Everyday Activist - Alive and Kicking (CUFF.Docs 2016)

Posted on Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 05:00 PM

Alive and Kicking (CUFF.Docs 2016)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

November is always a busy month for documentary film, especially since CUFF.Docs and Marda Loop Justice Film Festival are on the same weekend. This year CUFF.Docs has some great documentaries with a social, if not social justice angle, so I’m busy trying to get through my list. Alive and Kicking talks about Lindy Hop, which is a dance that gave birth to many other dance forms, taught in formal ballroom schools such as jive, east coast and west coast swing. While the director touches on the history of the dance, the main focus about using dance as a way to connect to people on a deeper level than just being Facebook friends and for the healing power of having a great community to support you through tough times.

Focusing on high level competitors executing dramatic lifts and perfect timing perpetuates the myth that Lindy Hop is an easy, free form dance to learn. Having taken it in the late 90s during its revival period after the 1998 GAP commercial and Swing Kids in 1993, it is not easy to learn at all. You have to have a good understanding of frame as well as fantastic grasp of lead and follow roles. Some of the moves can be dangerous. I was dropped and because my partner had my arms, I hit the ground face first. The documentary, later on talked about a dancer that ended up badly hurt due to a fall while she was dancing; however, the Lindy Hop community rallied around her as she managed to heal enough to keep dancing.

Despite the risks, Lindy Hop is a fun dance to do. People can love the dance and still manage to eek out living through travel and teaching classes. One of the dancers struck a chord with me as she spoke about her life on the road as a way to avoid deeper relationships with people, even though she teaches people that dancing is meant to create those connections. She worried about her family life, retirement and dancing after a certain age. To solve these issues she takes a risk to open up her own studio to teach Lindy Hop full time.

My dance teacher always says dancing keeps you young. In this film the dancers definitely proved that. Frankie Manning was pulled out of dancing retirement well past his prime to teach a new group of students a dance that he had perfected decades earlier. He wasn’t alone as other of his contemporaries came out to join the revival. Dancing is one of those activities where people of all ages can participate, which creates that wonderful sense of community. In reading a bit more about the director, we would have started at the same time, but she clearly had a passion for it that I did not. If you would like to try Lindy Hop or other types of swing, there are a number of swing dance clubs as well as ballroom studios in Calgary.

Alive and Kicking will be at the CUFF.Docs 2016 documentary film festival Saturday November 19th, 2016 at 4:30 pm at the Globe Cinema. 

Calgary Showtimes: CUFF.Docs 2016 > | Alive and Kicking >