Day 22: Favorite city to dance in
Currently Baltimore. The Baltimore scene has a number of wonderful things going for it but the biggest thing is the energy it has. You see a little of it when Baltimore decides to attend an event like ILHC, Tea Party, or Lindy Focus in force. That energy is not manufactured for those events. It’s there nearly every night in Baltimore, and most dances there somehow have that party atmosphere that one normally only sees at the best events.
One of the things that I think really drives the scene are its fabulous role models and promoters. They work together to foster community and treat the scene as a labor of love and not a business. My understanding is that Dorry loses money running things the way he does but couldn’t be happier.
I don’t know of any other scene where all the major players in town get along, show up to each other’s events, and plug their competitors’ classes and dances. Somehow politics and drama don’t appear to be a part of the Baltimore scene at the top levels.
I think it filters down, because the local dancers as a whole are cohesive as a community. Further the promoters seem to have a unified message that Baltimore seems to have taken to heart. Be good to each other. Have fun. Throw down on the dance floor and be excellent. But never take things too seriously.
That said, Baltimore does have its faults. Most of its venues are dives, and while the dancers more than make up for that fact, I know people who have hurt themselves on the crummy floors. I hear that the powers that be are working to remedy the venue situation, and that the new space is going to be wonderful, but for now most of the dancing is done on the wrong side of the tracks. Literally.
The other problem Baltimore has is that the scene as a whole has little sense of floor craft. You will be stepped on or bumped into when dancing in Baltimore. There is no maybe to that statement. The only question is how many times and how badly. Be aware that apologies likely will not come with the collisions.
But collisions are a small price to pay for the other charms that Baltimore possesses. DJs willing to experiment. Contests both serious and ridiculous. A whole slew of dancers just coming into their own on the floor. And that sense of bawdy irreverent fun. DC might yell Tiger Rag at the Boilermakers. Baltimore yells Cock. (And yes there is a story behind that, and yes I was there the night that started. But while I know the story in general, I don’t know the fine points to tell it properly)
Love the scene and recognize how fabulously fortunate I am to be able to dance here in Baltimore. Thanks Dorry, Chiles, Diana, and Michael, and all the rest of you!!
Does the Tiger Rag/Cock story have anything to do with how they represent rival universities in SC? Clemson’s fight song is Tiger Rag, University of SC mascot is the (game)Cocks.
Jerry tells the story about why people in DC might yell Tiger Rag at the Boilermakers in this post. http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/dclx-2011-encore-encore-encore/
As for Baltimore and Cock, Dorry swears like a sailor, even while MCing/making announcements. So Paul, the leader of the Boilermakers, got in on the spirit of it by telling a story of how one great swing music composer had to adopt an entertainment name because his last name of Babcock just wouldn’t fly on account of the “Cock”. (I want to say it was Chester Babcock but here is where my memmory fails me.)
At any rate Babcock was very put off by this and (here’s where memmory fails again) somehow got people to randomly yell “Cock” in the middle of the playing of his compositions. The important point is that Paul invited Baltimore to randomly yell out Cock whenever the Boilermakers played a Babcock tune. And so Baltimore does.
The new venue is online and operational. Check out the site and revel in the awesome!
http://www.mobtownballroom.com.
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