My sister Zoey and I first saw Lindy Hop on Thursday, January 8th, 1998.
Zoey had heard about swing dancing from Jane Catkisser but we didn’t really know what to expect and we weren’t prepared for the love at first site that we experienced when we emerged upstairs at the Hooch, above the Gypsy Co-op on Queen St. W. That night we walked into another world.
It felt like we had entered the Hot Club of France with the Club Django band playing in a small, candlelit room, and one young couple was doing the most incredible partner dancing. Never before had I witnessed anything so magical. The dancers were Jana Jedlovska and Martin Nantel. They were incredible and I knew in that moment that at all costs, no matter how long it took me, I had to learn to do it.
That night we had missed the lesson but we met Peter Renzland and the next week we attended his Wednesday night group at the Tranzac Club. We also met another fabulous dancer, Jessica Somers, and I was shocked to learn that she’d only been dancing for a couple of years. I thought for sure that it would take many more years to learn to dance like that. I didn’t understand anything about how Lindy Hop worked and how freeing and individual it would be.
It was a life-changing night. The T.O. Lindy Hop Reunion will mark my and Zoey’s 20 year anniversary from that special night.
Thank you for this story, Mandi!