 "Photo: EMILY JOYNTON/MANITOU MESSENGER")
 "Photo: EMILY JOYNTON/MANITOU MESSENGER")
Anyone who happened to pass through Dittman Center between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. last Saturday noticed distinct signs of the annual St. Olaf Lindy Fest: winter coats lining the floor of the hallway, an army of students flailing in pairs to swing music in the Flaten Art Museum and an increasingly pungent smell of sweat thickening the air.
“Smells like fun,” Laura Kauffman ‘10 said.
St. Olaf Lindy Fest (SOLfest) is an almost completely student-organized event in which participants have the opportunity to dance with award-winning lindy hop instructors in Dittman and the Pause. Attracting over 80 dancers from outside the college, the three-day SOLfest celebrated the traditions of lindy hop, shag, vintage dances and other related styles with its fourth year of workshops and lessons.
Instructor highlights from this year’s SOLfest included U.S. Open Swing Dance Championship winner Naomi Uyama, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown winners Mike Roberts and Laura Glaess and internationally-renowned dance instructor Peter Strom.
The festival kicked off with a Friday night welcome dance in the Pause that garnered nearly 300 attendees and continued Saturday with all-day workshops. Fest participants who weren’t wiped out from two days of heavy swing dancing could attend another dance on Saturday night. SOLfest concluded on Sunday with advanced dance classes and private lessons for those who truly wanted to beef up their dance.
This is an exciting opportunity for a small, private liberal arts college. But why St. Olaf, you might ask?
“St. Olaf has the ideal swing club to host a lindy festival,” event coordinator Becca Grupe ’10 event. “We are college-sponsored, which means we are able to get some financial support from the student body. In addition, we have a very active swing club, with at least 40 people coming every single week.”
Grupe added that the instructor selection and planning for this event began nearly a year ago and was done largely by the ’09-’10 Swing Club officers. “I’m proud of our independence,” she said, but also expressed gratitude to Anne von Bibra and the St. Olaf Dance department for allowing them to use the two dance studios, Flaten Art Museum and the Pause for events.
Grupe and another Swing Club officer, Mandy Klem ’10, remarked that an event like SOLfest doesn’t come without hours of hard work and preparation from the Swing Club. “It is stressful at times, but it’s rewarding for me to see everyone smiling, learning new dances and having fun,” Grupe said.
Zoe Senecal ’12 said she definitely had fun, describing her class on a solo dance called the Squatty Roo as nothing short of a “religious experience.” She recalled that everyone who left the workshop taught by jazz dancer Adam Boehmer was sweat-drenched and physically exhausted, but emotionally energized.
Kauffman felt the same way about Boehmer’s class. “I left exhausted, but it was totally worth it. Adam’s classes are all ridiculous. He’s teaching mostly solo classes, and I swear he’s the most high-energy person I’ve ever met in my life,” she said.
Boehmer and the other instructors all seemed excited to be a part of this year’s SOLfest.
“I was contacted by Mandy Klem in October,” Bohmer, whose all-time favorite dance is the Charleston, said. “And so far this has been a great experience. I hope these students are able to leave knowing they should not allow fear to get in the way of expressing themselves. I want them to have freedom of spirit when they dance.”
Ian McGinnis ’12 said his favorite dances were the partner dances taught by Roberts and Glaess, whose workshops sported cute titles like “Jazz Pizazz” and “Circles and Lines.”
“The instructors related really nicely to students and knew how to keep us engaged,” McGinnis, an intermediate swing dancer, said. “I learned a lot about swingout and about solidifying my movements.”
Lindy hop instructor Uyama hopes her workshop students walk away with better dance technique. “I love college crowds because they’re really in my class for the fun of it,” Uyama said.
She added that the disadvantage of teaching dance to college students is that there is rollover from graduating students that causes them to leave without solid dance technique.
Making sure everybody has fun is the easy part of her job. “Fun comes naturally with this dance. I just hope people experience a deeper understanding or a deeper love of lindy from today,” Uyama said.
davisc@stolaf.edu
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