Why am I doing this?

I have been thinking about writing a lindy Hop DJ blog for some time and I’ve never had the guts to start. Basically, I was worried people would think the tracks I have to share aren’t that remarkable so what was the point…..then,  a few significant things happened:

1. I was inspired by the regular blog updates from the fabulous Miss Tessa Smith: http://tessasmith.wordpress.com/ Which  made me think about writing the blog for my own benefit and development as much as for the enjoyment of others

2. I was encouraged to see that my favourite UK lindyhop DJ Andy Lewis (who was and still is a great inspiration and who helped me find my feet as a fledgeling DJ) has started blogging: http://blog.straycat.me.uk/

3. I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl and I now find myself on mat leave with a lot more time where i have a baby in one hand and an i phone in the other:-)

So here’s the issue. I currently have literally 1000′s of swinging jazz tracks but due to a previous lack of time, laziness and habit, I generally only ever compile a set from a pool of around 700 or so. This leaves a load of music sitting unheard in the depths of my macbook:-(.

The plan? I am going to rescue said abandoned tracks and listen to my entire collection over the course of a year. I will start with the letter “A” and every fortnight I will move on a letter. I will post the most interesting tracks that are sitting there and would be great to dance to but for whatever reason I am not currently playing.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is a good reason why I don’t tap into everything all the time – or at least there was. I most regularly “DJ” at Lindy Fridays which is a regular “entry level” lindy hop class. I believe it helps new dancers if they become accustomed to certain tracks so they can work on things  like breaks and improvised steps from the security of knowing the music. Thinking back to when I was a new dancer, there was so much complexity to learning the footwork and trying to understand “frame” that if I was constantly hit with different and new music all the time it might have blown my mind. I enjoyed dancing to the familiar songs I knew because at least then I could wiggle at the bits I recognised when the feet and the arms were not behaving!! (New followers – if you ever find yourself in the middle of a truely awful dance with a more advanced lead and you just want to die because you aren’t getting it then shimmy. There is NEVER a bad time to shimmy – it will make you feel better and make your leader smile. In the unlikely event that the mood still needs to be lifted further, turn round and shimmy your bum at them – I guarantee this works and these 2 tricks saw me through my first 3 dance camps

OK, enough waffle – time to get started! A is for……

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