Greetings Friends, Colleagues and Mentors,

By now some of you may have heard a few bits and pieces about the Voices of the Jazz Era Ballroom Project. Simply put, VJEB is a web-based public oral history initiative devoted to recording and passing on the memory of dance and music in the jazz era through the lives and words of everyday people. Much of what we know about the dances we love has come from performers and celebrities—the “important people”— and yet there is perhaps an even richer story to be told by those who, like my own grandparents and probably many of yours, just went out and danced, listened, lived. This rich social history, the “people’s history,” of dance is sadly slipping away as people with first-hand memories of it grow older and leave us. Certainly nothing could have made that more apparent than the recent passing of Frankie Manning. With that sad event I suddenly realized that if the dances we love survive another 80 or 90 years, we may be the last generation which has the privilege of knowing the people who comprised the first. I have decided to use my background in new media and oral history, along with the considerable support of some amazing scholars helping with my thesis at the University of Washington, to create a new means for us to preserve and share the stories of the jazz era ballroom.

This project supposes something very simple and very big: that a community which spans the globe can come together through the power of technology to preserve the history and stories of its elders. To do that, I need community leaders like you to participate and spread the word about this project. I want you talk, e-mail, blog, tweet, post and write about it to your peers and students wherever you go, because people look up to you. The ask is simple, I want people to talk to their parents, grandparents, neighbors and loved ones who have first-hand memories of dancing and music in the 1920’s-1950’s.

The Voices of the Jazz Era Ballroom website (www.jazzeravoices.org) is a permanent archive where people can upload transcripts, digital video and audio files of interviews as well as images from loved ones who remember the jazz era. The website is also a resource which will walk people through the process of conducting a good interview and uploading content to the standards that will allow the collection to be a durable record for both scholars and the public. Already there are example oral history interviews live on the site which I conducted with my own grandmothers and others close to me, as well as more photos than I ever imagined they had—it was such a joy to listen to these people and sift through their family archives. Norma Miller has thrown her weight behind the project and an interview with her will be up shortly. You can contribute by talking to a relative or friend who remembers music and dance in the jazz era, flipping through their photo albums, making them a priority.

Here is the REALLY IMPORTANT PART: the online archive will open to submissions on March 1st, 2010, and it will close to submissions on July 21st, 2010 . . . that is only about 6 months. Why the short time frame? Because we do not have forever to ask for these stories, and being human we often tend to put things off, not infrequently until it’s too late. I want this project to feel as urgent as it really is. I want us to make a focused effort at the right time to capture this personal history before it disappears from view. So I ask you to go to the website and explore the project.

If you have any questions or would like to contribute your time, talents, publicity or other resources to the project please do not hesitate to contact me personally (kelly@jazzeravoices.org, on Facebook or by phone). A few people have expressed a desire to interview in languages other than English for the project: an idea which I love and for which I will need translators and subtitle-ers. If you have any interest in that, or in helping others to do interviews and uploads, I would love your help as well.

With all my heart, I thank you.
Kelly Porter

Please contact Kelly Porter if you know anyone who lived and enjoyed the jazz era in person – whether they are dancers, community members, musicians, etc. their stories are important to preserve.

Please help us by sharing this letter and the Voices of the Jazz Era Project online via Facebook, Twitter, and E-Mail.

Workshops, camps, and competitions are merely fleeting nodes that connect a much larger network of disparate nodes; they are the glimmer that fascinates us but lack greater substance.

Local classes are the breeding grounds for new dancers, they foster the initial relationship people will have with the art form. From the basics they learn from day one, to the atmosphere of dance events, to the focus of the dance; the local scene socializes expectations.

Local classes are the roots of the movement, they feed and nurture everything that grows out of it. The cycle of students flows back on itself, as local teachers introduce new students, students become intermediate then advanced dancers, who then become local teachers, introducing more students. Without local classes scenes whither and die.

Local classes allow students to cut their teeth on instruction, performance and competition. They foster strong social bonds which support a scene and create new advocates for the art form.

Why I Gave Up Local Classes

It’s hard work and compensation can be scarce.

After nearly four years helping build the scene, maintaining a presence, and teaching in Montreal, I gave up on local classes. I wanted the benefits without the hardship – that elusive dream of traveling dance instructor. I wanted to bounce from fleeting node to fleeting node without the responsibility of feeding the roots.

Guess what? It doesn’t work that way.

How It Should Work

Perhaps one of the best examples of a teacher, organizer and scene advocate is Carla Heiney.  She stretches across three domains and works exceptionally hard within all of them.

She travels the world teaching, competing and performing with exceptional caliber. She helps organize a node of her own, Boogie by the Bay. Lastly, perhaps most importantly, she is one of the most active local teachers, organizers and promoters. She runs Lindy Central, works with local universities, works with local troupes. Somehow she even finds time to fly to LA for T.V. spotlights on So You Think You Can Dance and Time Warp.

If we devoted half the energy Carla does to building our own local scene and not skipping out of town for the next fleeting glamour event, there would be more work, reward and joy to go around for all of us.

What work do you do for your local scene?