The Savoy Ball 2013
The 9th annual Savoy Ball takes place at The
Grand Hall, Battersea Arts Centre (formerly Battersea Old Town Hall), London
SW11, on Saturday 23rd March 2013 from 8pm to 2am. This year we are again pleased
to be raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.LATEST NEWS! The Savoy Ball 2013 is now sold out. If you have any spare tickets, returns or cancellations we are now able to offer refunds - please contact us immediately. You can now follow The Savoy Ball on Twitter @SavoyBall. Meantime - if you're looking for some great live swing music come along to C Jam on Tuesday 12th March or This Joint Is Jumpin'! on Friday 29th!
...previously at The Savoy Ball
Dress code - Vintage or Black Tie/Evening Dress.
Advance tickets only.
"...not just another swing ball!"
Step back in time as we take you on a tour of 1930s & 40s New York...
Listen
to the Jazz go down...Slip inside a jazz club, sip a cocktail, soak up the atmosphere, put on your dancin' shoes!
Take in the show...
The Savoy Ball Cabaret brings back the dances of the 1920s, 30s and 40s - featuring tap, lindy hop, Charleston, jazz and variety. This year we feature the fabulous Grenoble Swing Team plus Attic Cats and more to be announced!
Head on over to the legendary Savoy Ballroom...
There's only one place to be tonight!
Sticky
Wicket's back in town with some of the best sidemen in the business
- a 15-piece Big Band to blow your blues away and get you dancin' and swingin'
til the early hours... ...and for 2013 we welcome back King Candy & The Sugar Push, a hard-swinging 9-piece featuring supreme vocalist Kate Mullins of the Puppini Sisters.
...completing the line-up we have the Shirt Tail Stompers, an amazing 5-piece currently filling dance floors all over Europe with their superb musicianship and blistering authentic swing and hot jazz.
So not one, not two but THREE great bands! Culminating in an epic finale tribute to the great battles of the Savoy Ballroom, in the style of Benny Goodman vs Chick Webb (1937)!
...so put on your dancin' shoes, straighten up your white tie, top hat and tails, and head on uptown... to the Savoy Ball!
The Savoy Ball was conceived back in 2002 as a tribute to the legendary Savoy Ballroom of Harlem, New York City, where swing music and dancing (especially the Lindy hop) were taken to their greatest heights during the 1930s. After a break of 3 years The Savoy Ball returns, bigger and better than ever...
results for: savoy ballroom
[home of happy feet] [the track]
Savoy Ballroom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Savoy Ballroom located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from 1926 to 1958. It was located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue.
The Savoy was a popular dance venue from the late 1920s to the 1950s and many dances such as Lindy Hop became famous here. It was known downtown as the "Home of Happy Feet" but uptown, in Harlem, as "the Track". Unlike the 'whites only' policy of the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom was integrated where white and black Americans danced together.
Chick Webb was the leader of the best known Savoy house band during the mid-1930s. A teenage Ella Fitzgerald, fresh from a talent show win at the Apollo Theater, became its vocalist.
The Savoy regularly staged "Battle of the Bands" promotions that usually occurred between a house and a guest band, although not necessarily. Sometimes the bands would trade numbers at the change-over point between sets. Invariably packed when these events took place, there was little room to dance, and the crowd would vote as to who was their favourite band, band leader, vocalist etc.
Two of the most famous "battles" happened when the Benny Goodman Orchestra challenged Chick Webb in 1937 and in 1938 when the Count Basie Band did the same. The general assessment was that they both lost, to Chick Webb.
The ballroom was on the second floor and a block long. It had a double bandstand that held one large and one medium sized band running against its east wall. Music was continuous as the alternative band was always ready in position ready to pick up the beat, when the previous one had completed its set. The Savoy was unique in having the constant presence of a skilled elite of the best Lindy Hoppers. Usually known as "Savoy Lindy Hoppers" occasionally they turned professional, such as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers and performed in Broadway and Hollywood productions.
Stompin' at the Savoy, a 1934 Big Band classic song and jazz standard, was named after the ballroom.
Verbatim copy, 2nd December 2006. This content from Wikipedia is available under the GFDL license
Further reading -
Archives of Early Lindy Hop
www.savoyballroom.com
