It’s got that ‘Swing!’

Jennifer K Mahal

West Coast. East Coast. Jitterbug. Jive.

Johnny Mercer. Duke Ellington. Count Basie. Louis Prima.

“Cry Me a River.” “In the Mood.” “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t

Got That . . ..”

“Swing!” will be coming to the Orange County Performing Arts Center on

Tuesday through Dec. 2 to get the town ready to jump, jive and wail.

The vignette musical, which celebrates the dances and music of the

1930s and ‘40s, is on its second national tour.

“It doesn’t have the story as in a ‘Chicago’ or ‘Annie Get Your Gun,’

but somehow all of the vignettes seem to fit together well,” said Aaron

Hamilton, who dances and sings in the show.

Kim Craven, who as tour choreographer taught the dance styles to the

new cast, concurs.

“You get swept up in the sheer joy and jazzy beat,” Craven said.

“People leave the aisle, singing and dancing. It strikes something in

you.”

Craven said “Swing!” is one of the hardest shows to perform in.

“It’s physically exhausting and draining,” said the woman who toured

in the first national production, “but the end is uplifting. The audience

jumps to [its] feet. By the end of the night, no matter how hard you

think you’re not going to make it and how much you’re dying, the audience

always makes it worthwhile.”

“It feels good at the end of the night,” said Hamilton. “I feel like

I’ve done something good for myself physically and I’ve brought smiles to

the audience.”

The dance styles in “Swing!” are very different than the classic forms

of dance that Hamilton and many others in the company were used to before

joining the cast.

“When we all got the job [for the first national tour], we had two

weeks of intensive technique class, like swing boot camp, and it was

rough,” said Craven, who came from a background in ballet. “It was so

different from what I was used to that I thought, ‘Oh, gosh. What have I

gotten myself into.”’

Craven said that in learning to swing from original choreographer

Lynne Taylor-Corbett, she learned how to “couples dance” rather than

“partner dance.” In jazz and ballet, she explained, you hold your own

body weight. But in swing dancing, the couples rely on one another to

carry them during complicated lifts.

“It’s very relaxed, and there’s just such an easiness -- not as far as

complexity, but the ease that it takes to dance,” Hamilton said of swing

dancing. “That’s why every one looks like they have so much fun, because

it’s spontaneous. Although this is a Broadway show. There’s

choreography.”

Hamilton said he hasn’t gone to watch social swing dancing since he

started the show, but he did go once before.

“It was intimidating,” the Los Angeles native said. “These people go

to these clubs on a regular basis and hangout. They dress in ‘40s garb,

have the moves, know the music. For someone who’s a novice, it’s

intimidating to get out there and try.”

But the fact that swing dancing is out there is one of the things that

makes the musical more accessible to an audience.

“I think what’s fun about the show, swing dancing, is that it’s

something that’s approachable,” Craven said. “Everyone does it, as

opposed to the ballet where you have to train for 20 years. You know, my

grandmother knows how to do the jitterbug.”

FYI

What: ‘Swing!’

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Dec. 1, 2 p.m. Dec. 1-2, and 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 2

Cost: $20-$55

Contact: (714) 556-2787 or o7 https://www.ocpac.org

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