Directed by Caleb Teicher, featuring 12 swing dance champions accompanied by live music from Eyal Vilner’s 10-piece Big Band
SUMMARY
- UCSB Arts & Lectures presents SW!NG OUT, a Joyce Theater Production
- Saturday, October 8 / 8 p.m. / Granada Theatre
- A thrilling swing dance performance followed by an on-stage jam session for performers and audience members
- Accompanied by live music from Eyal Vilner’s 10-piece Big BandProducers Circle members-only party before the event
- Producers Circle members-only party before the event
- $36-$66 General Public (Facilities fee included) / $20 UCSB Students (Current Student ID required)
- Tickets & Info: www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu, (805) 893-3535; or the Granada Theatre, www.granadsb.org, (805) 899-2222
- Patrons can take advantage of discounts to see SW!NG OUT by subscribing to the Dance Series. For more info, visit: www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/subscribe-save/
“A sweeping ride through contemporary swing dance… Captivating… Extraordinary.” The New York Times
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) presents SW!NG OUT, the spectacular new Lindy Hop revue and jam session from New York’s Joyce Theater. Acclaimed choreographer Caleb Teicher brings the best of the swing dance world to the Santa Barbara stage. Accompanied by live music from Eyal Vilner’s 10-piece Big Band, 12 dance champions prove that there’s no better time to celebrate the joy, fire and fight of the Lindy Hop, America’s competitive and partnered dance form. SW!NG OUT pairs choreographic magic with stunning improvisations and ends with an on-stage jam session for performers and audience members. Don’t miss The New York Times Best of 2021 Critic’s Pick, “the contemporary swing-dance show that… gave me the most joy of any dance production in 2021.”
SW!NG OUT presents social Lindy Hop and vernacular dance as a jazz concert experience. It is a blend of prearrangement and improvisation, where only some of the steps are choreographed; only some of the music is on the page. Performers and spectators are invited to interpret the material in real-time, to share in the exhilaration of creation.
Even though Lindy Hop and vernacular jazz have been used in other productions for nostalgia or novelty, there has not been a touring, evening-length program celebrating what these dances have become. By assembling genuine swing-dance superstars in an improvisatory space, this show offers a unique glimpse into their universe: the modern Lindy Hop scene.
Click above to watch the SW!NG OUT trailer
The Sw!ng Out Braintrust: Evita Arce, LaTasha Barnes, Nathan Bugh, Macy Sullivan, Caleb Teicher, and Eyal Vilner
A Note From the Braintrust: For us, Lindy Hop tackles the issues of society at large but in an arena of exaggerated humanity. Touch, trust, gender, history, intimacy, and partnership get ground together in the crucible of jazz, and they are reified as art. Our mission with SW!NG OUT is to search for perspective on these complexities while embracing the joy of jazz dance and music.
Improvised social dancing is integral to the tradition and modern-day expression of Lindy Hop and Jazz Dance. After seeing the show, SW!NG OUTinvites you to join them and dance on stage while the Eyal Vilner Big Band plays another 30-minute set.
Lindy Hop is the preeminent swing-jazz partnered dance. In the late 1920s, movement elements, including those of The Charleston, The Collegiate, and The Texas Tommy, were swirling together in African-American communities to form a new style. They coalesced around a musical groove called “swing.” Dance champion George Snowden supplied the name “Lindy Hop” in reference to Charles Lindberg, whose recent transatlantic flight was the phenomenon of the moment. The name stuck, and early masters popularized the dance at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.
Frankie Manning and other exponents of the 1930s and 1940s incorporated choreography and high-flying “air steps.” Frequently presented by Savoy bouncer Herbert White as “Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers,” these champions dominated clubs, contests, stages and film. Manning had a phasic career, retiring after the swing era but re-engaging with the dance industry in the 1980s. In the intervening years, visionaries such as Norma Miller and Mama Lu Parks sustained Lindy Hop and even adapted it to new musical genres.
At the end of the 20th century, a surge of popularity saw modern swing-dance scenes spring up worldwide. There are now plenty of non-US hotspots, like Stockholm and Seoul, with robust dance communities. Lindy Hop also continues to thrive in the US and in Harlem, where the dance never stopped.
