Fieldwork Diary Entry (March 12, 2013)

Nikki Santilli met with me tonight before her Solo Charleston class at Wild Times so that I could interview her.  We met at six pm at Itsu in Convent Garden at her suggestion.  This would give us an hour before we needed to leave for her dance class.

I arrived first and it was odd to be waiting to interview someone I had never met before.  With the last two interviews, the interview subjects were people I had known prior and also had attended their dance classes.  Nikki arrived and she couldn't have been friendlier. She looks to be in her early to mid- 30s and is of Italian heritage although born and raised in London. She has a PhD in English Literature and was very interested in my research.  She has a company called Hot Jazz Rag through which she teaches vintage dances including Balboa, Lindy hop, Authentic Jazz and Charleston. Before the interview begins, I am worried about the loud background music being played in Itsu. I resolve to try and take as many notes as possible if the recording turns out to be undecipherable because of the music.

Nikki Santilli. Photo courtesy of Hot Jazz Rag

The interview with Nikki goes well and she raises some points that I have not considered as to why  solo Charleston is not as popular in London as other vintage dances.  She says that solo dancing is no longer a big deal now the way it was in the 1920s when it was a statement to dance solo. Also that in the 1920s they were possibly all incredibly intoxicated or high which fuelled the madness of dancing the Charleston for hours on end. Something that is harder to do when sober.  Her view about vintage social dancing is that people do it nowadays to meet people and hence the partner swing dancing is more popular for this reason. She is very open with me about her view of the swing dance world and if it weren't for the class that she is teaching and I am attending, I feel we could have continued talking for some time.

Afterwards we walk to the class together.  The last time I had been to Wild Times was in September 2012 where I took a solo Charleston workshop with the Bees Knees. It was my first every Charlestonclass and whilst the class was less than brilliant, it clearly did not dampen my enthusiasm for the Charleston.

Wild Times is a weekly dance night run by the London Swing Society in a venue in Holborn. The venue has a large hall where partner swing classes are taught and a basement lounge space where solo jazz classes are taught.  The basement lounge looks like a seventies student den with a bar along one wall,  booths along the other and a square open space with tarquet flooring in the middle where the classes are taken.

At tonight's Charleston class there are 23 students in total ranging in age from approx 20's to 50s.  Over half of them are men which is unusual to me.  Some of the students are dressed in 40s swing dance style clothing and I guess they are attending this class before moving upstairs to the swing lessons.

Nikki launches straight into teaching us a call and response routine Busby- Berkeley style. She splits the men into one group and the women into another  and shows us our different movements,  It's an unorthodox way of teaching with no warm up which I find troubling as some of the movement she has us do include small jumps.  We then run through our actions, the men starting, the women following, the men going again and so on.  The men are together in a cluster in the middle of the room whilst the women form a circle round them, facing out.  Throughout this I wonder when the Charleston will come into the routine.

The men's movements consist of a sailor jig, Cossack style jump with both legs tucked under whilst in the air and side kicks.

The women's movements were travelling steps going clock-wise facing out. We took two shunting steps backwards, torso bent forward, bum sticking out with one arm stretched out in front at 90 degrees and the other in a triangle position (the point of the triangle being the elbow). We then took two steps to the side and then kicked left and then right.

Together we all then did the Birdy walk to the centre to form one group. And then Nikki taught us the following routine:

• 2 x basic Charleston
• 1 x basic Charleston with wide kick. 
• The wide kick happens when kicking one leg up in to a wide circular arc off the ground by bringing the leg to the front and instead of stepping onto it as you normally would do for the Charleston, you lift it up and kick it and then fall back into the basic Charleston.
• 1 x basic Charleston with kick forward into Scarecrow pose.
• End the basic Charleston with a flick kick forward and then drop into Scarecrow pose
• 2 x Charleston slaps on right leg
• 2 x Charleston slaps on left leg
• 4 x Charleston slaps on right leg turning
• 4 x Charleston slaps on left leg turning

As the class progressed, I tried to maintain enthusiasm but felt increasingly like I wanted to leave. Nikki's teaching style was very haphazard and scatty with none of the structure I am used to in a dance class. The movements weren't really explained and 3/4 of the way through the class, I still did not feel warm.  Nikki herself could do the movements very well but her transmission of them to the class was not so well done.  I felt bad about my thoughts, especially as Nikki had given me such a wonderful interview.

I wasn't the only one who felt the way I did.  I noticed one lady who had told Nikki  that it was her first Charleston class, leave halfway through the class. The other thing about the class that was disconcerting was a sense of cliquiness and coolness.  Many of the students seemed to know one another and obviously were waiting  to go to the swing class upstairs.  Everyone seemed very serious.  The atmosphere was different to Rosaria's classes which I feel are warm and accepting.  Nikki had discussed this clique aspect with me in our interview and I experienced it for myself shortly after.  She had said some people get very serious about the dancing, so serious that the enjoyment goes out of it.

I think that if I had started Charleston at Wild Times and only here, I would not have progressed with it.  Not because of the dance but because of the oppressive and cliquey atmosphere that prevails there.