Today we’d like to introduce you to Cindy Gardner.
Hi Cindy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Wow, it’s difficult to be brief with a career that has spanned over 40 years. I’ll just put it all out here and you can pick and choose what works best for you. 🙂
I’ve always loved music and dance. I grew up listening to my Dad’s big band, jazz, Dixieland and ragtime records, and I couldn’t get enough of the amazing dancing in old movies by Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Bill “Bo Jangles” Robinson, and others. If there was dancing in it, I’d watch it!
In high school and college, I studied ballet, jazz, and ballroom. I dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but learned pretty quickly that as a tall, big-boned girl with broad shoulders and hips (5’7” is tall for ballet – ha!) I wasn’t going to make it in that world. Besides, most professional ballet careers are over before the dancer turns 30 years old.
I wanted to be active in music and dance throughout my life, so I decided to focus on social dancing. I was drawn to swing because it’s so fun, energetic, and creative. As fate would have it, a friend contacted me about teaching a Swing Dance class through community education. I hadn’t thought about teaching, but figured I’d give it a try for a while until I got bored with it.
In the 1980s, I will happily tell anyone that I spent my first 10 years of teaching learning how to teach and learning how to dance. As a new community education teacher, all I needed was to know more than my students and to have great enthusiasm. I learn by doing, so the more I taught the better I became at teaching.
As my skills improved, I gained popularity and my students began asking for classes beyond the beginning level that I taught through community education. Wanting to try it on my own, I rented a small studio and began teaching intermediate-level classes and workshops. My students also wanted to go out social dancing to use their new skills, but at that time venues didn’t offer music for swing dancing, so I started holding record dances (yes, records – ha!) in the church basement.
In the early 1990s, my programs continued to be successful, so in the early 1990s, I expanded the range of classes, workshops and special events that I offered. I was still working at a full-time day job as I grew the Swing Dance programming at night, and it was becoming overwhelming. But at the same time, it was cool and fun and inspirational! I kept dreaming, creating, and learning about Swing Dance.
Lindy Hop: At first, I taught only East Coast Swing, as Lindy Hop had mostly died out. In the early 1980s, young dancers in New York City, Los Angeles, London, and Stockholm re-discovered Lindy Hop and started to learn from the old masters such as Al Minns, Sugar Sullivan, Norma Miller, and the ambassador of Lindy Hop, Frankie Manning. Throughout the 1980s Lindy Hop increased in popularity as young dancers learned from the old masters.
When it came on my radar in the early 1990s, I took every Lindy Hop and Early Jazz workshop that I could find. This was the style of dancing that I’d seen in the old movies, and the more I learned about the dance and its history, the more passionate I became about this amazing style created in the ballrooms of Harlem in the 1920s. In 1994, I attended Can’t Top the Lindy Hop, a weekend celebration of Frankie Manning’s 80th birthday in New York City that included workshops, social dances, incredible showcase performances, and many legendary Lindy Hoppers. I was blown away, and that turned the corner for me. I knew that I was where I belonged with Lindy Hop at the center of my world.
In the late 1990s, several things came together that set my career on a solid base.
In 1995, I took the leap and decided to make Swing Dancing my full-time occupation, figuring that if it didn’t work out I still had lots of other skills to fall back on. But if I didn’t try, I’d always wonder whether I could have made it. I did some contract work on the side for about a year and a half until my programs were stable enough that I was actually working full-time professionally as a Swing Dance instructor and promoter. Happy times! J
Inspired by team performances that I’d seen at Can’t Top The Lindy Hop, I decided to create my own team. I formed Rhythm & Swing, and began creating choreographies. We began performing at events all around the Twin Cities and the upper Midwest. In 2011 Rhythm & Swing began to compete, frequently placing in the top three at major competitions.
In 1997, Terry Gardner started taking my classes (best student ever!). In 1998 we started dating. In 1999 we got married, and I got the best friend, life partner and business partner imaginable!!! 🙂 It was Terry’s idea to start Late Night Swing, our weekly DJ dance that follows our intermediate-level classes on Thursday evenings.
