Lindy Hop Charleston Challenge - Disc 2

This is a two-disc set best suited for dancers interested in incorporating the most common “Charleston” moves into their Lindy Hop. These aren’t for dancers seriously interested in learning 1920s Charleston – see Sharon Davis’s discs – also on Danceflix for that...

These discs - with their otherwise well indexed lessons - are straightforward, well lit, mostly well explained, and well demonstrated. It’s a bit short on actual “demo dancing” (except for the long, “Teaching Demo’s,” on Disc 2) but if you’re a “learn by the count” kind of dancer you’ll generally be fine with what’s offered.

These are of three parts: solo, face-to-face, and side-by-side... I won’t say, “Solo Charleston,” because the solo section is limited to useful “bicycle training wheels” patterns that get you going; “face-to-face” is “common couple positions”; and side-by-side “Charleston” isn’t exactly “the” Charleston when you’re dancing Lindy Hop. Long story short, these Dics in their three parts aren’t about learning “The” Charleston to add to Lindy Hop, but learning PATTERNS well known in “Charleston” (and other) dancing.

Short story long, most people learn a “Lindy” circle and a “Lindy” swing-out and gradually learn a bit of “side-by-side” using “Lindy” timing; then they’ll pick up things like, “the patty-cake,” and, “kick turns,” and other stuff – increasingly suspecting, from the way things feel differently in certain patterns that a lot of these moves came from, or, were, “lifted” wholesale from other dances. More than a few... A lot of this is really “kid dancing” and “Ronde dancing” from the old - and older - days… Fine. But… Many people set out to learn “Lindy” and get confused about, “all that Charleston stuff.”

Many things labeled “Charleston” are patterns that were around earlier than 1923, or, even 23 B.C. “Charleston” moves are (now) commonly “recognized” as being in Charleston because we’ve all seen the movies and TV shows with people dancing the patterns taught here to, “that” music. “The Charleston” was among the first nationwide “fad” dances that were widely recorded, long danced, and long studied. It’s a “reference” now for many otherwise generic moves, steps, and patterns. Saying, “Charleston,” is often only meant as a “reference” to source material that happens to be a lot of moves and patterns from earlier dancing, but which we “see” as “Charleston” – and which can easily found and reviewed as “Charleston” if anybody wants to go look something up on YouTube.

What you need to know to be fairly decent using “Charleston” patterns in Lindy Hop you can pick up on these discs. You probably won’t do much “face-to-face Charleston,” but you will do a lot of kick-troughs, “patty cakes,” “side-by-side,” and, “tandem stuff.” Watch, practice, and learn as Carla and Kevin present these and you’ll end up just fine with your “Charleston stuff “ - as danced to “swing music” and using Lindy “timing.”

These discs date from 2006, and are a few years newer than similar discs they had done a few years earlier. They’ve had more practice dancing AND teaching so it’s no surprise Carla does an especially good job laying things out very simply while Kevin does a good job leaving most of the talking to her, and then explaining what the leads need to know to be good on their side. Both of them offer good tips, as they go along, on how to make everything work better. Well worth a weekend or two of watching and practice.

(Note: Using either disc 1 or 2 in your player, you’ll see all the moves in the menus of either disc - but you’ll need both discs to play back all of what you keep seeing. Just get both discs to view at once and you’ll be better off than trying to watch them singly.)