About Us
Mission
Making Seattle the new Home of Happy Feet.Seattle is an incredible city for swing dancing. We have some of the world's finest dancers and dance educators here, we have many good swing jazz musicians in the Seattle area, as well as in the nearby jazz center of Vancouver, BC. We have many dancers who are versatile enough to dance to very high and very low tempos, and we have a number of people interested in dance performances.
In order to keep this dancing community alive and promote its growth, well-being, and longevity, we want to make Seattle a renowned center and focal point for swing dancing, much as the Savoy Ballroom in NYC was. If we get enough people interested in the music and the history and the physical benefits of the dance, we will be able to not only keep this art form alive and kicking, but also be able to evolve it beyond where we've taken it.
Goals
Increasing the numbers of Lindy Hoppers by focusing on the following three areas:
- Acquisition
- Introducing more people to swing dancing and music, and increasing the number of people taking swing dance classes, year over year.
- Conversion
- Converting a higher percentage of first-timers and class-takers into regular dancers who come out dancing once or more a week.
- Retention
- Keeping a higher percentage of regular dancers interested and excited with swing dancing (their own and others).
Values
In pursuing our mission and goals, we will retain the following values in our work:
- Fun and Exciting
- The reason that lindy hop and swing jazz music is enjoyable and worthwhile promoting is because it is fun and exciting. We will retain the sense of fun and excitement in the work that we do.
- Authenticity
- We wish to honor and pay tribute to those that came before us, with regards to the music and the dance. While we are not against the evolution of this music and dance, we hope to evolve it from the base that has been given to us by those who created the music and the dance, rather than invent a new art form.
- Respect
- Whatever work we do, we will endeavor to do so in a manner that will be respectful of the people we work with or interact with. We will not support work that is disrespectful of others.
- Frugality
- We value frugality as a means of making sure that our work is enduring and reproducable.
- Innovation
- We value innovation in thinking and creative solutions to problems.
- Relevant
- The work that we do should make people feel like swing music and dancing are relevant to their lives.
Past Achievements
- Century Masters of Lindy Hop and Tap
- The original idea for the Century Masters came from Alex, who had the idea stewing in his head for a while until Fayard Nicholas died in January of 2006. Then, he realized that he had to get a move on with implementing the idea, so he brought it to Hallie of the Century Ballroom who made it happen in August of 2006. We helped out with decorations (including the life-sized foamboard stand-ups and the Savoy marquee sign) for CM 2006 and 2007.
- Fundraiser for Century Masters
- In 2007, we helped HepCat Productions put on a Fundraiser for the Century Masters scholarship that they offered to dancers. We raised about $700 to help dancers afford the Century Masters event!
- Fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina Red Cross Relief
- When the 2004 tsunami disaster hit the Indian Ocean, the Seattle tango scene held a fundraiser to raise money for the red cross, while the swing scene talked about helping but nobody stepped up to do anything. So when Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana, and swamped out New Orleans (often called "the birthplace of jazz"), we felt it was important that the swing scene take a hand in helping out. We put together a fundraiser with the help of One O'Clock Jump that raised over $1000 (and we got it 100% matched by Microsoft, too).
- Video DJ'ing
- In conjunction with HepCat Productions, we started running a swing dance using videos to DJ with instead of just music (using "soundies" and "telescriptions", the predecessors to music videos) projected on a big screen on stage. We did this about once a quarter, figuring that any more would be more often than we had enough music videos for. This has been a fun innovation and a great success, and we recently ran it at the Century Ballroom too, as a way of introducing more excitement to the young crowd that attends that dance.