Crazy Knees, The Itch and the Charleston

We held our first official official classbunny class at Mr Falcons' wine bar in Glebe. It was a fantastic night, there were people from the Meetup group, friends from Yelp and those that had found out about the class because of facebook and the poster I had stuck up all around town featuring the wonderful, legendary Josephine Baker. What a woman. Here she is in her iconic banana outfit, demonstrating 'crazy knees.'

I first heard of her way back when I was a little girl, my Hungarian grandmother was a flapper, spending time in Berlin and Paris before WWII. She had actually seen Josephine Baker perform at the Folies Begere. She filled afternoons baby sitting me, with stories about all the old dancing stars, Fred and Ginger, Gene Kelly. She loved them all. Sometimes we would catch an old movie on the telly. My grandmother could even still high kick when she did the Charleston for me aged in her 70's. I found it all a bit ridiculous at the time, like you do when you are a kid. But deep in my psyche is an abiding adoration for all things 1930's, vintage and of course, the Charleston.

So when Jo and Andy from The Bluffers' Guide to Dance suggested a Charleston class, I was soooo up for it.

The steps are relatively easy, back wards and forwards with some arm flapping - at the beginners' stage anyway. You can get into the rhythm easily and add your own silly moves, just like Jo and Andy demonstrated and once you have a few moves down pat , like the 'itch' and 'crazy knees' you can work out a whole routine that looks pretty convincing. Andy demonstrated, his favourites, 'just messin' and 'sweeping the floor' with a certain panache.

Upstairs at Mr Falcons, it was easy to imagine yourself back in 1928, and to picture the notorious Sydney crime figures, like brothel owner, Tilly Levine sitting in the corner of the room watching us..

Our next Charleston class is on September 13th, will be taught by the Bluffers team . We will be holding this class at Mr Falcons again, here is the link if you would like to know more about the class.