Carsie Blanton is an amazing dancer, singer, songwriter from Philadelphia and now she has a hit song that we wanted to share with everyone…and you might not know a lot of these dancers, but they, too are awesome Chance Bushman of New Orleans dancing with Giselle Anquizola of Los Angeles and Peter Loggins of Los Angeles dancing with Amy Johnson of New Orleans…

Carsie will be singing with Gordon Webster at the Dirty Water Lindy & Blues Exchange in September 2012, make sure you get your weekend pass here.

Check out more from Carsie here.

It’s the 4th Friday of the month and you know what that means… BOSTON SWING CENTRAL is hosting Swingology!  Swingology is a concept we at Boston Swing Central have been developing to explore some details of the music we all love to dance to!  The question, “What swings?” has been the source of considerable debate and discussion, so we want Swingology to be the place where DJs can showcase their own diverse interpretations of “What swings?”.

Depending on the DJ, you may get a blend of classic swing (Bix Beiderbeck, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey) with favorite soul artists (Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone), or maybe the best of Neo-swing (Indigo Swing, Lavay Smith) and great swing-era divas (Ella, Carmen McRae, Ernestine Anderson), and there’s sure to be some fantastic jump blues and hot jazz in the mix too! The idea of Swingology is to explore some of these boundaries while keeping the mix strongly rooted in familiar artists and songs we love to hear.

We know that a lot of our DJs like to play some pretty funky stuff on occasion, but since the idea of Swingology is specifically to keep things swingin’, you can expect a night full of good, solid, swing dance music from every corner of the kingdom of Swing! It is quite a challenge for the DJs, but one thing’s for sure, the music will be like the weather in New England: if you don’t like it, just wait 5 minutes.  Come see where Swingology will take you!

Kellian Adams and Brian Pletcher are back for their monthly lesson with BSC, and we’re sure they will have some great stuff for you this week!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-12am
$10 / $8 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

Come to BOSTON SWING CENTRAL this week for Rocco and the Stompers! They’re a little big band with a big heart in the spirit of Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges. We asked Frank from Beantown Swing Orchestra if he could make a smaller version of his great band to showcase the different character that smaller swing bands offer. He told us he already had one and they were called Rocco & the Stompers! We talked to leader Danny Fratina and he was very receptive to doing some of our favorite songs, he even worked out new charts for songs we gave him by Duke Ellington and Roy Eldridge! Wow, what more could we ask for? This will be their 3rd time playing Boston Swing Central and we’re excited to be able to bring them back for you again!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-12am
$13 / $10 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

Newsflash!

We are excited to update you with news that the Boston Phoenix is going to check out Boston Swing Central this Friday for Neo-Swing night.  They’re sending someone over to take the lesson and experience the dance, and we hope you will come out to help us show them that swing dancing is alive and swingin’ in Boston!

This week, we want to take you back in time; but instead of the usual jump to the 40s and 50s, we’ll revisit the years that were our own swingin’ beginnings: the 90s! So put on your best “Zoot Suit Riot” and come “Jump, Jive, and Wail” all night long as our DJs spice up their rockin’ sets with an extra serving of your favorite contemporary swing bands, including Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Indigo Swing, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and all the rest. Our DJs for the night will be Khrysti Smyth, James “TopCAT” McClurkin, and Jason Provost.

Not sure what we’re talking about? Watch the 1998 Gap Khakis commercial that helped set off the Neo-Swing explosion and let this little slice of contemporary history spark your memory!

And, as if that wasn’t enough to get you excited about this week at BSC, Amanda and Shawn of It’s All Swing are back again to teach for us this week!  Can you imagine two weeks in a row of this awesome pair?  Maybe they’ll pull out some retro “Neo-Swing” moves to teach us!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-12am
$10 / $8 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

This week, BOSTON SWING CENTRAL is Swinging with King Louie!  Not Louis XIV, but rather Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan and Louis Prima!  We’ll have the superlative Louis Armstrong catalog, the jump blues of Louis Jordan, and that Vegas kitsch of Louis Prima to delight your ears all night long.  Sounds like a winning combination to us!