Caleb Teicher (Director, Braintrust, Dancer) is a NYC-based dancer and choreographer specializing in musically-driven dance traditions and interdisciplinary collaboration. Teicher began their career as a founding member of Michelle Dorrance’s critically acclaimed tap dance company, Dorrance Dance, while also freelancing in contemporary dance (The Chase Brock Experience, The Bang Group), Lindy Hop (Syncopated City Dance Company), and musical theater (West Side Story International Tour and London). As a solo performer and collaborator, Teicher is known for choreographic collaborations with diverse musical talents: world-champion beatboxer Chris Celiz, composer/pianist Conrad Tao; the National Symphony Orchestra, and indie rock legends Ben Folds and Regina Spektor. In 2015, Caleb shifted their creative focus towards Caleb Teicher & Company (CT&Co), a creative home for incubating new concert dance works from Teicher’s unique perspective. CT&Co’s engagements and commissions extend across the US and abroad, including The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, the Guggenheim Museum (NYC and Bilbao), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Caleb is the recipient of a 2019 New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship, two Bessie Awards, a 2019 Harkness Promise Award, the 2020 Gross Family Prize, and a 2019 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant. Their work has been featured by The New York Times, NPR, Forbes, Vogue, Interview Magazine, on the cover of Dance Magazine and, most recently, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbertalongside Regina Spektor. Caleb continues to engage with dance communities as a teacher for international tap, swing, and jazz dance festivals. // www.CalebTeicher.net // Instagram: @CalebTeicher
LaTasha “Tasha” Barnes (Braintrust, Dancer) is an internationally acclaimed and awarded dancer, educator, coach and ambassador of culture from Richmond, VA. She is globally celebrated for her musicality, athleticism, and joyful presence throughout the cultural traditions she bears, including House, Hip-Hop, Waacking, Vernacular Jazz, and Lindy Hop. Barnes has been profiled as the cover feature of the July 2022 issue of Dance Magazine and in The New York Times. Her expansive artistic, competitive and performative skills have made her a frequent collaborator to Dorrance Dance, Singapore-based Timbre Arts Group, Caleb Teicher & Company, Ephrat Asherie Dance and many international Urban Arts and Jazz/ Lindy Hop festivals like Summer Dance Forever and Paris Jazz Roots Festival. Accolades and accomplishments aside, Tasha’s forever purpose is to inspire fellow artists and art enthusiasts to cultivate an authentic sense of self in their creative expressions and daily lives.
Eyal Vilner (Braintrust, Band Leader, Alto Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet) is one of the leading voices in the New York swing and big band scene. Born in Tel Aviv, saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, composer and bandleader Eyal Vilner moved to New York in 2007 and started his big band the following year. The Eyal Vilner Big Band has been performing widely at some of New York’s landmarks such as Lincoln Center, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, The Joyce Theater, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, Smalls Jazz Club, Minton’s Playhouse, Midsummer Night’s Swing, and Central Park SummerStage. Internationally, Eyal has performed on Israel’s most prestigious stages such as the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Tel Aviv Museum, Jerusalem Theater, The Tel Aviv Jazz Festival, and the historical La Bellevilloise, Caveau des Oubliettes and Caveau de la Huchette in Paris, France. The big band performs Eyal’s original compositions and his new arrangements of jazz classics. Their music, which derives from the jazz, swing and blues traditions, strives to bring a unique voice to this beautiful art form. The big band’s first six albums: Introducing the Eyal Vilner Big Band, Almost Sunrise, Hanukkah, Swing Out!, Live in Washington Square Park!, and The Jam! received rave reviews and made it to the top jazz radio charts of the US and Canada.
Additional bios and information about the Sw!ng Out team available on request.
About UCSB Arts & Lectures
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
SW!NG OUT is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures in association with the UCSB Department of Theater and Dance. Tickets are $36-$66 General Public (includes facility fee) / $20 UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu; or contact The Granada Theatre at www.GranadaSB.org, (805) 899-2222
Dance series sponsors: Margo Cohen-Feinberg & Bob Feinberg, Ellen & Peter O. Johnson, Barbara Stupay and Sheila Wald.
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2022-2023 season.