Ring in the New Year with these two fantastic dance options:
The swinging band, The Flat Cats, is playing in West Bend at The Bend Theater’s Gatsby New Years Eve Event. There is dancing opportunity at the stage as The Flat Cats are a renowned dance band. Raffles throughout the night, tasty treats, savory hors d’oeuvres, craft cocktails and champagne at midnight. This is a full-service type event from 8:30 to 12:30 for a ticket price of $35. Read more and purchase tickets here.
The other option is the weekly swing dance at the Falcon Bowl ballroom in Milwaukee. A basic swing dance lesson occurs in the main ballroom and a basic blues dance lesson occurs in the room behind the stage from 8:00 to 9:00. The Jonathan Stout Orchestra from Lindy Focus (a national Lindy Hop dance week) livestreams on a projector from 9:00 to 12:00. At 12:00 the music switches to blues with DJ Hot Jazz Cass. This event is free to enter. Falcon Bowl is a ballroom, bar, and bowling establishment with plenty of fun options for the night. Read more here on Facebook.
After a summer hiatus, the weekly “Traditional Tuesday” swing dance returns to Falcon Bowl on September 3, 2024. Every Tuesday is the free 7:00 to 7:50 basic dance lesson followed by free bands and swing DJs playing from 8:00 to 10:00 (sometimes 10:30).
The band lineup has expanded with Sweet Sheiks, 3rd Ward Jazz Band, John Carr Band, and others joining the familiar Tuesday bands of Extra Crispy Brass Band, Old Sam and the Tear Drops, and Sliphorn Jazz Band.
The dance lessons will be primarily the basic style of swing that is danced ubiquitously around Milwaukee – East Coast Swing (“6-Count Lindy Hop”) with certain dates dedicated to Blues, Balboa, and other such styles when various dance groups are preparing for their weekend workshops or special dances. The lessons are crafted to produce dancers with strong fundamentals and an appreciation of the local and greater swing/blues dance community.
How can you get involved?
This weekly event is a unique partnership between the musicians and the dancers with the shared vision of vastly expanding the Milwaukee audience that listens to – and dances to – music from this era. Being hosted at Falcon Bowl gives this partnership a boost. The venue is a wonderful and sizable dance hall surrounded by thousands of diverse citizens within a couple minutes of walk. Falcon Bowl is also the current home of Cream City Swing, the dance organization that hosts the Monday night Lindy Hop dance lessons – the only only place in Milwaukee to follow a leveling-up style of swing lessons that builds each week to produce dancers of advanced skill.
As a dancer or musician, this should excite you!
If you are interested in getting involved as a musician, dance teacher, host, DJ, promoter, or with some other skill or effort, email us at MilwaukeeStomp@gmail.com. Tell us what you have to share (time, energy, skills, resources) and to what extent you can share them with the community and we will gladly accept your offer. No effort is too small to be appreciated.
The Troubadours of Rhythym play at the release party for their new album – It’s Tight Like That – at Bar Centro on September 6, 2024 (more details below).
Headed by Jon Mroz, The Troubadours of Rhythm have stormed the Milwaukee hot jazz and swing dance scene. They specialize in hokum style – a light-hearted (and often risque) hot jazz that is heavily influenced by blues. Their entire set is danceable with a range of tempos and vocals usually by Mroz and Aidan White. Mroz says that the idea for Troubadours of Rhythm germinated with Aidan White, as a vehicle to showcase the micro-niche styles of Milwaukee (and Chicago) jazz and blues of the late 1920s/early 1930s and originals in that vein.
Although most of the current dancers are just recently beginning to know and appreciate Mroz’s musical talents and showmanship, he is not new to the Milwaukee dance scene. He says that “I had come up as a harmonica player and shouter in the blues world, under the spell of Jim Liban and the 1950s Chicago thing, but had been diving deep into post-war jump blues that was sending the dancers!”
In the 1990s he played with Swingin’ Kools (with Kid Mally, Matt Davis, John Carr, & Paino Willie). “The Kools pre-dated the “swing revival”, but once it hit around 1995 we were poised to conquer the scene. Man, what a great time to play music!”, says Mroz.
Mroz took time off from gigs to raise kids, continuing to hone his music skills between diaper changes. In early 2022 he re-emerged into the scene playing string bass for the locally beloved Professor Pinkerton Xyloma (see the blog post on the 2019 album release Antiquated at Best). Bass was a new instrument for Mroz. “I was so blessed that the world’s best early jazz bass players also happen to be some of the kindest, most generous people. Guys like Beau Sample & Ryan Gould have been immense in their assistance with me studying a new instrument.”
As for this new album, It’s Tight Like That, Mroz says that “We had a blast with this album, recorded in one afternoon in January (the coldest day of the year) at National Recording in Walker’s Point. We had only played a few gigs together at that point, so there’s a rawness that jumps out at you. We got the opportunity to showcase some original material plus pay tribute to some of our historical influences.”
They are selling CDs and vinyl at their shows and on Bandcamp beginning September 6. The big album release party and performance (with special guest from Austin, Texas-Lauryn Gould-on reeds) is at Bar Centro from 8:00 to 10:30 PM. Don’t expect to be able to swingout at this cozy venue, but bring your dancing shoes for the potential of close dancing with blues and Balboa. Not sure how to blues or Balboa? Visit the Milwaukee dance groups Good Land Balboa and Brew Town Blues. Be ready for when Troubadours plays larger venues with those big Lindy Hop moves by learning with Cream City Swing.
Brew Town Blues, the Milwaukee-based blues dancing group is hosting their third workshop on January 20, 2024. Titled “Blizzard Blues Workshop” will be featuring the amazing Emily Troe Djrouko (She/Her) hailing all the way from the twin cities. Emily is the Head Teacher at Collectively Blue (Minneapolis’ Blues Dance Community), and a regular national finalist in Solo Cutting, Lead and Follow.
This is an amazing opportunity to 3 hours of top level instruction without needing to travel from Milwaukee! After the classes, come back and join us for a social dance that evening.
Early Bird pre-registration can be done by sending the amount via Venmo (@Milwaukee-Stomp) or in person if you see Trevor Williams or Cassidy Kuchenbecker at a local event. Email for more questions at milwaukeestomp@gmail.com
$30 = Workshop – Early Bird Price (Social is included for Free) $40 = Workshop – At the Door (Social is included for Free) $7 = Social – At the Door
1:30-3:00 Class Session 1: Grooving and Musicality in Solo 3:30-5:00 Class Session 2: Grooving and Musicality in Partnership
8:00-8:30 Blues basic lesson 8:30-11:30 Blues Social Dance – DJ’s TBA
Both the workshop and social is being held at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center at 2133 West Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee. A bar is not present for this event, so plan accordingly if you imbibe alcohol or sodas.
If you are traveling from out of town and need a place to stay for the night there is housing available. Please send an email to MilwaukeeStomp@gmail.com or DM Cassidy/Trevor for coordination.
Milwaukee Stomp 