Our instructors tonight will be the phenomenal Amanda Gruhl and Shawn Hershey of It’s All Swing studios!  This is a dynamic duo that we absolutely adore for many reasons, not the least of which is the amount of thought and care they put into the development of their revolutionary teaching style.  Come see what they have to offer you this week!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-12am
$10 / $8 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

Did you know…?

• Louis Armstrong was nicknamed Satchmo.
• Louis Jordan hailed from Arkansas and he is often credited with penning the first rock and roll song, called “Saturday Night Fish Fry”.
• Louis Prima is the voice of everybody’s favorite swingin’ orangutan and inspiration for this night: King Louie from Disney’s animated classic, “The Jungle Book”!

It’s the 4th Friday of the month and you know what that means… BOSTON SWING CENTRAL is hosting Swingology! For those of you who didn’t hear about it last month, Swingology is a concept we at Boston Swing Central have been developing to explore some details of the music we all love to dance to! The question, “What swings?” has been the source of considerable debate and discussion, so we want Swingology to be the place where DJs can showcase their own diverse interpretations of “What swings?”.

Depending on the DJ, you may get a blend of classic swing (Bix Beiderbeck, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey) with favorite soul artists (Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone), or maybe the best of Neo-swing (Indigo Swing, Lavay Smith) and great swing-era divas (Ella, Carmen McRae, Ernestine Anderson), and there’s sure to be some fantastic jump blues and hot jazz in the mix too! The idea of Swingology is to explore some of these boundaries while keeping the mix strongly rooted in familiar artists and songs we love to hear.

We know that a lot of our DJs like to play some pretty funky stuff on occasion, but since the idea of Swingology! is specifically to keep things swingin’, you can expect a night full of good, solid, swing dance music from every corner of the kingdom of Swing! It is quite a challenge for the DJs, but one thing’s for sure, the music will be like the weather in New England, if you don’t like it, wait 5 minutes and it will change. We are able to go until 1am tonight, so come see where Swingology will take you!

Camille Fontanella will be our guest DJ this week and she will also be teaching a lindy hop lesson before the dance!  Camille hails from Western Mass and has taught and DJed all over the Northeast so come early to get the full experience!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-1am
$10 / $8 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

Come to BOSTON SWING CENTRAL this week for another AMAZING band, the Gordon Webster Quartet!  Gordon Webster played for us a month or two ago and it was one of the most fantastic nights of dancing we’ve had yet!  This time we’ve asked him to come back with his singer, Brianna Thomas to change things up a bit.  We’re sure this night is going to be fantastic so get your dancing shoes on and come on down to Central Square to dance the night away!

And we have another special treat for you tonight: our instructors are going to be Aurelie and Tony Tye of Hop to the Beat dance studio!  Aurelie and Tony have been swing dancing in Boston for nearly 20 years and sharing their love of swing dance through teaching since 1994.  They have done so much to help grow the swing scene in Boston, including creating and running the week-long Beantown lindy hop dance camp every year since 1997.  If you’ve heard of them and wondered what they’re about, here’s your chance, so come out early!

Keep in mind that we do have a capacity and we will be holding to it for safety reasons, so another reason to come early is to ensure you get a spot on the floor!  If you come later and we have the door held, try again in about 30 minutes and we’ll likely be able to let a few more in.  There are a lot of great bars, clubs, and a fantastic coffee shop right around the corner that can keep you entertained in the meantime!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-12am
SPECIAL EVENT! $15 / $12 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

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This week, BOSTON SWING CENTRAL is proud to present the Beantown Swing Orchestra!  This is certainly a not-to-be-missed event: first of all, Beantown has been working on a whole new set of music specifically resulting from dancers’ requests, secondly they have a fabulous new vocalist that we can’t wait to hear, and finally, Beantown is featured in a movie that’s coming out on the 19th called My Best Friend’s Girl (starring Kate Hudson, Dane Cook, and Jason Biggs)!  All of these things add up to AWESOMENESS!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-12am
$13 / $10 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

Come to BOSTON SWING CENTRAL this week for the Back Bay Rhythm Makers, the 6-8 piece band that stems from the White Heat Swing Orchestra!  They played for us back in May and rocked the house, so we’re bringing them back again!  Help us welcome back all of our students and kick off the Fall with a big BBRM bang!

