Galway Swing Festival 9th - 12th of October 2008
The Galway Swing Dance Festival is the first and only Swing Dance Festival in Ireland
to attract the legendary Frankie Manning, top performers Swing Xtreme and internationally acclaimed
band The Jive Aces in one weekend. The festival brings a unique line up of world class performers
and teachers and will showcase the best of local jazz and big band musicians in venues dotted
across the city centre. It is set to be the highlight of 2008 where swing dancers can jump,
jive n' jitterbug as the sun goes down over Galway Bay. The Galway Swing Dance Festival will
be a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and enjoy world class teachers, performers
and entertainers.
The Galway Swing Dance Festival 2008 in association with the Galway Swing Dance Club
is being held from Thursday the 9th, to Sunday 12th of October 2008
in Galway City.
This year's festival promises to be you will never forget!
Festival Schedule
Thursday
Galway Swing's night club, The Nickel Club will kick start the festival's groove. The Nickel Club is
Galway's original and very own Funky Swing Jazz night club. This night will feature The Nickel Club's house band
The Nickel Club 5 and one other.
Friday
On Friday sample classes of various styles will be held in The Black Box Theatre and The Meyrick Hotel.
Registration will be open at the Meyrick Hotel from 10.30am - 1pm and 2pm - 4pm. The Nickel Club will be hosting
two Jazz Swing events during the day in Cuba (3rd Floor) from 3.30pm and Bar 903 from 4.45pm. SwingXtreme
will be performing a show on Friday Night followed by a yet to be named big band.
Saturday
Formal classes will commence on Saturday, with 2 classes being offered at Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Levels.
The morning are classes are followed by a lunch and talk with Frankie Manning.
The Nickel Club will be hosting gigs around the city in various venues including Bar 903 and Cuba on Saturday.
Saturday Night there will be a drinks reception at one of our central venues before you are bused to the
transformed Black Box Theatre.
Saturday night is the Big night of the festival. The dress code is traditional Swing and prizes will be on offer for the
night for best dressed couple. The swings sounds will be provided by The Jive Aces, support act to be announced.
Sunday
Sunday will see a continuation of classes, with 3 classes being offered at Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Levels.
The Nickel Club again hosting a number of dance eventst during the day at Galway Swing's favourite venues!
Sunday evenings closing party will be held at the Meyrick from 6pm.
The Galway Swing Dance Club's team has been working tirelessly to deliver Ireland's first Swing Dance Festival and we
all appreciate their efforts.
The festival features many great acts, teachers and bands and each day will be packed full of dance events to enjoy.
The full line-up has yet to be named but so far it includes:
Frankie Manning
Swing dancer extraordinaire Frankie Manning was a leading dancer at Harlem's legendary Savoy Ballroom where,
in the mid-1930s, he revolutionised the course of the lindy hop with his innovations, including the lindy air
step and synchronised ensemble lindy routine.
As a featured dancer and chief choreographer for the spectacular Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, he performed in numerous
films (including Hellzapoppin'), and entertained on stages around the world with jazz greats Ethel Waters, Count
Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Cab Calloway.
Upon the demise of the Swing Era, Frankie took a job in the Post Office, where he worked for thirty years until
his rediscovery by a new generation of swing dance enthusiasts in the mid-1980s. Since then, he's been in constant
demand and motion, teaching, choreographing, and performing globally. He won a 1989 Tony Award for his choreography
in Black and Blue, and served as a consultant for and performed in Spike Lee's Malcolm X. Frankie's activities
have been chronicled in hundreds of articles (including features in GQ and People) and dozens of news programs
(including a profile on ABC's 20/20).
Considered the world's leading authority on the lindy, he is highlighted in Ken Burns's acclaimed documentary,
Jazz. His autobiography, Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, co-written by Cynthia R. Millman, was
published by Temple University Press in spring 2007.
The Harlem Hotshots
Harlem Hot Shots is artistic, professional and re-creative. All of the company's activities are inspired by
the ideals of the Swing Era, focusing on faithful reconstructions and a framework that is true to the period.
No modernising. No compromising. Instead, the music, dances, costumes and overall presentation all emanate
directly from genuine sources, such as authentic material from old film clips as well as many meetings with
dancers and musicians who were active in the USA during the 1930s and 40s.
No intermediaries or distortions. No superficial adaptations or transparent clichès. Simply pure swing.
Daniel Heedman
Daniel was a member of the Harlem Hot Shots between 2002 - 2006 and partnered up with Åsa in 2004. Has travelled all over
the world teaching and performing. He is one of the organisers of the world famous Herrang
Dance Camp. As a dancer of tap, jazz, charleston and the lindy hop, Daniel's precision and sytle are exquisite,
and every bit as inspiring as the energy and raw, unharnessed joy that shows through in his performance and
social dancing.
Åsa Palm
Before the joining The Rhytm Hot Shots in 1997, Åsa Palm was an enthusiast of Afro-Cuban dance. She brings
tremendous movement from this style to her lindy hop and solo jazz dance. Through her near - decade long
involvement with the most famous swing performance troupe in the world, Åsa has not only an authentic
style of jazz movement but also an adept, clear and attentive teaching approach that is appreciated worldwide.
She is rightly celebrated for her performance dancing, but it is in her social dancing, when she can
simply enjoy the music, her partner and what they can do together, that she is truly mesmerising.
Angela Andrew
class="contentPar">Angela hails from London. She has a background in music and dance, which was encouraged by her musical family.
She started social dancing over ten years ago and discovered Lindy Hop in 1991 at the famous London Club
Jitterbugs. Ryan Francois, Julie Oram, Sing Lim and Ron Leslie were her teachers.
