Birkley Wisniewski

Instructor

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A great instructor will perceive students’ needs in order to impart inspiration, technical training, and the essence of the dance. Over a decade of teaching dance, I’ve learned how to skillfully share my passion for dancing! This includes Lindy Hop, Charleston, Balboa, Drags, and Solo Jazz. I find Lindy Hop to be a colourful, joyful, and expressive dance form that is especially empowering.
I enjoy teaching beginners and veteran dancers alike; I’m willing to teach any individual or group, no matter the skill level, for nearly any situation required. These engagements typically include dance workshops, beginner lessons, private lessons, intermediate to advanced classes, performance team coaching, and group classes of any size.

Lindy Hopping since 2002, Birkley has made a career out of dance instruction. He is an accomplished dancer of Lindy Hop, Solo Jazz, Balboa, Slow Drags, and Charleston, and studies Tap on the side. Having taught over a thousand classes since he began teaching in 2004, including dance workshops across Canada, he has become very passionate about sharing the roots and soul of vernacular jazz & swing: it is a rhythmic art full of joy and self expresssion. With a membership of over 200 dancers, Birkley runs the Sugar Swing Dance Club, established in 2005. With it, he directs the 12-person and 20-person performance teams Mad Cat Swing and Mad Kittens, helping to cultivate the most advanced dancers in Edmonton. In his spare time, he studies old dance clips and collects music for deejaying. In the classroom, you’ll find Birkley to be a very effective instructor – he is personable, chooses great concepts to learn, enjoys delivering technique, keeps his students entertained, and commands the class with clear directions.

In terms of teaching style, Birkley approaches each class and individual with a fresh set of eyes, and draws from a big bag of tricks. Some individuals need encouragement and confidence, while others require focus on the nitty gritty fundamentals. Other dancers need to learn rhythm and how to express themselves; others want to be inspired through spicy variations, patterns and improvisation. Birkley ultimately wants every lesson to be fun and engaging, and to help students build skills toward better self-expression. It’s his duty and privilege to impart the core values and roots of this dance.

When teaching partner dancing such as swing or Lindy Hop, Birkley likes to have a proficient teaching partner he knows well for better demonstration and a more immersive learning experience for the students. Please contact him for his preferred partners. In some situations such as a workshop, team coaching, or private lesson, he can work solo or with a local dancer. For solo dance classes, he’s happy to either fly solo or play off a teaching partner.

Birkley can work with nearly any teaching situation and turn it into a fun experience while also imparting concrete dance skills. He’s taught several dance workshops regionally, and regularly teaches 8-15 hours a week locally and at his studio, Sugar Swing.

Typical Engagements

  • Individual private lessons
  • Team coaching
  • Weekly classes
  • Private group lessons
  • Drop-in group lessons

Teaching Proficiencies

  • Lindy Hop
  • Solo Jazz
  • Balboa
  • Charleston
  • Jive/Jitterbug/East-Coast Swing

Specific Content

Birkley has broken down the following routines from original video footage and has retaught them several times:

  • Keep Punchin’ Big Apple Contest
  • Tranky Doo
  • California routine
  • First Stops routine
  • Al Minns & Leon James Shim Sham
  • Dean Collins Shim Sham

Other Specialties

While considered a sufficient dancer in some other dance forms, though not a master, he’s willing to teach or demonstrate these following specialties:

  • Cakewalk
  • Black Bottom
  • 1920’s Charleston
  • Break-away Charleston
  • Rhythm Tap
  • Slow Drags

Current Engagements

Coaching at Sugar Swing

  • Mad Cat Swing (weekly)
  • Mad Kittens (weekly)
  • Big Time Groove (1/month)

Weekly Classes at Sugar Swing

  • Swing 1
  • Lindy Hop 2
  • Lindy Hop 3
  • Solo Jazz 1 & 2
  • Balboa 1
  • Drop-In Classes (1/week)

Deejay

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Social dancing requires excellent music choices appropriate for the occasion. My expertise in dancing Lindy Hop and Balboa has helped me cater to the needs of these dancers. With over 12 years of deejay experience and countless logged hours of deejaying, I’ve learned to read a crowd and easily deliver the music that makes them want to dance.

