| History
The Club Dance Faculty is the newest of the twelve ISTD faculties
and was formed in 1999 under the joint Chairmanship of Anne
Lingard and Nicky Miles.
Activities
A technical video focusing on the Argentine Tango and
Salsa was produced in 2000. At present technical syllabi
are being produced in West Coast Swing and Lindy Hop.
Full Club Dance medals in bronze, silver and gold, plus
a one dance gold star medal are also being developed.
Dances
Lindy
Hop
Lindy Hop, the original swing dance, is an energetic, free-spirited
dance, with its roots in Charleston. Lindy Hop was born in
the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York in the late 1920s.
The name, so the story goes, derives from a newspaper headline
after Charles Lindburgh flew solo from New York to Paris:
"Lindy Hops the Atlantic". The music of Lindy Hop
comes from the early days of Jazz. Classic Lindy Hop dance
tracks were composed by the likes of Cab Calloway and Count
Basie. Current Lindy Hop composers and performers include
Brian Setzer, Royal Crown Revue and Jools Holland.
West
Coast Swing
West Coast Swing is a slow, improvised swing variation. Smooth,
earthy, grounded, it is danced with spins, synchopations and
musical breaks. The dance is said to have evolved from Lindy
Hop and Swing when Hollywood started putting the dances on
the screen. The width of the screen demanded the dance take
on a lateral element in conjunction with the turns. West Coast
Swing is most frequently danced to Blues and Jazz music, and
more recently to Country Western and Disco.
Argentine Tango
Born in the brothels and bordellos of turn of the 20th century
Buenos Aires, Argentine Tango is a sensual dance of elegance
and intimacy. It was said that tango is "a vertical expression
of a horizontal desire". The musical roots of Argentine
Tango can be found in Spanish and Afro-Caribbean rhythms,
which merged with the sound of the bandoneon and the broken-heartedness
of immigrants far from home. The tour of the show Tango
Argentino in the early 1980s rekindled interest for this most
passionate of dances, and since then Tango has become enormously
popular around the world.
Milonga
Milonga is the first form of Argentine Tango to have taken
shape, traceable from the late 1880s. Danced to lively, jaunty
music, the rhythmic heartbeat is that of the Habanera. Very
improvisational, Milonga is, at its base, playful walking
games with your partner. |
