Soul in the Music:

You can find soul in a lot of places, but there is something special about what has happened in the United States. Here this energy was born out of the pain of spirituals and the blues, out of an experience of remaking oneself and creating a culture in which to exist after your own had been taken from you. Many people would speak of this soul in shorthand as a black thing, because traditionally it has been black people in America that have been the prime creators and keepers of this energy, but this energy can reside in anyone. Just like it moved the racially mixed house band of the great Stax soul label to create the songs that everyone would identify as the very definition of soul music, it moves millions of vastly different people from all over the world when they find jazz or hip-hop and feel they can connect to it. The music of the 60's called Soul, initially just secular gospel, is an epicenter of sorts for this soul energy. The music was sometimes raw, sometimes sweet, sometimes electric and joyful, sometimes brokenhearted and sad. But in all of its incarnations, that thread ran throughout strong and clear to see. The music was simple, usually a big danceable beat, and a voice. And in both the voice and the music, it was the soul, the energy, what those musicians and those singers were feeling, that was of ultimate importance. The words, though oftentimes great, took a backseat most often to the sound. It was not just the specific notes, but the way they were played. It was not just the tempo of the beat, but the particular looseness or tightsness of the rhythm they played. It was the cumulative expression that spoke to people, that makes us still want to move today. Just put on a record from the era - try Heatwave, or Tramp, or Respect (Otis or Aretha) - and try to break it down. Turn it off and write down the words and read them to yourself. Get a midi ringtone of the melody. These parts alone, stripped away from the whole lose something more than their accompaniment. There is a soul to the music, that exists in all of its parts, but even more so in the synergy of their mixture. It is that synergy, the feeling that those songs evoke in us that we are celebrating with the Swing & Soul Party.

Soul in the Dance:

All of the old timers that I have had a chance to talk with about what swing dancing means to them and where they would like to see it go in the future have said variations of the same thing.  They are excited to see where the dance goes and what new things people do with it, with the single caveat that they would like that growth to be informed by the history of the dance, where it comes from.  When pressed on the point, almost invariably, they speak of a certain link, or a thread, something that runs through all of the dancing they did back in the day, and the dancing that people do now.  It is this thread that they dont want us to lose.  And when you watch Frankie, or Norma, or any of our dance elders move, it is generally pretty clear to see, so it doesnt usuallly bear a lot of talking about.  You can watch clips of old dancers and you can watch new dancers, some of whom are wildly different, and you can see when there is a thread connecting them and when there isnt.  But what exactly is that thread itself?

When I think of what thing is held in common between old dancing and new all I can come up with is this certain energy.  There is something soulful in the movement of the best dancers, whatever kind of dancing they are doing.  And when I looked for what connected the best dancing from back in the day, and the best dancing from now, and all of it in between, it was that soul that ran through it all.  It is that same energy that found life and strength in black american culture and it is that energy, that soul, that I think makes up that thread that connects us.  I think this holds true whether you dance Lindy Hop, Hand Dance, West Coast Swing, or Shag or Steppin or Hustle.  Whether you dance Whip or Push or Swingout or Two-Step, all of those great partner dances have their roots in Swing Dancing and Swing Dancing has always, at its best, been infused with soul.

Swing & Soul

This is the kind of event we have always wanted to attend.  So when Manu and Steven asked Tena and I to help put this event together we jumped at the chance.  The idea was to create an event where we could get away from competitions and classes and moreover away from our responsibilities and the labels that we get stuck in and just get back to having a party, to gettin down and finding a feeling on the dance floor.  We wanted to find a way to bring together social dancers from different backgrounds and different locations to make that feeling happen not just with a partner, but with the whole crowd.  We wanted to get the whole room moving together, sweating and pumping to the beat, doin a little soul train line, busting out a little electric slide, just bringing good dancing together with good music to have some good times.  The dancing we all do comes from Swing and the music we love is full of Soul.  At the Swing & Soul weekend we want to bring these two elements together to create a party where everyone can let loose and satisfy that soul inside of themselves. 

So in the words of the immortal Sam Cooke:

Come on 'n let the good times roll
We gon' stay here 'til we soothe our souls
if it take all night long

-Peter & the Swing & Soul Team