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Daniel Newsome

Photo by Jared Luxenberg

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If you have an apple & I have an apple & we exchange our apples, then each of us will still have only 1 apple but if you have an idea & I have an idea & we exchange our ideas, then each of us will have 2 ideas

Hello, welcome to my website. My name is Daniel Newsome, I'm a dancer from Seattle Washington (formerly Denver Colorado). I started dancing in 1996. My friends took me (slighly against my will) to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert, I got to see and experience swing music and swing dancing for the first time in my life. Near the end of the night I saw a few dancers from Colorado's Jumpin Jivecats really tear it up..they did an aerial called an Acid Drop.. (I didn't know the name at the time), but I did think it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. By the end of the night the band had really lit up the crowd and everyone was dancing... except me.. I nervously tapped my fingers to the music but I had NO idea how to dance to any kind of music.

Feeling pretty defeated, a couple of friends took pity on me and dragged me to some dance classes. We took a class at a local ballroom studio, but alas, this was not the hardcore, street dance with energy and aerials that I had witnessed at the concert. In fact I was so bad at moving my hips in the ballroom swing way, and counting music that my teacher told me that I should find a new hobby. Well, it didn't sit well with me that there was something I couldn't do. I resolved to get good, or die trying.

In reality, this was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. What was an offhanded insult by my first teacher ("find a new hobby") turned into a personal quest. It was hard for me. I couldn't count music, I wasn't coordinated, I didn't know how to memorize these patterns, I didn't have the tools I needed to learn movement. I had always been pretty successful at other things, but why not this? It turned into a life-long journey of personal discovery and growth that has given me some beautiful gifts. I got my girlfriend back after I taught her all the dancing I had learned. I've met people all over the world, travelled everywhere, heard inspiring stories from the inventors and innovators in swing dance. I've collected jazz music for 10 years, and feel connected to a world-wide community of jazz dancers, musicians, and people from all over. I saw the movie Swing Kids, and that sealed the deal. This was it, this was the art form, the lifestyle, and the feeling I connected with in life.

Over the course of my dancing career, I have visited Seattle many times. One of the first times was in 2000, when I went to Swing Out Northwest. This was where I first really learned Lindy Hop, from many of the greats like Paul and Sharron, The Harlem Hot Shots, Frankie Manning, Rob and Dianne, Sylvia Sykes, Steven and Virginie and more. I was living in Denver at the time, and I came back and my partner at the time, Tiffiny Wine and I taught our local community what we had learned, and I began collecting the music I had heard there, playing it at out local dances. Now I have thousands and thousands of jazz and swing albums that I catalog and play for dances here in Seattle, and for camps and events around the country. Part of my mission is to discover, catalog, and educate myself about the Jazz era, the music and the culture of this bygone era. I now have one of the best collections of jazz music in the world, and I've put thousands of hours into cataloging, learning, and playing this music for people.

On another visit here, I attended Century Masters. One unique aspects of this event is the chance to sit down and hear stories from the original innovators and dancers of swing in the 1930s. They spoke to us about how we, the modern generation of swing dancers are responsible to keep the dance alive, because no one else will. They told us how the steps were invented, what they fell in love with about the dance and the music. They told us of their travels, of their trials with racism, World War II, and how swing came to die out, and how it came to be rediscovered again. This came to be my inspiration to learn about the history and read books, interview people, and retell the stories of Swing's creation, revival, and the stories about our history and how Jazz became both a reflection and a guiding force in who we are today.

The in 2008, I came to visit Seattle again, and realized that it was home to so many people who inspired me, and shared my values about dancing. I needed a change, and this place became a place I could both contribute to, and grow from. I now use this as my home base, and travel as much as possible, sometimes 3 weeks out of each month to dance with people, collect music and to learn and grow as a dancer.

Although this path has led me to become a professional dancer, dj and historian, I've never forgotten how exciting, and how frustrating it can be to learn how to dance, and how hungry I was for information on how to improve. I collected endless notes, videos from teachers, videos from competitions, creative ideas scrawled on receipts and napkins, and inspiration from old movies and interviews. Right now I'm living in Seattle Washington, and I get to dance with some of the best dancers in the world, and practice alongside them every week. I realize that not everyone can travel to the Lincoln Center Library to pull footage from the archives, not everyone can travel to competitions and camps, and that many people never got a chance to learn from some of the teachers that I got to learn from. I also realize that I'm not the best dancer in the world, but I have pieced together a lot of information, and I've always been an advocate for beginning students. I enjoy bringing people into dancing, and I enjoy showing the basic movements over and over. I realized there wasn't enough time to travel everywhere and show everything I've acquired without doing something fancy... so I decided to combine my computer skills, teaching skills, and dance skills to make an affordable online archive that people all over could use, and so this website was born.

