time frame.  Fingers crossed.

Some of my email correspondence with Sharon Davis. Unfortunately the interview never happened