In the mid-1990s, punk rock and ska bands began to discover and play music from the original Swing Era, and write their own music called Nouveau Swing. This hot new style quickly grew in popularity, and in 1998 Gap featured Swing Dancing in a 30-second TV ad promoting their khakis. Suddenly Swing Dancing gained mainstream popularity that summer, and our classes and social dances were flooded with new dancers.
Going into the 2000s we’ve settled into a really fun routine that includes beginning and intermediate level classes, weekly DJ’d dances (DJ Terry Gardner!), monthly live band dances, performance team rehearsals, private lessons, and lots of gigs: hangar dances, summer in the park concerts, private parties, corporate events, festivals, and so much more. I love bringing such a fun and happy dance style to people in so many ways! J
This combination of classes, social dances and performances out in the “real world” has created a Swing Dance community where anyone at any age can come and enjoy the fun. Learning to dance is like learning to speak another language. Moves are like words, and sequences are like sentences. At a social dance everyone dances with everyone (like donut Sunday at church), having a terrific dance floor conversation to great swing music.
When I spontaneously accepted an offer to teach a swing dance at through a community education program, I figured I’d do it for a while until I got bored. I’m not bored yet.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s never a smooth road and I didn’t expect it to be, but I had to get out there and try. My plan was that if I tried something and it worked, I’d keep doing it. If it didn’t work, I knew what not to do. If I lost money, I considered it tuition paid in the school of learning my new career.
Working a full-time day job while building my Swing Dance programming in the evening gave me little to no time for myself for several years. But I was dedicated to my dream and was willing to put in the time to make it happen. After quitting my final full-time job in the “real world,” I spent an entire year without a day off. Once I made it through that first year of successful self-employment, I started to breathe a little more freely and gave myself some time off.
There were people who told me that it wasn’t worth it, that I’d never make it, and that I shouldn’t try to make my hobby into my job because I wouldn’t like it any more. I made a point of staying away from the negative people and surrounding myself with positive people who encouraged and supported my dreams and endeavors.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We are passionate Lindy Hoppers! We focus on Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing (it’s the “gateway” dance), and Aerials. We also offer specialty workshops in Charleston (1920s and beyond), Understanding Rhythm Changes, Musicality, and more.
We are strongly focused on good lead follow technique, so it isn’t just about moving through motions but actually communicating through the sense of touch, having a great dance floor conversation.
Things I’m proud of is working with dancers of all levels to help them achieve their next level of success, and creating choreography that reflects the music, making the dancers visual members of the band. Through choreography and performances, we bring the history of this amazing American dance form to audiences that might not see it otherwise.
We’re known for being really welcoming to all dancers, especially beginners. We provide top quality bands at our monthly social dances, and offer a basic lesson at before the band to make it easy for newbies to come and have a positive experience when they’re trying it out for the first time. I love getting people hooked, especially when they don’t think that they are capable. I have lots of tricks up my sleeve to show them that they are actually capable when they don’t think that they can do it. It’s so fun to get newbies having fun and feeling successful!
What sets us apart is that beyond just teaching classes and holding social dances, we’ve built a community of Swing Dancers who have made lifelong friendships (and many marriages!). I like to think of our Thursday night programming as a little mid-week vacation where people can set aside their troubles and release themselves into the pure pleasure of Swing Dancing.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Being able to do what I love as my career, and being able to share my passion with so many people.
Pricing:
- Thursday night classes are $12 per person general admission, $10 for students and military members with valid ID.
- Late Night Swing (weekly DJ dance) is $8 general admission, $6 for students and military members with valid ID.
- Monday night 7-week beginning level class series is $75 per person. Students and military members can take both East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop classes for the price of one.
- 1st Saturday Swing Dances featuring live bands are $15 general admission, and $12 for students and military members with valid ID.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tcswing.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TCSwing
- Other: https://www.rhythmandswing.com/
Image Credits
Headshot: Stacey Kawa
R&S promo: Andy Kawa
