Swing Stuff Podcast

07/01/2021

Hello everyone!

Happy New Year 🎉 I hope however you spent the holidays, it was safe, relaxing, and that you were able to connect with loved ones, albeit perhaps virtually.

Coming to the end of the year had me reflecting on the year gone by and what I’ve learned through working on Swing Stuff. Even though this year didn’t go as necessarily planned, some of the best moments were getting to have conversations with people I love and respect, and to be able to share that with a community.

As I’m sure is true for many of us, my circumstances have shifted and look different at the end of 2020 to the way they did at the beginning of 2020. For now, it feels right for me to leave Swing Stuff where it is. In the future it may or may not make sense to release new episodes - time will tell! But for now, I’m really proud of what has been made so far.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project by listening to the podcast and sharing their feedback, it’s been a great way to connect with lots of wonderful people and share a love of swing dance and music.

Also I am deeply thankful to those who have financially supported the show whether through Patreon or donations. Your support has been incredibly appreciated in contributing to the costs of running the podcast, and it’s been a pleasure to share that journey with you throughout the year.

I hope that you have a fantastic start to 2021, that the new year brings some optimism after the year gone by, and that we all continue to grow and learn throughout the year.

Take care and perhaps see you on a vaccinated dance floor in the future! Until then! ✨

06/08/2020

Happy Birthday to the wonderful !!!! Korantema is one of the most beautiful, talented, funny, outstanding, creative, smart, all-round fantastic people that I know. ⁠⠀
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It was an absolute treat to have her on for the second episode of Swing Stuff I am constantly inspired by her achievements and integrity with everything she does. ⁠⠀
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You can check out her project .hair.stories to learn more about her work and see some of her art about black hair + heritage.⁠⠀
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Big birthday celebrations to you, Korantema! 🥂🎉✨

03/08/2020

“Gladys Bentley wears a tuxedo and high hat and tickles the ivories”. Here’s a detail from the famous night club map of Harlem - you can spot Gladys in the lower left of the image!

When I was listening back to the Women in Jazz episode with Earanee, she spoke about Gladys’ Clam House (formerly known as Harry Hansberry's Clam House) and I wanted to go back and see if I could spot it on the map.

The detail is from a book called ‘Into the Night’ from an exhibition about Nightclubs and cabarets that the Barbican ran last year. Going to that exhibition was the first time I was able to see the map up close, and it’s the kind of drawing that you can return to again and again.

I only learned this recently, but the map itself is by artist, Elmer Simms Campbell, who was a Black-American illustrator who had a prolific body of work contributing to popular magazines from the late 20s - late 60s. He was a jazz lover and critic (writing a chapter on blues music in the 1939 book ‘Jazzmen’), and activist, contributing to NAACP’s Crisis magazine.

Here's a link to one of the articles I read about Campbell by Robert Fikes on BlackPast >> https://bit.ly/3gss4Iy

15/07/2020

Episode 5 of Swing Stuff is here! This month, we're talking about - you guessed it - Women in Jazz, with the wonderful Earanee Niedzwiecki from Women in Jazz 🎷✨

Who are the women musicians, composers, and bandleaders of the Swing Era that we should know about? What can we learn about their stories? How can we support women in jazz today?

A big thank you to Earanee for sharing your time with me for this episode! You can listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here - if you feel so inclined 👇

https://swing-stuff.simplecast.com/episodes/women-in-jazz-with-earanee-niedzwiecki

📸 Photo by Wandering & Pondering - JSAlmonte

01/07/2020

Such an important project. Get on it, go and follow this page, and listen up! 👏

15/06/2020

Thanks to everyone who has been listening and supporting the podcast so far. I wanted to let you know that this month I’ll be taking a break to focus on listening rather than speaking.

I kindly ask that if you intended to listen to a Swing Stuff episode this month, that you instead use that time to listen to podcasts and audiobooks by black creators.

I’ve been listening to ‘About Race’ with Reni Eddo-Lodge, and ‘Have You Heard George’s Podcast?’ with George The Poet. I definitely encourage you to do your own research, but if it’s of use to you - I’ve posted a list of resources I’m personally finding helpful here:

https://www.swingstuff.com/blog/anti-racism-resources

I’ll be donating this month’s Patreon income to Black Lives Matter. Thanks for your patience, and I’ll see you next month. ♥️

07/06/2020

You can support Hodi Maputo Afro Swing's COVID Crisis fundraiser here: https://gf.me/u/x3wn33

Vasco "Mito" Wate will be joining us at Swingin' Réunion 2019 to share traditional Mozambican dance as well as Afro Swing. This is an extract from the Histor...

