Balboa

Bix Fest is Back! – March 12-15

/ Cassidy Kuchenbecker / Leave a comment

“A Tribute to Bix Fest” is a weekend-long swing jazz fest in Mt. Pleasant celebrating Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke. Bix was a musical prodigy that lived hard, died young, and made an unforgettable impact on trad and early swing jazz. Learn more about Bix here. This yearly fest started in 1989 as a ‘birthday party to Bix’ by the early jazz enthusiast Phil Pospychala. It grew over the next 31 years to be a destination for some of the best known hot jazz bands, rare 78 disc collectors, and the dancers and jazz aficionados that filled the crowd.

The last fest occurred a month before the COVID shutdown. For some, this was the last music/dance event for several years. But like the legend of Bix himself, the fest lives on and has been resurrected by the efforts of Jack Garrison, Allissa Norland, and others. With new Grand Masters also comes a few new events. Shag and Balboa lessons and vintage clothing vendors that will be joining the usual band concerts, record vendors, late night jam sessions, movies, and such. The content/level of the Shag and Balboa lessons will modulate based on the attendees.

The band list is impressive with both local talent from Milwaukee and Chicago and bands from around the US. The music is true to Bix’s time of being 1920 and earlier 1930s-inspired. For newer Milwaukee dancers who are wondering exactly what that sounds like, think The Sweet Sheiks and The Westerlees (which are both playing Friday night!).

You can see the schedule and buy day passes or a whole weekend pass by clicking here. The organizers are offering a $25 off of Full Weekend Passes discount for dancers at https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/544LERR2QUBXS. They are also offering $10 off the a-la-carte passes at the door for dancers.

If you go for just a day – try to do the whole day. If you can stretch that weekend a bit earlier, then join the Thursday “Bus Tour to Hell” – a 9:00 to 5:00 bus tour of Chicago’s early jazz history. Jack will be leading this guided tour. He says, “We sniff the molecules, as Phil would say, and take in the spots where jazz history was made”. Jack is currently working to include entering a space where recordings were made and speakeasy bar at the end of the tour.

After the bus tour, we go back to the hotel for the round-robin record spinning by the vendors. Jack says that “You will hear music that – in some cases – only exists on the one copy of the 78 RPM disc in that room.”

Events like this are rare. To have it just a 40 minute drive from Milwaukee is a treat indeed.

Balboa Basic Steps

/ Cassidy Kuchenbecker / Leave a comment

Balboa is a dance developed in the Balboa peninsula of California during the 1910s and 1920s. Check out LindyCircle.com/history/balboa for a more detailed history.

In the Milwaukee area swing scene, it’s the third most common swing dance style behind East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop. Nearly all experienced swing dancers eventually learn Balboa because of two very practical reasons:

  1. It’s best danced at fast beats-per-minute when other dances styles are difficult and
  2. it works really well on crowded floors.

If you dance in Milwaukee, you know that a good event means a crowded floor. You can do some big Lindy moves early and late in the night when the floor is more open. But, there is a decent chunk of time in the middle where you are in survival mode trying not to knock other dancers over. The bands we have also don’t shy away from faster tempos that are near impossible to keep up with doing Lindy or East Coast. This is where dancing Balboa comes in. Being able to dance Balboa basically doubles the amount of songs you can dance.

Beyond the practical reasons to dance Bal, this dance feels really good. It’s a dance that is done in ‘close embrace’. It’s a chest-to-chest dance where you are intimately dancing with both your partner and with the music. With that said, let’s get into the basic steps.

The Basics

There are two different basic steps. One is called “up-hold“, the other “down-hold“. Both basics are an 8-count step, like Lindy Hop. This video shows the foot movement for both basics.

Balboa Basics

The up-hold basic has both the lead and follow holding a foot slightly up on the 3rd and 7th beat. The down-hold basic has a foot held on the floor during the 4th and 8th beat. Technically, the lead and follow can be dancing different basic steps simultaneously. Usually the lead dances up-hold between moves and switches to down-hold prior to initiating a move. Switching between the up and down-hold simply occurs at the start of the 1 beat.

Unlike most other social swing dances, you can dance a whole song doing only the basic step and not feel bored. The suggestion is to take time being able to seamlessly switch between the two basics, then learn turns and fancier footwork.

Where to learn

Sierra Autumn Kane provides private, small group, and large group lessons. She can be contacted through Facebook Messenger.

A slew of Bal dancers use the Facebook Group Swing MKE Social to promote and discuss swing events. Most of these dancers also frequent the Cream City Swing and Jumpin’ Jive Club events. Also check MilwaukeeStomp.com/lessons.

If you want to dance Bal with someone, simply ask them to dance and then as you walk the floor – ask if they Bal. They will either say “yes” or “not yet”.