Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
What's the official state dance of California?
Matt:
I read somewhere that California has an official state dance, the Western Swing. Can this be possible?
-- Wondering, San Diego
In Sacramento, all things are possible. But right at the top, to fend off any potential mail-with-attitude, the official state dance of California is the West Coast Swing. Western Swing is something else entirely. Requires cowboy boots and old Bob Willis records, I think.
Whatever else ailed us in 1988, California's elected reps quickly solved the crisis of our being one of the few danceless states in the union. Senator Quentin Kopp of San Francisco sponsored a bill proposing the West Coast Swing to fill that void. The bill passed 21 to 9 with a minimum of smart remarks. But in the state assembly, the square-dance lobby bought a few key legislators (lifetime bolo tie discounts, maybe?), who held out for an amendment making square dancing California's official folk dance. A brief floor revolt by salsa radicals came to nothing. So, wallflowers no longer, California's official dance card is now full.
West Coast Swing is a Hollywood adaptation of the East Coast's Lindy Hop (a.k.a. jive, shag, bop, jitterbug). The story goes that early movie directors, lacking wide-angle lenses, couldn't film a dance floor full of fast-moving, athletic Lindy Hoppers. So choreographers developed a version in which the man remains more or less in one spot and moves his partner back and forth in a linear pattern. It's less athletic, and the beat's a little slower than the Lindy, but the footwork and other moves are fancier. For Hollywood's purposes, this kept everybody in the frame and in focus.
Now that you've been alerted to that underground square-dance lobby, you might keep your eye on them. Consider that half of our states claim square dancing as their official dance and you can see the influence they have. They've lost only a few skirmishes with polka brigades in the upper Midwest and some well-entrenched cloggers in North Carolina.
Here's something you might be interested in.
What's the official state dance of California?
What's the official state dance of California?
Matt:
I read somewhere that California has an official state dance, the Western Swing. Can this be possible?
-- Wondering, San Diego
In Sacramento, all things are possible. But right at the top, to fend off any potential mail-with-attitude, the official state dance of California is the West Coast Swing. Western Swing is something else entirely. Requires cowboy boots and old Bob Willis records, I think.
Whatever else ailed us in 1988, California's elected reps quickly solved the crisis of our being one of the few danceless states in the union. Senator Quentin Kopp of San Francisco sponsored a bill proposing the West Coast Swing to fill that void. The bill passed 21 to 9 with a minimum of smart remarks. But in the state assembly, the square-dance lobby bought a few key legislators (lifetime bolo tie discounts, maybe?), who held out for an amendment making square dancing California's official folk dance. A brief floor revolt by salsa radicals came to nothing. So, wallflowers no longer, California's official dance card is now full.
West Coast Swing is a Hollywood adaptation of the East Coast's Lindy Hop (a.k.a. jive, shag, bop, jitterbug). The story goes that early movie directors, lacking wide-angle lenses, couldn't film a dance floor full of fast-moving, athletic Lindy Hoppers. So choreographers developed a version in which the man remains more or less in one spot and moves his partner back and forth in a linear pattern. It's less athletic, and the beat's a little slower than the Lindy, but the footwork and other moves are fancier. For Hollywood's purposes, this kept everybody in the frame and in focus.
Now that you've been alerted to that underground square-dance lobby, you might keep your eye on them. Consider that half of our states claim square dancing as their official dance and you can see the influence they have. They've lost only a few skirmishes with polka brigades in the upper Midwest and some well-entrenched cloggers in North Carolina.
Comments