Swing Dynamite Blog

Thoughts and news about swing dancing in Ottawa

Meet the teacher: Tina Davis

[ No Comments ] Posted by on Feb 23, 2009 in General

In case you live under a rock and have somehow managed to miss all the hype, Blues Blast II is just around the corner. Last year, this event packed nearly too much goodness for some of you to swallow. But in true Swing Dynamite fashion, we’ve decided to make things even crazier this year. Double the teachers, double the learning, double the fun.

To help you prepare yourselves, I’m going to be profiling each member of our astounding teacher line-up. One bite at a time–remember to chew.

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Tina “Sweet T” Davis is easily one of the world’s top blues DJs (I’ve borne witness to several standing ovations in response to her sets) and has been widely recognized as such for many years. But more recently, she has been gaining notoriety for her dancing and teaching, as well. It’s no surprise: Tina embodies the spirit of blues more than anyone I know; I distinctly remember learning more from one dance with her than I had from years of study. She is a woman of power, sensuality, humour, and grace. Her big booming laugh is tempered by striking humility and a quiet dark side so delightfully wicked that, should you ever catch a glimpse of it, you’ll feel strangely blessed. She is not unlike any of us: strong yet vulnerable, troubled yet hopeful, captivatingly beautiful and yet not immune to moments of ugliness. Blues music, she writes below, “cuts through all the crap and the walls that people build up around themselves… it gets to the essence of living and being a human being.” Humanity: deep and complex, yet as eloquently simple as a blind man on a porch, strumming his guitar to the tune of the sweltering heat. The difference between Tina and the rest of us is that Tina is brave and ardent enough to bare all of her humanity on the dance floor.

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