Smooth Moves

This weekend at Nicholby’s in Ventura, it’s the second annual Monsters of Swing Weekend, sort of the Super Bowl for swing dancers. There will be musical monsters both nights--Indigo Swing on Friday and local heroes, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, on Saturday.

Event organizer, dance instructor and bar manager at the venue, the busy Lee Moore, is excited about the lineup. “For the club swing scene, these are the best two bands we could possibly get. It’s going to be so cool. Indigo Swing owns San Francisco; they’re sort of like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is here.”

Swing dancing started in Harlem at the Savoy Theatre in the late ‘20s, growing out of ragtime and the Charleston. A further refinement, the Lindy Hop, was named after Charles Lindbergh. A few years later, with the popularity of Benny Goodman, swing was introduced to the white population. Though it’s been around all this time, lately swing is the thing. There are swing dance lessons nearly every night of the week.

“Swing dancing used to have a cult following,” said Moore. “There would be a dance maybe once a week and the bands were limited. Then it hit the mainstream about four years ago when Royal Crown Revue started the Derby gigs in Hollywood, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy started about three years ago. It’s so out of control now, it’s hard to keep up with it.”

Swing dancing can be somewhat intimidating to the few of us left on the planet who cannot do it. One sees couples out there gracefully spinning and gliding, looking so good at what they’re doing that they shame everyone else off the dance floor. Ain’t necessarily so says Moore.

“Even if you show up by yourself, no problem. Here’s our secret: We attract really nice people and make them feel welcome. Then they, in turn, make the new people feel welcome. We don’t have any snooty little cliques, and there’s not a bunch of lounge lizards waiting to scoop up the new chicks. Here’s the deal: You meet great people, you go to cool clubs, hear cool music and do a cool dance.”

OK, so swing dancing does look cool, but suppose you have all the dance floor moves of an oak tree? And suppose the bar doesn’t stock enough liquid convincer to make you try it?

“Think you can’t do it? Oh man, not a problem,” said Moore. “Doing the East Coast Swing is so easy. I used to only dance after I had a belly full of beer, then I’d hide in the corner and do the white man two-step. But with swing dancing, not only do you look cool, dance cool and look cool doing it with a cool chick, but East Coast Swing is a very simple form of swing. It’s just a basic two-hand lead. Even if you don’t know how to dance, you can do this.”

Moore himself was once upon a time in the oak-tree mode, now he teaches swing dancing. “My sister-in-law started dancing about 3 1/2 years ago in Pasadena,” he said. “My wife is her twin sister, so she started doing it too, and they dragged me along, sort of a husband thing. I hated it at first--I thought it was lame--and I walked out. The second time I went, Flattop Tom was playing and he started dancing and doing flips and stuff and I decided that I wanted to do this right now.”

And there are the clothes. Many swing dancers dress to impress--much like someone who fell out of a ‘40s movie and landed in the ‘90s, and landed dancing.

“We do the full-on costume thing. That’s part of the fun,” said Moore. “And it’s not expensive like skiing or any of that. I’ve got a red zoot suit.”

Moore and his wife, Terri, started giving lessons at Nicholby’s 2 1/2 years ago on Wednesday nights. The first night they had 24 people but now they routinely get upward of 80 people, plus they’ve added Tuesday night classes for the more difficult Lindy Hop.

For Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Nicholby’s is their home court. Since bandleader Scotty Morris reinvented the Voodudes three years ago, they routinely pack the place. It was more of an eclectic blues band before they became a swing band.

“We’re sort of a psycho swing band,” said Morris. “Old swing music didn’t have an electric guitar, but ours does.”

They’ve also been expanding their horizons of late. BBVD were on the soundtrack of the movie “Swingers,” and recently played the S X SW (South by Southwest) festival in Austin. They do Wednesday nights at the Derby, in Hollywood, a gig that has been sold out for the last six months. And, according to Morris, they are about to sign with a major label.

“We’re still keeping control of all our stuff. We’re good at what we do, but if we had the budget-- well, we’ll see. I haven’t had a day job for two years and I want to keep it that way.”

BE THERE

Monsters of Swing Weekend at Nicholby’s, 404 E. Main St., Ventura. $750 in contest prizes will be awarded. Contestants check in Fri., from 4-8 p.m., with prelims that night and the finals Sat. Also, there will be swing dance lessons Sat.-Sun. Prices vary. Call 643-3166.