Her first international workshop was in Paris, since then the French Lindyhoppers have been close to her heart.
She is very popular around the dance camps in Europe and in the USA, and has taught at the Herräng Dance Camp
for several years. Angela is a keen social dancer. Her sense of humour and improvisation are noted not only in
her dancing but also in her teaching.
In summer 2001, Angela taught at the Swing City Festival in Zurich and performed there with The Rhythm
Hot Shots. After that she danced, sang and acted on the European Swing Bus tour of the group.
In addition to her teaching, Angela is the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Cotton Clubbers: an all
female dance troupe specialising in vernacular jazz, who organise events and workshops as well as perform.
Ryan and Jenny Thomas François
With a string of awards, credits and competition victories behind them, Ryan François and Jenny Thomas are
widely regarded as the top Lindy Hop couple in the world today. Masters of this style, Jazz and tap dancing, they are
constantly in demand for their performing, choreography and teaching skills.
Ryan François
Ryan was at the heart of the revival of Lindy Hop in the mid 80's when, as a member of The Jiving Lindyhoppers,
he traveled to New York to meet and perform for original Savoy Ballroom dancer Frankie Manning. He left his troupe to
pursue his own vision and in 1987 founded the authentic Jazz dance company Zoots and Spangles.
The troupe were much sought-after for television appearances, pop video's and commercials. To spread his knowledge
and love of Lindy Hop, Ryan co-founded Jitterbugs, the dance club lends it's name to The Jitterbug Stroll, a
routine Ryan choreographed in 1992.
Jenny Thomas François
Jenny came to Lindy Hop from tap dance. Such was her complete dominance in the field that after three consecutive wins
in the "All England Tap Championships", she was asked not to enter again!
Jenny danced her way into West End musicals, television and theatre, including Andrew Loyd Webber's Song and Dance.
Meeting Ryan led her to Zoot and Spangles, and from there the couple developed their own act, Over the Top,
and appeared in the dance review "Souls in Motion".
Swing Xtreme
SwingXtreme are a new, dynamic and exciting fusion dance company specialising in Swing Dance, Hip Hop and
Vernacular Jazz.
The troope has performed on the hit TV show 'Strictly Come Dancing' on BBC and on Broadway. Fans of the show,
which has an audience of over 7 million across the UK and Ireland, will be thrilled to see their live performance
in Galway.
Swing Xtreme will perform at a special Swing Ball on Friday night, the official opening night, in the
Hotel Meyrick. The Friday night Swing Ball will also include local Big Band acts. The Swing Ball will be open to
all participants in the Galway Swing Dance Festival and tickets will also be on sale to the public.
The Jive Aces
The Jive Aces, infectious rhythm, screaming horns and slapping bass all add up to being the favourite band of dancers
across the globe. The Jive Aces unique sound comes from their own original tunes in true swing style as well as fresh
arrangements of songs from the swing era. Classics made famous by such greats as Louis Prima (Just a Gigolo), Louis
Jordan (Five Guys Named Mo), Cab Calloway (Minnie the Moocher), Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong)
The Jive Aces are:
- Ian Clarkson - Lead Vocal and Trumpet
- Ken Smith - Double Bass
- John Fordham - Tenor & Baritone Sax and Clarinet
- Peter Howell - Drums
- Vince Hurley - Piano
- Alex Douglas - Trombone
The Jive Aces have performed with many of the top dancers and dance troupes around the world
including; The Jiving Lindy Hoppers (UK), DC Swing Dance Society (USA), Norma Miller (USA), Frankie Manning
(USA), Hop, Swing and a Jump (USA), The Rthym Hotshots (Sweden), Zoots and Spangles (UK) and Christian Perry
(USA).
The Nickel Club 5
Galway Swing is proud to introduce Galway's newest band - The Nickel Club 5. The Nickel Club 5
is a group of talented musicians who have come together especially for Galway Swing to provide you with a
crackin' night out. There is nothing like a live performance of the swing and big band greats - and the Nickel
Club 5 is guaranteed to pull out all the stops for an amazing rendition of the legendary classics time and time
again. For the first time, the musical styling of Keara Rose Sheeran, Tony Higgins, Peter Joyce, Aengus Hackett
and John O'Dwyer have come together to re-create the booming sounds of an era epitomised by Ella Fitzgerald,
Aretha Franklin and Glen Millar, with rousing drum beats, sax solos, booming bass and strong vocal melodies.
They will set the stage alight with their unique swing and Jazz fusion, combining up tempo numbers with softer
easy listening tunes. With Tony Higgins on drums, Peter Joyce on sax, Aengus Hackett on guitar and John O'Dwyer
on double bass, The Nickel Club 5 has a strong instrumental core, uniting contemporary Jazz with a modern
twist. Together with the amazing vocal ability of lead singer, Keara Rose Sheeran, The Nickel Club 5 bring
you a new sound, linking an era of generations gone by with the modern age.
The Black Magic Big Band
After the success of their sold out Christmas concert in The Black Box in Galway, The Black Magic
Big Band are about to embark on a mini summer series of concerts around the country to promote the release of their
new album"At Last". The album has been almost a year in the making and according to musical director John Fleming,
"you can hear the full effort of a years work from start to finish! The album is the second realease from Galway's
premiere big band. It will feature some vocal tracks,swingin instrumentals and some well driven funk to keep
everybody happy. The band have decided to perform some concerts around the country to co-incide with this
monumental release. Featurimg the best vocal talent and soloists in the business,they will be
performing tracks from the album as well as all the classics from Sinatra,Deano to Glenn Miller!
If you get the chance to check out these guys,you won't be dissapointed!
Tickets are available from Galway Swing
Terms and Conditions apply.