Birkley is passionate about vernacular jazz music, especially with fitting the best music for each jazz dance, whether Lindy Hop, Balboa, Slow Drags, or Charleston. He works hard to keep the floor swinging out, and loves bringing fresh tunes for dancers to enjoy.  He has been a staff DJ at Herrang Dance Camp the past four years, along with a number of events locally and nationally (CSC, Lindybout). Birkley has been deejaying Lindy Hop for more than 10 years, hailing from Edmonton, Canada. He is the owner of Sugar Swing, the main Lindy Hop studio in his city; also, as deejay coordinator, Birkley is in charge of scheduling local swing deejays for three dance socials per week at his studio. He handles all swing band bookings (1-2 times a month), trains new deejays, and has created in-depth deejay guidelines for his trainees. His purpose and passion is to bring the best and most inspiring music to every floor he deejays.

While Birkley favours music from the 1930’s and 1940’s, he has love affairs with all eras of dance music, including funk, soul, 1950’s, New Orleans rhythms, and even pop! Having strong opinions about swing music and the art of Lindy Hop and vernacular jazz dancing doesn’t keep him from enjoying other dance music and dance styles.

More broadly, Birkley is often in the role of music coordinator. At his own studio, he schedules deejays locally for three dances a week and has developed detailed guidelines, policies, and training material for his deejays. He also hires bands 1-2 times a month for these events and has created guidelines to help bands play effectively for Lindy hoppers. Each year Birkley has the honour of assembling an all-star band for Edmonton’s annual Summer Solstice festival by hand-picking five or more world-class swing musicians.

Highlighted Event Experience

  • Herrang Dance Camp (Sweden) – staff deejay at this world-renowned camp for the last four years
  • Lindybout (Vancouver)
  • Canadian Swing Championships (Montreal)
  • Mini Balboa Fest (Vancouver)
  • Prairie Lindy Exchange, i.e. PLEX (most years)

Deejay Proficiencies

  • Lindy Hop socials
  • Balboa dances
  • Slow Drag nights
  • Competition deejaying
  • DJ training
  • DJ coordination

Other Deejay Specialties

As a versatile deejay who is often tasked with theme nights and specialized dance forms, he can certainly bust out an evening’s worth of the following music styles:

  • Trad Jazz, Charleston, & New Orleans music
  • Funk parties
  • Soul dances
  • 50’s Rock & Roll
  • 1980’s and 1990’s pop music
  • Top 40’s
  • Electroswing

Mentorship

Through his studio Sugar Swing, Birkley has mentored some of the finest deejays in Western Canada, who’ve gone on to win several Lindybout (Vancouver) deejay contests! He continues to train deejays from the ground-up to spin for Lindy Hoppers and also specialty sets such as Balboa or Slow Drags. Furthermore, Birkley has created valuable documentation (guidelines, policies, and tips & tricks) relating to swing deejays that have been used in other scenes such as Montreal and Calgary.

Music Director

Birkley is responsible for all music that gets played at his studio. Through Sugar Swing, Birkley oversees three social dances every week, hires live music 1-2 times per month, and hosts special weekend events (workshops and exchanges) 3-4 times per year. These dances can call for a variety of requirements that typically include tons of great swing music. Themed nights also may call for specialty sets like Funk and Soul, 50’s Rock n Roll, and Top 40’s.

While working closely with trombonist and band leader Brad Shigeta, along with his experience of hiring bands dozens of times, Birkley has developed musician’s guidelines for bands to play at his venue. These guidelines have successfully helped to unify the needs and wants of dancers with the musicians, creating consistently better-than-average to excellent experiences for both dancers and musicians alike!

