In the swing of it

Danette Goulet

FAIRGROUNDS -- There’s the Shag, the Lindy Hop, the Jitterbug -- all

of styles of swing dancing that originated in the 1930s.

So why, 70 years later, is there nightly swing dancing at the Orange

County Fair?

“Like my dad always said, ‘All the good stuff is coming back,”’ said

Danny Hamamoto, 19.

Hamamoto and his dance partner, Cathleen Nguyen, 17, drew a crowd of

their own as they danced to the sounds of Big Band 2000, which performs

at that the Orange County Fair nightly.

“It just makes me happy,” said Cathleen, who has been swing dancing

since she saw it at the fair three years ago. “It’s back to the happy

days. It lifts me.”

The two had never met before, but Hamamoto said he asked her to dance

because he could tell she knew the steps.

“That’s why it’s special, people are just there to dance,” he said.

She agreed, saying there were plenty of people who would go to

Memories, a swing dance club, alone to dance because they knew they would

find dance partners readily.

“Look around,” Cathleen instructed with fervor. “Even if they don’t

know swing, they’re dancing.”

Sure enough, to one side of the stage, an older couple was dancing

and, center stage -- attracting nearly as much attention as the teenage

couple -- were 9-year-old Anne Candela and her little brother, Matthew,

5.

The children had been energetically dancing to every number the band

played for half an hour. Of course, they probably knew the music well.

“How was my dancing, Dad?” Matthew eagerly asked as his father, Tony

Candela, a bass player for Big Band 2000, approached.

“Anne taught me all the steps,” he said. “I really like dancing.”

“Mostly all he does when he dances is jump around,” Anne confided.

But it was about the music and the fun, which will both swing into

high gear tonight with a performance by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at 8 p.m. at

the fair’s Arlington Theater.