©Photo by Ardian Lumi on Unsplash

- BOOGIE WOOGIE -

A Dance From The Swing Family

couple

ORIGINS

The rolling element of a train is called the bogie. The junction between two pairs of rails on a railway track is never perfect (there is always a space between the rails which is provided to compensate for the expansion of the metal). So, when the train is moving and it encounters the empty space when passing a new rail, the bogie receives a jerk. In fact, the bogie has two axles: so it is two jolts that we feel (the famous "ta-da ... ta-da ..." of the train that we can still hear today, although much lower, on tracks not equipped with long welded rails).

Let's go back to the 1920s, with the black loggers who regularly crossed Louisiana and Texas by train. For entertainment during the (very long) trip, they played the piano. However, the music is scrambled by the noise of the bogies jumping. But, rather than allowing themselves to be polluted by this parasitic rhythm, these jazzmen had the idea of playing with it (which is in the spirit of jazz: playing with music).

It was necessary to find a name for this music: "the bogie music" could have been appropriate, but, undoubtedly by puns, for the sound, to stick to the "ta-da ... ta-da ...", bogie -woogie has more marked the spirits, term quickly altered in boogie-woogie.

The officialization of the appellation will take place in 1928 during the recording of "Pinetop's Boogie-Woogie" by Pinetop Smith (1907-1929).

TECHNIQUE

Competitors are used to dancing by setting sequences to the music. These sequences are worked on in training (4 or 6 x 8 beats) until their perfect execution. The basic step is also worked hard to increase its dynamism and cleanliness. The goal is to make it automatic during the dance: no longer thinking about the basic step allows you to free your mind to listen to music. The interpretation is also worked on in training in order to give spontaneity to the dance, as well as to better stick to the music. Listening to music is also an important point because it will determine which sequences to start according to the music, when the breaks come, what to do as an interpretation between two sequences (because the latter do not necessarily follow each other). You might think that fast boogies are harder to dance, except that in fact, slow boogies can have an interpretation on every half time, and an error is much more visible. Ultimately, these are two different dance techniques that each have their own difficulties.

WHY YOU SHOULD START DANCING ?

You'll find plenty of benefits to dancing!

Physical benefits

Social benefits

Psychological benefits

WHERE CAN YOU LEARN TO
DANCE BOOGIE BOOGIE
IN MONTREAL ?

There are two main dance studios offering Boogie Woogie classes :




Take a look at the 2018 Canadian Swing Championships!

Coded by Isabelle Daigle