Choreographer

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Along with being Artistic Director of the Mad Cat Swing performance team and the Sugar Swing Dance Club, Birkley’s past clients for choreography have included the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Victoria School for the Arts, and Dance Fusion (Sherwood Park). He is consistently required to come up with unique routines for a varying number of people, situations, and skill levels, in a typically short amount of time. His works have gained high praise; a notable achievement has been their presentation on stage of Edmonton’s illustrious Winspear Centre each year for the past four years.

As team director of Mad Cat Swing, Sugar Swing’s premier performance team, Birkley has broken down several routines from original footage by masters of Lindy Hop, and retaught them to his team. These include the Tranky Doo, Keep Punchin’ Big Apple Contest, Al Minns & Leon James Shim Sham, Dean Collins Shim Sham, the California routine, and the First Stops routine.

From time to time he’s called upon to create choreography for school-aged dance students and wedding couples — demonstrating an ability to choreograph for all skill levels.

Original Works

  • Edmonton Winspear Centre
    • Charleston Christmas ¹²³  (2015)
    • Carioca ¹ (2014)
    • St James Infirmary & Christopher Columbus ¹ (2014)
    • In The Mood (2012)
  • Sugar Swing Dance Club
    • Clambake Carnival ³
    • Mad Kittens Lindybout team choreo ² (2015)
    • Mad Cat Chorus (2012)
  • Personal endeavors
    • Partnered Big Apple Contest ²  (2015)
Collaborators
  1. Krystal Moss
  2. Sydney Alessandrini
  3. Turlough Myers

Re-creations

The following choreography and routines, created by original masters of Lindy Hop, have been fully broken down by Birkley and may be divulged

  • Keep Punchin’ Big Apple Contest
  • California routine
  • First Stops routine
  • Tranky Doo
  • Al Minns & Leon James Shim Sham
  • Dean Collins Shim Sham
  • Frankie 100 “Lindy Chorus”

Electro Swing: Why not?

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Originally posted May 29, 2011

A question that’s been brought up by a couple people in my club: why don’t we ever play electro swing at our dances or in our classes? Isn’t this alienating the tastes of many, many people? Here’s some reasoning. First, I will admit that I enjoy listening to electronica. Not all types, but I do find it to be fun background music while I work. I also really love vernacular swing music. As a result perhaps, I like Electro Swing. But to Lindy Hop and swing to it? Nope. Here’s my reasoning:

#1: It’s often difficult to choose a tempo.

Many songs feel as if you can choose either a fast rhythm or slow rhythm, all in the same song. Like, half-time, or full-time. You’re either going to be dancing blazing-fast Lindy steps, or else half-time lindy steps that are going to feel a bit awkward too. Either way, it’s strange.

#2: Inconsistent songs

Many songs employ breakdowns that can last tens of seconds, or transitions into different tempos, or shifts into different songs and different types of rhythms. They sound interesting to the ear, but are challenging to dance through with a partner. Fail.

#3: No SWING in Electro Swing.

Alright, so yeah, “Communications” and “Minor Swing” can be used for electro swing. But what the hell – “No Diggity”? “Istanbul Pas Constantionople”? “My Chihuahua”? These base songs don’t even swing in the first place!

#4. Rhythm doesn’t swing… the right way.

Most swing deejays will mention this first, but I wanted to start off with justifications that would better speak to people off the streets who aren’t as familiar with Lindy Hop and swing dancing. The rhythm simply isn’t conducive for swing dancing. If you were to get out on the dance floor and dance to electro swing, you would LIKELY NOT want to triple-step… you wouldn’t want to move with a consistent rhythmic groovy manner as if you were a wave on the ocean. These ideas form the fundamental basis for Lindy Hop – and I’d also include Balboa and jive/6-count/jig-step. Instead, your movements, to match the rhythm of the music, would be much more jaunty and sharp at times while also having some smoothness to it.

#5. Repetitiveness fails to be jazzy

Because much of electronica is very much synthesized, it it repetitive. Usually OK for listening to, but while dancing, the dancer’s brain gets bored really fast. Jazz music, on the other hand in general, is created with real musicians in entirety, so every piece of a song is different. Even if a riff or melody repeats or appears to be different, it truly is in subtle ways that the brain mysteriously picks up on. However, electronica will usually take a melody, say 5s of a song, and repeat it over and over 20x in various ways. Maybe the artist will layer it with other melodies, but usually those other layers are repeated throughout the song too.