Lesson 8-9pm / Dancing 9pm-12am
$13 / $10 for students (with valid ID) and seniors

Featuring the Best Swing, Soul, and Blues with some of our Favorite DJs until 1 am!
Lesson: 8:00-9:00pm
General Dancing: 9:00pm-midnight
$10, $8 (Students/Seniors with valid ID)

We are closed due to a private function at the church

We are closed tonight in support of Wicked Lindy

Boston Swing Central is a dancer-formed, non-profit, volunteer-run organization dedicated to promoting positive and fun swing dancing experiences in Boston.

We have two primary objectives. First, to provide a weekly Friday night dance that caters to the desires of dancers of all levels. This means a dance that is centrally located, on public transportation, and reasonably priced.

Second, to champion the diverse voices within our community by remaining open and neutral with regards to information and promotion of other swing dancing events in the greater Boston area and by striving to feature a wide variety of teachers, bands, and DJs.

You can donate to us via Paypal or use a credit card here:

We are a 501(c)3 non-profit.

Join our team, make new friends, be a part of something fun and exciting.  See the Volunteers page for info.

Elmo is a bad-ass DJ. He kicks everyone’s ass.

Jay’s a bad-ass DJ. He kick’s Mike H.’s ass.

Mike Hibarger is a bad-ass DJ. He kicks Jay’s ass.

Featuring some Summertime treats!

Lesson: 8:00-9:00pm
General Dancing: 9:00pm-midnight
$10, $8 (Students/Seniors with valid ID)

The Fried Bananas (www.thefriedbananas.com) were created with the goal of providing music for swing dancers and plays a mix of blues, swing, and gypsy jazz. The majority of the members live in Boston though Josh lives in Albany and Jeramie lives in DC.

Shawn Hershey put the Fried Bananas together in December of 2006 to play at a Lindy Hop house party for his girlfriend’s 30th birthday party. Josh and Jeramie, lindy hopping friends, came from Albany and Washington DC to dance and to play. Our friends Steve and Ben, both Boston locals, also donated their services. Anna Callahan, also a local swing dancer and musician, joined the band to perform at a Blues Cafe dance. Jim Frey plays with the Fried Bananas when Jeramie can’t make it up from DC to join them.

As you’ll often hear from our community, Frankie Manning was one of the founding fathers of the Lindy Hop….he definitely inspired many of us. Sadly he passed away a few weeks before his 95th Birthday…which was about 3 years ago. Anyhow, we want to keep his spirit alive by letting people know how awesome he was…So we offer you some history lessons with a series of videos that we found. The first, is Frankie retelling his story about the first aerial…(there are many video interviews with Frankie, we hope you explore them and get to know Frankie & his dancing).

The second is from a documentary on the Savoy Ballroom, which is part of a series, there are more on YouTube if you want to explore more…(this one has a brief interview with Frankie).

This is the amazing choreography from Hellzapoppin that shows Frankie & Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers at their peak, tearing it up…Frankie can be seen at about 1:15 in overalls and he’s the guy getting kicked in the butt…always a comic, Frankie used to tell the story of how his butt hurt for a few days after they did so many rehearsals of this high energy routine…

And sort of related, we have some really interesting and primitive footage from a Savoy Ballroom pavillion/exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair which was held in New York. The footage was shot using a home movie camera of the time and unfortunately, they didn’t have sound. It’s still fascinating to watch. There are many social dancers and as is still common with a lot of dances there are more women than men, so there are a lot of gals dancing with gals…(and this is before a lot of the guys shipped out for WWII).

Flash mobs are everywhere, and Lindy Hop, swing dancing and the Shim Sham have gotten in on the craze…these videos show you just how International the dance is and how you can have a complex flash mob, a less formal flash mob using the instant choreography of the Shim Sham (our Lindy Hop national anthem dance), or have a simple routine (check out the Boston Lindy Bomb Squad below). The point is to get out there and expose new people to the dance…and judging from the number of hits on this Denver Lindy Hop Flash Mob at the Denver Airport, a great many people have seen this, so it looks like it was pretty successful…

The Lindy Bomb Squad detonate Red Line passengers with their swingouts…!