This website is my effort to organize the information I've gathered in a way that makes sense for those to whom dance does not come naturally, and to share my travels, ideas and insights with people around the world. I hope you will recognize how much effort a site like this takes, and how much cheaper a membership fee is than to actually travel, or even compared to the cost of a single lesson at most dance studios, and respect the years this resource has taken to come to fruition, and not steal videos, etc. I also welcome any feedback that may make this site a better resource for you, as a student. I also welcome your testamonials, stories, and questions, as my devotion to passing along this art form and joy to as many people as possible is my full-time job.

Daniel Newsome
(206) 458-1311
danieljnewsome@gmail.com

Daniel Newsome Create Your Badge

Daniel Newsome has been a professional dancer, dj and historian for the last 12 years. He is considered a preservationist and an innovator in Lindy Hop, Aerial Dance, Blues, Tap and more. In addition to teaching tens of thousands of students at Denver's Mercury Cafe Daniel has also travelled to learn, teach, compete and has won at major national competitions such as the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, Midwest Lindy Fest, Reno Dance Sensation, National Jitterbug Championships and the Rhythmic Arts Festival. He also co-founded, choreographed and coached 23 Skidoo, Denver's nationally recognized swing team, which placed 1st at every competition they went to in 2006 and 2007. He is dedicated to sharing the history, artistry and music of the jazz era, and recently choreographed a number for an off-broadway show. Daniel's lifelong pursuit is touching as many lives as possible with the beauty and artisty of Lindy Hop, Shag, Balboa, Blues, Solo Jazz Dance, Ballroom and Tap. Daniel believes that the best dancer is the one having the most fun, and aims to make his students the best dancers out there.

Giselle Anguizola Giselle Anguizola is a student and preservationist of classic Jazz. Her research has focused on the beginnings of Jazz through the swing era, where she has learned not only about the music of the time, but also about the lives of the musicians. As a dancer, she has a thorough knowledge of what Lindy Hoppers enjoy dancing to; and is also accommodating to peoples' tastes. She has traveled to numerous Jazz festivals and dejayed all over the world at several exchanges, camps, and events. As a passionate Jazz aficionado, Giselle believes that improvisation is the bind that holds Jazz music and dance as one entity.

Kelly Porter Kelly is a decade-long student of American vernacular dance who is passionate about bringing the rich social history of these dances to her students. As a performer, she has graced stages across North America to acclaim. As a teacher she is known as much for her sense of humor as for her ability to articulate difficult concepts and nuances. Her classes stress the joy of improvisation, dancing with guts (metaphorically speaking), and the humanity of a long and soulful dance tradition. She has a special affinity for historical dance crazes and spends a lot of her spare time hoarding black and white dance clips, collecting lo-fi recordings and mastering obscure dances like the 'snake hips' and the burlesque fan dances of Sally Rand. Kelly is also an avid collector of early jazz and blues, and is generally recognized as one of the US's exceptional lindy hop DJ's, playing for the most demanding dance audiences throughout North America including those at Showdown, The Rhythmic Arts Festival and on radio. During daylight hours Kelly is a graduate student of museology and works in the anthropology division of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. She also plays a pretty killing spoons and kazoo solo.

Gabriella Cook Gabriella Cook has a broad-based professional background in dance, music and theater. Gabriella's classical training comes from San Francisco Ballet where she performed in professional shows for nearly 10 years. She also danced with other institutions including Lines Ballet Company and Interlochen Center for the Arts exploring dance styles from ballet, to modern, to contemporary jazz. Over the last 5 years she has integrated this training into tango, lindy hop and balboa. Since then she has been a dedicated performer, teacher and choreagrapher in Seattle, Portland and Providence. Gabriella teaches a core-centered approach to dance and balances the "zen" of following with historically-informed musical expression. Gabriella and Daniel's style is rooted in the classic modes of swing, but adds forward thinking movements, aerials, and theories which are the basis of their commitment to keep Swing dance history alive, while keeping it interesting and evolutionary. Their dance values center around versatility, partner connection and honest expression of the moment and the music. They strive to always feel the joy and magic that jazz music embodies, and to share that with their audiences and students. They are personally invested in the success of each of their students, and bring an equal balance between lead and follow with their belief that each dancer should have a voice in the partnership.

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