Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Event: Melbourne Lindy Exchange
Dates: 23-25 November, 2001

MELBOURNE HOSTS INTERNATIONAL SWING DANCE EVENT
1940s swing jazz back in style

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, November 16, 2001. The word for next weekend in Melbourne will be "Lindy Hop". This long forgotten style of dancing originating in the ballrooms of 1920s Harlem is seeing a new life in Australia, after its revival in Europe and the United States in recent years. Lindy, as it is affectionately known, is danced to big band swing music, the likes of which are likely to be best known to the grandparents of most of today's swing dancers.

Today, Lindy Hop swing dancing communities are thriving in cities across Australasia. When Matt Riddle, a swing dance teacher in Melbourne, decided to bring them all together for the first Melbourne Lindy Exchange, he had in mind a low key event with a few of the country's most passionate dancers in one city.

What he didn't bank on was attracting not only a crowd from within Australia, but dancers from as far away as Auckland, Singapore, New York and even Dublin. "When I put the information on the web site I was amazed to find we had our first registrant within a few minutes. I was even more amazed to see that it was from a guy called Brian in Dublin", Riddle said. Delegates have registered from 8 different countries and 6 different states of Australia. Teachers Jennifer Gapay and Paolo Lanna are travelling from New York City to present workshops. Lanna comments: "The opportunity to see Australia and to dance with fellow lindyholics was too much to pass up".

Paolo Lanna is the 1998 American Swing Dance Championship's Showcase Lindy Hop Winner. Jennifer Gapay is this year's North American Dance Champion for the Just Dance division.

The schedule of events goes for 3 days and includes workshops, which were sold out within a week, and 10 different social events, culminating in the MLX Ball at the historic Central Hall in Brunswick Street Fitzroy. Tickets are $25 and are available at the door.

Overall Statistics:
9 workshop teachers
10 events over the weekend
11 workshop classes

MLX attendees:
131 people from 8 different countries
115 from within Australia
16 are from overseas (+ more not doing workshops)
60 from outside of Victoria, from 5 different states

Further details are available at the Melbourne Lindy Exchange website:
http://oz-music.com/exchange/

Press Contact:
Matthew Riddle
SwingShift Melbourne
0408 598 714
matt@oz-music.com