31/05/2020

It’s hard to put into words what others have said so well. The sentiment that rings loudest right now to me is:⁠⠀
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'Care more about black people than you care about black culture.'⁠⠀
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This means Lindy Hop, this means jazz music.⁠⠀
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As a white woman, I feel uncomfortable speaking to an issue about black people when black voices have been systemically and relentlessly silenced. ⁠⠀
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However, it is absolutely the responsibility of white people to do the work and have these conversations. I am so grateful to black writers and creators who share their stories and work to educate people - but I also recognise that this is traumatic and an emotional labour that black people should by no means feel responsible for. ⁠⠀
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White people, do the work.⁠⠀
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I invite you to feel uncomfortable as well. I invite you to have conversations about anti-racism with your families, with your co-workers, with your students, with your friends. ⁠⠀
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I invite you to look at the place where you stand, and to look at your circle of influence. Who are the indigenous people of the land where you live? What do you know about their history? How do the implications of this history persist today? (If you're in the UK - I recommend starting with reading 'Why I'm Not Longer Talking to White People About Race' by Reni Eddo-Lodge)⁠⠀
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What does your workplace look like? Who is in leadership around you? If you only see white people, why? ⁠⠀
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How are you personally working to educate yourself, and engage in your learning with others? What anti-racism organisations do you support? Which POC can you take class from, become a Patron of, commission work from? ⁠⠀
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This is the long game. It has been a huge week of constructive conversation around anti-racism, and that is good. But it will take us our lifetime to try and undo lifetimes of suffering and oppression. There is no perfect way to be an activist, but that mustn’t stop us in engaging regardless. I invite you to feel uncomfortable, I invite you to do the work. ⁠⠀
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Image credit: blacklivesmatter.com/social-media-graphics

20/05/2020

I'm not crying, you're crying

20/05/2020

"In jazz dance that's so exciting to watch - the difference between sharp movement and loose movement. I think that's something that demonstrates skill, but can also be really surprising." ⁠
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I loved listening to Nancy's take on choreography and jazz dance. Not only an exceptional dancer and artist, but Nancy is one of the first people I go to when I want advice on how to get a project off the ground. ⁠
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Right now I'm in love with Nancy's podcast, and absolutely loving her quarantine choreographies over at . You can also take one of her online classes in burlesque and/or solo jazz at the moment - is there anything this woman can't do?!⁠
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01/05/2020

Episode 4 is here! ✨ In this month's episode, I am joined by the wonderful Michaela Delmonte.

Michaela is a swing dancer, instructor, and events organiser who is part of the team behind London Swing Festival and London Throwdown.

In this episode, we discussed what an events organiser does, what advice Michaela would give to people running their first event, and how we can be flexible and respond to change.

You can listen to Swing Stuff on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you prefer to listen. 🎧

📸Photography by Matt Christie

16/04/2020

10/04/2020

Trying to film Patreon videos but failing considerably. Hey, we got time!

When people sign up for your Patreon, you can make a video to thank them. I did make that but it took me a while to pull myself together. Also ft. good quest...

08/04/2020

Some of the inspiration for the Swing Stuff artwork - how beautiful are these mid-century record covers?⁠⠀
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is the artist behind the Swing Stuff podcast artwork. We both loved this style and drew lots of inspiration from the colours, type, and illustrations typical of this era in design. ⁠⠀
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Also can you tell I'm a big Dizzy Gillespie fan? 🎺⁠ Let me know if you’d be interested in more chats on vinyl - I’d love to do an episode about it!
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Image References:⁠⠀
1. Dizzy Gillespie (c. mid 1950s - date unknown)⁠⠀
2. The Dizzy Gillespie Sextet - Jazz Time Paris (1952)⁠⠀
3. Lucky Thompson and Jack Sels Sextet - Bongo Jazz (1959)

07/04/2020

Stickers! One of the rewards Swing Stuff patrons can receive on Patreon is one of these bad little numbers - head over to patreon.com/swingstuffpodcast to check them out 🔥

06/04/2020

Hello from Ruby! 👋 If you're enjoying Swing Stuff so far, or you're in support of what the podcast's goals are - I wanted to let you know that I've got a Patreon! 🎙✨

www.patreon.com/swingstuffpodcast

For those new to Patreon - it's a platform where you can support artists and creators to keep producing their work by contributing a monthly donation of your own choice. ❤️

I've been doing a bit of work on the page recently, so head on over to check it out!

