I was a shy, reserved boy who loved watching family members flailing flawlessly on the dance floor. I would sit on the sidelines singing along with the songs and tapping my feet in time with the tunes. I had shrugged an “I don’t dance” often enough to believe it, and never imagined myself having the confidence to move to music (let alone lead a partner) or the resilience to show vulnerability in front of a crowd. Through martial arts and sports, I developed an intellectual interest in the art and science of human movement. Maybe objectifying it was the perspective I needed to help me not take my faults so personally? Break dancing seemed to be great cross-training for martial arts, and my background already put me ahead of the curve. Before I knew it, in 2007, I found myself dancing jive and hiphip on-stage in front of audiences of 600 people, for a play organized by a non-profit, inter-religious youth group called Searching and Service in Unity (SSU) of which I was a member. For a short while after, I was invited to join a semi-pro hip-hop troop called Hybrid Echt. They taught me backflips!
Moving to Ottawa in 2010, I was keen to continue dancing jive as often as possible. However, the closest jive community I could find was in Montreal. A few workshops and dances gave me the basic background needed to start teaching my friends in Ottawa. We quickly found out that there was a strong interest in the music and everything it brought with it. Our little teaching plan grew into a community called the Ottawa Jive Hive in 2011.
The Ottawa Jive Hive is an Ottawa-based Rock and Roll community to foster support, events, dance lessons, and jam/jive sessions (videos here) related to rock and roll and rockabilly music. It offered a home for Rock n Roll afficionados to hang out, exchange music, and dance. It quickly grew to partner with bands, bars, studios, and universities in multiple countries. I’ve had the pleasure of teaching Jive in England, Australia, Austria, and Germany.
After moving to Montreal for graduate studies in 2015, I joined Jive Studio’s dance troops to compete and perform on the national stage. However, there comes a point in every hobby where you realize that to improve any further, you need to practice more; but to make the time to practice, you need to compromise on other activities. I was practicing and dancing 4-6 times per week for a year when I realized that I was not significantly improving. I needed to go pro, or relegate to recreational. In 2017, I stopped competing. I decided to focus on the parts that brough me joy – social dancing and teaching (privately and at Jive Studio). Interestingly, this new approach helped me helped me find a balance which kept things fun and still fulfilled me (as much as before) but without feeling drained. As a result, my dancing improved even more!
The playlist below has some of these performances – including my first performances with SSU in 2007, to the Canadian Swing Championships, and recent choreographies with my dance partners. Click the icon in the top-right for the full playlist. Enjoy!