Welcome to the Routine Rewind series on the Diamond Dolls blog!

We will be taking a look back at some of our past routines and giving them a historical and cultural context covering things from song inspirations, artist highlights, discussing the origins of the dance styles, and more.

This month we are taking a look back at the inspiration behind our routine “Dramophone” that features more modern music from the electro-swing genre.

WHAT IS ELECTRO-SWING?

Electro swing is a musical genre that combines jazz harmonies with a modern drum rhythm. Also known as ‘swing house’, it’s thought to have originated in the 1990’s by hip-hop artists who sampled vintage swing music. It is an electronic dance music genre that creates a modern and dance floor sound that is readily accessible to the modern ear, but also attempts to retain the excitement of live brass and early swing recordings. Groups performing this genre live typically have singers, musicians playing traditional jazz instruments such as trumpets, trombone, clarinet, or saxophone, and a DJ. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when electro-swing officially became a genre of music, but by the early 2000’s it was well established.

Here is an article that goes on a musical journey through some of the influences and roots of electro-swing:

https://electroswingthing.com/the-roots-of-electro-swing/

CARAVAN PALACE

Caravan Palace is a French electronic band based in Paris. The band's influences include Django Reinhardt, Vitalic, Lionel Hampton, and Daft Punk. The band released their debut studio album, Caravan Palace, in October 2008. Their live performances feature live instruments such as synths, guitars, trombones and violins.

From the NPR article “Caravan Palace: Swinging to Electro Beats”:

“At the heart of the group's popularity is a confluence of gypsy jazz, American swing from the '30s and a high-energy electronic beat. Guitarist Arnaud Vial points out that back in the '30s and '40s, people danced to swing music, so combining swing and today's dance makes perfect sense.”

From the beginning the musicians were well aware that they would face all kinds of criticism from traditionalists -- especially gypsies, or Roma as they're more properly called, who depend on the continued interest in their music to make a living. Violinist and Caravan Palace co-founder Hugo Payen says he was worried about their reaction.

"We were very afraid of the reaction... and really understood that we weren't here to do the same job as them," he says. "We didn't have the talent to do virtuoso music, very technical music...so we asked ourselves to know what we found interesting in that style and, in my opinion, it was entertainment," he says. "We try to do that job, to entertain the people, and we found that it was a strong characteristic of our music."

Caravan Palace Live Performance:

Image Source: https://edm.com/features/learn-shuffle-asap

JAZZ DANCE VS. SHUFFLING

The Shuffling dance started in Melbourne, Australia, in the underground rave scene back in the early 1980s. Back then, it was known as the Melbourne Shuffle. With the growth of the electronic dance music scene around the world, Shuffling dance popularity grew and is now practiced by people from around the world at all the major EDM (electronic dance music) festivals. Melbourne’s underground scene in the early 90s was under the huge influence of Techno music. This high-BPM electronic music sub-genre placed the perfect beat for shuffle dancers. But shuffling became so popular that it crossed over into electro house and hardstyle genres. Today, shuffling spans into almost the full spectrum of electronic dance music, including electro swing.

Shuffle dancing is a collective creation. It was born in clubs and at festivals, so it is considered a vernacular dance form in that no professional choreographers are involved in its evolution. As with shuffling, swing and jazz dancing came about spontaneously, at big urban dance clubs such as New York’s Savoy Ballroom. There are steps to learn, but you can also add your own, so long as they fit with the flow and overall style. Some of the steps in shuffling you’ll see may remind you of jazz dance movements, including one that’s called “The Charleston”. Other steps also borrow from hip hop and jazz. Some of the popular shuffle steps include the running man, T-step, top rock, and kick side step.

Shuffle Dancing to Electro Swing:

THE PROBLEM WITH ELECTRO-SWING

For many in the swing and jazz dance community, electro swing is a genre of music that doesn’t have a welcome place on the dance floor. Most of the songs can fall victim to the same elements of neo-swing music (music from the swing revival in the 1990s). This style can be overly dominated by the rhythm section instead of the melody. In order to be able to dance to swing music you do need a strong rhythm, but losing some of the melody and other details of the songs can make them monotonous as well as inauthentic to the roots of jazz music that these dances were originally done to. Electro swing has this same issue, with many songs featuring a repetitive EDM house beat throughout the songs. It is also a question of whether this style is inspired by and honoring the roots of swing and jazz music, or if it is stealing jazz riffs and giving them mass-market appeal by putting them over some dance beats.

Image Source: https://www.facebook.com/denverdiamonddolls/photos/2996230357114246/

COLLABORATIVE CHOREOGRAPHY

The Diamond Dolls routine “Dramophone”, performed to the Caravan Palace song of the same name, was one of our very early routines back in 2013. It was the first time we collaborated on a routine with many choreographers. This routine was choreographed both in sections and jointly by Sara Deckard, Delilah Willams, Lark Mervine, Melissa Mullins, and Lindsay Ragsdale. We all took different inspirations and ended up with a challenging routine borrowing and merging steps from vintage jazz, tap, African dance, hip hop, Stepping, and air steps. While most of us have a stronger background in African American vernacular jazz dance, we took the inspiration from the song being electro-swing and saw an opportunity to include some elements found in shuffling, such as the running man. Based on the popularity of “Dramophone” with our members, we also did another routine to electro swing in 2019 called “Rock It”.

While it was a learning opportunity and a challenge for our team, based on the discussions above and what we have learned about the style of music, we won’t likely be using electro swing songs again in the future when showcasing vintage African American vernacular jazz dance. Instead we will focus on more appropriate musical contexts for each of these unique genres of dance.

Routine Rewind - Dramophone

Welcome to the Routine Rewind series on the Diamond Dolls blog!

WHAT IS ELECTRO-SWING?

CARAVAN PALACE

JAZZ DANCE VS. SHUFFLING

THE PROBLEM WITH ELECTRO-SWING

COLLABORATIVE CHOREOGRAPHY

WATCH THE DIAMOND DOLLS PERFORM DRAMOPHONE:

WATCH THE DIAMOND DOLLS PERFORM ROCK IT:

Sources: