Connections Newsletter
April 2024
WEST COAST SWING CLASS
Partnering with Wanda Deagen’s Studio
As a reminder, I will be teaching beginner West Coast Swing starting April 7th. It’s a 6-week series, Sundays 7:30pm-8:15pm, April 7th-May 12th. It is $75 for one person or $138 for a couple. No partner or experience is necessary. To register and pay-in-full, reach out to Wanda’s studio: 210-381-6625. Her studio is located at 2113 Vance Jackson, San Antonio, TX 78213.
NOTE: As of tonight, I have been told that no one has registered. I will have to cancel the classes if there is no commitment. Please call Wanda to sign up.
My Dance Origin Story: As a young teenager, I would accompany my parents to outdoor music events where I would watch them jitterbug on the grass or at the beach. I longed to join them with my own partner, but I had none. It was the 90’s and big band music was making a comeback along with Lindy Hop, popularized by movies like The Mask, Swing Kids, and Pearl Harbor. Some of the ska bands were moving towards swing like Big Bad Voodoo Daddies and Squirrel Nut Zippers. When I discovered the local band Big Time Operator was playing at an otherwise low-grade all-ages venue, I spread the word. That night, I met people in my San Diego suburb from LA and Orange County where they taught me how to dance Lindy Hop. Boys at school wanted to learn how to do tricks like the Candlestick and Around the World, and I was a small enough partner to experiment with. We would get together and teach each other swing before there was youtube. The dingy club hosted other bands like Big Sandy & the Fly Rite Boys and Indigo Swing, and they became successful enough that the owner leased Vasa Hall in Uptown San Diego. It attracted upstanding kids from all over the county, and I would teach all the boys to dance and pass them back to their girlfriends. I didn’t really know how to follow very well because I was so busy teaching. But then I graduated high school and moved to another state where I joined the Swing Kids Club on my college campus and auditioned for the Swing Team. I was the last girl cut but felt privileged to dance with the clique that made the team, even though I always felt more on the fringe. I still ended up teaching more than I got to dance, but I was fortunate that girls let me lead them so I didn’t have to stand on the sidelines when boys turned me down. I was lonely my freshman year in college and went back to CA to work full-time to earn more money for school and decide what to do next. Under 21, there weren’t many opportunities to dance, so I split my time between the all-ages club dubbed The Firehouse in San Diego and the one in Tustin (near L.A./Orange County) called Memories. It was at Memories that I met a young man who asked me to audition with him for the Disneyland Swing Team. But before the try-outs, I got engaged to be married to a non-dancer. After we married, we moved to another state to support him going to college and I got pregnant with my first child. I mourned the loss of dance and it would be 10 years later before I ever stepped foot on a dance floor again.
To be continued…
BANDS AND VENUES
Instead of listing the same places every newsletter, I thought I’d feature a different band or different venue each time.
Band: Ruben V – Rock, Swing, Funk, Soul. https://rubenv.com/music
I first heard this band at Sam’s Burger Joint, at the Pearl. Sam’s was the Swing Society’s Monday Night hangout, but some of the group would go on Fridays too. He wasn’t exactly swing-able, but we made it work. Then I was invited to hear them play at Luna on San Pedro. It was 2010, and I had never been to a dark dance club before, a sheltered church girl who had been a stay-at-home mom since having her first child. I felt like I’d entered a new world, and I thought this was a new kind of heaven. One of my swing dance friends mixed west coast swing in with his lindy hop, which was my first introduction to west coast. Another friend of mine from San Diego liked to call this fusion “Westie Hop.” Ruben V will be playing this month at the following:
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Thurs, Apr 4th (tomorrow) at Old Market Square on Main, 305 Main Street. Marble Falls is one of my favorite towns in the area, and now is the perfect time as it is peak Wildflower Season.
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Every Tues at 7pm at Bourbon & Branch Bar, 4476 Hwy 21, Spring Branch
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Thurs Apr 11th at 8pm at 151 Saloon, 10169 Westover Hills Blvd, 78251
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Fri Apr 12th at Screaming Goat, 4 Sun Valley Rd, Spring Branch
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Sat Apr 13th at 5pm at Jamie’s Place, 1514 W Commerce St for the Blues and Souls Festival
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Sun Apr 14th at 1pm at Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E Grayson St, for the SA Blues Society Fiesta Blues Series
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Fri Apr 19th at Shade Tree Saloon, 134030 Hwy 281, Spring Branch
***For More, see their https://rubenv.com/calendar
As swing is my original dance, I will continue to feature it.
SWING!
Alamo City Swing Revival (ACSR) Mondays 7pm-10pm. San Antonio Fire Fighters Banquet Hall 8925 W I-10 Frontage Road. Acswingrevival.org
April Classes: East Coast 1, East Coast Intermediate, Charleston Advanced
Admission: $7 members/$12 guests DJ nights;
$15 member/$20 guests Band Nights; After 9pm $5 for all.
April 8:
April 22: Clark HS Jazz Band
April 29: Clark HS Jazz Band
DANCING AT THE PEARL Join ACSR for a golden hour dance at the historic Pearl brewery this Friday, April 5th at 7pm. They will be located under the large Pearl sign at the main lawn (right by the food hall).
Gruene Dance Hall Gruene/New Braunfels
Wed April 10th & 24th and May 1st, 6-10pm The Georges
Blues Break Fri Apr 19th 8-11pm. San Antonio Swing Dance Society will offer a blues dance every third Friday for $5 located at Bright coffee 1705 Blanco Rd. 78212
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