If all that fails to be true, then I observe that pretty much all electronica songs have a synthesized rhythm, electronically repeated throughout the entire song or good-sized chunks of the song.

#6. Artistic experience

Finally, although not necessary the most convincing to everyone, there is something to be said about creating an experience for both beginners and advanced dancers that is true to the roots of the swing dances of Balboa, Charleston, Lindy Hop, Vernacular Jazz, and Jive. And sticking to it. Sure, we can create a new fusion experience, but without history, it’s hard to say if it will be good or not. At least if we use vintage music and stick to these dances, more people can easily determine if Sugar Swing is a decent club with skilled dancers or not.

#7. Existing dancers

Perhaps also important is the wills and wishes of the people we have already in Sugar Swing. Some of the most important people in the club (like any other arts community) are the ones with tons of experience. Newer dancers look up to these folks, and if they leave, then that’s not good. Invariantly, because they have spent much time honing their skills in dancing, they also have strong opinions on many aspects of the dances they do, including the music choices at dance events. If we change the music, which is their most valuable and prized tool that they know well, like a saddlewood 6-shooter gun of a gunslinger from the Dark Tower series, then they won’t be able to dance as well, and they might even leave.

Lindy Hop and its Music

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Originally posted February 21, 2011

Lindy Hop comes second – the music comes first. As I continue to refine my dance skills, I am continually reminded about the importance of the music that goes with the dances I do. I mainly focus on Lindy Hop, Jazz, Charleston, and Balboa. Each dance takes great skill and lots of practice in order for them to be enjoyed with true ease. The right music is necessary to invoke the right mood for dancing each of these dances, ie, statements such as “This feels like a Bal song” or “Hey, I can do Charleston to this”. More importantly, the right music is needed to invoke the entirety of all movements within the dance style. In fact, some will say that you are not dancing Lindy Hop if you’re not playing swing music. This is a bold statement, and there is truth to it.

Let me explain. The binding force within music we hear is rhythm, time, and repetition. It is clear that dance most easily becomes created when music has rhythm, because patterns and definition to a dance easily take shape when the music has patterns and repetition involved. Musical structure, such as phrases or choruses, plays a huge importance when dancers create choreography. But at the basis of nearly all popular forms of dance is an adherence to rhythm. It makes sense that dancing dependent on it. In swing dancing, rhythm is the true heart of it all.

Now, Lindy Hop became a dance when the music of 1920’s hot jazz changed. The rhythm of jazz music of that time started to swing. Dancers were doing the Charleston prior. It’s interesting to note that the dance Charleston came about because of the hot jazz being played in the early part of the 1900’s. It didn’t really exist when ragtime music, which came earlier, was around. In the late 1920’s, that all started to change as musicians such as Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb started to change the rhythm of their songs. The dancers loved it because it was new, hip, and really made them wanna dance! But they didn’t just keep doing Charleston… they started to change entirely. Dancers started to syncopate their body movements because of the new rhythms. They did it naturally – they listened to the music and let their bodies move in such a way that would match the new swinging rhythms.

Over the last 100 years, syncopated rhythms stemming from the origins of Jazz music have continued to inspire all sorts of dances and all kinds of music. 1930’s swing music inspired 1940’s R&B. 1940’s R&B inspired 1950’s Rock n’ Roll. Soul came out of R&B, Funk came out of Soul, and meanwhile Jazz continued to evolve and influence all music, and so on and so forth.

Back in the day, in the 1930’s and 1940’s, swing music was produced and played in large part for dancers. Jazz musicians got most of their gigs by playing for dance halls. However, over time, Jazz musicians that played swing increasingly weren’t getting gigs to play for dancers. Concert halls and theaters. Swing music fell out of favor because new types of music were becoming hip and cool, such as 1940’s Bebop Jazz, Blues, and Rhythm n’ Blues, as the world moved on.

