Category Archives: Boogie Beat Swing News

Boogie Beat Swing News

Route 66 news and BIG celebratory announcement!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the nigh-weekly Route 66 update. 🙂

Firstly, we have been assured that there is a “fix” that can be put in place so that, even if there is a double booking on a Thursday in the future, we won’t have to change nights!  So that’s a big relief.

Secondly, two bits for tomorrow’s Route 66:
1) The birthdays of both Bobby Darin and Maxine Sullivan fall over the next week, and I don’t have enough music erally by either to make 2 nights of it, so I’m rolling them into one and calling it “Ain’t Misbehavin’ Up a Lazy River”. 😉  Some we’ll be groovin’ to some of their most bodacious tunes all night!
2) Our guest DJ tomorrow filling the post-10 p.m. slot is the ever-fabulous (and secret super-spy!) Aurea!  So be sure to come on down and give her (and her tunes) some love!

Finally, mark down Thursday, June 2nd on your calenders.  We are making that a HUGE celebration night to mark the fact that I have been teaching Swing in Dublin for **10 YEARS**!! ====:O  That’s right, Swing dancing in Dublin is now 10 years old!  So get dressed up in your best duds (or don’t, I don’t care, I just want to see you there!) and help me celebrate this huge milestone!  Even if you haven’t been out dancing in a long time (6 months… a year… 3 years… more…?) — heck, ESPECIALLY if you haven’t been out in a long time! — come on out anyway, it’d be great to have a dance and reminisce about the old days!  “Why back in my day, we didn’t dance to *music*!  We danced because people were throwing rocks at us and we were just trying to get out of the way!”  ;D  Expect more announcements about this as we get closer to the date.  Hope to see you all (all!) there!

All the best,
Jamie and Clare

Boogie Beat Swing News

This Weeks Route 66

Hello again, everyone. 🙂

Just a quick note to let you know what’s up at this week’s Route 66:

1) Bobb will again be guesting on the DJ deck from 10 p.m., so come on down and give him some love!

2) The theme for my own DJ set this week will be Duke Ellington, thus completing an April full of music from some of the heavy hitters of swing!  Duke’s birthday is April 29th, so it’s fitting that we close out the month with a set dedicated to music written by and/or performed by him. 🙂

See you when we swing you!
Jamie

Boogie Beat Swing News

Swing High!

Hello once again, everyone! 🙂

Well, the first night of Route 66 at the Turk’s Head was a *rousing* success!!What made it so amazing?

a) The venue.  SO much nicer in atmosphere than our previous home, I think everyone will agree!  And it was brilliant to not have drunk randommers messing with our mojo.  But that wasn’t the best part.

b) The location.  It was really cool to have all those passers-by checking us out through the windows!  And some of them even came in to get the full scoop!  It was cool that the onlookers all dug it and were respectful.  And I’d say it will certainly help to raise the profile of the night and bring in new people, being right beside the street like that.  And of course a little part inside each of us enjoys showing off a bit.  Admit it! 😉  But that wasn’t the best part.

c) The floor.  It was super nice, just the right amount of slippy, absolutely fantastic for dancing! But that wasn’t the best part.

d) The guest DJ.  Bobb rocked the house, and kept us swingin’ until 11:15 or 11:20.  Excellent!  But that wasn’t the best part.

e) The finish time.  As alluded to above, we went past 11, and could have gone even later, but people had to get home (tired, work, blah blah blah… what’s up with that?? 😉 ).  But that wasn’t the best part.

f) The dressing up.  It was super cool to see everyone’s spiffy duds!  It’s been requested that we make this a more regular occurance (perhaps even monthly), and and I am totally hep to that jive!  Next one is in May.  I’ll let you know the exact date soon…  But in any case, that wasn’t the best part either.

g) YOU GUYS!  You totally rocked the house and helped to make the evening a HUGE success!  I can’t thank everyone who showed up enough!  You were the real stars of the night, and you were DEFINITELY the best part! 😀  Without you, I’d just be some weirdo alone in an empty room, staring mournfully out the window while some random Louis Armstrong song played in the background.

Kinda creepy when you think about it, really.  😮   😉

Anyway, just a couple of quick notes for this week:
Theme for this week: Ella Fitzgerald!  It’s Lady Ella’s birthday on the 25th, so I’ll be spinning all her hot tunes and cool grooves!  Let me know if you have any particular favourites you’d like to hear, but remember, she had LOADS of fantastic songs, and my set is only so long. 🙂  In part because:

This week’s guest DJ: Gill will be spinning the decks from 10 p.m. until they pry her laptop from her cold, lifeless hands!  Or sometime after 11 p.m., whichever comes first.

Finally, don’t forget that if you have one of those magic flyers that entitles you to free entry on your first visit to the Turk’s Head (unless you forgot yours last week… not looking at anyone in particular here…), those are still valid, and will remain so, so be sure to bring it down and make good use of it!

Ok, I’ve gone waaaay beyond the attention span of the average reader, so I’ll just leave it there.  Hope to see you all Thursday!

See you when we swing you,
Jamie

Boogie Beat Swing News

New Route 66 Night in Turks Head

Hello, Swingtown!

As you all know by now, TOMORROW, Thursday, April 14th, is Route 66’s first night at the Turk’s Head.  So be sure to come out and help us celebrate!

Things to remember:
1. It’s a dress-up night!  So wear your best duds!  (Or not… we won’t turn you away if you don’t. 😉 )

2. All times will be as normal: Improvers at 7(ish) p.m., Beginners 8-8:45 p.m., social dancing until 11 (yes, it’s back to 11 again!  Or later if we refuse to leave! ;D )

3. We’ll (hopefully) be having a “Guest DJ” slot every week, with different people stepping in from 10 to 11 (or whenever) each week (don’t forget to let me know if you’re interested in signing up!).  Our super special guest star for the first night is Bobb, so come and check out his groovy tunes!

4. Speaking of DJ sets, my theme for this week will be Lionel Hampton.  There are 3 HUGE swing-era birthdays at the end of April, of which Lionel Hampton’s is the first on April 20, so I’ll be busting out all of his best tunes tomorrow night, including “Lavender Coffin”, “Flying Home”, and “Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop”, among others;.  Swingin’!

5. Also on Thursdays at the Turk’s Head, there’s live Reggae music from around 10:20(ish) in the front bar, so after you finish dancing, you can hang out and dig that funky music!

And a couple of related notes:
6. Don’t forget as well to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for future announcements of special promotions (for example, passwords which will get you discounts), etc.  We now have a Facebook *group* set up, so if you’ve already signed up for the Facebook *page*, get back in and get on the *group* instead (apparently you can recommend groups to friends whereas you can’t do that with pages, so groups are handier in that way).  Sorry for any confusion!

7. Finally, our next 6-week Lindy course in Fairview begins next week, on Wednesday the 20th.  See the website or contact us for more info.

That’s everything!  Have a great day, and hope to see you livin’ it large at the Turk’s Head tomorrow! 😉

All the best,
Jamie and Clare

Boogie Beat Swing News

Lindy Hop class price reduction!

Great news!  We have worked out an agreement with the National Dance Academy (who run the studios we teach in) to lower the prices for all of our Lindy Hop classes!  All 6-week courses (Mondays in Temple Bar, Wednesdays in Fairview) will now cost €60, or €55 for students!  The changes take place starting with the next new session in each studio: April 4th in Temple Bar, April 20th in Fairview.  All part of our master plan for world domin- … er, I mean to bring you more affordable dancing! 🙂

See you when we swing you!
Jamie and Clare