Yesterday my friend and I went to Tulsa for a monthly daytime alternative music milonga at Casa Tango. It turned out to be a big party. I was busy greeting and dancing Tango with many friends, and had a great time.
But in this blog entry, I am mainly going to write about another party afterwards.
Some people attending the milonga are also involved in other dance activities. Many dancers are not confined by only one dance. They love many other dances, too.
They invited us to a swing dance party held at a church, so we went.
There were about 70-100 people in an activity hall in the church, and dancing swing dance. Most were youth group (teens and in colleges, I believe), but there were some "mature" dancers, too.
I'd say the swing was generally East coast swing, with some flavor of the Charleston and Lindy hop, danced to 20-50's traditional swing music. Some kids and dancers dress in the swing dance attire. You know, the vintage-style clothes and hats and all.
A notable dancer was a lady in her 90s (!). A friend told me that she was one of the "Rosies". I did not know the word, so he elaborated. "Rosies" were women who participated in factory work during WWII to aid war efforts making war supplies, while men were out as soldiers.
My friend said, "She made B29 in Wichita". Wow.
Sure, I am from Japan and if I think about it, the B29 bombers were probably used to air-raid and burn many cities in Japan. As a kid I learned that there is a layer of burned soil underground in many Japanese cities because of the WWII air raid. But hey, my policy for history is that let bygones be bygones, if the bygones do no good for the future. Probably that makes me a future-oriented pragmatist rather than a grudge-holding nationalist. Since I did not get involved in WWII in person, it is easier for me to think that way.
Later I asked her a dance, and we danced. She was very nice lady with great smile, and seemed to be enjoying dancing.
They have the swing dance party every week on Saturdays. It turned out that the party is what the friends started about 2 years ago.
I was glad to participate the party. That is the way a tradition of swing dance, or probably any social dance, is preserved in the people. It is a grass roots effort. I was very impressed by the successful going.
Old school swing dance became fad in the 90's. I thought the boom died down for a while. But the dance goes on in these community efforts. I like it. I hope the party will go on strong.