But in the 1990’s, the vintage styles associated with swing became hip. Polka-dot dresses, bowler hats, zoot suits fashion-wise. Also, swing-styled rock and pop songs (commonly known as neo-swing) became popular, and also swing dancing made a come back. I’m glad that fad happened because it meant that swing dancing and swing music got exposure.

Here’s the thing: it is truly hard to play the rhythms and arrangements of the 1930’s and 1940’s, and get it right.

Neo-swing did an OK job of getting the style of swing instrumentation infused into their songs, but the re-creators unfortunately were not really focussed on having the music appropriately made for dancing Lindy Hop, so they didn’t get it right. Their rhythms didn’t always swing. Their melodies often were over-the-top, or didn’t match the rhythm. Some groups and artists got close, and a select few went all the way and started to do it… play true swing music appropriate for Lindy Hop.

There’s the other side: what about all our modern big bands that are playing 1930’s and 1940’s swing jazz? Well, they do a pretty good job of recreating the arrangements. However, there is something missing there too: having a relationship with dancers that dance to that type of music. Because big bands often are playing in concert halls, there’s not much opportunity to play for Lindy Hoppers. Also, until recently, Lindy Hop as a dance had died off so there hasn’t been much opportunity for big bands to play for dancers that would be able to dance to their music appropriately. Thus, big bands are very good at repeating arrangements; however, they are very commonly plagued by ‘lack of life’ within the music they play. Their music was meant to be danced to, but no one’s dancing. To me, many big bands I hear sound dead.

I believe that Lindy Hoppers today are often confused by what is swing music. Not knowing what to play, what do dance to, or who to seek out. They trust in their deejays and instructors to provide appropriate music for Lindy Hopping, but they should know that these deejays and instructors may not be the perfect role models and have an attuned knowledge of the music that truly makes Lindy Hop happen.

Often times, Lindy Hoppers run into forms of music that are not as directly aligned with the dance, and use that for their inspiration. Farthest away from the source of Lindy Hop music is a term you might call fusion Lindy – Van Morrison, some Ray Charles, some Nina Simone, and pretty much anything that has syncopation. Perhaps a little closer but still on the outskirts of ‘Lindyhoppable Music’ includes neo-swing, 1950’s rock, jump blues, and some swing music that new big bands play. These forms of music still work, partly – they typically have syncopated rhythms that allow Lindy Hop to be danced. The down side of dancing to these forms of music is that it doesn’t inspire the entirety of Lindy Hop as a dance. It mostly has to do with these musical style’s rhythms. They are different, and variations in rhythm (or lack of a living, dancing rhythm) should cause people to dance differently. As you change how people move, you move away from authentic Lindy Hop. I would venture to say that if you are an aspiring student of Lindy Hop, then not having the right music will inhibit your progression as a dancer.

Now dancers are confronted with styles of music that get pretty close to being good forms of music for Lindy Hopping, but are not the real deal. This includes Gypsy Jazz, much of the music that dancers loosely call New Orleans Swing Music (Preservation Hall, Bug Stompers, Jazz Vipers, Tuba Skinny as examples). Getting closer to the Real Deal is the music of some European swing bands and several North American swing bands. I dare not mention any band names because of fear of getting lynched, since many big Lindy Hop events in North America feature these bands.

The true music intended for Lindy Hop is swing jazz music created in the 1930’s and 1940’s for dancer audiences. This music aligns itself with the Lindy Hop dance perfectly. There is no getting around this, and if you are a lindy hopper, or deejay for lindy hoppers, or musician for lindy hoppers, I would strongly advise that you take your primary influences of music from this era. Not just any music either. Find out what music was played at the Savoy Ballroom where Lindy Hop was created and became popular, and try not to compromise. If you find newer, inspiring recordings that you find awesome – that’s ok, it’s fun to experiment, but know whether that song is comparable to a 30’s/40’s tune like Jumping at the Woodside or Perdido or Yatch Club Swing. Make a choice to deviate and know when you are!