If you'd prefer to make a one-off donation, you can do so at www.swingstuff.com/donate

Any contribution you can make is HUGELY appreciated, and goes towards the time and resources it takes to keep this project going.

Lots of love! ###

03/04/2020

Episode 003 - 'How Do You Produce A Show?' with Nancy Hitzig is here!

Nancy Hitzig is a dancer, fundraiser, creative producer, and all-round badass.

In 2019, Nancy and her co-artistic director, Cat Foley, launched a project called 'Swing Sister Swing' - an original swing dance and swing music show celebrating female choreographers, musicians and jazz dance.

In today's episode, Nancy shares her experience of taking an idea and a story to the stage, along with the logistical and creative decision-making involved in this process.

You can listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen!

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03/04/2020

Episode 003 - 'How Do You Produce A Show?' with Nancy Hitzig is here!

Nancy Hitzig is a dancer, fundraiser, creative producer, and all-round badass.

In 2019, Nancy and her co-artistic director, Cat Foley, launched a project called 'Swing Sister Swing' - an original swing dance and swing music show celebrating female choreographers, musicians and jazz dance.

In today's episode, Nancy shares her experience of taking an idea and a story to the stage, along with the logistical and creative decision-making involved in this process.

You can listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen!

https://swing-stuff.simplecast.com/episodes/how-do-you-produce-a-show-with-nancy-hitzig

📸 Cheeky Rastall Photography

25/03/2020

New post up on the Swing Stuff Patreon! ✨

Join Ruby Bell on Patreon to get access to this post and more benefits.

22/03/2020

This week we released a special episode on how we can support musicians and dancers during COVID-19. Josh Gomez from Vintage Arts Asylum joined us and shared a bit about his efforts to keep live music going strong - including this live stream with the wonderful John Kelly, Ewan Bleach, and Joplin Parnell.

You can support by donating to their PayPal or signing up to support the VAA Patreon: www.patreon.com/lindyhop

Thank you for keeping this going, looking forward to next Friday's stream! ❤️

22/03/2020

Georgie of Cheeky Rastall Photography has put together a list of freelancers who are talented, available, and very much worth supporting right now 💛

Work is a weird time during COVID-19, so here’s my smorgasbord of talented friends and what they do. Please feel free to contact them, or contact me and I can put you in touch. If you want to…

17/03/2020

COVID-19 and Swing Dance with Josh Gomez

This is a bit of a different episode. Yesterday I spoke to Josh Gomez about how COVID-19 and the suspension of all dance activity is affecting not only our community of social dancers, but the teachers, artists, and musicians that rely on this industry for their income.

Josh Gomez is a dancer and creative producer originally from Southern California, now based in London. He teaches a number of swing dances, as well as running jazz and entertainment nights in London, putting on some of the best parties I've been to.

Since we've all had to start isolating, and for some of us - remaining in lockdown - dancers are coming up with creative and inspiring ways of keeping the community alive and sharing their art online.

In this episode, we talked about how one can use platforms like Patreon to generate income as an artist, as well as ways to be resilient and creative in times of crisis.

Today we talked about some ways to handle what is a difficult set of circumstances - but if you have ideas and feedback to add, I would love to hear from you. These are really difficult times and it’s important that we stick together and take care of one another.

Sending love,
Ruby ♥️♥️♥️

16/03/2020

Having extra down time at home is a great time to be trying online privates. Katie Cobalt wrote a great post on how online dance privates could work for you and your instructor, check it out!

https://www.katiecobalt.com/online-privates-how-do-they-work/

15/03/2020

If you're feeling a bit lost without live music and social dancing - head over to Vintage Arts Asylum's Patreon. You can directly support jazz musicians, dancers, DJs, and teachers - some of those who are being hit the hardest by the COVID-19 outbreak. Josh is offering some great benefits from access to live-streams and swing playlists, to online privates and personal feedback on your dancing. Check it out! 🎷🎶

Become a patron of Vintage Arts Asylum today: Read 5 posts by Vintage Arts Asylum and get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.

