PLEASE NOTE -- THIS EVENT DISCONTINUED. (Out-grew the small space).
Now, Friday Swings at the Palais Royale Ballroom
Hep Cats Swinging Jazz Dance Nights
Live Swing and Blues Jazz from the 20's, 30's and early 40's. 
Lindy Hop -- Genuine Swing Dancing
At Gypsy Co-Op, 817 Queen St W, upstairs in the Hooch 703-5069
Every Thursday. Band starts at 9 p.m. $5 cover charge.
Dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. $10. To register, call 323-1300.
Hosted by Peter Renzland, with the Hog Town Hep Cats, this series is aimed at new dancers who love Jazz music from the 20's, 30's, and early 40's, and who want to learn to dance to the music they love.
The music and the dancing are solid, earthy, hot, sweet, sensuous, playful, and unabashedly joyful.
This is the music of Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford, Lucky Millinder, Buddy Johnson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines and King Oliver.
Just Jazz -- No Jive.  



Swing Fever heats up America ...

Films like Swing Kids, Malcolm X, and A League of Their Own
have become cult movies
for Swing Dancers. Bill Elliot, leader of one of the hottest Swing Dance
bands in the U.S. is putting together a Swing TV Network. Swing Baby is
a music/dance video made in Toronto and featuring Toronto's Hog Town Hep
Cats, dancing to the music of Big Rude Jake, a Toronto band.


San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York -- Hundreds of young lovers
of Swing music and dance fill the dance halls, some dressed in black-and-white
spectator shoes, zoot suits, drooping watch chains, and other Swing Era
fashions. At universities all over the U.S., the Swing Dance Club is the
most popular club on campus.


Todays hottest Swing bands are Indigo Swing, the Bill Elliot
Swing Orchestra, Big Time Operator, the Royal Crown Revue,
and the Eddie Reed Big Band. The Squirrel Nut Zippers performed
in Toronto last month. Ottawa's Jive Wires are famous from Seattle
to Sweden! Halifax's Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra, touring Toronto
in December, featured live on CBC Radio, coast-to-coast, New Year's Eve.


The December issue of Down Beat Magazine has a 7-page article
on the Swing Scenes on the West Coast and in Chicago. And December's Vogue
Magazine writes about the New York Swing Scene! W5 did a TV program
on the Montreal Swing Scene in December.


"On Thursday nights the Hooch is filled with great music, and a happy
crowd having a lot of fun dancing, or just listening and watching. The
people just love Swing music. Many have been wanting to learn to dance
to it, And now they can. And it's actually quite easy to get started. It's
a great atmosphere, full of good energy, and there's room to dance", says
Peter Renzland, host of the weekly event.








Swing Fever to break out in Toronto ...

"The mission of this weekly series is to develop several authentic Swing
Jazz Dance Bands, as well as prepare a number of dancers who know how
to dance to this great music, so Toronto will be ready when Swing Fever
hits here!", says Peter Renzland.


Two Steps Ahead of the coming Swing Dance Craze ...

"The Hep Cats will show the musicians and the new dancers what genuine
Swing dancing is all about, and we will provide easy, fun instruction in
this exciting dance that is sweeping North America and Europe. Dancing
is not about feet and steps. It's about connecting with your partner and
playing with the music. Energy, soul, improvising, syncopating,
spontaneous choreography.
The musicians inspire
the dancers and the dancers inspire the musicians. Classic Blues dancing
is the easiest way to get started - simple, sultry, and sensuous. Once
you're in tune with your partner and the rhythm, Swing dancing is a cinch.
It combines the most fun of African and European dance traditions", Peter
Renzland continues.


Peter Renzland dances, organizes, and teaches various forms of
traditional social dance - from Alpine to Zydeco. His focus is on authentic
Afro-American Jazz dance, such as the Lindy
Hop, the original Swing dance, as well as the Charleston and the
Black Bottom, forerunners of the Lindy Hop.


He maintains a TRADITIONAL
SOCIAL DANCE CALENDAR on the Internet (
www.dancing.org), and organises a number of dance groups and activities,
including group and private lessons, practice sessions, dance outings,
and performances.


The Hog Town Hep Cats
are a group of Toronto Lindy Hop dancers. They were featured in the dance/music
video Swing Baby, which has been shown on the Bravo channel numerous
times. They danced in Bruce MacDonald's Elimination Dance, a film
based on a poem by Michael Ondaatje. They were the featured dancers at the
recent Classic Jazz Festival, performing Charleston and Lindy Hop.
Their teachers include Frankie Manning, the greatest Lindy Hopper in history,
as well as several world champion Swing Dancers from the U.S. and Europe.


This is an opportunity for bands that wish to play genuine Swing Jazz
Dancing music for dancers who love this kind of music and know how
to dance to it. 

 



For more information contact:
peter@dancing.org


Peter Renzland
(416) 323-1300