13/03/2020

This is a great post from Swungover. It's such a difficult time for everyone right now. However this is affecting you, take care of yourselves and remember to be kind to one another. ♥️

If you are reading this, you are probably an avid swing dancer. Perhaps you consider yourself healthy, maybe you don’t have immunity problems, and maybe you have a pretty good healthcare situ…

06/03/2020

Episode 2: Black Hair Stories with Korantema Anyimadu is here!

https://swing-stuff.simplecast.com/episodes/black-hair-stories-with-korantema-anyimadu

You can listen to Swing Stuff on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts ❤️❤️❤️

📸 Sudden Island

06/03/2020

“It holds quite an interesting place in between what we used to call ‘tangible intangible heritage’. So it's something that you can touch, but it's also something that represents culture intangibly so you can't really like put your finger on what it is. And it's something that has been quite present in my life since I was born.”
This month on the podcast, I am joined by the wonderful Korantema Anyimadu. Korantema is a dancer and independent curator with a background in heritage and the arts, and has most recently been working on her project ‘Black Hair Stories’.
I feel so lucky to have sat down with Korantema for this episode, and learned about the concept of tangible and intangible heritage, what this means in regards to dance and music, and the connection that exists between hair and identity.
You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Happy listening!

05/03/2020

1 more day until Episode 2 of Swing Stuff is live! I’m really excited to share that my guest for this month is none other than the beautiful, creative, and immensely talented Korantema Anyimadu.
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Korantema is an incredible dancer and creative person working in heritage in the arts. Her recent work focuses on telling Black Hair Stories (go and check out .hair.stories on insta) and on the podcast I was lucky enough to chat about dance, history, projects, and life with this beautiful human being.
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I’m posting sneak peaks of all episodes going forward on the Swing Stuff Patreon - so if you’re a keen been you can head on over to get a lil extra tasty taste.
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Stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode! ❤️❤️❤️
📸 ps I took these photos of Korantema last summer and I’m really proud of them, BEHOLD HOW STUNNING AND JOYFUL SHE IS

04/03/2020

‘The follow’s oath’, as guided by the one and only Sarah Spoon.

This is was one of my favourite parts of our episode together. We talked about DJing, dancing, switching, and life!

Thank you to everyone who has sent the most beautiful and heartwarming messages since releasing the first episode. It’s meant the world to have support from friends, loved ones, and even strangers - especially when the project is in its early days.

It’s almost coming up for a month since releasing the first episode now, so that means Episode 2 is imminent! I’ll be dropping mad hints tomorrow, but real talk I’ve got episode 2 scheduled for Friday so get your ears all ready for more chit chats because they will BE THERE ok

Photography by

06/02/2020

I'm incredibly excited to say that Episode 1 of Swing Stuff is 🚨🚨🚨 OUT AND IN THE WORLD 🚨🚨🚨. Who better to have as the very first guest than the wonderful Sarah Spoon? We're talking about DJing!

What does a DJ do? How does one become a DJ? What are your emergency bangers? Go and have a listen to learn all these answers AND MORE!

https://swing-stuff.simplecast.com/episodes/dj-stuff-with-sarah-spoon

PS Thank you to everyone who has supported the podcast so far, your support and encouragement means eVeRyTHiNG 😭

29/01/2020

You can listen to the Trailer for Swing Stuff on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you prefer to listen. Here’s a sneak peek! 🎧

29/01/2020

Hello friends! Hello strangers! Hello lovers of music and dance!

My name is Ruby, and I'm very excited to share a project that has been bubbling away in my brain. It's a podcast! About swing dance and music and stuff!

For those of you that know me, you'll know that I'm enamoured by swing dancing and music of the 20th century. In many ways I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of what I know about it.

I am incredibly lucky to have met some of my closest friends and loved ones through the dance, and am grateful every day for the community of diverse people who are sharing the dance and love of swing music in all corners of the world.

I still feel like I have so much to learn - from teachers, musicians, producers, artists, performers, historians, and people who will sometimes fit into all or none of these categories!

I wanted to start a podcast as a way to dig into topics that I'm really interested in and also share these learnings with people who love music and dance - whether you're a scene veteran or you're yet to take your first class.

Each month I'll sit down with a special guest and we'll have chats on microphones about stuff and ho ho we're doing podcasts! What a time.

It would mean the world if you supported the show - you can now subscribe and listen to a trailer on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and beyond! For more information you can visit www.swingstuff.com

That's it for now, I THANK YOU for your support and do stay tuned for our first interview with a very special guest, to be announced next week!

Ruby ###

23/01/2020

23/01/2020